The Back Page: A Video Games Podcast

GameSpot's Tamoor Hussain kindly joins us to discuss his career from CVG to working in the US, and to help us rank the Batman: Arkham games to mark the tenth anniversary of Arkham City.  This week's music is from the Batman: Arkham Knight soundtrack by Nick Arundel and David Buckley, and the Batman: Arkham City and Arkham Asylum soundtracks by Nick Arundel and Ron Fish. Hosted on Acast....

Judge Matthew Castle puts 16 of our listeners on trial for bad secondhand games purchases, and public defence attorney Samuel Roberts has been assigned to defend them. Who will live and who will die? Plus, hear about our favourite arcade games in this week's episode.  This week's music is from The Testament of Sherlock Holmes soundtrack by Alexandre Dudko and the Metroid: Other M soundtr...

Our guest this week is journalist and author Simon Parkin. Hear how Simon broke the news of Hideo Kojima's departure from Konami, among many other fascinating industry stories, and learn how he turned reviewing GBA games into a career writing for The New Yorker.  This week's music is from the Gunstar Heroes soundtrack by Norio Hanzawa, the Final Fantasy VII soundtrack by Nobuo Uematsu an...

To mark the 25th anniversary of the N64's release in North America, Matthew and Samuel each compete to pick the 10 best games on the system for a hypothetical N64 Mini console. After you've heard our selections, you can vote for the winner @BackPagePod on Twitter until the end of September. Note that this episode was recorded before Nintendo confirmed N64 games were coming to the Switch...

We've finished Deathloop! Enjoy spoiler-free impressions of Arkane's latest game from Samuel, Matthew and our guest, the brilliant freelance writer Jeremy Peel. In hour two, hear about the history of the immersive sim, with chatter about Deus Ex, Thief and more games that defined Deathloop's lineage.  This week's music is from the Deathloop soundtrack by Tom Salta and Ross Treg...

Two very different top 10 lists from 2010, one of the best years of gaming in modern memory. The usual mix of magazine memories and news from the time. That's it! Enjoy.  This week's music is from the Red Dead Redemption soundtrack by Bill Elm & Woody Jackson, the Halo Reach soundtrack by Marty O'Donnell, the Alan Wake soundtrack by Poets of the Fall and Petri Alanko, and the Su...

Judge Matthew Castle will decide if defendant Samuel Roberts lives or dies over a series of dodgy games purchases! Enjoy this sequel to our 15th episode from back in March, and hear our thoughts on Deathloop (after 7 hours with a preview build) and No More Heroes 3.  This week's music is from Silent Hill: Shattered Memories by Akira Yamaoka, the No More Heroes 3 soundtrack by Nobuaki Kaneko,...

Katharine Castle of Rock Paper Shotgun returns to the podcast this week, as we each recommend five indie games we like. That's 15 recommendations in total! Plus: another baffling listener question about Yuji Naka. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dan Dawkins, former editor of PSM2 and current Content Director of Games and Film at Future, joins us to discuss his long history in games media. You'll hear some of the best games magazine stories on this podcast yet, including encounters with Hideo Kojima and how PSM2 (and later PSM3) popularised the Let's Play format in a pre-YouTube age.  This week's music is from the Metal Gear...

What if Sony released a PS2 Mini? And what if it was good ? In this week's episode, Matthew and Samuel each pick 10 games to be released with a hypothetical PS2 Mini. Head to the poll on our pinned tweet @BackPagePod to vote on who picked the best games, and we'll announce the winner on a future episode! The winner of this episode was Samuel. This week's music comes from the Gitaroo...

It's a simple podcast about the games we've been playing in 2021 so far – both old and new. From The Last of Us Part 2 to Neo: The World Ends With You and Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge, we cover plenty of ground in this episode, and answer your questions about open world games and video game theme parks. This week's music is from the Judgment soundtrack by Hidenori Shoji, Yuri...

Take a spoiler-free dive into the Phoenix Wright series and its various spin-offs, as Matthew gives his verdict on the long-awaited The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles, and reels off the 10 best entries in this immortal Capcom visual novel series. This week's music: Phoenix Wright ~ Objection! 2013 (Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies), Investigation - The Core (The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles), God...

With Valve moving into the handheld market, we reflect on whether there's a place for a Switch-style PC in this episode. Plus! In a sequel of sorts to our Bad eBay Games Court episode, Big Sammy Holdings and Matthew Castle Productions are moving into the hardware market – hear us conceptualise the (fictional) perfect handheld games console.  This week's music is from the Heavy Rain sound...

Matthew has played The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD, which is out now. Does he still think it's worth an Edge 10 a decade later? Find out in this episode, and discover where it ranks in Matthew's list of the top 10 Zelda games to date. Expect lots of deep dissection of Nintendo's series from a genuine expert. This week's music is from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time s...

Two top 10 lists of the best games of 2009, from Uncharted 2 to Batman: Arkham Asylum. First, we'll tell you what was going on in the media in 2009, then we'll delve into a solid chunk of recommendations. Don't miss our episodes on the best games of 2006-2008, too, as we slowly work our way through the past two decades of gaming history. This week's music is from the Uncharted...

How do you write about a game that's not actually finished yet? In this episode, we dig into the art of writing games magazine cover features, covering weird demos and dealing with the hype cycle in general. Hear about our experiences visiting the studios behind Pokémon and Assassin's Creed, and more embarrassing stories about throwing hot chocolate in toilets and going to the bathroom o...

Indie developer Jay Baylis (Wargroove, Lenna's Inception) joins us to talk about Sonic's history in time for the Sega icon's 30th anniversary. You'll hear two top 5 lists of the best Sonic games, and a lot of chatter about his highs and lows. Please don't unsubscribe! Find Jay's work on Cassette Beasts @byttenstudio on Twitter. This week's music is from Sonic CD...

E3 2021 is finally over! Hear our thoughts on this year's conference as we each count down our 10 favourite announcements from the show, and format them into a hypothetical games magazine.  This week's music is from the WarioWare, Inc: Mega Microgames! soundtrack by Ryoji Yoshitomi and Kyoko Miyamoto, and the Metroid: Samus Returns soundtrack by Daisuke Matsuoka. Hosted on Acast. See aca...

The Guardian's Keza MacDonald kindly joins us on this episode to discuss her long career in games media, and whether E3 still matters in 2021. Hear about some of our E3 memories, and learn about the different ways the show has changed over the years.  This week's music is from the Demon's Souls soundtrack by Shunsuke Kida, and The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword soundtrack by Hajime...

This week, we're answering 22 more of your questions. Where would we set a Yakuza game? Should games reviewers always finish the game first? What were our favourite playground rumours about games? We answer all of these and more – plus we discuss the results of last episode's draft. This week's music is from the Final Fantasy X soundtrack by Junya Nakano and the It Takes Two soundtr...

Microsoft has been on a spending spree in acquiring developers over the past few years, from Obsidian to buying the entirety of Bethesda. In this episode, Matthew and Samuel can each pick 6 game developers to build a new publisher – but it's competitive, and they can't pick any of the same choices. After you listen, head on over to @BackPagePod on Twitter to cast your vote on who won! Th...

Andy Kelly from PC Gamer joins us to talk through what makes a great detective game, whether it's a compelling mystery, a certain type of setting or something else. Get a deep dive into the genre, then a heap of recommendations as Andy and Matthew each count down their 5 favourite detective games. This week's music is from the LA Noire soundtrack by Andrew Hale, the Famicom Detective Clu...

With Mass Effect: Legendary Edition now available, we're revisiting the original Mass Effect trilogy in this episode, a defining HD-era series of games. What impact did it have on the RPG genre, for better or worse? What happened to BioWare in the years afterwards? And what future does the series have, if any? This week's music is from the Mass Effect 2 soundtrack by Jack Wall and the Ma...

We've both finished Resident Evil Village, and in this spoiler-free episode we'll talk you through our thoughts on the eighth entry in Capcom's brilliant survival horror series. In the second half, Matthew and Samuel will count down their 5 best Resident Evil games from across the series. This episode's music is from the Resident Evil 4 soundtrack by Misao Senbongi and the Resi...

From Dead Space to Grand Theft Auto 4, 2008 was a phenomenal year in gaming. In this episode, hear Samuel and Matthew count down their respective top 10 best games of 2008 lists, and flash back to the big events of this year in the HD generation console wars.  This week's music is from the Fable 2 soundtrack by Russell Shaw, the No More Heroes soundtrack by the Genki Rockets, and the GTA 4 so...