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
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
March 26, 2025 • 169 mins
In my ongoing first-time playthrough of the Metal Gear Solid series, we've arrived at the canonical end of Solid Snake's story, while seeing series creator Hideo Kojima at his most self-indulgent (yet) and most creative. Metal Gear Solid is a series of multitudes, and 2008's Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots is no different. Listen in to find out what we thought!
Guest info: Geoff Moonen
* Check out "Fun" and Games podcast h...
Mark as Played
March 19, 2025 • 119 mins
Ever since the podcast started in 2021, I always knew I'd do an episode about Unpacking (Witch Beam, 2021) someday. John Fogerty sang that someday never comes, but here we are, and Unpacking is on the show! Unpacking is a great example of using the interactivity of video games to tell a story in a unique, gameplay-forward way. Through the ONE SIMPLE TRICK of unpacking boxes and organizing your stuff when you move, a life story is t...
Mark as Played
March 12, 2025 • 111 mins
Mouthwashing (Wrong Organ, 2024) is a rare horror game that gets scarier after you finish the game. Its nonlinear structure, reality-blurring presentation and subtle (at times) storytelling leave you to put the pieces together yourself. Once you do that, you'll find a strikingly real story where the most unbelievable thing is the fact that it takes place in outer space. We had a great discussion on the show about what this game say...
Mark as Played
March 5, 2025 • 112 mins
I remember reading about Shenmue (AM2 of CRI, Sega, 2000) in the magazines back in the day and really marveling at how cool it all sounded- a revenge/investigation story, a town with characters that live their own lives outside of interacting with you, life in small-town Japan...but I didn't have a Dreamcast, so I never got to play it and eventually forgot about it as everyone else seemed to move on too. But over the past 5 years, ...
Mark as Played
February 26, 2025 • 143 mins
When Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector (Jump over the Age / Gareth Damian Martin, 2025) was announced, it was a surprise, but it also jumped straight to the top of my most anticipated games list. And while it fulfills the promise of a sequel by doubling down on the strengths of the first game, it also introduces some harsh mechanics that took a lot of people by surprise. Join us as we dig into all aspects in this discussion.
Gues...
Mark as Played
February 19, 2025 • 116 mins
Sometimes I think I know about video games, and then a series that I'd been ignoring for years absolutely blows me away. Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War (Namco, 2004) is one of those games. Exhilerating air combat, the best spectacle that the PS2 could offer, and a grand and amazing soundtrack all set the hooks, then a surprisingly good story pulls you along for the ride. I'm truly flourishing in my new Ace Combat arc, and this is the...
Mark as Played
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