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Dialogue-rich Computer Games in Second Languages?

Posted: Mon Aug 17, 2015 12:55 am
by Teango
Last year, I completed a couple of free German adventure games from the Goethe Institute on my iPod ("Das Geheimnis der Himmelsscheibe", "Ein rätselhafter Auftrag"). The dialogues were very comfortable for my level, and the plot was compelling enough to keep me wanting more. Of course, these were still educational graphic adventures, so sometimes the plots and tasks felt a little more contrived than usual, but it was none-the-less an engaging and enjoyable way to practice German.

Being a big fan of dialogue-rich graphic adventures as a kid, especially those with tongue-in-cheek humour (e.g., Monkey Island, Sierra, Lucasarts), I can see myself easily immersing in hours of target language audio and text in stolen moments for fun. Even looking up and saving new words doesn't feel like too much of a chore when it serves the immediate purpose of solving some new puzzle in an ongoing adventure and saving the world. :)

Hence I think it would be really useful to build a simple computer games repository here on the forum that would be suitable to a host of language learners across a variety of platforms. So I'd like to ask if anyone here could recommend any good computer games, sites, or apps that offer plenty of audio and/or text in a second language (educational or otherwise)?

Here are our recommendations so far:

TitlePlatformsLanguagesAudio/TextSuggested By
Animal Crossing: New LeafesSpoonary
AR-Ken, esTati
Assassin's Creed seriesen, fr, de, it, ja, pt, ru, esSoclydeza, Yuurei
Baldur's Gate 1 & 2en, fr, it, de, es, plt123, Zireael, ownerzeff
Banner Saga series (1, 2, and 3)de, fr, it, es, ru, pl, cs, pt, zh, ja, kothemethod
Baphomets FluchdeDoitsujin
Baphomets Fluch 2.5en, de, es, it, pl, hr, pt, ruDoitsujin
Beholderde, fr, es, it, ru, pl, pt, nl, zh, ja, kothemethod
Broken Ageen, deAlexTG
Broken Sword 1 & 2en, de, fr, es, Itdaegga, Doitsujin, emk, Cavesa
Child of Lightde, fr, it, ru, pt, jathemethod
Criminal Caseen, es, pt, it, fr, de, tr, zh, idSerpent
Crusader Kings IIen, fr, de, es, plZireael, Alphathon
Cyberpunk 2077*en, fr, it, de, es, ja, ko, pl, pt, ru, zh; ar, cz, hu, es, th, yue, tuT0NIN0
Darkwoodde, fr, es, it, pl, ru, hu, pt, tr, zhthemethod
Das Geheimnis der HimmelsscheibedeTeango
Diablo IIIen, fr, de, es, zhAozu
Dračí historiecs, enCavesa
Dragon Age 2frYuurei
Dragon Age Originsen, fr, de, pl, ruHenkkles
Dreamfallde, en, noCavesa
Ein rätselhafter AuftragdeTeango
Fatal Frame 5janinuno
Football Manager series (languages for 2020 release)da, de, en, es, fr, it, nl, no, pl, pt, sv, tr, el, ru, zhkelvin921019
FTLde, fr, es, it, ru, pl, pt, zhthemethod
Godvilleen, ruVia Diva
Gothic seriesdeeginhard
Grim Fandangoen, de, esAlexTG
Gylt*en, fr, de, it, esKeys
Hatoful Boyfriendja, enkyukumber
Homescopeen, fr, de, es, it, ru, zh, ja, koninuno
Icewind Daleen, fr, it, de, es, plt123
Imperia Onlineen, swNIKOLIĆ, Elenia
Inner WorlddeTeango
King's Questen, fr, deTeango
Learn Spanish with Ruby ReiesTeango
MafiacsCavesa
Mafia 2en, fr, de, it, es, cs, ruT0NIN0
Mass Effect gamesen, fr, desteyyan
Metro (2033, Last Light, Exodus) seriesru, de, fr, es, it, ukthemethod
Might & Magic: Heroes Onlinecs, nl, en, fr, de, it, pl, pt, ro, ru, esNIKOLIĆ
Monkey Island 1-4en, de, fr, itAlexTG, daegga, rdreaman, garyb
OFF*fr, en, ru, es, pt, pl, delysi
Pathologic (Мор утопия)runinuno
The Pillars of the Earth (Die Säulen der Erde)deninuno
Polda 1csCavesa
Play-AsiaJaAlexTG, cathrynm
Pokemon series (last 4)de, fr, es, ko, jaWalkingAlone14
Randal's Mondayde, en, es, fr, it, ruTati
ScummVM (various games)en, dedaegga
Remember Me (Souvenez-vous de Moi)frninuno
Runescapeen, de, frjmar257
Simon the Sorceror 1 & 2de, en, frCavesa
Skyrimen, esjmar257
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series (Shadow of Chernobyl, Clear Sky, Call of Pripyat)ru, de, fr, es, it, plthemethod
Stardew Valleyen, de, es, fr, it, pt ru, hu, tr, ja, zh, kothemethod
Syberia seriesde, fr, es, it, ru, plthemethod
The Elder Scrolls seriesen, fr, de, hu, ja, es, ruMeyers, Keys, Yuurei, Henkkles
The Longest Journey seriesen, de, fr, it, no, ru, svDoitsujin
This War of Minede, fr, es, it, ru, pl, tr, pt, zh, ko, jathemethod
The Witcher seriesja, de, pt, ru, en, fr, pl, esCavesa, steyyan, Wurstmann, cathrynm
Tropico 4esjmar257
Uncharted 3fr, nl, es, plYuurei
Vampire's Fall Originsen, ms, de, fr, it, pl, ro, ru, uk, zh, tr, el, cs, es, hi, ko, pt, th, fil, vi, ja, hu, arCavesa
World of Warcraften, es, zh, it1e4e6, Aozu, ddich
XCOM 1 & 2de, fr, es, it, ru, plthemethod

Updates:
Following up on your suggestions, I've hopefully made our list a bit clearer and more accessible by converting it to a new table format (based on Alphathon's suggested template, but limited to basic HTML on the forum's user interface). This includes links where provided, available languages, and member credits; platforms and audio/text fields, however, will need to be filled in. As I don't have time to check through all the links and data, please feel free to suggest any notes, amendments, or additions (as well as let me know if there are any glaring errors), and I'll try to include these during the next update.


Language abbreviations (ISO 639-1 codes):
ar=Arabic, cs=Czech, de=German, el=Greek, en=English, es=Spanish, fil=Filipino, fr=French, hi=Hindi, hu=Hungarian, hr=Croatian, id=Indonesian, it=Italian, ja=Japanese, ko=Korean, ms=Malay, no=Norwegian, nl=Dutch, pl=Polish, pt=Portuguese, ro=Romanian, ru=Russian, sw=Swahili, sv=Swedish, th=Thai, tr=Turkish, uk=Ukrainian, vi=Vietnamese, yue=Cantonese, zh=Chinese.


With games in at least 30 languages, we've already amassed an interesting collection here together. A big thanks to everyone who has contributed to the growing list and the ongoing discussion so far, and let's keep these suggestions rolling in!! ~ Teango

Last update: 3 September, 2021 (3 new games added to the list - temporarily marked with an asterisk *).

Re: Dialogue-rich Computer Games in Second Languages?

Posted: Mon Aug 17, 2015 1:06 am
by daegga
The old Broken Sword titles (1 & 2) have been available in a mobile version for a while now. The 5th iteration came out 1-2 years or so back. They come with the big languages (German, English, French, Spanish, Italian if I remember correctly). Digging through the French subtitles of the first one I would estimate it to be the size of a pocket book (300 pages or so) if printed. Audio is 2 times 4 hours, but there are duplicate lines (in my PC version, in mobile this should be handled better, no CD changes :) ).

edit:
Also look into ScummVM: http://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php/IPhone
Those old Monkey Island titles are available for German too. All games in this list should be actually.

Re: Dialogue-rich Computer Games in Second Languages?

Posted: Mon Aug 17, 2015 1:41 am
by Teango
@daegga
That's the one...Broken Sword...I was trying to recall the name of this series only yesterday; great suggestion! I'll have a look later today to see if they have a version for the iPod/iPad. I'm also thrilled to hear they have some of the Monkey Island series in German. Do you know if that includes German audio as well? Ich will Pirat werden!

@1e4e6
WoW is another good idea. I'll add that to the list - mahalo!

Re: Dialogue-rich Computer Games in Second Languages?

Posted: Mon Aug 17, 2015 1:50 am
by daegga
Teango wrote:@daegga
I'm also thrilled to hear they have some of the Monkey Island series in German. Do you know if that includes German audio as well? Ich will Pirat werden!


You need to buy the German version (remember those CDs? they didn't have space for more than one language). Could be tough in Hawaii, not sure if they sell the German version as download (gog.com only has English). Check the underground ;)

Re: Dialogue-rich Computer Games in Second Languages?

Posted: Mon Aug 17, 2015 10:19 am
by AlexTG
Monkey Island 1 and 2 had no audio dialogue at all. Audio dialogue was added in the remastered editions, but only in English and Italian, and only if you use the crappy new "remastered" graphics. 3 and 4 had audio dialogue and were dubbed into German. The translations must have been very popular in Germany, because Tim Schafer made a point of getting the same translator to do his new adventure game Broken Age (which is another game you should check out).

Grim Fandango Remastered is available on steam for $15 and has a German dub (and the graphics are the same as the original ✓) .

Re: Dialogue-rich Computer Games in Second Languages?

Posted: Mon Aug 17, 2015 1:28 pm
by Serpent
I love Criminal Case. Millions of people play that in L1.

It's available in English, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French, German, Turkish, Mandarin, Indonesian.

Re: Dialogue-rich Computer Games in Second Languages?

Posted: Mon Aug 17, 2015 1:47 pm
by rdearman
You can try some text only MUD (Multi-user Dungeon) games. There are a lot of them in many languages. Here is a good place to start looking for them. Some allow you to search for a game by language.
http://www.mudconnect.com/index.html
http://mudverse.com/index.php?p=advanced_search

Some free opensource games which are multiplayer and support multiple languages.
http://www.lgdb.org/category/game_features/online_multiplayer
http://sauerbraten.org/
http://www.cahilig.net/2011/07/29/100-best-free-and-high-quality-linux-games
https://computing4free.wordpress.com/2009/03/28/25-of-the-best-linux-games/

Re: Dialogue-rich Computer Games in Second Languages?

Posted: Mon Aug 17, 2015 2:28 pm
by WalkingAlone13
Probably a long shot for most as I am somewhat of a big kid at heart, but the newest Pokemon games (last four) which are for the Nintendo 3ds - a handheld console so it's portable - all give you the option of playing the game in either German, French, Spanish, Korean or Japanese. You can not change mid way through but you could always complete the story and start again in a different language.

Naturally there will be points in which you'll be levelling up so won't have as much dialogue but you could always talk to people anyway.

*Edit: This is more for those who may happen to already have said console as otherwise it's obviously not going to be a viable option in terms of cost.

Re: Dialogue-rich Computer Games in Second Languages?

Posted: Mon Aug 17, 2015 2:59 pm
by Spoonary
WalkingAlone13 wrote:Probably a long shot for most as I am somewhat of a big kid at heart, but the newest Pokemon games (last four) which are for the Nintendo 3ds - a handheld console so it's portable - all give you the option of playing the game in either German, French, Spanish, Korean or Japanese. You can not change mid way through but you could always complete the story and start again in a different language.


I second this. I also played Animal Crossing: New Leaf for a while in Spanish, before real life got in the way. AC is a slice of life game, where you run around a town and collect furniture and clothing, basically, but there is a lot of chatting with the various creatures so there is plenty of opportunity to read inane chit chat in your target language. There are also plenty of fish and bug names to learn :D

Re: Dialogue-rich Computer Games in Second Languages?

Posted: Mon Aug 17, 2015 7:56 pm
by Teango
@AlexTG
Glad to hear that Monkey Island 3 and 4 and Grim Fandango have all been dubbed into German (I loved these games!) I've never heard of Broken Age before, but it looks very promising and I'll be sure to check it out. Thanks!

@Serpent
I imagine Criminal Case is super addictive, and it's great to see it's available in so many languages too (especially Turkish and Indonesian) :) Is it all text-based?

@rdearman
Excellent links there, skipper! Before discovering graphic adventures, I fondly recall playing dozens of text-only (or minimal graphics) adventures (e.g., The Hobbit, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Pool of Radiance series) as well as trying out several popular MUDs at the time. These really fueled my imagination, and would be an excellent source for extensive reading and interactive dialogue in different languages. Thanks for sharing the links!

@WalkingAlone13
Polyglot Pokemon...so many languages...gotta catch 'em all! :) (sorry, couldn't help it)

@Spoonary
Ahhh...Animal Crossing...I quickly lost count of the hours and days I spent digging for acorns and fishing for sunfish in the early hours of the morning. I wonder how far new versions of the game have come since those early DS days?

We're already starting to amass loads of great suggestions/links here, guys, and here's one more for the list...I found a remake of a Sierra classic (or should I say, a string of classics) whilst browsing the Steam site: King's Quest (now available in French and German audio!)