Games media writers Matthew Castle (NGamer, Rock Paper Shotgun) and Samuel Roberts (PC Gamer, gamesTM, TechRadar) talk about video games and their years covering them professionally. Our logo is by John Strike, and our theme tune is by Barry 'Epoch' Topping (@nostoppingepoch on Twitter).
Samuel Roberts and Matthew Castle
The Back Page: A Video Games Podcast is a must-listen for any gaming enthusiast or fan of gaming magazines. As a UK expat living in Katy, Texas, this podcast has been the perfect cure for my homesickness, providing me with everything I miss from my favorite gaming magazines and even adding to my cherished collection. The format of the show is engaging and the chemistry between the presenters, Matthew and Samuel, is undeniable. Each week, I eagerly look forward to tuning in during my commute to work in the Lone Star state.
One of the best aspects of The Back Page podcast is how they repeat the name of the game they're discussing multiple times throughout each episode. This helps ensure that listeners like me who may have missed the initial mention can follow along without any confusion. Additionally, their insightful perspectives on different series and genres have introduced me to a plethora of great games that I may not have discovered otherwise. The professionalism and expertise showcased by Matthew and Samuel make for an enriching listening experience.
However, there are a few minor downsides to this podcast. While it may not have a high budget like some other gaming podcasts out there, it more than makes up for it with its interesting ideas and discussions. Occasionally, I would appreciate a bit more focus on certain topics or games that I personally find intriguing. Nevertheless, these small issues do not detract from the overall enjoyment and value provided by The Back Page.
In conclusion, The Back Page: A Video Games Podcast is an excellent choice for anyone interested in gaining insight into video games journalism while also enjoying commentary on a wide variety of video games themselves. The hosts bring years of experience to the table and keep things fresh with their diverse range of shows, interviews, best-ofs, gaming drafts, and more. Whether you're a child of the 90s or simply love gaming and gaming magazines, this podcast will not disappoint. Highly recommended!
It's a bloody mailbag! Please save your shrugs for the end. Thanks for all the questions, as ever.This week's music is from the Hotline Miami soundtrack by Perturbator. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
A new Nintendo console is here. Matthew is truly submerged in the Switch 2 experience, while Samuel has merely dipped a toe in the water. Here's how we're finding it so far.This week's music is from the Mario Kart World soundtrack by Atsuko Asahi, Maasa Miyoshi, Takuhiro Honda and Yutaro Takakuwa. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
It's Matthew hosting the pod solo this week, and his guest is Geraint Evans, formerly of N64 magazine, NGC and Gamesmaster. These days, he's working at the publisher PQube.This week's music is from the Phantasy Star Online Episodes 1 + 2 soundtracks by Hideaki Kobayashi and Fumie Kumatani. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Matthew has almost finished the new Doom game, while Samuel has done about half of it – so that's the focus of this week's episode. Matthew also explains his appreciation of the new MercurySteam game, Blades of Fire, and digs deep into his never-ending playthrough of The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy on Switch.This week's music is from The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy soundtrack by Masafumi Takada and Jun Fukuda. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
57 minutes and 13 seconds – that's the timestamp you want for all the game chatter, including two top 10 lists of the best games of 2005. Skip all the bullshit!For everyone else? Enjoy tales of college woes and secret freezer politics. Nonsense podcasting awaits.This week's music is from the Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater soundtrack by Harry Gregson-Williams. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Our guest cancelled! Gah. Well, here's an episode we airlifted out of our collective asses. Hopefully it's not too bad with two days' notice to plan it. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
20ish listeners' pre-owned purchases go on trial before Judge Castle, as Games Court returns!We also talk about this week's GTA 6 trailer, with a brief section on Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, too. Do get in touch if you have any future Games Court entries, and we'll keep making them.This week's music is from Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 by Lorien Testard. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
It's time for another round of listener questions as we each recover from the 50 hours of games we played for last week's episode.Did anyone need 100 minutes of mailbag questions? Probably not, but as ever: it happened.Note: we recorded this week's episode before the Polygon and Giant Bomb layoffs if the tone around the games media chatter seems off. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
It's catch-up time, as a spring wave of fantastic games hit at once! All of the above, plus Bionic Bay and some Metroid series chatter. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Much to the chagrin of Matthew, who had to edit it, the four-person draft is back! This time, Samuel, Matthew, Ashley Day and Dave Scarborough are fighting over the best games on Xbox 360 (note: some of them may not be the best, but that's for you to decide).This week's music is from the Fable 2 soundtrack by Danny Elfman and Russell Shaw, plus the the Bayonetta soundtrack by Helena Noguerra, Bart Howard, as well as Norihiko Hibino, Takahiro Izutani, Masami Ueda, Hiroshi Yamaguchi, Rei Kondoh, Takayasu Sodeoka, Erina Niwa, Yoshitaka Suzuki and Naoto Tanaka. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Later than usual, but hopefully worth it: Matthew plays all the Nintendo Switch 2 demos (except some ports no one cares about). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Here are our thoughts on the new Nintendo console so far. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
After 30 minutes of chatter about Rebellion's new Game Pass survival game Atomfall, we try to pick the 10 games that best represent Britain as a virtual setting. Finally, we cap things off with a low-nutrition awards ceremony of British 'stuff' in computer games past and present.This week's music is from the GoldenEye 007 soundtrack by Graeme Norgate, Grant Kirkhope and Robin Beanland. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Matthew has played 20+ hours of Assassin's Creed for this episode, while Samuel turned it off after three and played Avowed instead. It's another 'what we've been playing' extravaganza! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Who can pick the best 10 games on the Nintendo Switch? Eurogamer's Katharine Castle joins us to help figure this out, and to celebrate the hybrid console's healthy lifespan in our latest draft episode. Vote for the winner in our Discord's announcement channel.This week's music is from the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe soundtrack by Shiho Fujii, Atsuko Asahi, Ryo Nagamatsu, Yasuaki Iwata and Kenta Nagata. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
We answer a heap more of your questions, including a really daft one about HP sauce on a pizza. Thanks for sending them in! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Matthew finished Monster Hunter Wilds! Samuel didn't. This week we're joined by returning guest Joe Skrebels to discuss the newest game in Capcom's idiosyncratic series, as well as its meteoric rise in the West over the past decade plus. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
This week's guest is Dave Jewitt, formerly of GameSpot's brilliant Firearms Expert Reacts series, and newly of the channel EXP. He joins us to talk about how this great series of videos came to be...and ends by sharing his favourite 10 Warhammer video games (to the 15 sickos who kept asking for this, please enjoy). Find them at Patreon.com/watchEXP if you'd like to support the work of Dave and his collaborators, Chris and Adam.This week's music is from the Warhammer 40,000: Darktide soundtrack by Jesper Kyd. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
We rewind the clock to 2004, and discuss some of the most important and influential games ever made (plus the demo of Mashed) across two top 10 lists.This week's music is from the Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas soundtrack by Michael Hunter, and the Final Fantasy X-2 soundtrack by Noriko Matsueda and Takahito Eguchi. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Bestselling crime fiction author Tim Weaver is our guest this week. Of course, long-time print readers will know him best for his work on the magazines N64 and NGC! This is a Matthew-only episode, as the pair have known each other for years. Enjoy our deepest dive into '90s games mags yet.This week's music is from the Mario Kart 64 soundtrack by Kenta Nagata. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Our first 'now playing' episode of the year covers Dynasty Warriors: Origins, The Roottrees Are Dead, Neva, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, Marvel Rivals and Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War 2.This week's music is from the Dynasty Warriors: Origins soundtrack by Masato Koike. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Outside Xbox's Mike Channell joins us this week to discuss his journey from magazines like PC Format and OXM to being very well-known on the internet. Plus, in the second part, hear about Mike's more recent hobby of acquiring and maintaining old arcade machines!This week's music is from the Daytona USA soundtrack by Takenobu Mitsuyoshi. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
The PlayStation 2 is arguably the greatest video games console of all time. Over 44 competing picks for the system's best games, Matthew, Samuel and two other Giant Men – Dave Scarborough and Ashley Day – will prove why. Vote for the winner in the announcements channel of the Back Page Discord. This week's music is from the Katamari Damacy soundtrack by Yuu Miyake, Asuka Sakai, Akitaka Tohyama, Hideki Tobeta, Yoshihito Yano and Yuri Misumi, as well as the Gitaroo Man soundtrack by COIL, Tomohiro Harada and YUAN. Find the full list of picks at Patreon.com/backpagepod. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Games Court is back! 23 listeners' pre-owned purchases go on trial in front of Judge Castle. Only the pathetic attorney Samuel Roberts can save them (or help send them to their deaths).This one is strong in the first half, drags for its third quarter, but brings the energy back for the final part. A net gain, for our great podcast! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
One hour of totally unfounded waffle and pointless commentary. This week's music is from the Super Mario Odyssey soundtrack by Naoto Kubo, Shiho Fujii and Koji Kondo. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Two top 10 lists of our favourite games from 2024. This week's music is from the Balatro soundtrack by LouisF. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Silly awards from silly men, ahead of the real GOTY pod next week. Thanks to this year's guests, too, for providing insights on their favourite games of 2024.This week's music is from the FF7 Rebirth soundtrack by Mitsuto Suzuki and Masashi Hamauzu and the Helldivers 2 soundtrack by Wilbert Roget II. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Each host must pick the best 10 games that have a score of 79 or less on Metacritic! But who will win out with that tricky criteria in mind? And what gold (if any) lies within the amber ranks of the reviews aggregator? Vote for the winning selection in the Discord announcements channel for the next week.Some rules that might be handy to know:A game needs to have scored below 80 on at least one of its original launch formats to be eligible (so if it got 79 on Xbox 360 but 80 on PS3, it would count)But, it can't be more than 10 points lower – this is to avoid shitty ports getting in the mix (Bayonetta on PS3 versus 360, for example, or Cyberpunk 2077 on PS4 versus PC)No remasters or remakes can be selectedEnjoy! This week's music is from The Centennial Case: A Shijima Story by Yûki Hayashi and Shogo Yamashiro. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
The quiz part goes on for far too long. The mailbag bit has some low energy answers. But: it is an episode of this podcast.This week's music is from the No More Heroes soundtrack by Masafumi Takada and Jun Fukuda. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Our favourite first and third party games on every PlayStation console, just in time for its 30th anniversary. This week's music is from the Final Fantasy XV soundtrack by Yoko Shimomura. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
In part one, hear us discuss what it's like to work on a games magazine when it's closing down, the rise of prestige games mags, and why crowdfunded independent media is so hard to get off the ground.A Profound Waste of Time founder Caspian Whistler joins us for part two. Hear about the creation of this successful prestige print project – and check out APWOT issue 5's Kickstarter here, which ends in a couple of weeks. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Beefy games chat this week on all of the above – plus The Rise of the Golden Idol, FF7 Rebirth and Apex Legends.Thanks to Matthew 'Big Matty C' Castle for the edits this week. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
We all have too many games to play. One of our favourite guests, Jay Baylis, joins us to discuss how we all gathered massive backlogs – and what can be done to cure it.Matthew had a cold for this one. But he still went through and edited out all his coughs, bless him. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Only Jeremy Peel can save The Back Page: A Video Games Podcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
We need an extra week to work on episode 200, so enjoy this great episode we made for our wonderful Patreon subscribers earlier this year. Support us at Patreon.com/BackPagePod, and get more great episodes like this one. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
One of our favourite returning guests, Louise Blain (last on the pod in October 2021), discusses her current role as Creative Lead at Blumhouse Games. Their first published game, Fear the Spotlight, is out on October 22nd. It's short but sweet! But next week probably won't be... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Matthew is zagging on the new Atlus RPG, is surprised at how much he's enjoying Silent Hill 2, and is at odds with Samuel on the merits of the newest Zelda game, Echoes of Wisdom.You'll laugh when you get to our predictions of the critical response to Metaphor... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Returning guest Dave Scarborough (who?) joins us for our next three-person draft, focused on the PlayStation 4. Vote for the winner in our pinned tweet.This week's music is from the Persona 5: Royal soundtrack by Shoji Meguro. Thank you to Matthew 'Mr Basil Pesto' Castle for the edits. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
A true mix of stuff this week, right up until the final minutes: UFO 50, Astro Bot (this time with spoiler chat), Tactical Breach Wizards, Peglin, Marvel Vs Capcom: Fighting Collection and Sumerian Six. Enjoy! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
The draft is back, this time with unofficial third host and PC gaming expert Jeremy Peel! Listen to 30 competitive picks from an amazing decade for PC gaming, then vote on the winner in our pinned Twitter poll @BackPagePod.This week's music is from the VVVVVV soundtrack by Magnus Pålsson. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
So many good games to discuss this week! Astro Bot, Space Marine 2, Star Wars: Outlaws and the new Famicom Detective Club game. An array of treats, right up until the last few minutes of the episode... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Cassette Beasts dev Jay Baylis returns to discuss how Japanese games have been perceived and discussed in the West since the 360 era.This week's music is from the Persona 3 soundtrack by Shoji Meguro. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
In this oddly lengthy grab bag of an episode, Matthew talks about the first few hours of Star Wars Outlaws (about 25 mins in), Samuel explains what he ate at Gamescom 2024, and both of us answer questions from the listeners. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
With Andy Kelly's book on Alien: Isolation out this month, we grilled him on the game and his hottest Alien movie takes. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Is Astro Bot out yet? No? What about Star Wars: Outlaws and Space Marine 2? Not right now? Still? Fine.Then here's what we've spent our respective summers playing: an array of indie/double-A games ranging from disappointing to good. These include Anger Foot, Nobody Wants To Die, Another Code: Recollection, Thank Goodness You're Here and Arranger: A Role-Puzzling Adventure. Plus, hear Matthew talk about the HD redo of the Ace Attorney Investigations games and Samuel ramble about Apex Legends nonsense (yet again)! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Here's the final part of our Nintendo top 50 list. Find the full list to read at your leisure on Patreon.com/backpagepod!This week's music is once again the Wii Shop Channel theme by Kazumi Totaka. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
The Godfather Part II of podcasts is here! In this episode, we fire through every major Nintendo series and compile a longlist of games to populate our top 50 first-party list.Tune in next week for the third and final part – The Godfather Part III of podcasts, perhaps, where we'll arrange the top 50 on air. Does this mean that Sofia Coppola is Wario? Possibly.This week's music is from the Last Window: The Secret of Cape West soundtrack by Satoshi Okubo. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Part one of our three-part effort to create a Nintendo top 50 list is here! This episode explores the process of making list features when you're working on a magazine or website, and the compromises and decisions that lead to the final result.Then, in the second half of the episode, we revisit the top 100 first-party Nintendo games from the final issue of ONM back in 2014, where Matthew explains the choices made. This sets the stage for what comes next...Look out for parts two and three across the next couple of weeks. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
From great Metroidvanias to an impromptu Cheese Draft, it's time for another mailbag episode. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Our guest this week is wrestler, video personality, consultant and all-round good guy Simon Miller! Simon discusses his days running NRevolution magazine alone, working on X360 Magazine with Samuel, creating The Miller Report at VideoGamer and watching THQ burn from the inside in the early 2010s. It's quite a career!This week's music is from The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past soundtrack by Koji Kondo. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Whoever wins, you lose! Vote for the winner in the Back Page Announcements channel.This week's music is from the Bayonetta soundtrack by Norihiko Hibino, Takahiro Izutani, Masami Ueda, Hiroshi Yamaguchi, Rei Kondoh, Takayasu Sodeoka, Erina Niwa, Yoshitaka Suzuki and Naoto Tanaka. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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