2020 was quite the year for In Third Person on Twitch. We shared a lot of laughs. Made a lot of new friends. Channel Points changed the show in a big way, allowing you to control the stream and hunt for shiny Snorlax. We also raised a mind-boggling amount of money for Extra Life!
Before we close the book on 2020, let’s take a moment to relive some of my favourite on-stream moments! There are too many to count, but here a few that immediately come to mind!
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Capturing some of my favourite highlights from our Extra Life 2018 marathon, including the Punch-Out #tysonchallenge, rookie chefs burning down the kitchen in Overcooked 2, Jackbox Party Pack 5 and its freestyle rap mini game, NBA Street V3 dunk contests with Princess Peach, Jenna playing the best Overwatch of her life, and so much more! Thanks again to everyone involved and we’ll do this again next year!
Portal and I didn’t get off on the right foot. My first encounter with it happened in the middle of my brother’s playthrough, where he was already halfway in. I picked up the controller just to try it out. Sure, the concept of creating and traveling through portals was immediately alluring, but I couldn’t have solved that level if my life depended on it. Based on that, I figured that I would always be too dumb for it.
Had I not watched my girlfriend play it from the beginning, I probably wouldn’t have given it a second chance. What a shame that would have been had I gone any longer without it.
BioShock 2 and BioShock Infinite are two very different solutions to the same problem. That problem being, “How do you follow up a title as amazing as BioShock?” BioShock 2 is the designed-by-suits-in-a-shareholders-meeting approach, while BioShock Infinite takes a much more creative path. By taking some inspiration from the original and building a whole new story, Infinite is one of the freshest gaming experiences of this generation.
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Over the course of this generation, the Assassin’s Creed series has seen its fair share of ups and downs. Right now, the series is arguably at its lowest point, as Assassin’s Creed III was mired with bugs, poor game design choices and an uninteresting protagonist. Though Ubisoft has dug themselves quite the hole with their last two sub-par entries in the series, I continue to hold out hope that they’ll find a way to recapture the magic they created with Assassin’s Creed II.
Batman: Arkham Asylum surprised the world. Expectations for licensed superhero games were at an all-time low, and this was far from the usual crap. For many (myself included), Arkham Asylum was a legitimate game of the year contender. Instead of falling into the sophomore jinx, Batman: Arkham City builds upon a solid foundation to create the pinnacle superhero game.
I hate stealth games. I hate the myriad of artificial fail states that oftentimes come with it. I hate the oftentimes fake openness that really boils down to 1 or 2 options you may have at any given point. I hate the trial-and-error nature of the gameplay. I even hate the very conceit of stealth in video games. When i play a video game, I want the power fantasy. In most stealth games, you feel like a weakling who has no other means of getting through a scenario.
I hate stealth games, but I love Mark of the Ninja.
Many will feel that I’ve chosen the wrong Call of Duty for this list. That is a fair point. Historically, everyone knows that the original Modern Warfare is the one that changed the industry with it’s great single player campaign and legendary multiplayer. Heck, having played both of these titles, I think the original has its successor beat in the single player department.
So why is Modern Warfare 2 getting all the praise? Being my first Call of Duty definitely had something to do with it.
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Unlike many a gamer, who had no shortage of fond memories with Valve games, their catalogue of work was alien to me until Left 4 Dead. As an active avoider of PC gaming, I missed out on Half Life and Team Fortress completely, while being years late to Portal. Thankfully, I was there on day one for Left 4 Dead.
On a whim before the game’s release, I downloaded the demo on Xbox Live. I was not ready for the awesomeness that would ensue.
The Xbox 360/PlayStation 3/Wii generation has been quite the trip. In its almost 8-year run, we’ve seen the meteoric rise (and fall) of the Wii. We experienced how online technology fundamentally changed the way we interact with the medium. We also got a plethora of wonderful games to play.
Ranking them is no easy task, and there is no right answer. As a list-maker, all you can do rank them how you see them and open the door for discussion. Over the next few weeks/months, I’ll be counting down In Third Person’s top 10 games of this generation.
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