Left 4 Dead has some of the best subtitles in any game.. More games need to do this.

[Kyra]

Playing games can be challenging when you are deaf. So, I appreciate when games have detailed and descriptive subtitles. Left 4 Dead should be used as an example to many game developers who want to make their games as accessable as possible to every type of gamer.

In L4D, the subtitles are very descriptive and thorough. They make sure you are not at a disadvantage of you can't hear a special infected or hoard approaching because the subtitles are conveyed almost as a script of a movie. When a Hunter is about to pounce, the game will announce *hunter screams* to let you know to watch out. Also when car alarms go off letting you know a hoard will be on its way. It's something that is, sadly, not as common as it should be. When dialogue is spoken, not only is the name of the character that is speaking displayed but, text is color coded by character to make sure a distinction can be made easily.

At the very least, devs need to start labeling who is talking in cutscenes so that when characters are talking off screen or when the camera doesn't have the conversation in view it is easier to know who is saying what.

It would be great to have the option to turn on more visual cues for events and happenings in games to understand and follow the action better. I could not get very much into Overwatch because so much is reliant on knowing the direction and timing of when characters use ultimates that it was very hard to enjoy the game.. It's strange because so much in overwatch does have visual tells that the absence of some is bizarre.

This is an issue I think is overlooked and I have been able to enjoy games very well considering how poorly subtitles and visual cues (reletively) have been handled. It would be cool to enjoy them on a deeper level more often.

 

[Fat4all]

the subtitles in SOMA were really good

usually they timed the revealed words along with the dialogue as it was said, that way fast readers wouldn't be able to read ahead

pacing the subtitles with the dialogue helped a lot of the more important scenes keep their punch for people who like to use subtitles

 

[Deleted member 33116]

Agreed. My friend is mostly deaf and he found it so much easier to play Left 4 Dead with them on.

 

[shotgunbob04]

This is a really interesting topic and certainly one that deserves more attention. How directional sound can be conveyed on-screen is something I've never thought about as a hearing person.

Color-coding subtitles is definitely a great place to start.

 

[Deleted member 29682]

usually they timed the revealed words along with the dialogue as it was said, that way fast readers wouldn't be able to read ahead

pacing the subtitles with the dialogue helped a lot of the more important scenes keep their punch for people who like to use subtitles

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Bioshock 1 was really bad about this. With subtitles on you can read the big reveal roughly half a minute before it's actually said. Kills the atmosphere stone dead.

 

[Kyra]

Bioshock 1 was really bad about this. With subtitles on you can read the big reveal roughly half a minute before it's actually said. Kills the atmosphere stone dead.

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As a fan of Bioshock this was frusterating and many elements of story were lost on me in terms of impact.

 

[HDMF76]

This is a really interesting topic and certainly one that deserves more attention. How directional sound can be conveyed on-screen is something I've never thought about as a hearing person.

Color-coding subtitles is definitely a great place to start.

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Unless, like me, you are colour blind lol

 

[shotgunbob04]

Unless, like me, you are colour blind lol

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Oh jeez lol. Well, that's probably not as confusing if you can hear the character's voices, right? I guess the people who'd suffer the most are both deaf and color-blind. Wait, are you saying you're part of that group?

 

[Rodney McKay]

I was replaying the Ratchet and Clank series a few years back and I like to replay games with the sound down, subtitles on, and listening to podcasts, and I realized that the games have pretty bad subtitles.

If I remember right, a lot of the games only did subtitles during cutscenes, so all the dialog during missions wasn't subtitled. I was surprised that such a big series had such poor subtitle implementation. Maybe they got better with the later games, but it's been a while since I played the later ones.

And that's just my observations as someone who doesn't always play games with the sound on, it must be a real pain in the ass for people who are deaf or hard of hearing.

 

[Rembrandt]

those are closed captions, not subtitles.

subtitles are for dialogue only.

closed captions are for any noises/cues, along with dialogue.

It works for L4D because audio play a prominent part of the game. A dear/hard of hearing person has a disadvantage. A big enough one that almost ruins the entire game.

Not a lot of games have distinct audio cues that are necessary to hear for playing the game.

 

[Deleted member 28131]

I wish they'd make Left 4 Dead 3..

 

[Kyra]

those are closed captions, not subtitles.

subtitles are for dialogue only.

closed captions are for any noises/cues, along with dialogue.

It works for L4D because audio play a prominent part of the game. A dear/hard of hearing person has a disadvantage. A big enough one that almost ruins the entire game.

Not a lot of games have distinct audio cues that are necessary to hear for playing the game.

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This is correct. It is almost always under the heading of Subtitles in video games though, which is another distinction to be made that they are not the same thing.

Not every audio cue can give an advantage/disadvantage but proper subtitles/closed captioning can go a long way in enjoying a game more by being immersed and engaged more and not distracted or frustrated.

 

[Tempy]

I'm not hard of hearing, but I turn subtitles on in L4D because it's quite handy to have an additional visual cue, especially since it can get quite hectic and it's easy to miss a sound.

 

[Haunted]

Most (all?) Source games have closed captions available, not just subtitles. I remember seeing the distinction in the settings of Half-Life 2. Very few games offer closed captions from my experience.

 

[ListeningGarden]

I wish they'd make Left 4 Dead 3..

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Still hoping that they'll reveal it out of the blue sometime. The old Source 2 leaks and internal JIRA shots showing off L4D3 gave me some hope, but it's been years since the latest hint of life.

We're only a year away from Left 4 Dead 2's 10th anniversary. Really can be a bit heartbreaking to think about.

 

[MrLuchador]

When I streamed a lot back between 2013-2015 I used to always have subtitles on for viewers. I agree that L4D was one of the better games for descriptive audio subtitling and not just people talking.

 

[Gradon]

I play all games with subtitles. And it's not that I'm deaf or hard of hearing I just really like having subtitles up as well.

Colour coded subtitles are my favourite. The Telltale games do them as well, with everyone getting their own colour.

And I agree with the post above about BioShock for example, there are a few games that spoil reveals with subtitles popping up before something is actually said or heard.
You always know when someone gets cut off as well because their sentence usually always ends in a -

 

[MrLuchador]

You always know when someone gets cut off as well because their sentence usually always ends in a -

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[Box]

What the hell happened with this Gabe?!

https://kotaku.com/5332698/valve-studying-sign-language-for-deaf-half-life-character

 

[DarkLordMalik]

It makes me really sad that my GOAT Resident Evil 4 never had any subtitles despite the more than dozen releases across multiple formats. Why didn't Capcom do it when they remastered it for PC or PS4/Xbox One. I will just never understand it =/

I had to go to GameFAQs and read the Game Script just to have an idea of the story.

 

[roguesquirrel]

I prefer playing with subtitles on, and its striking how bad games are in general about them. Assassins Creed Origins was a recent bad one where the font was offputtingly large and if i remember right (i turned them off pretty quick) werent comprehensive

 

[Ionic]

What the hell happened with this Gabe?!

https://kotaku.com/5332698/valve-studying-sign-language-for-deaf-half-life-character

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I remember being pretty excited to see what they were doing with this. Now that they're building their own finger tracking controllers it'd be great to see them bring the concept back. I wonder how many letters of the alphabet you could manage to sign with them. Probably not many due to the nature of how they track fingers, but that would sure be cool to see.

 

[Kyra]

I remember being pretty excited to see what they were doing with this. Now that they're building their own finger tracking controllers it'd be great to see them bring the concept back. I wonder how many letters of the alphabet you could manage to sign with them. Probably not many due to the nature of how they track fingers, but that would sure be cool to see.

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Is this one of the many cool things we won't get because of dota?

In all seriousness VR could be a breakthrough for people with hearing loss to engage with videogames and with each other.. But in the non vr world it would be nice if more devs took the time to put comprehensive CC in their games. I can't image it would take as much time as something like localization.

 

[SlothmanAllen]

Something I use regularly, but never consider from the perspective of a person who is deaf. Thanks for the insight OP.

 

[Randomly Generated]

I remember being pretty excited to see what they were doing with this. Now that they're building their own finger tracking controllers it'd be great to see them bring the concept back. I wonder how many letters of the alphabet you could manage to sign with them. Probably not many due to the nature of how they track fingers, but that would sure be cool to see.

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I never thought about using Knuckles for that... I wonder how much you could realistically sign with them.

 

[kittens]

Yeah, this is really important and too often overlooked.

 

[CommodoreKong]

Still hoping that they'll reveal it out of the blue sometime. The old Source 2 leaks and internal JIRA shots showing off L4D3 gave me some hope, but it's been years since the latest hint of life.

We're only a year away from Left 4 Dead 2's 10th anniversary. Really can be a bit heartbreaking to think about.

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I could defiantly see Valve putting out L4D3. Make it a free to play game with a couple of new campaigns and sell weapon and character skin loot boxes. Spend the next few years porting over the L4D 1 and 2 campaigns (and maybe featuring or making a few high quality community campaigns office) while continuing to put out cosmetic content. Makes a lot of sense given their current direction.

 

[Laughing Banana]

Unless, like me, you are colour blind lol

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Color blind friendly seems to be something that some games at least try to implement, which is nice. Games like Witcher 3, The Division, and IIRC Pillars of Eternity has color-blind friendly settings.

More games should do stuff like that.

 

[AlmostMilk]

I can hear perfectly fine and I always had them on in Left 4 Dead. They would help let you know that something is about to attack you earlier than the sound would.

 

[IbizaPocholo]

I agree with you OP.

 

[Deleted member 28962]

Yeah the closed captions are really good. The color coding helps when you're quickly glancing at the CC for special infected sounds. Many competitive L4D2 players keep CC enabled because of the advantage it gives you.