ESL Podcast 295 - Playing Video Games

fighting - violent; with two or more people physically struggling against each other

In this fighting game, you can make the characters kick and hit each other in several directions.

role-playing - imagining that one is another person; acting as if one were another person; using another person's identity

When I was in high school, some of my friends played Dungeons & Dragons, a role-playing game where players act like characters in the story.

simulation - a game where players re-create the real world; a game where players act as if they were in a real, parallel life

This is a popular simulation game where players have homes, jobs, pets, cars, and everything else that they have in the real world.

strategy - a careful, detailed plan for doing something; a plan for moving armies and for fighting in a war

Our company needs a new strategy for marketing its health products.

mission - an important and adventurous job that one must do

The secret unit's mission is to find the nuclear laboratory and destroy it.

graphics - animation; the designs and drawings that are used in a computer program, movie, or book

These graphics are very helpful in understanding how the human heart works.

console - a small machine that is used to play video games

The new video game console put out by this company is much smaller than their last one.

multiplatform - able to work on more than one system; able to work with more than one type of equipment

Microsoft Word is multiplatform because it can be used on PCs and Macs.

joystick - a small piece of equipment that has many buttons and a stick for one to hold to move things on a computer screen, especially in a video game

In this game, you need to push up on the joystick to make the character jump.

navigation system - something that is used to move around in a video game

This navigation system is confusing because you have to push the left arrow to move right, and the right arrow to move left!

to be into (something) - to like something very much; to be interested in something

Were you into sports when you were in high school?

retro - related to the styles or fashion of recent decades; related to the styles or fashion of the recent past

Mindy has a retro style, often wearing dresses from the 1960s and 1970s.

old school - old-fashioned; not modern; traditional

Romulo has a lot of old school ideas about how women should stay at home and men should go to work.

violent - using a lot of physical strength and force that is meant to hurt or kill another person

The government report warned that young children shouldn't watch action movies because they are too violent.

gamer - a person who plays video games all the time and knows a lot about them

My parents don't understand that I spend so many hours playing video games because I'm training to be a world-class gamer.

3-D - three-dimensional; seeming to have three measurements: length, width, and height; not appearing to be flat

To see this movie in 3-D, you'll need to wear these red and green plastic glasses.

gore - blood, usually from an injury caused by violence

The movie Braveheart is full of blood and gore because it is about war.

to pass - to say "no" to something; to decide not to do something that one is being asked to do; to not accept something that one is being offered

Yolanda asked me to go to the movies with her yesterday, but I passed, saying that I needed to study.