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When Mainstream Media Started Caring About Games (with Mike Diver)
01:38:23|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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Nintendo Direct Reaction + What We've Been Playing (The Blood of Dawnwalker, Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy, VHOLUME, MGS: Ghost Babel)
01:33:44|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.What We've Been Playing (Onimusha: Way of the Sword, Star Wars: Zero Company, Guns of Eschaton, Super Mario Sunshine)
01:22:27|The September release schedule avalanche begins. Games discussed: Onimusha: Way of the Sword, Star Wars: Zero Company, Guns of Eschaton and Super Mario Sunshine.A Few Game Design Crimes More (with Jamie Smith)
02:04:02|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 backpagegames@gmail.com.The Nintendo DS + 3DS Mega Draft (with Dave Scarborough and Ashley Day)
02:56:29|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 MarioGame featuring Link90+ on MetacriticGame with novel touchscreen controlsGame made in JapanGame made outside JapanPort or re-releaseWild card (has to be below 80 on Metacritic)Free pickWas advertised on the telly by a celebrityWhat We've Been Playing (Splatoon Raiders, Denshattack!, The Incident at Galley House, Big Walk, Onimusha 2)
01:47:40|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 DestinyTwo Giant Men Play Halo: Campaign Evolved + Backseat Design the Next Halo Game
01:57:16|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.