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[John Kowalski]

Of course.

 

[SolVanderlyn]

I cannot play with them off.

I won't play a game without subtitles.

 

[SgtCobra]

English is not my native language and I'm pretty bad at it so yes, I leave them on. It helps a lot.

 

[Acquiescence]

Always. Even when watching English-speaking films as well. I find it helps me focus better, and enables me to follow what's happening plotwise more easily. Plus you get some fruity accents from time to time that are hard to decipher! Or just outright terrible sound mixes (Wolfenstein).

 

[Yarbskoo]

Always on. It always bothers me when there's voice lines but no option for subtitles.

It also bothers me when the voice lines and the written lines don't match up, but I'd still prefer that to no subtitles at all.

 

[hohoXD123]

Always on. More often than not certain conversations are too quiet to hear properly because I'm too far away from the characters or the accent is so thick that I can barely understand them.

 

[KdylanR92]

Yep, always play with the sound very low or muted so having subtitles on is a must

 

[Crimson Kopite]

Always.

 

[CaviarMeths]

Always on. It baffles me that in 2015, most games still have subtitles off as the default and some don't even allow you to change the option until after the opening cutscene.

 

[border]

how good is the french dialogue?

I don't speak French so I don't know how good the French voice acting in Assassin's Creed Unity is. All I know is that it feels a hell of a lot more like you are in France when not everyone has a British accent.

 

[EVA UNIT 01]

Always on in gaming and while watching films/anime etc.

 

[antitrop]

I do when I'm not playing with headphones. I prefer the immersiveness of having them off.

 

[Comandr]

Subtitles always on, on every platform, for all media. Lots of times there have been bits of audio that are almost inaudible (by design; someone talking far away in another room) and you can just read the line instead of trying to make it out or missing it (in the case of gameplay)

 

[XanaviF30]

Yup. I like reading the dialogues.

 

[Glowsquid]

Always. I'm hard of hearing and english isn't my native language,

 

[Black Mantis]

Only when a game has a Spanish voice option (learning the lingo).

 

[Fbh]

The first thing I do before starting any new game is going to the options screen and making sure subtitles are enabled (which is why I'm kinda annoyed by games that just start and don't let you acess options until after some intro cutscene).

English isn't my native language and I like to have subtitles as a backup in case I'm not sure what someone said. Same goes for movies and Tv shows

 

[NotDreamcast]

It feels weird without them.

 

[wolfhowwl]

Always.

 

[Labrys]

i'm hard of hearing so this is pretty much essential for me

 

[Dougieflesh]

Always. I must know 100% of what someone is saying in a game

 

[CHC]

I used to but what always happens is I that I read the lines way faster than they are said and then get impatient and skip them. Especially bad in the case of long-winded and slowly delivered RPG dialogue. I don't think I ever let an NPC finish a sentence in Mass Effect, they just take too fucking long!

 

[Oreoleo]

Almost always on. Sound mixing in games in general is kinda bad and frequently dialog will get drowned out by music/explosions etc. Basically a necessity.

 

[Nosgotham]

Always

 

[Air Holland]

Usually, but not always. I find that in some games the inclusion of subtitles draws my focus away from the rest of the screen - I end up doing reading when I could have a better experience watching and listening.

But there are some games where the use of subtitles significantly enriches my experience. For example, right now I'm playing Assassin's Creed: Unity, and the ability to play the game with French audio and English subtitles takes the game to another level for me. There's a big difference between running around a revolutionary Paris where everyone speaks English and running around a revolutionary Paris where everyone is speaking the correct language, but my understanding of French is nowhere near sufficient to understand a spoken conversation. Without the subtitles I would have to choose between English audio or not understanding the dialogue. I get the same type of enjoyment, qualitatively speaking, from other games where the perceived authenticity of a real-world, non-English-speaking setting is central to the game's premise - the Yakuza series comes to mind - and if a game matches those criteria and offers the foreign language audio + English subtitles, I will use that configuration every single time.

I also play with subtitles on any time I'm gaming during the day, because I live in Manhattan and there is often enough noise filtering into my apartment to make picking up dialogue difficult.

 

[NoFoX]

On if not my first language.
Off if my first language.

 

[Geraldo_Ray]

Always, unless the subtitles are too descriptive (points at Tomb Raider 2013).

 

[Rhomega Beta]

I do it myself, especially in the Bioware games.

 

[K.Jack]

Subs ruin my immersion, so they're always the first option I turn off.

On if not my first language.
Off if my first language.

Yep.

 

[On Demand]

Not just games. Netflix too.

 

[Kubera Leez]

I usually leave them on if there is an option for it.

 

[Rosur]

Always turn them on for games

 

[Carl7]

Always.

 

[OttoSporteman]

Always left them on as a way to improve my English... Then, now that I can understand everything I still leave it on out of costume, I guess...

 

[DOWN]

I can't believe this thread. Always OFF. The brain tries to read if there are words on screen and I don't want to keep reading instead of watching.

 

[Dega]

I do

If playing on XBO it helps when watching something else that is snapped.

 

[VaultBoy101]

Always.

 

[MisterLuffy]

Usually I missed out what characters were saying so I always put subtitles on.

 

[Skux]

On most games except for Uncharted and TLoU for some reason.

There are do many distractions during a game it's easy to miss an important plot point.

 

[KingHenrik30]

Yup, definitely do this

 

[Benzychenz]

For TV and movies I despise subtitles but games are so much worse at balancing sound levels that sometimes the voices are completely unintelligible, especially when it comes to stealth listening in on conversations.

God of War cutscenes had terrible and quiet voice acting but no subtitles so I missed half of what was said in the game.

 

[Man Called Aerodynamics]

Always. I also watch all movies and television shows with the subtitles on. I started turning them on during The Sopranos to better understand the dialogue, and I just found I prefer watching everything that way.

 

[NateDog]

I pretty much always have them on since Red Dead Redemption. When I got that game I could hear literally no dialogue on my TV because my original fat 60GB PS3 sounded like a rocket taking off with RDR. Nowadays I pretty much always have them on for any game that is story / dialogue-driven, it just makes things easier I find.

 

[AwShucks]

I turn them on for sure. Never know when something prevents me from hearing what a character says.

 

[Wyndstryker]

Always. There are times where you might not understand or catch what a character says. Having the text is a backup for such situations.

 

[King Gilga]

Never in movies/shows always in games.

 

[That1BlackGuy]

I do, I have pretty shoddy hearing so being able to read helps.

 

[Vitten]

Always on. Too often dialogue gets lost in a sea of background noise or the characters speak in some gibberish dialect.

 

[Jade Knight 08]

Always! Because i'm hearing impaired. And making sure I don't miss a beat.

 

[Elitist1945]

Always.