Playing 40 minutes of The Message From Deep Space every lunchtime. Absolutely incredible stuff, but that is not a game you should attempt to tackle when you've just eaten a big sandwich.
Matthew Castle
@mrbasilpesto.bsky.social
Magazine killer, podcast maker. Co-host of The Back Page: A Video Games Podcast.
News that Spider-Man has made almost a billion dollars in one weekend is a good reason to crack out this excellent Tom Hollander story: youtu.be/z_c4JHOIoSc?...
Tom Hollander Once Mistakenly Received Tom Holland's Paycheck for Marvel's Avengers
YouTube video by Late Night with Seth Meyers
youtu.be
Not going to lie, when Jay is on the pod, I'm quite happy to put my feet up and listen. Good chat about the art of the sequel.
The Back Page: A Video Games Podcast@backpagepod.bsky.social · 5d agoNew episode! Once you've made a successful game, what are the pressures and opportunities of making a sequel? Pod pal @jaybaylis.bsky.social returns to talk us through his studio's approach to this with Cassette Beasts 2002. Listen wherever you get podcasts: open.spotify.com/episode/6FNK...
It is too hot for takes. How are people having this many takes in this heat?
What a shocker. A brilliant writer - he singlehandedly got me hooked on Japanese mystery fiction with Suspect X and was so prolific (even in translation which was only a fraction of his books).
The Japan Times@japantimes.co.jp · last wk.Japanese author Keigo Higashino, a prolific writer best known for his numerous hit mystery novels and lauded for his intricate plotting and creativity, has died. He was 68. 👉 ebx.sh/Z34GU3
Every episode of Silo is just characters you can't name hiding/looking for people on that same corridor set they've recycled 20 times. Show is 95% looking for people, and then 5% plot development in the season finale.
This one has it all: me not quite remembering games, me not quite remembering music, me not quite remembering films... and a pretty solid pitch for a new Mr Bean film.
The Back Page: A Video Games Podcast@backpagepod.bsky.social · 2w agoNew episode! The best games of 1997. Our latest epic. Tomb Raider 2, Riven, Crash Bandicoot 2...these are just some of the games that didn't make our top 10 lists. Listen wherever you get podcasts: open.spotify.com/episode/66CH...
Discovered something strange this week: YouTube will auto-dub some foreign language video, but loses its mind if that clip also contains English language. See what happens to Lou Reed's Walk on the Wild Side in this Italian show: youtu.be/DCisbHHkTzg?...
Gomorra – Le Origini | Episodio 6 | Pietro e Angelo per sempre
YouTube video by Sky
youtu.be
The Agency's second season is a solid step up from the first. I'm certifying it officially Worth Sticking With.
Austin Powers 4 will be the second film to be shot entirely with IMAX cameras.
The Mermaid Mask is a delight. A much more intricate mystery than Tangle Tower, but with all the great character work of that earlier game. Really good unlockable art gallery too, with actually insightful commentary - usually people phone those things in.
I just do not get the appeal of Silo. Every character is the same: a person who is tetchy because they live in a tube. And every episode is just one tetchy tube person trying to find another tetchy tube person.
The heat has even defeated the Schwartz Bros thick shake, which is now a thin shake.
Never read The Odyssey, so been diving in before the film (Emily Wilson translation). Here's a vanilla take for the ages: it's fucking good stuff. Basically loads of men weeping after eating huge meals.
I'm sorry, but Tom Cruise isn't 'unrecognisable' in that trailer. It's one of the world's most recognisable faces, capering about in a big rubber body.
The endless IMAX chat around Odyssey is a bit annoying if you don't have easy access to the format. Big 'playing current AAA game on Xbox Series S' energy.
Mortified to realise I described a crème caramel as a crème brûlée throughout the Rhythm Heaven portion.
The Back Page: A Video Games Podcast@backpagepod.bsky.social · 4w agoNew episode! What we've been playing, featuring Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced, Star Fox, Rhythm Heaven Groove and a bunch of indies. Listen wherever you get podcasts: open.spotify.com/episode/7Gkd...
Not to look a gift horse in the mouth, but I'd want to be pardoned *before* the hanging.
I think mystery writers should stop writing mysteries about mystery writers going to an island owned by another mystery writer, where they find themselves embroiled in a mystery. I've read two this year, both unbearably smug, rife with tired observations about genre authors.
From now on all disagreements must be settled in the ten second cake grabbing game in Rhythm Heaven Groove.
Pop, Don't Drop an early Rhythm Heaven highlight. Seemingly a bunch of scientists vibing out over your ability to pop heated balls. Science has never looked cooler?
Every Star City line reading by Anna Maxwell Martin is a treat. Finds disdain where none is obviously written.
Someone should tell the makers of From that a purely evil being, who gets to go around the show doing evil unimpeded and unnoticed is not an interesting character. Not really a character at all. Just a plot device. Pure crud.
There's a bit about deleting a Nintendog in this that absolutely broke me. As far as Games Court episodes go, not too bad, this.
The Back Page: A Video Games Podcast@backpagepod.bsky.social · last mo.New episode! Games Court is back. *Jeb Bush 'please clap' gif*. Listen wherever you get podcasts: open.spotify.com/episode/20Du...
Super Scram Kitty featured in 'what to play' in the Guardian newsletter this week! "Feels like a long lost SNES or Mega Drive title lovingly restored." Love that. www.theguardian.com/games/2026/j... #IndieGame #NintendoSwitch #IndieDev #ScramKitty
Wait until you lot discover theatre: £70 a ticket, you only see it once and you're expected to applaud as it ceases to exist.
In happier news: we will be able to kill games court at some point.
Thriller idea: man with world's second smallest penis has to stop him.
You can really hear that the first half was recorded at 7am and the second half during peak sweating hours at 5pm. I'm going to tell people we were trying to mimic the tonal shift from Franklin to Trevor. I've loved revisiting these games over the last year - some of our more energetic chats.
The Back Page: A Video Games Podcast@backpagepod.bsky.social · last mo.Our GTA series ends today! Two Giant Men Play Grand Theft Auto V is now available. Picked a good week for it, eh? Listen wherever you get podcasts: open.spotify.com/episode/0Pzu...