The Back Page: A Video Games Podcast

By Samuel Roberts and Matthew CastleLeisure Video Games

The Back Page: A Video Games Podcast episodes

October 02 An Irrelevant Mailbag Foolishly Recorded at 7.30AM
Probably the least relevant and most tangent-heavy mailbag episode to date, and that's saying something.

Here's Samuel's piece on game names for PC Gamer.
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1 hr 29 min
September 25 What We've Been Playing (Marvel's Wolverine, Silent Hill: Townfall, Orbitals)
Our third and final attempt to tackle the big games of September reaches Sony's biggest release of the year and the latest Silent Hill entry.

The developer of Orbitals is Shapefarm, not Shapeform as Samuel incorrectly stated. Duh.
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1 hr 11 min
September 18 When Mainstream Media Started Caring About Games (with Mike Diver)
Been quite a while since we did a 'games journalism craft' episode – this is one of those, as we're joined by former music journalist and Vice senior editor Mike Diver for a lively chat. Hear about the time Mike met Paul McCartney! Sadly, it wasn't about his terrible Destiny song that Matthew rather likes.

Mike's book, Aliens: The Video Games, is available now.
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1 hr 39 min
September 11 Nintendo Direct Reaction + What We've Been Playing (The Blood of Dawnwalker, Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy, VHOLUME, MGS: Ghost Babel)
Emergency Nintendo Direct chatter, powered by the reveal of sequels to two of our favourite Switch games (Metroid Dread and Kirby and the Forgotten Land), then another pile of games from the September 2026 mountain.
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1 hr 34 min
September 04 What We've Been Playing (Onimusha: Way of the Sword, Star Wars: Zero Company, Guns of Eschaton, Super Mario Sunshine)
The September release schedule avalanche begins. Games discussed: Onimusha: Way of the Sword, Star Wars: Zero Company, Guns of Eschaton and Super Mario Sunshine.
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1 hr 23 min
August 28 A Few Game Design Crimes More (with Jamie Smith)
From outlawing the L3 and R3 buttons to combat-oriented games with bad platforming sections, our listeners have submitted 12 more possible game design crimes for Room 101...sorry, Room 64 (double copyright infringement!). Our returning guest, actual game designer Jamie Smith, helps us judge the innocent and guilty.

Want to submit a game design crime for a future episode? Head here to the relevant Discord channel, or ping us at [email protected].
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2 hr 5 min
August 21The Nintendo DS + 3DS Mega Draft (with Dave Scarborough and Ashley Day)
Four giant men select their favourite DS and 3DS games in our latest 3-hour draft episode. We hope you enjoy this deep dive into both consoles. Vote for the winner in the announcements channel of our Discord server.

These are the categories:

Game featuring Mario
Game featuring Link
90+ on Metacritic
Game with novel touchscreen controls
Game made in Japan
Game made outside Japan
Port or re-release
Wild card (has to be below 80 on Metacritic)
Free pick
Was advertised on the telly by a celebrity

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2 hr 57 min
August 14 What We've Been Playing (Splatoon Raiders, Denshattack!, The Incident at Galley House, Big Walk, Onimusha 2)
More of the games we've been playing recently, before the September avalanche of big titles crashes into Back Page headquarters.

Samuel's games: Denshattack!, The Incident at Galley House, Big Walk, Motorslice (a tiny bit)

Matthew's games: Splatoon Raiders, The Message from Deep Space, Onimusha 2: Samurai's Destiny
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1 hr 48 min
August 07 Two Giant Men Play Halo: Campaign Evolved + Backseat Design the Next Halo Game
Some thoughts on the Halo remake, then almost an hour of total nonsense that we will never, ever speak of again.

This week's music is from the Halo: Combat Evolved by Michael Salvatori and Martin O'Donnell.
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1 hr 58 min
July 31 How to Make a Sequel to a Successful Video Game (with Jay Baylis)
How many ideas get saved from the original game when you're making a sequel? Does it cost more money to make a follow-up? How do you make sure an indie sequel doesn't vanish without a trace?

Our returning guest Jay Baylis answers these questions while discussing his next game with Bytten Studio, Cassette Beasts 2002.

This week's music is from the Cassette Beasts soundtrack by Joel Baylis.
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1 hr 24 min

About The Back Page: A Video Games Podcast

From the publisher's feed

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…