Adventure

Looking for something fun to do with your family, spouse, or group of friends? Fire up A Day's Outing, a terrific little app that helps you find nearby events and activities.

The start page lets you quickly search for outings based on a variety of criteria, any of which you can change with just a few taps.

For example, by default, the app looks for outings within the next seven days, but you can narrow that down to today, tomorrow, or even next weekend. You can also specify the range and location (nearby, or someplace in particular--like a travel … Read more

If you like adventure games, monkeys, hideous puns, and pirates, today be your lucky day, mateys. GamersGate has Tales of Monkey Island - Complete Season for $13.98. Regular price: $34.95.

The vague "Complete Season" means you get all five chapters, which were originally released in serial fashion (at a cost of $8.95 apiece). And you get them as a download, not in a box.

If the name Monkey Island doesn't ring a bell, you were probably born sometime after 1980, in which case I hate you. These were "graphic adventures" at their … Read more

I owned a Dreamcast, proudly, back in 1999. I loved Jet Grind Radio and Crazy Taxi. It's with a note of personal affection that I report that Sega's officially releasing Dreamcast games onto both PSN and Xbox Live later this year.

What that means, for now, is that only Crazy Taxi and Sonic Adventure are making the leap. Sonic Adventure, as one of the first 3D Sonics, is a dubious choice. Crazy Taxi, however, is sheer genius. I always felt that Grand Theft Auto owed a bit to Crazy Taxi's madcap mission-based racing. As a quick-fix arcade … Read more

Grand Theft Auto IV is widely regarded as one of the best action-adventure games of all time. If you never got around to buying it, your wait just paid off. This week only, Direct2Drive is selling Grand Theft Auto IV (PC) for just $7.50.

But wait, there's more. That's just one of the heavily discounted titles in Direct2Drive's Spring Sale, which is now in its second week. (Sorry I didn't bring this your way sooner, but I didn't see anything too exciting in last week's batch of games.)

Other bargains worth considering, IMHO: … Read more

The new Doctor, fresh from saving the world with nothing more than a laptop, a camera phone, and a ginger kissogram, will be appearing on your laptop in a new series of downloadable games.

The BBC has pulled out the big guns for Doctor Who: The Adventure Games, with full voice-overs from the Doctor and his lovely companion Amy Pond.

Read more of "Doctor Who game: Downloadable 'interactive episodes' materialising this summer" at Crave UK.

I'm old enough to remember the heyday of graphic adventures. Space Quest, The Secret of Monkey Island, Full Throttle--these were the inventive, engaging point-and-click pastimes of my youth.

Alas, the genre died out years ago, but every now and then we see a flicker of resurgence--like when Revolution's Broken Sword debuted way back in 1996. Since then, the game has been ported to just about every platform, mostly notably the Nintendo DS last year.

Now, Broken Sword: Director's Cut is available for iPhone and iPod Touch. It's a lush graphic adventure representing the best of the genre, with a compelling plot, challenging puzzles, and welcome doses of humor. Check out the Hollywood-worthy trailer:

If you've never played a game like this (and if you're under the age of 30, you probably haven't), it's like an interactive animated movie.

As the murder-mystery plot unfolds, you explore various globe-spanning locales, looking for clues, talking with other characters, and solving puzzles. The pace is slow, the gameplay linear--players who have itchy trigger fingers or five-minute attention spans should definitely look elsewhere.

Those who enjoy this kind of thing, however, will be in hog heaven.… Read more

Adventures of Robinson Crusoe is a fun game based on Daniel Defoe's novel. Each level is a treasure hunt to salvage items from Crusoe's shipwreck. As you progress, Crusoe builds a new boat to escape. Each vignette is richly detailed and visually entertaining, with beautiful graphics, music, and sounds.

You can choose to play the game either in "Relaxed Mode," which offers hints and untimed play, or "Survivor Mode," which has fewer hints and a timer to keep you on your toes. We chose "Relaxed Mode." To play, you search for hidden … Read more

Many puzzle games fall into the trap of becoming repetitive and boring. You play them for a while, and they're fun, but eventually they're just not that interesting or challenging. Jewel Island solves this problem by making puzzle-solving part of a larger journey; you're not just solving puzzles for their own sake, but to move to the next step in the search for treasure.

The object of Jewel Island is to solve progressively more difficult puzzles in order to move to different points on a treasure map, eventually reaching the treasure and winning the game. We've … Read more

If you like adventure games, monkeys, and/or free stuff, today's your lucky day. LucasArts is offering a free download of Tales of Monkey Island - Chapter 1: Launch of the Screaming Narwhal.

This offer is good today only, and the clock is already ticking, so hurry up lest ye miss yer chance, ye, um, scurvy dog.

(Did I mention today is International Talk Like a Pirate Day? That's LucasArts' impetus for the freebie. But I'm going to restrain myself from going all yo-ho-ho on you. Try to, anyway.)

If the name Monkey Island doesn't ring … Read more