Our first two-person draft in ages! Listen to the picks, then vote for the winner in the announcements channel of the Back Page Discord.

This week's music is from the Sonic 4 soundtrack by Jun Senoue.

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New podcast format time! 10 of our listeners' biggest gripes with games get litigated in a Room 101-style format (except legally distinct), from tailing missions in open world games to mandatory stealth sections in non-stealth games.

Joining us once again is designer Jamie Smith!

The very last entry was provided by SAFC_Jack91, which Samuel forgot to write down in the original episode plan.

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Is Crimson Desert good? It's complicated, but not quite, according to Matthew Castle. Plus: Samuel apologises profusely for buying a PS5 Pro.

Samuel's games: PS5 Pro (Spider-Man 2, Alan Wake 2, Rebirth), Returnal, Raccoin

Matthew's games: Crimson Desert, Tomodachi Life, The Ratline

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What Matthew thinks of Crimson Desert, new DLC for old games, how 360-era classics would score now in reviews, dream Helldivers 2 warbonds and more nonsense in the latest mailbag episode.

This week's music is from the Deadly Premonition soundtrack by Riyou Kinugasa, Takuya Kobayashi and Hiromi Mizutani.

This is the From Russia With Love PS2 clip mentioned in the episode.

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Former Eurogamer reporter Emma Kent is our guest this week! What's it like doing actual journalism, rather than just dropping hot takes about Uncharted and Mario? That's what we ask Emma about in this one.

You can sign up for the (free) Eteo Archetypes newsletter discussed in the second half of this week's episode here.

This week's music is from the Valheim soundtrack by Patrik Jarlestam.

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Two top 10 lists from an amazing year for video games.

This week's music is from the Tetris Effect soundtrack by Hydelic.

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VGC's Andy Robinson is this week's guest. Andy discusses his days on PC Zone and CVG, and why he's made the effort to built relationships with Japanese game developers in the last few years. If you'd like to check out VGC's Patreon, Andy kindly provided 20 free one-month subscriptions here.

This week's music is from the Animal Crossing soundtrack by Kazumi Totaka, Kenta Nagata, Toru Minegishi and Shinobu Tanaka.

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What we've been playing lately that doesn't feature Leon S Kennedy. Games discussed: Reanimal, Dark Auction, Marathon, Yakuza Kiwami 3 + Dark Ties, Pokémon LeafGreen, Paranormasight: The Mermaid’s Curse, Dragon Quest VII: Reimagined, Romeo is a Dead Man, Wild Blue Skies, Denshattack!, Dusk Index Gion.

The two Pokémon-themed media projects mentioned in this episode – Matt Reynolds' One More Catch and James Batchelor's history of the series.

Music in this week's episode is from the Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen soundtrack by Go Ichinose, Junichi Masuda and Morikazu Aoki, and the Dark Auction soundtrack by Yuko Komiyama, Tsukasa Masuko and others.

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