The Back Page: A Video Games Podcast

Returning guests Jeremy Peel and Wes Fenlon join us to revisit '90s PC gaming in a 38-pick draft extravaganza. Vote for the winner in our Discord announcements channel. Who picked what? Keep scrolling.These are the categories:FPS90+ from PC Gamer (either UK or US)Strategy4X, sim or god gameOnline multiplayer gameRPGExpansion/add-onPersonal pickFree pickThis week's music is from Age of Empires 2: Age of Kings, Rollercoaster Tycoon, Sid Meier's Civilization 2, System Shock 2 and Space Cadet Pinball.Subscribe to Wes's Read Only Memo newsletter here. Here's Jeremy on BlueSky, and here's Wes on BlueSky.Here are the picks. Spoilers follow:FPSSamuel: Dark ForcesMatthew: BloodWes: QuakeJeremy: Thief (stolen from Samuel)90+ from PC Gamer (either UK or US)Samuel: Civilization 2Matthew: Grim FandangoWes: System Shock 2Jeremy: Full ThrottleRTSSamuel: Command & Conquer: Red AlertMatthew: Commandos: Behind Enemy LinesWes: HomeworldJeremy: Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun4X, sim or god gameSamuel: Theme HospitalMatthew: Theme ParkWes: TIE Fighter (stolen from Samuel)Jeremy: SimCity 3000Online multiplayer gameSamuel: Alien Vs Predator Matthew: Quake 3 ArenaWes: Unreal TournamentJeremy: Worms ArmageddonRPGSamuel: Baldur's Gate (stolen from Jeremy)Matthew: Planescape TormentWes: Ultima 7Jeremy: FalloutExpansion/add-onSamuel: Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the SithMatthew: Baldur’s Gate: Tales of the Sword CoastWes: StarCraft: Brood WarJeremy: Half Life Opposing ForcePersonal pick Samuel: Grand Theft AutoMatthew: Indiana Jones and the Infernal MachineWes: Space Cadet PinballJeremy: DriverFree pickSamuel: Half LifeMatthew: Blade RunnerWes: Indiana Jones and the Fate of AtlantisJeremy: Age of EmpiresKill tokens:Matthew did not use either his kill or steal tokensWes did not use his kill tokenSamuel killed Rollercoaster Tycoon (picked by Jeremy)Jeremy killed Age of Empires 2: Age of Kings (picked by Samuel) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

After more than a decade of squandered potential, BioWare is no more. We eulogise the studio and explore how it became a cautionary tale for everything that can go wrong for a successful game developer.Plus, at the end, you get some bullshit BioWare awards. We're still The Back Page, after all!This week's music is from the Mass Effect 2: Overlord soundtrack by Christopher Lennertz. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We start with some difficult news...Cheers to everyone who has supported the podcast, past and present. We're delighted you're still along for the ride. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 [email protected]. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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, Dicevaders Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.