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The Back Page: A Video Games Podcast
An Irrelevant Mailbag Foolishly Recorded at 7.30AM
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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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The Best Games of 1998
02:33:08|No, not the episode 300 you were promised. For a (hopefully) obvious reason. Instead we fire up The Back Page time machine once again, setting the dial for 1998. Many call it gaming's greatest ever year. Ocarina! MGS! Half-Life! Gran Turismo! StarCraft! There's no arguing with that lot. Or is there? Find out as two contrarian chrononauts break down the main events of the year, recap the highs and lows of E3 and reveal their top ten lists.This week's music is from the Star Wars: Rogue Squadron soundtrack by Chris Huelsbeck, and the Baldur's Gate soundtrack by Michael Hoenig. You can get us, as ever, at backpagegames@gmail.com.What We've Been Playing (Ocarina of Time remake, Gears of War: E-Day, Control Resonant, Valor Mortis)
01:33:44|Matthew flew to Germany and played The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake, which is rather a nice surprise.Games discussed: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Gears of War: E-Day, Control Resonant, Valor Mortis, Star Wars: Galactic Racer, DicevadersPatreon Freebie: Two Giant Men Play Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (MGS4 Pod Coming Monday!)
02:06:41|We're off this week, but here's our MGS2 episode from August. Support us at patreon.com/backpagepod if you enjoy what we make!What We've Been Playing (Marvel's Wolverine, Silent Hill: Townfall, Orbitals)
01:10:46|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.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.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.