Chime In: What Did He Just Say?

I freaking love subtitles. My hearing isn’t amazing anyways, and game audio is often poorly balanced (soft talking, loud explosions – so, you can’t really just turn it up). I turn subtitles on right away when I start a game.

I used to always turn on subtitles, but I found myself staring at the text instead of what was going on during a cutscene. I’ve been weaning myself off of subtitles and just taking in the game without them, but in situations where I’m at risk of missing important information, I always turn them on.

While I agree with your love of subtitles… one of the big reasons that many games don’t include them is because of localization. Sometimes the translated text just doesn’t fit properly.

I use subtitles and enjoy them. I don’t always straight read them, but it is nice to have them in case I can’t hear them. The other issue that arises though, is captions (such as in Half-Life 2). I’ve used these and sometimes feel like I’m cheating as I read them to alert myself of zombies, headcrabs, and combine. There is sounds, but they are much harder to pick out from the rest of the sounds. I also use them to know when I’ve killed something which does feel a bit cheap…

I’m really not a big fan of subtitles. The main reason for this is that I read faster than people talk (as I imagine most people do), and often this spoils the line’s delivery. If the game’s voice acting is good–for example, I’ve been playing a lot of Sam & Max and Monkey Island this summer–already knowing how the line will end ruins the joke, which would’ve been funnier if I had just heard it. In the same light, it could ruin the drama of a moment if read with improper timing.

But thankfully, my hearing is good and things are always pretty quiet where I live.

Well that’s why I like the option, turn on or off.
but games who just plainly don’t put it in, I find it cheap on the Devs part

This is why I use earphones with a long extension cord. Nothing beats it!

Subtitles are great. I’ve been using them more and more while playing at night once my wife is asleep. I’m thinking about getting a set of wireless headphones as well.

I always watch TV and play games with subtitles. So I don’t miss anything.

It’s funny when sometimes you’re playing a game and the subtitles are completely different to what is being said.

@Eden – That happens often enough too

subtitles are great. Helping me to learn Spanish too thanks games with English audio and Spanish subtitles. Not exact translations, but enough for me to pick up the meaning.

I did get one of those TV ears as a gag gift one year from a friend and it’s not the greatest wireless headphone, but it really does work well when I want to play at night and not disturb others. I just have to make sure to only use them at night, cuz they look kinda funny on anyone.

I always turn on subtitles on action games because dialogue is so often drowned out by effects and music, but like BoringRocks I turn them off in adventure games. Otherwise my eyes keep getting drawn to the text and spoil the delivery. On the other hand, if I get bored of a certain characters slow droning voice I can use subtitles to read ahead and skip the voice acting.

Something that bugs me is when I turn on subtitles before I start the game, and then when the game starts (with a cutscene) there are no subtitles. In some games “subtitles” means “in-game subtitles” and for some reason they leave them out of cutscenes. Vice versa in other games. I never understood that half-hearted approach.

I’m amazed by all the subtitle love in these comments, I always switch them off. It feels far less real, far less involving when every line of dialogue is written out onscreen. No film ever feels the need to patronise the audience with subtitles, so why are they always set by default in games? The UI gives more than enough information about onscreen action.

Actually they’re usually not set “on” by default.

I get most of my gaming done away from home, so subtitles are a must. Working at a movie theater with one screen, when a show is in there’s not much to do, so the laptop comes out and my coworker and I will try to team up on an adventure game or something. Sometimes a game with a really good story will be enough, and I’ll play while the coworker just enjoys the show. In a situation where you’ll need to be able to pause at any given second and keep the sound done in case a customer walks in, subtitles are essential. The worst thing is when a game isn’t fully subtitled. This happened last night, when I beat Cryostasis while on a shift. (Fantastic game. Really glad I picked it up in the Steam sale. It’s probably my favorite gaming experience so far this calendar year, and that’s a week after beating Red Dead Redemption.) The game had been subtitles all the way through, with no problems whatsoever, until this final section of the game. A character starts getting all biblical on you and starts throwing bible quotes around. At first I thought there was a glitch, but then I realized that when the subtitle said “ECC: 12:6,7″ it wasn’t the subtitles bugging out, but showing me the book and verse of the bible that the quote came from. This would have been fine if it had said anything else, but that was all it gave me. That was really irritating. At least it was a short section.

You’re not the only one =) I regularly turn my subtitles on since I don’t want to miss some key story elements because of sound issues. I’d recommend them even though sometimes I miss visual clues because I’m too busy focused on reading them =P

Edgar – I guess it varies from game to game but they were definitely “on” by default in the copy of “Fear 2″ I’ve been playing

I always do the same. Not even because I can’t hear the TV sometimes, but just because I like to make sure I’m catching everything that’s being said.

I’d be interested to study the idea of turning them on, because you’re an old-school gamer – as in, maybe subconsciously you want the text on screen because it’s what you grew up with. Who needs voice-overs now-a-days!

Then again, the imagination you had to use in the old day doesn’t really exist anymore as everything pushes towards realism. Meh.