Came here because the podcast feed audio was borked.

46:37 "have it when they die, they climb out of hell" such an underated goof toss. Glad at least Marty giggled

I still remember picking up Demons Souls om the PS3 playing through it the first time and thinking I would never see another game like it.  I was so happy to be wrong

Soooo excited to know Marty and Yahtzee will be in the next AIN!

1:27 start

I'd argue that Gearbox hit an astounding level up moment by creating the gold standard for looter shooters and kicking off the genre craze with Borderlands 2.

The level up didn't last and they quickly fell back down, but it is worth mentioning how monumental Borderlands 2 is as a game.

I'd say Bubsy 3D to Syphon Filter was a pretty big level up.

Also, the director of Devil May Cry 2 being all "please let me make another one; I don't want to be known as the guy who made Devil May Cry 2" and making 3.

51:00 Holy shit a rare yatz chuckle at a goof

I was honestly surprised when I learned that Batman: Arkham Asylum was the 2nd game developed by Rocksteady Studios (after Urban Chaos: Riot Response), or Baldur's Gate being the 2nd gate of BioWare.

Unfortunately, live service games Kill the Justice League & Anthem tainted them severely with a level-down respectively.

Also - dang, I wish the Sly Cooper games would be remastered!  I miss my Thievius Raccoonus!

I realize I live in a land where just the voters who lose their leader's election outnumber the ENTIRE population of counties trying to stereotype a generic US citizen, but please know there's good people here. Some of us played Worms on multiple consoles and PCs. Honest!

I know insomniac are popular now but my favourite of their games are the og Ratchet and Clank ps2 trilogy

I love that Windbreakers seem to on average be getting shorter, and I’m going to believe that it’s because Rewind stole an hour of runtime.

Edit: not a diss to be clear, it’s just really funny.

I hope and pray they're giving Bloodborne the Elden Ring treatment. Bloodborne for me was absolutely magnificent in terms of setting, gameplay and narrative (every bit as much as Dark Souls) but was a bit marred by technical issues on launch that probably sours it a little in some people's minds. It's very disappointing to me that they didn't revisit Bloodborne with a sequel the way they did with Dark Souls (not counting Duskbloods with is basically Bloodborne Night Reign).

If you're talking purely prominence and financials I think Bungie would count as a glow up. Marathon and Myth were acclaimed but almost exclusively in the Mac gaming community in the 90's which was about 1/10th the size of the PC audience. When Halo launched I would be willing to bet the overwhelming majority of people had never heard of Bungie and suddenly they were the makers of the biggest game on the planet at the time.

Fall frome grace could be Daikatana. Technically Ion Storm was a new studio but since it was founded by former Doom/Quake guys Romero and Tom Hall it was really about the schism between the tech guys (Carmack) and design guys (Romero) and my word did Daikatana basically nuke a superstar devs career (Romero). You also got Deus Ex and Anachronox out of that but Daikatana felt like the end of an era. Maybe it's more a specific person than a studio but in a roundabout way I think it counts.

How about Prey (2006) from Humanhead Studios? Before Prey they were mostly known for a fairly obscure Unreal engine game called Rune which was sort of Viking melee solo player game situation. Not a complete dud but certainly not well remembered. Then they did Brink so I guess they had their glow up and fall from grace back to back.

I'd assume that Platinum leveled up, but tracking the when would be difficult. Would it be DMC to Bayonetta? Bayonetta to DMC? DMC to Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance?
Maybe they leveled up multiple times like Naughty Dog and Insomniac did?

You didn't play Worms in the states.  PC gamers in the '90s did.

I actually cringed when 33 Immortals was mentioned, the game is dead and unplayable now.