The german version, or: How not to do it right.

Hassknecht

Hassknecht

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Alright, so on release day in Germany I couldn't resist and bought it. The german version. I thought: "Well, the localization of Fallout 3 wasn't that bad, and I don't really care about the violence. It was actually kinda annoying in FO3.".
What a big mistake. I sincerely doubt that the voice acting team working on NV ever played the game or had any idea what they were talking about.
The voice acting is awful. Abysmal. Absolutely intolerable.
Not only that, but the translation in general.
There were obviously several translators at work, and they didn't communicate.
Sometimes they translate names, sometimes they don't.
For example, "Crimson Caravan" should never ever be translated. They didn't in Fallout 1.
Now, it's the "Karmesinrote Karawane". Which sounds ridiculous.
Even worse, sometimes it's known as "Karminrote Karawane".
Seriously. If they had to translate it, why not "Blutrote Karawane", which is also correct and much more fitting?
All the other names are not translated.
But the worst thing is this:
You remember how the pronounciation of "Caesar" is a big thing with the Legion?
Yeah, they just ignored that in the german version.
That means that they didn't even listen to the original lines. And they even cut out the explaining monologue from the very beginning.
Everyone in the Legion says "Zeesar". What. The. Fuck.
Why? There's absolutely no excuse for this.
Can someone explain that to me?
Seriously, I'm at loss here.
Who is responsible for that mess?
It nearly ruined the game for me.

/edit: This may look like it's simply an angry rant without purpose, but I'd really like to know why the translation is so awful. Oblivion was really bad, but FO3 was even tolerable. Why make one step forward and then two steps back?
 
I can say I relate to that being Brazilian.

Usually I always choose the native language of what the game was done, be it Spanish, German or English, because usually those are done as they were meant to be.

There's no worse thing than getting a fully translated game and hearing it in another language (even if its your own) done poorly.

In the case you asked, maybe they changed the voice studio which they've been working?
 
Well, it was known before that the german version will suck. I saw it already in the very first german video. Item names, faction names, all is either wrong or shitty translated.

Another good example: bottlecaps are sometimes translated as "Deckel", sometimes as "Flaschendeckel" and sometimes as "Kronkorken", if I remember correct.

Also the NCR is translated plain wrong. In the german version it is called "Republik Neu-Kaliforniens", but if at all, it has to be "Neue Kalifornische Republik"... they should just have played Fallout 2 to get it right.

I mean, Fallout 3 was badly translated. Even Fallout 2 had it's flaws, but FNV is just the worst of everything.


Good thing that I played the game in english from the very beginning. It was totally worth it.
 
Lexx said:
Good thing that I played the game in english from the very beginning. It was totally worth it.
Click to expand...
Absolutely. I think I'll buy it again in english when there is a "GOTY" kind of edition with all the DLCs.
Also, when it's cheaper.
I didn't see any german videos beforehand, so I was caught off guard by the pure amount of shittyness.
 
Most translation of games just plain suck. the Spanish version has a LOT of really bad translation, there is even an instance on the intro when they call the Khans "Los Presos" like in "Cons" yeah they didn't even read the script. Pipboy is translated as "Mono" like in "cartoon" yeah, the cartoon opens the menu. They can't decide between using "Desierto" or "Yermo", they use a lot of literal translation, even with thigns that don't sound that good in spanish or that just end up sounding completely generic. They translate the Ghouls as "Necrofagos" and you could translate that that way but in the context of the game I don't think a Ghoul would refer to himself as a corpse eater, even if they are.
They refer to the Legion as SLAVES leaded by Caesar, not a Slavers, is just a typical Spain translation, Spain always makes awful dub work.

Here is the intro

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uopk1Zz4imU&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL[/youtube]
 
Then there was a confusing line before the ambush on Nelson:

"You gotta FREE the hostages."
"Why should the hostages to be TAKEN OUT?"

But seriously, there should be a uncut fandub of german NV.
 
maybe its because I dont understand any spanish, but the voice acting doesnt sound thaaaaaaat bad. Not when compared to Fallout 3s anyway ;)

Though when watching the intro ... the first time I saw it I was like "damn that looks cool" thinking Vegas would be a great location. Sadly it feelt way to small and way to lifeless. But ah well.
 
The worst part is that the personalitys of several people shifted thanks to it.

Bennys intro part is to a large part different in the german release.
 
You remember how the pronounciation of "Caesar" is a big thing with the Legion?
Click to expand...

They ignored it in the italian version as well, which is kind of stupid. :S

Just to be on the safe side I ordered the american version one month before release. But in the end there were problems so I bought the italian version on launch. Thankfully it was rather good, but once the american version arrived (45 days later) I sold the italian version without thinking twice.
 
WorstUsernameEver said:
I remember watching the Italian intro on Youtube. Not sure what their criteria for Benny's voice were.
Click to expand...

When I watched the intro the first time I was petrified. The narrator was mediocre, Jessup was meh and Benny was horrible. Wrong voice, terrible delivery. I was ready to mute the voices but thankfully almost all the others VA are good. Way to impress a player with the intro. :roll:
 
why dont they simply do it like in the old days. Keep the original voices but offer translations (text).

worked for me at least back then. Though I s till think the only game that ever did some AWESOME voice for the German version was Baldurs Gate 2. I think its many times even better then the english/US version. Interesting is as well that I realised recently that they gave some NPCs in the German versoin voices which never got some in the english version (I think) like some deamons you encounter.
 
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