This time I bring you a Playstation 3 videogame called “Beowulf.”
Ubisoft Shanghai and Tiwak did a magnificent job by transforming the classic epic poem which had collected and unified stories of the heroic tradition into a Playstation game. Having had the opportunity to play the game, I can highly recommend it, especially because the image definition of sea serpents, giant crabs and the feeling of carnal rage become a source of motivation for its players every time you start the adventure mode. Look out!! Beowulf is on his way!
Beowulf is an ageless hero with the strength of 30 men in his arms. The inclusion of viking longships, breakable weaponry, and squad-based strategies make for the most authentic viking experience yet.
Apart from this, adolescents and youth in general can enjoy Beowulf’s adventures against monsters and at the same time learn about this epic hero without being forced to read the entire poem, since in it, you meet up with Grendel's mother in her den, like in the story. In the game, you're tasked with defending a stone relic, which sits behind you, against numerous waves of enemies. With the special effects, colours and changes in sceneries, this game captures you in such way that, to get through to the end, takes four hours and fifty-one minutes.
The world is a strange mix of medieval and industrial society, although people live in a feudal society, including holding land and defending castles from invaders. But killing monsters is Beowulf’s way of resisting his own natural inclination to become a fiend.
In the game, Beowulf encounters Grendel's Mother and fights against her… The creature slaughters every last person of Herot while Hrothgar and Roland try to keep the doors open and defend their warriors.
Personally, I was amused by the game, though for the Playstation lovers it may seem a little bit like the God of War…
12 comments:
In my opinion, these kinds of games really help teachers to make students read more. By using something that is appealing to them, teachers are motivating them which will contribute to obtain their cooperation and interest. Once, you have already worked with the game and that they know what is it about then you can introduce a version of the epic poem or some fragments, and establish a comparison. Nowadays, teachers need to use these tools to have the attention of the students. They are living in a world that is constantly changing because of the expansion of technology, and may look at the book as something old-fashioned. For that reason, teachers cannot ignore these resources and they need to use them more. So, I think Cecilia has done an excellent work buy writing this article which will help us all to think about this.
P.R
What a nice article Ceci! Personally, I find it very interesting because I like reading everything that has to do with medieval society. I also think that this video game is useful in order to catch the attention of children, and at the same time they learn playing. Nowadays, technology is everywhere you go and we, as teachers, have to be aware of the resources that we have and start applying it.
Thanks girls.... (jejeje) =)
Ceci it is very interting what you propose about using the video game to learn about this epic hero. As Pao and Vane say, it is an appealing idea to apply it at school. Without any doubt, children will enjoy reading some fragments of the epic poem after being motivated with the video game. Teacher should find this connections so as to give students a real sense of what they are learning. Thanks ceci for giving us very useful ideas!!!!
Nowadays,everything is based on technology,so I think this game is very useful as a tool for teaching.Students will be more interested in reading and through this game we will catch their attention easily.It is a very good idea Ceci!!We have to start to apply this type of sources..we are in the 21st century!!!...
Sorry people... may ask a question? What is the educational objective of teaching through video games, specially if these video games refer to slaughtering, killing and such violent things like that? Sorry but I cannot see the point.
I don't agree with you Nestor. I think that you are mixing things. In any moment we've mentioned that was good to teach video games which refer to slaughtering, killing or violent things as you've mentioned before. I think that the point here is that "through" video games children can learn a lot of things such as words or characteristics about a society. I know that there are some video games (because I have it) that refer to a particular society and before starting to play, they give some explanation of it which could be useful to learn something.
Definitely, Vanesa, you are confused and it is not me but the paragraph below the picture that describes a creature slaughtering every last person of Herot. Anyway it doesn't matter. Obviosly that children learn plenty of vocabulary through video games. But the thing is that this scenario of violence presented in plenty of video games does not seem to be at all normal. In this sense, There's a popular video game in these days played by children that is, frankly speaking, disconcerting. The other day I went by to a cyber and there were some kids, of about 8 or 10 years old, playing a game called 'counter strike'. This game can be played in groups and consists of soldiers or warriors walking through passages and tunnels, persecuting each other or searching for terrorists or things like that. The thing is that while those children were playing, they were, almost without stop, shouting subconsciously expressions of eliminating virtual people, of killing a virtual other, of planting virtual bombs, of throwing virtual grenades and such things. In sum, it can openly be said that it was a play of a virtual killing. Some people in the cybercafe, where I include myself, were practically shocked at their exclamations. By the way, that situation reminded me of a book I read called '1984',written by Orwell, where a disconcerted protagonist Winston Smith describes the fascination of children for war games, militar parades, repetition of slogans and the like. To the mind of Wiston, the way that children of 1984 entertained themselves was not at all comprehensible. I hope you'll be able to understand my doubts on these games. And please, don't think that for stating a different point of view, I am against you or some of you. Don't mix things :) I am just participating to improve in writing. Well, bye bye
It's ok Nestor I understand what you say, and I agree with you concerning violence presented on video games but I think that the article is just describing this particular video game. If we think about previous ones, for example Mario Bros, we can see a "kind of violence". The character kills turtles and other things in order to find the princess. He doesn't use guns or swords but he kills anyway.
I see your point Nestor but I didn’t mean we should play the video games with our students. I think it is useful because some of our students might not even know that this game is based on an epic poem. But they would probably know the game so we can use it to talk about the poem. Talking about violence, I believe that the poem is also violent because the scenes where characters are massacred are well described. My point is that if there is something that can make our students feel more interested in learning, why won’t we use it? It is just to get their attention and establish a dialogue with them.
P.R
Hi Paola. I am not saying that you should play those games with the students. It just calls my attention the degree of violence of certain video games and I just wanted to express that, just that. Well bye.
All of you , in a way, explain similar things but with different words. I, as a spectator or a reader, can see it. That is very fruitful for all of us, we practise writing, we learn from our partners, we think of interesting topics, we discuss about them and the most important: we increase our vocabularies.
Don't you agree with me?
Ceci, I liked the last paragraph of your article a lot! "The world is a strange mix of medieval and industrial society, although people live in a feudal society(...) " Doesn't it sound like a description of our world?
Congrats!
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