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© Tomasz P. Szynalski, Antimoon.com
Grim Fandango – possibly the greatest adventure game of all time
What is an adventure game?
An adventure game is a kind of computer game which is similar to a movie.There is always a story and the maincharacter(usually a person, such as a detective or a pirate).The difference is that you don’t just watch — instead, you control the maincharacter.You use your mouse or keyboard, and yourcharactermoves around in the game world, looks at things,picks them up, uses them, and talks to othercharacters.Your character also talks to you.For example, when you tell him to look at something, he will tell you what he sees. You can then use thisinformation to decide what to do next.
Why adventure games are good for your English
Your main goal as an English learner should be to see and hear lots of English sentences(get lots of input).This gives you the ability to produce similar sentences yourself.Of all videogames, adventure games provide the most input because they are based on dialogue.Your character talks to himself, talks to you and talks toother characters. In an adventure game, your progress depends completely on understanding the dialogue.
In most adventure games, you can hear what thecharacters are sayingand read it at the same time. This means that you hear thepronunciationand see the spelling at the same time.As a result, the sentences stick in your head more strongly.
Playing adventure games gives you benefits similar to watching movies with subtitles:
- You program your brain with good English. Adventure games provide mostlyinformal, conversational input, which is very useful for producing your ownsentences.
- You improve your understanding of spoken English (listening comprehension).
- You learn the correctpronunciation of English words and sounds.
- You learn the correct spelling of English words.
- You increase yourmotivation.When you play an adventure game, you are in asituation where knowing English makes you feel good. It’s simple. If you can understand the dialogue, you know whatis going on in the game. This helps you solve thepuzzlesand understand the humor. You have fun.You teach your brain that “English = pleasure”, and yourmotivation increases!
How to use adventure games
When you’re playing an adventure game, you learn some English even if you don’t want to.But of course you can learn even more if you try.
One useful technique when playing an adventure game is very simple: use a dictionary. Pause the game frequently and look up new English words in agood dictionary for learners.You will understand more of the game, and of course you will learn some Englishvocabulary.
If you are reallymotivated to learn English, you canwrite downall the new words. Later, you canadd these words to yourSRScollection so that you will remember them forever. This is what I did when I was learning English in high school.
If you want to improve yourpronunciation, pause the game frequently andtry to repeat English sentences as well as you can. This is a greatpronunciation exercise, and it’s much more interesting than exercisesintextbooks.Adventure games are a good choice for this because the pronunciation in those games is usually clearerthan the pronunciation in movies.
If you are especially interested in improving your understanding of spoken English, you can play the gamewithoutsubtitles. In order to play, you will have to understand spoken language. At first, you willsurely have problems, but you will become better and better.Notice that when using this technique, it will be difficult to look up words in a dictionary, becauseyou will not see the words on the screen — you will only hear them.
Recommended games
How To Useadventure Time Streaming Right Now
Which adventure game should you play? I used to have a simple answer: any game from LucasArts.LucasArts adventure games havean intelligent story (more intelligent than most Hollywood movies), excellent humor, beautiful graphics,stirring music, and voices of talented actors. They do somethingamazing:they suck you in and make you feel a part of another world.When I was 13, I would shiver from excitementwhenever I would solve a puzzle in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, often after two days of trying. In high school,I remember I had tears in my eyes after I reached the end of Grim Fandango.
Unfortunately, LucasArts published its last original adventure (Escape from Monkey Island) in 2001, and its last greatadventure (Grim Fandango) in 1998. Adventure games have lost popularity. Today, there are fewer games based on dialogue,and more games based on running around and shooting. And most of the LucasArts classics like Day of the Tentacle or Full Throttlelook absolutely horrible on today’s big LCD screens.
So what should you do? Here are some options:
Modern adventure games
- The opening scene from The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition.The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition (trailer)— In 2009, LucasArts surprised everyone by releasing a remake of The Secret of Monkey Island, the cult classic that started the Monkey Islandseries. All the graphics have been drawn again in high resolution, the wonderful music has been re-recorded, and voice actors have been hired to record the dialogue.It is amazing how faithful the remake is to the original. Every object on the screen and every piece of music are exactly where theywere in 1991. In fact, at any point in the game, you can press F10 to switch to the “classic” version with 256-color, low-resolution graphics.For those who haven’t heard about this game, The Secret of Monkey Islandis set inthe Caribbean. You are a young lad with a funny name, whose dream is to become a pirate. As you work towards your goal, you become part of a much bigger story which involves the island’s beautiful governorand an evil pirate who fell in love with her. The plot is a brilliant mix of unexpected events, quirky humor, and mystery.The game costs only €9 on Steam and youcan also play it on the Xbox and the iPhone. What are you waiting for?
- Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge: Special Edition (trailer)—This is another remake released by LucasArts a year after The Secret of Monkey Island.Having earned his pirate stripes in the first game, our hero Guybrush Threepwood is now aconfident young man with a stylish beard, new clothes and a small fortune.Wanting to prove himself once again, he has come to Scabb Island in search of a legendarytreasure called Big Whoop.Alongside Monkey 1, Day of the Tentacle and Grim Fandango,Monkey 2 was a game which gave me my mostmemorable gaming experiences in my teen years. There was a time when I would spendmost of my free time thinking about how to solve another puzzle in the game.Those of you who have played Monkey 1, be advised: this is a much longer and harder game thanits predecessor. You can buy Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge for just€10 on Steam (PC).Also available on Xbox, PS3, iPhone and iPad.
- Tales of Monkey Island (trailer | official site)— The latest part of the Monkey Island saga is a mini-series developed by Telltale Games. There will be five chapters, one released every month.Based on the first part, I have to say that this game is not as good as the first three Monkey Island games: the graphics are less pretty (why did they do it in 3D?),the plot and characters are less original, and the humor is more sitcom-like. If you like the other Monkey Island games, you might as well give it a try— the game has some good moments.
- Sam & Max (trailer | official site)— Telltale Games have recently releasedSam & Max: Season One and Season Two —two mini-series, each containing 5-6 episodes based on the characters of Sam (a dog in a suit) and Max (a hyper-violent rabbit).The characters and the humor are identical to those in Sam & Max Hit the Road by LucasArts (1993). It was notLucasArts’ best game, but it was pretty good.Both games (or “series”) havecartoon-like 3-D graphicsand run well on modern computers. They have spoken dialogues, and you can also turn onsubtitles.One problem is that Sam and Max talk in a very unusual, colorful style, using a lot of words that are difficulteven for native speakers. They say things like: “surely the local lawbreakers must be missing our esoteric brand of personalized justice”. Thelanguage is definitely not for beginners.
Old adventure games
Curse of Monkey Island. Talking to Murray, the “all-powerful demonic skull”...
How To Useadventure Time Streaming Live
The three most recent LucasArts games run in 640x480 resolution, which is(barely) playable on today’s computers. They all havespoken dialogues, and you can turn onsubtitles.These games are:
- Grim Fandango (trailer | intro)— according to many people, best adventure game in history. Epic story, unique world, stylish graphics, atmospheric music, great voice acting.Everything in this game is full of artistic vision.
- Curse of Monkey Island (intro | gameplay)— very enjoyable, strong installment in the Monkey Island series.
- Escape from Monkey Island (intro)— definitely the weakest of the Monkey Island series; try the other Monkey Island games first.
Three pieces of advice here:
- On Windows XP and Vista, right-click the game’s shortcut, choose Properties, and enable “Windows 95 compatibility”.
- Install the latest patch available.
- For 3-D games (Grim Fandango, Escape from Monkey Island), turn on anti-aliasing in your video card settings to avoidjagged lines. For The Curse of Monkey Island, try runningthe game inScummVM with 2x scaling. Looks surprisingly good!
If you are crazy like me, you can run ancient LucasArts games (320x200 resolution) in theScummVM emulator. You can try finding theCD versions of Day of the Tentacle, Full Throttle and The Dig. These gameshave versions with spoken dialogues and they are one of the best adventures by LucasArts, with excellentscreenplays and great voice acting. Just watch theintro to Full Throttle on YouTube.You can play these games on your smartphone or tablet with ScummVM. They fit perfectly even onsmall screens.
Where To Watch Adventure Time
Other dialogue-intensive games
You can also look for other types of games which have a lot of dialogue.Ideally, they should be games where your progress in the game actually depends on understanding the dialogue– that way, you won’t be able to just ignore the English input.
Here’s a short list of dialogue-intensive games that I have played and would recommend to English learners:Half-Life, BioShock, Fallout 3, Mass Effect, Deus Ex, The Witcher 2
Introduction
At the end of October, Niantic introduced the Adventure Sync feature for Pokemon GO. Through integration with fitness apps Google Fit and Apple Health, players will now be able to track their steps while the game is offline! Through this integration, you can hatch Eggs, earn Buddy candy, and earn rewards. Here's what you need to know about how to get the most out of this feature.
How it Works
To begin using this feature, first you must install Apple Health or Google Fit. Through these apps, you can set up fitness goals and track metrics such as weight loss. After the initial installation and set up is complete, you can enable Adventure Sync in the Settings menu. You can also set push notifications related to Adventure Sync(e.g. get a phone notification for eggs about to hatch). Now, you're ready to walk!
Once that is done, new information will be available to view when you look at your trainer profile. Below the Buddy, Journal, and Style buttons now has a 'Weekly Progress' section. All your metrics for the week are stored here. Weekly rewards roll over on Monday at 9:00 AM in your local timezone.
Rewards
Below are the (updated 10/26/2019) rewards for reaching the goals:
The original(outdated) TSR article is here.
Distance | Rewards |
---|---|
5km | 20 Poke Ball |
25km | 5km rewards, 10 Great Ball, 1000 Stardust, 3 Rare Candy or 3 Silver Pinap or 1 5km Egg |
50km | 5km rewards, 25km rewards, 5 Ultra Ball, 5000 Stardust, 5 Rare Candy or 5 Silver Pinap or 1 5km/10km Egg |
100km | 5km rewards, 25km rewards, 50km rewards, 16,000 Stardust |
Adventure Time Free
Rewards gained stack on each other. So, reaching the 25km will also grant the 5km rewards, and reaching 50km grants the 5km, 25km, and 50km rewards. As of February 18, 2019, Star Pieces affect Stardust gained from Adventure Sync, allowing you to get up to 9,000 Stardust. Initial testing on r/TheSilphRoad seems to indicate that Gen 4 Pokemon are commonly found in the 25km and 50km Egg rewards. Players have encountered Riolu, Shinx, and the Gen 4 starters at a much-increased rate. (There are two reports of a Feebas and a Tangela being hatched as well but these may be false.) Here are the Gen 4 Pokemon that have been found: