The Back Page: A Video Games Podcast

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.