Get your drafting pens at the ready, because we're back on the clock for another Video Game Draft! KDB - of First Aid Spray, Gears Intel, and Tapes From The Wastes fame - joins us once again to take turns picking 10 games each, this time from the year 2003, and determine a winner based on the total Metacritic scores for said games. Will Alex make it a threepeat with his underhanded GBA game-picking tactics? Will David go mad and inexplicably keep picking American football games? Will KDB pick so...
Apr 10, 2023•1 hr 52 min
Ook ook. Are you folks ready to go ape? That's right, we're in Kong country, and it's a pretty big country, so we've decided to cram in Rare's iconic SNES classics Donkey Kong Country and Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest into one podcast! We'll talk, as usual, about our own opinions and historical experiences with the game, the development, its reception, and we're picking out notable levels from each game to pour over. So get comfortable, check on your banana horde, dust off your mine ...
Apr 01, 2023•1 hr 59 min
Let's just take a moment to pay respects to an incredible video game. Alex finally managed to convince David to drop everything (mostly Apex Legends) and play through the campaign of Respawn's marvellous 2016 shooter, Titanfall 2. We discuss the, ahem, story and the relationship between Cooper and BT, the gunplay and Titan loadouts, the movement mechanics and level gimmicks, the game's development, its critical and commercial reception, and loads more! Don't forget to give us a rating on your po...
Mar 15, 2023•1 hr 40 min
We couldn't help ourselves. Once you go full Necromorph, you never go back. Well, you do go back... to Dead Space. Specifically to its sequel, as we set virtual sail for Titan Station in 2011's blockbuster (except in terms of sales) Dead Space 2. A much more linear, action-heavy game than the original, it doesn't stop Visceral's efforts from still feeling as satisfying and scary as it did 11 years ago. We chat about the ongoing trials and tribulations of Isaac Clarke after he awakens in a mental...
Mar 04, 2023•1 hr 35 min
We're back on the clock for another Video Game Draft special! This time, it's what we believe to be the greatest games of 2002 that are under the spotlight. As with before, we are joined by KDB from the Gears Intel and First Aid Spray podcasts (among many others), and once again the three of us take turns to draft 10 games each, then find the Metacritic score for all the games, add it all up and the person with the highest total score at the end wins. There are some real corkers to choose from 2...
Feb 25, 2023•1 hr 20 min
Our first new release pod of the year is the bone-chillingly fantastic Dead Space Remake. We're huge fans of the original game, and this remake is the goldest of gold standards on how to do it properly. We chat about the story, gameplay, world design, and highlight the changes between this and the original game. We loved our time with the game so much that we've decided to dive straight in to Dead Space 2 for the next episode! Tune in next time for that, and don't forget to tweet any questions o...
Feb 12, 2023•1 hr 57 min
Welcome, one and all, to the inaugural Video Game Draft! We're doing something a little different in 2023 with this bonus new episode type. We got our buddy KDB (@K_D_B_) from the Gears Intel podcast (which also includes the two of us) to join us as we look back on the year 2001 in gaming in a fun and competitive way. The basic premise is that we determine a draft order and then each take turns picking 10 games, one per round for 10 rounds, from everything released in 2001. Once we have our 10 g...
Jan 28, 2023•1 hr
The first game club podcast of 2023 is a game that we properly shafted by not finishing quickly enough for our 2022 GOTY awards! God of War Ragnarök is the very definition of a AAA video game - polished, beautiful, long, engrossing... but is it truly memorable? We talk about the game's mechanics, the story, the cast of characters, the ending, and more! Tie on your Chains of Olympus, load up your wolf-powered sled, make sure your son hasn't disappeared into another realm behind your back, and get...
Jan 21, 2023•1 hr 51 min
Let's close the 2022 book with an awards ceremony for games that almost exclusively weren't released in 2022! It's the AWIY way, folks. That's right, our GOTY awards are focused on games we've covered on the podcast in the last year, which means we were pitting the likes of Elden Ring and Scorn against a weird and wonderful mix that includes games like Wario Land, Diddy Kong Racing and Wolfenstein 3D! Our awards this year are Best Story, Best Gameplay, Most Bullshit, Best Surprise, Worst Game, O...
Jan 08, 2023•2 hr 31 min
Merry Christmas, y'all! Your gift from AWIY comes lovingly wrapped in slightly damp paper, as we've been sailing the Great Sea in Nintendo's all-time classic - The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, now 20 bloody years old! Enjoy chat about the game's fascinating development, reveal, and reception, as well as our own opinions on the visuals, game world, challenge, dungeons, bosses, story and more! It's a two-hour+ buffet of equal parts brilliance and buffoonery. You wouldn't have it any other way....
Dec 16, 2022•2 hr 22 min
It's finally time for one of the most nailed-on games we've ever covered. Alex's dream of talking about how he's loved DKR for 25 years has come true at last, and you get to join us for almost two hours of fun. We begin by chatting about the game's development, its difficulty and uniqueness in its genre, and its reception and legacy. We also discuss the different characters and bosses and how much joy/pain they respectively gave us. The main event comes in the second half of the pod, as you are ...
Nov 26, 2022•1 hr 54 min
It's party time! We're throwing a podcast birthday bash for the wonderful 2002 classic GameCube gem that is Metroid Prime. We talk about the game's, at time sordid, development history (looking at you, Spangenberg), its importance and legacy, what we love and don't love in terms of gameplay (and no, we're not going to moan about the scanning), the music, the map - the whole lot, basically. You know how we do. Stick on your power suit, set your coordinates for Talon IV, get your x-ray visor ready...
Nov 17, 2022•1 hr 56 min
More spooky, scary gaming for you to cram mercilessly into your sound receptacles, as we conclude Spooktoberfest 2022 with Ebb Software's H. R. Giger-influenced biomechanical grossfest, Scorn. We chat about knobs for the first part of the episode, because Scorn's phallic imagery corrupted our tiny little minds. We also discuss the game's confusing beginning, its puzzles, its combat, its ending and a whole load more. We also have a debate on what actually constitutes a horror video game. Does it ...
Oct 27, 2022•1 hr 42 min
It's October, you know what that means! A Winner Is You presents the second annual Spooktoberfest, where we celebrate the spookiest, scariest, kookiest horror(ish) games during the season of scares. First up this year is the flagship title in Nintendo's GameCube launch line up, Luigi's Mansion. Yeah, okay, it's not very scary but it's definitely spooky in tone if nothing else. Plus, it's fantastic, and that's what counts. We have a right ol' laugh at the story of the game and whether Luigi is, i...
Oct 16, 2022•1 hr 36 min
Hey, it's not officially Autumn yet, so Summer of Resi rolls on into September with Shinji Mikami's beloved sort-of-spin-off, Dino Crisis. We've moved on from Survival Horror into Panic Horror as we take down the dino dickheads that mysteriously inhabit Ibis Island. Before we go into the game, we talk about the overall state of Resident Evil in 2022 - including the recent Netflix series. We then tackle the meat on the dino bones, discussing the story, action, puzzles, choices and endings of this...
Sep 11, 2022•1 hr 45 min
More survival horror to get you through the real life horrors of summer, as Summer of Resi continues with the 2002 prequel to it all, Resident Evil Zero. We chat about the controls, the story and acting, its place in the greater Resi canon, the character-swapping gimmick, the endless backtracking, those damn monkeys, and more! Warning: This podcast contains discussion about a game that features scenes of explicit violence and gore.
Aug 22, 2022•1 hr 35 min
It's time to beat the heat with some good ol' survival horror! We're spending our summers hiding from the sun in darkened rooms playing Resident Evil, as we're sure you are too. We begin our journey with that one you probably played loads with your mate, look back on as a being a bit rubbish because it's not proper Resi, but would likely still enjoy if you played it again now - Resident Evil 5. Join us as we recount our adventure in the first co-op Resi, the first Resi to drop an f-bomb, and the...
Aug 13, 2022•1 hr 28 min
Weeeeeeee're baaaaaack! Much like the stifling British humidity, you'll never get rid of AWIY, lads! This episode we celebrate the underappreciated brilliance of Arkane Studios' 2017 sleeper hit Prey. We chat about the game's swerving, mysterious story, the stunning mega dungeon of TALOS I, the various neuromod powers and abilities, bugs and nonsense we encountered, and much more. This game really needs to be played to experience this podcast to its fullest, so go out and get playing, and then e...
Jul 14, 2022•1 hr 36 min
More BOGOF podcasting glory from AWIY, as we take you for a ride on the Dot Matrix Highway for Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins and Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 for the Game Boy. Mario Land 2 is one of the most underrated games in the Mario franchise, and it still stands up beautifully today, especially if you play the DX version romhack. Check that out at romhacking.net/hacks/3784/ Wario Land is a different beast altogether, and to be honest it's a madness that it actually carries the Mario...
Jun 06, 2022•1 hr 18 min
Ah, it's time to relax and you know what that means. A glass of wine, your favourite easy chair. And, of course, this podcast playing on your home stereo. It's the first of our double feature episodes - two smaller(ish) games with a tenuous link crammed together for double the listening pleasure. In May 2022, ID Software's seminally splendid shooter Wolfenstein 3D turns 30 years-old. For part one of the episode, we discuss its cultural impact, its development, its relevance today, and whether it...
May 29, 2022•1 hr 37 min
Elden Ring is a sprawling, fantastical and relentlessly punishing video game. So much so that it can make you go a little crazy, and that seems to have been the case with your intrepid hosts here. Let's just say we're filled with piss and vinegar for this one! Just a warning, this podcast will not cover the lore of these games, especially as many people on YouTube have already. We will, however, chat about the builds, the mechanics, the overall gameplay, the bosses, the areas and much more! Part...
May 02, 2022•1 hr 56 min
Happy birthday, SOTN! We're back to close off our very short Metroidvania season with what we both believe to be the superior of the 'progenitor' titles in the genre. We discuss the game's strongest points, the story, the enemies, the inverted castle (spoiler?) and how disappointing the PS4 remake is (typical Konami, amirite?) among many other absolutely definitely fascinating topics. Because we're quite prone to random nonsense, we also talk about vampire movies, Bram Stoker's Dracula, the Jimm...
Apr 16, 2022•1 hr 46 min
Just when you thought the last AWIY pod was in captivity and the airwaves were at peace, here we are! We've wrenched ourselves away from Elden Ring long enough to bring you a stone cold classic - 1994's Super Metroid. We don't need to explain to you just how important and iconic this game is, but the interesting element to this pod is that David has never played any Metroid games before, so you'll get an honest opinion of a 2022 Metroid virgin! We also had an email in to the pod! I know, right?!...
Mar 29, 2022•1 hr 36 min
Hello, hollow children, and welcome back to AWIY. This episode, we're celebrating the recent 10th birthday of a game we believe to be a bit of an underrated classic: Sega's Binary Domain. We chat about our surprise at it getting the 60fps boost on Xbox Series consoles, its wacky premise and even wackier story, its rock-solid gameplay and interesting dismemberment mechanics, the characters, the upgrades, the legacy of its director - everything you can think of, we got it covered. That's what we d...
Mar 11, 2022•1 hr 23 min
Welcome, challengers. Pop yourself down at the table, light your candle, draw your cards (ignore the talking ones) and get ready for a lovely ol' game of Inscryption. Daniel Mullins' 2021 masterpiece was an absolute delight for us to play (when we weren't banging out heads against it like the idiots we are), and is a very early contender for our game of the year. Yeah, we do those awards weird here. We chat about the mechanics of the game, the bosses, the story, the meanings behind the ending (a...
Feb 21, 2022•1 hr 28 min
Lock all your doors, put your feet up, light a small bundle of paper and chuck it into your back garden, watch the flames rise, and listen to our latest episode all about Campo Santo's 2016 mystery game, Firewatch. We discuss the game's unacceptably poor state on Xbox Series consoles (despite having just arrived on Game Pass in 2022) and whether it still holds up today to play it. Obviously the meat of the pod is all about Henry's story of marital sorrow, forest escape, blossoming new relationsh...
Feb 15, 2022•1 hr 27 min
We decided to start the new year off with a nice, harmless bit of fun as we played through Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart to while away the winter days. It turns out, we really weren't that impressed with it and our attempt at a positive start to 2022 was somewhat misguided! We chat about the underdeveloped and unfunny story, the disappointing use of the SSD tech to make what is essentially a fancy grappling hook and the monotonously easy difficulty. We do have praise for how beautiful this gam...
Jan 22, 2022•1 hr 22 min
Ladies and gentlemen, take your seats and relax - it's time for the A Winner Is You Game of the Year Awards for 2021. We're doing our GOTY show a little differently to most, as we only considered games we'd covered on the podcast in 2021 for the majority of the awards. The categories for this year are: Best Story, Best Gameplay, Most Bullshit, Best Surprise, Best 2021 Non-Podcast Game, Best Old Non-Podcast Game, Worst Game, and Best Game. If you agree or disagree with our choices, please get in ...
Jan 10, 2022•2 hr 27 min
We close out our 2021 with arguably the biggest game of the year - Halo Infinite. It's finally here after all the delays, all the memes and all the hype, and it's... yeah, it's pretty good innit. We discuss the beautiful combat, the missed opportunity of the open world, the weird story decisions surrounding the Cortana angle, and that wonderful grappling hook. Is this the ultimate Halo game? Is this the direction Halo should have been taken or is it a bust to make it open world? We answer these ...
Jan 04, 2022•1 hr 34 min
It's been 20 years since the hugely influential Max Payne first released. That means 20 years of film noir-aping, Slow-mo-diving, metaphor-chewing, fourth wall-breaking, painkiller-popping action. Join us for a raucous ride through the game's story as we discuss the numerous plot twists, unrelenting action, bullet time brilliance and debate whether the whole thing still holds up today. Oh, and the song at the end is Snowball Fight by the amazing Hyper Potions, so if you want excitement (and rad ...
Dec 23, 2021•1 hr 53 min
