Tales from the Backlog
A video games podcast where Dave Jackson and guests break down and discuss the games they play. Each episode looks at one game in depth, focusing on mechanics, story, music and other aspects, with no spoilers until a clearly marked spoiler wall in the middle.
Episodes
August 6, 2025 • 116 mins
Support my work on Patreon- https://patreon.com/realdavejackson
Join the Tales from the Backlog Discord server- https://discord.gg/V3ZHz3vYQR
Buy me a coffee on Ko-fi- https://ko-fi.com/realdavejackson
Hazelight Studios were already on the map before their Game of the Year winner It Takes Two, but that game was so much fun that everyone, including me, was waiting to see what their next offering would be like. And it turns out, 2025...
Mark as Played
July 30, 2025 • 161 mins
Support my work on Patreon (https://patreon.com/realdavejackson)
Join the Tales from the Backlog Discord server (https://discord.gg/bptGyEWbk7)
Buy me a coffee on Ko-fi (https://ko-fi.com/realdavejackson)
I didn't hear about Dragon Quest for a very long time, probably an embarrassingly long time, and once I played one, I didn't....get it. It all seemed too plain, too simple, too lacking in complexity, and while a part of me was rel...
Mark as Played
July 23, 2025 • 157 mins
Support my work on Patreon (https://patreon.com/realdavejackson)
Join the Tales from the Backlog Discord server! (https://discord.gg/bptGyEWbk7)
Buy me a coffee on Ko-fi (https://ko-fi.com/realdavejackson)
Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio has risen to the gaming mainstream with its beloved Like a Dragon series, and when a hot streak occurs, a heat check often follows, and there is no bigger heat check than a game where you play through a Hawai...
Mark as Played
July 16, 2025 • 187 mins
Support my work on Patreon (https://patreon.com/realdavejackson)
Join the Tales from the Backlog Discord server! (https://discord.gg/bptGyEWbk7)
Buy me a coffee on Ko-fi (https://ko-fi.com/realdavejackson)!
Once or twice a year, a game will hook me so strongly that not only can I not stop playing it, I can't stop thinking about it. If it's not the constant pull to get back on the sticks and play, it was the constant pull to think a...
Mark as Played
July 9, 2025 • 104 mins
Support my work on Patreon (https://patreon.com/realdavejackson)
Two podcasters entered the room on a collision course, one with a backlog the size of a mobster's rap sheet, the other with one foot in the past. There was only one way out of this mess- one podcast to end them all. The subject was an old friend, if you consider a man out of options a friend. A man with a thirst for revenge that nothing could quench- Max Payne.
Guest ...
Mark as Played
July 2, 2025 • 116 mins
Support my work on Patreon (https://patreon.com/realdavejackson)
As a lifelong Indiana Jones agnostic, there was no way that MachineGames would make an Indiana Jones game I would care about, right? Right? Well, it certainly looked that way when the first gameplay trailer for Indiana Jones and the Great Circle dropped. But then I started hearing my activation phrases start to bounce around- "this is like Hitman", "this is like Disho...
Mark as Played
June 25, 2025 • 115 mins
Support my work on Patreon (https://patreon.com/realdavejackson)
Strange Scaffold is a rare game studio that gets as much, or maybe even more, positive attention for their workplace ethos and number of releases per year as they do for their games themselves. I found myself in that same position, with great respect for their process, but no experience with the games themselves....until now! El Paso, Elsewhere is an emotional take on...
Mark as Played
June 18, 2025 • 156 mins
Support my work on Patreon (https://patreon.com/realdavejackson)
I was admittedly very late to the King's Field and Shadow Tower bandwagons, energized by my love for FromSoftware's modern titles and a desire to dig into their history some more. However, I didn't anticipate loving those games so much that I wanted more like them, and that's where Kira LLC's Lunacid (2023) entered the fray. Lunacid is a fantastic game, leaning more o...
Mark as Played
June 11, 2025 • 146 mins
Support my work on Patreon (https://patreon.com/realdavejackson)
Some games just grab your attention from the first trailer, and South of Midnight is one of those games. A breathtaking art style and a gothic Southern fantasy setting? South of Midnight jumped straight to the top of my to-play list, and it did not disappoint.
Guest info: Kate Sánchez of But Why Tho?
* Check out all of the writing and reporting on But Why Tho? https:...
Mark as Played
June 4, 2025 • 197 mins
Support my work on Patreon- https://patreon.com/realdavejackson
Persona games are a tough sell for a guy who does a weekly podcast like this, so thank you to my wonderful patrons for voting Persona 4 Golden onto the show. While it has all of the pacing issues that you would expect an 80 hour game to have, I thought this is, in some ways, the best of the Persona 4/5/Metaphor trio that I've played in the last five years. Tune in to t...
Mark as Played
May 28, 2025 • 139 mins
What if Resident Evil 1 was just puzzles? What if it was also about eccentric artists and how they view their art and the creative process vs how their work is perceived? Lorelei and the Laser Eyes (Simogo, 2024) is that game! Tune in to find out how we felt about it!
Guest Info: Jesse Guarascia
* Find Jesse's work on Noclip's YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/@NoclipDocs
* Support Noclip on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/cw...
Mark as Played
May 21, 2025 • 110 mins
Support my work on Patreon (https://patreon.com/realdavejackson)
I can hear it now- "Another Ace Combat game? Didn't Dave just do one?" and the answer to those questions is "You bet your ass I'm doing another one, I'm IN IT NOW"....ahem, Ace Combat rules, and Ace Combat 7 (Bandai Namco, 2019) is the most Ace Combat that Ace Combat has ever been. Join us as we give it the deep dive!
Guest info: Derek Van Dyke
* Follow on BlueSky htt...
Mark as Played
May 19, 2025 • 33 mins
Support my work on Patreon- https://www.patreon.com/realdavejackson
PAX East 2025 show floor was dominated by indie games, and here are all 17 of the indie games that I had a chance to play! Thank you to the folks at PAX for allowing me to cover the convention!
TIMESTAMPS
* 0:00 Intro
* 0:47 Tanuki: Pon's Summer https://store.steampowered.com/app/3218570/TANUKIPonsSummer/
* 2:39 Airframe Ultra https://store.steampowered.com/app/252...
Mark as Played
May 14, 2025 • 95 mins
Support my work on Patreon https://patreon.com/realdavejackson
Is it really the most innovative shooter I've played in years? SUPERHOT Team struck gold with this idea, did just enough with it, and got out before things got stale. Now that's what I call SUPER. HOT.
Guest info: Emily Merritt aka aspecificegg
* Check out No Small Games https://nosmallgames.com/
* Follow No Small Games on BlueSky https://bsky.app/profile/nosmallgames....
Mark as Played
May 7, 2025 • 137 mins
Support my work on Patreon (https://patreon.com/realdavejackson)
Review code provided by Capcom. Thank you!
Monster Hunter has been around for a long time, but has only recently fully broken into the mainstream. And with mainstream success comes grumbling from longtime fans. Is the game actually too streamlined? Does quality of life take away from quality of game? And what about the new focus on the story? All that and more in this...
Mark as Played
April 30, 2025 • 154 mins
Like many of Square's RPGs of the late 90's and early 2000's, Vagrant Story is an ambitious, flawed, divisive and fantastic RPG, full of big ideas that didn't get a chance to full develop into what was planned. What we got was only one part of a larger saga (see also: Xenogears from just a few years prior), a game that stands on its own, proudly displaying all of the rough edges and brilliant ideas for all to see. It made for a gre...
Mark as Played
April 23, 2025 • 121 mins
No, this isn't the Arkane Studios Prey, this is the one that Arkane was forced to name their game after for no good reason. In fact, that's what got me interested in Human Head Studios' Prey (2006) in the first place, even before I learned what the game is about. So what did we think of this shooter caught between two eras, with seemingly 10 different puzzle mechanics? How did we find a rare AAA attempt at indigenous representation...
Mark as Played
April 16, 2025 • 165 mins
Review code provided by Ivy Road- thank you!
I think we all viewed Davey Wreden's new project announcement, a "cozy game about making tea", with a bit of side-eye. Is it really just going to be about making tea? You sure there isn't going to be a subversion in there? Are you still reading this? Well, Wanderstop is here, and it may not have the type of subversion that we expected, but it is most definitely not just a cozy game about...
Mark as Played
April 9, 2025 • 104 mins
From the first trailer, I knew that Sifu (Sloclap, 2022) looked like a game I wanted to play. There was just one small thing- it released two weeks before Elden Ring, and I was clearing the decks in a big way. No mental bandwidth to get stuck in a demanding action game. And so I waited. And waited. And forgot about it. And waited some more. And now, in 2025, after Elden Ring is (maybe) finished, it was time to revisit Sifu. And boy...
Mark as Played
April 2, 2025 • 133 mins
Only one studio out there can inspire the following sentence- the first time I saw the menu UI in Metaphor: ReFantazio, I knew that Atlus and Studio Zero were cooking. They've mastered the art of making menu-based RPGs flashy and stylish, as well as mastering the "Persona" calendar-based structure in general. On several fronts, this is the best game this studio has made, but left us wanting in a few areas as well. Listen in to this...
Mark as Played
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