Sign in

Matthew Castle

@mrbasilpesto.bsky.social
2.4K followers 230 following 1.1K posts

Magazine killer, podcast maker. Co-host of The Back Page: A Video Games Podcast.

PostsRepliesMedia
Matthew Castle @mrbasilpesto.bsky.social · 5h
I regret to inform you: I quite enjoyed Digger. No way near as annoying as the trailer seemed, and hiding a big reveal that gave it a much needed tonal shift and firmer foundations to work from. At the very least, not a boring two hours in the cinema.
2121
Matthew Castle @mrbasilpesto.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Whole thing is bleak as shit but "Pervert Nostradamus" (last RT) is top stuff.
0100
Reposted by Matthew Castle
Falling Outside the Normal Moral Constraints @moralconstraints.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Too many people are convinced they've been Pervert Nostradamus the whole time and need to brag about it
330364
Matthew Castle @mrbasilpesto.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Psycho Mantis: a real freak, sure, but great to see such passionate advocacy for controller haptics.
0160
Matthew Castle @mrbasilpesto.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
I guess I'll just to hum the Zelda music to myself.
291
Matthew Castle @mrbasilpesto.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Honestly one of the best soundtracks of the last decade.
590
Matthew Castle @mrbasilpesto.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
I'd love for Jack Lowden to be Bond, but only if Gary Oldman can be the villain. Keep them trapped in promo circuit hell together.
6895
Matthew Castle @mrbasilpesto.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Boycott Piddington.
0130
Matthew Castle @mrbasilpesto.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Absolutely not the fault of the writer but that Tom Cruise interview is hard work. The Hollywood cheerleader persona feels like a wall to stop anyone asking him about his incredibly strange existence. A man can't - shouldn't! - become an idea. Especially one as simple as 'let's make good films'.
0181
Matthew Castle @mrbasilpesto.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
*My* GameCube 25th anniversary is 3 May, 2027. Which is also the 25th anniversary of the time I ripped my National Back Pain Association rucksack apart in order to modify it so I could hide the GameCube box from my mum. RIP NBPA rucksack.
2432
Reposted by Matthew Castle
Hassinator @hassinator.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
a great letter in the times today. perhaps worth sharing in these troubled times. #RNLI #heroes
4059782393
Matthew Castle @mrbasilpesto.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Ah, the music. The horn in the battle theme. So good.
0110
Matthew Castle @mrbasilpesto.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
The best thing about Radiance is that you preorder so far in advance that you forget about it until you return home one day to some interesting cinematic treat. A Yokomizo adaptation! Yum!
Blu-ray, Inugami Fmily.
180
Matthew Castle @mrbasilpesto.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
When the busker outside loops round to his fourth rendition of Bella Ciao you know it's time to leave the cafe.
090
Matthew Castle @mrbasilpesto.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Driving around a city that looks that good *and* Prefab Sprout on the radio? Heaven.
0190
Matthew Castle @mrbasilpesto.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
The Gamescom FOMO really kicks in when you start getting juicy updates like this.
1141
Reposted by Matthew Castle
Chris Schilling @schillingc.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Back on Eurogamer with a review of the new Plague Tale, which I largely enjoyed, though the grimness becomes wearing
54111
Matthew Castle @mrbasilpesto.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
I refuse to use a sink if not flanked by two cats.
A sink. A cat either side.
1582
Matthew Castle @mrbasilpesto.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
Not *this* Castle.
3321
Matthew Castle @mrbasilpesto.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
Came out of this one wanting to dust off a huge pile of games. Wonderful consoles both.
3181
Matthew Castle @mrbasilpesto.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Star Trek pushing its luck this week. Zany concept *and* Pelia. Pure death.
020
Matthew Castle @mrbasilpesto.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Gabe Newell lost so much weight I no longer look like him. Bad times.
0160
Matthew Castle @mrbasilpesto.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
As mortifying as this excavation is, I still remember the exact feeling of thumbing through a new issue in the shops, heart racing in anticipation at maybe getting some words in one of my favourite publications. Never made it into N64/NGC.
2442
Matthew Castle @mrbasilpesto.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
Shame on every editorial motherfucker who thought the Jason Arday story should occupy the top headline spot for almost two weeks. Whatever wrong was ultimately done, no one of such little public interest deserved that kind of national humiliation.
4877
Matthew Castle @mrbasilpesto.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
Always forget that Mario Sunshine begins with a full courtroom drama, complete with Pianta in a judge's wig. Weird generation, the GameCube.
2220
Matthew Castle @mrbasilpesto.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
I liked superhero films better when the opening credits was a camera flying through DNA/cells/atoms/assorted super fluids while a brassy overture blew your ears off.
0261
Matthew Castle @mrbasilpesto.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
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.
1101
Matthew Castle @mrbasilpesto.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
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?...
youtu.be
Tom Hollander Once Mistakenly Received Tom Holland's Paycheck for Marvel's Avengers
YouTube video by Late Night with Seth Meyers
26616
Matthew Castle @mrbasilpesto.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
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.
090
Matthew Castle @mrbasilpesto.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
It is too hot for takes. How are people having this many takes in this heat?
2130
Matthew Castle @mrbasilpesto.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
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).
1191
Matthew Castle @mrbasilpesto.bsky.social · 25/07/2026
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.
180
Matthew Castle @mrbasilpesto.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
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.
1301
Matthew Castle @mrbasilpesto.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
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?...
youtu.be
Gomorra – Le Origini | Episodio 6 | Pietro e Angelo per sempre
YouTube video by Sky
051
Matthew Castle @mrbasilpesto.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
The Agency's second season is a solid step up from the first. I'm certifying it officially Worth Sticking With.
070
Matthew Castle @mrbasilpesto.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
Austin Powers 4 will be the second film to be shot entirely with IMAX cameras.
1233
Matthew Castle @mrbasilpesto.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
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.
2280
Matthew Castle @mrbasilpesto.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
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.
3100
Matthew Castle @mrbasilpesto.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
The heat has even defeated the Schwartz Bros thick shake, which is now a thin shake.
190
Matthew Castle @mrbasilpesto.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
Absolute scorcher from @abeewords.bsky.social. www.jank.cool/you-deserve-...
jank.cool
You deserve better literature than Dungeon Crawler Carl
Demand more from books inspired by videogames
1131
Matthew Castle @mrbasilpesto.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
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.
2310
Matthew Castle @mrbasilpesto.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
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.
1100
Matthew Castle @mrbasilpesto.bsky.social · 12/07/2026
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.
0180
Matthew Castle @mrbasilpesto.bsky.social · 11/07/2026
Mortified to realise I described a crème caramel as a crème brûlée throughout the Rhythm Heaven portion.
2211
Matthew Castle @mrbasilpesto.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
Not to look a gift horse in the mouth, but I'd want to be pardoned *before* the hanging.
2230
Matthew Castle @mrbasilpesto.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
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.
4240
Matthew Castle @mrbasilpesto.bsky.social · 04/07/2026
From now on all disagreements must be settled in the ten second cake grabbing game in Rhythm Heaven Groove.
0112
Matthew Castle @mrbasilpesto.bsky.social · 04/07/2026
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?
1110
Matthew Castle @mrbasilpesto.bsky.social · 04/07/2026
Every Star City line reading by Anna Maxwell Martin is a treat. Finds disdain where none is obviously written.
0104
Matthew Castle @mrbasilpesto.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
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.
050