Sam & Max Season 2 - worst german dub ever

edited May 2010 in Sam & Max
Dear Telltale folks,
Dear fellow german readers,

today I received the boxed copy of Sam & Max Sason 2 by mail.
I live in Germany, and I have waited for this version specifically
for months to play it in my mother language. Unfortunatly,
the original german voice actors of Sam & Max where not involved.

This could be okay if the dub would be at least decent - but it's not.
I've been a gamer for over 10 years now, and you can believe me
when I'm saying that I heard alot of bad dubs in movies as well as games by now.

I can't tell if this also applies to the other language dubs made by Atari,
but the german dub is the worst I have ever experienced in my whole life.

The voice actors are unmotivated, just reading from their papers. You
can actually hear when they turn the papers. After only 10 minutes
I switched to the original english dub because I couldn't stand it anymore.

I am not mad at you, Telltale. I know that you have nothing to do with the
international dubs. Atari messed this up. And they did it royally.

I am here to inform you and the public what Atari did to your game.
To the germans reading this I can only give the advice to not buy
the boxed copy. If you want Season 2, buy it directly from Telltale or
Steam or somewhere else.

Thank you for your Attention.
MeisterGlanz
«1

Comments

  • edited May 2010
    Still looking forward that they implement the existing subs to the original dub.
    Think its imposible to make a better dub than the english one. (thats why i already bought the two seasons from ttg;))

    But at some point my english is okay so far, but some dialogs and jokes are quite... difficult to understand.
    Special when they use lot of insider / slang stuff. :confused:

    In case... i always have an laptop beside to google some sentences and words i don't understand. ;O)
  • edited May 2010
    TripTaku wrote: »
    Still looking forward that they implement the existing subs to the original dub.
    Think its imposible to make a better dub than the english one. (thats why i already bought the two seasons from ttg;))

    But at some point my english is okay so far, but some dialogs and jokes are quite... difficult to understand.
    Special when they use lot of insider / slang stuff. :confused:

    In case... i always have an laptop beside to google some sentences and words i don't understand. ;O)

    The german dub of Season 1 wasn't bad. It had the same voice actors for Sam & Max as Hit the road had. And the other characters had also decent voices.

    It was playable. But Season 2 is not, in my opinion. It's a disgrace and Atari
    should not get any money for this.
  • edited May 2010
    Just wondering...
    Who did the localization/distribution of season one ?
    Atari as well ?

    Can't remember, since i never cared much (the original games were enough for me).

    Second big complain about season two's localization... Kinda makes me scared (even if, as i said, i don't personally care that much, but i know my friends won't play it if it ain't dubbed/translated).
    Season 1 (in french) wasn't great, but it wasn't too bad either...
  • edited May 2010
    Season 1 was dubbed by JoWood.

    Like I said, I can't tell if the quality of the other dubs are also this bad.
  • edited May 2010
    wait and see... :eek:
  • edited May 2010
    One more reason for this thread's title.
  • edited May 2010
    Dubs are crap? Well that applies to over 99% of entertainment what is dubbed if compared to original audio.

    I prefer English subs over crappy dubs and also wonder why you even got it in German language if you understand English so well?
  • edited May 2010
    Clord wrote: »
    Dubs are crap? Well that applies to over 99% of entertainment what is dubbed if compared to original audio.

    I prefer English subs over crappy dubs and also wonder why you even got it in German language if you understand English so well?

    First I prefer the german dub over the english, even if the english one is better.

    And second, I am not a good example for the average german gamer. The average german gamer isn't very adept in english. The average german gamer will also rate this game only on behalf of the german dub.

    And third, the original german voice actors of Sam & Max are professionals. The original german voice actress of Max dubs also Bart Simpson. The Season 2 Max on the other hand sounds very girly. And the Season 2 Sam sounds like a bavarian trying to hide his accent. Absolutly unbearable.
  • VainamoinenVainamoinen Moderator
    edited May 2010
    Well, we're going down here.

    German dubs can be brilliant. In a few, very rare cases, I do prefer dub over original in some movies (Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, just to put this out there). Nonetheless, the dubbing culture is on the downslide. I know that there are really excellent translators out there willing to deliver incredibly creative and funny translations. It might either be their price or the publisher's ignorance towards what makes a good translation that very few translations are actually good.

    German voice acting is, quite paradoxically, at an incredibly high standard. There are a lot of highly trained and very versatile actors out there, taught by energetic and brilliant teachers. If German's your native language, please feel free to take an insight look into what a lot of young actors endure to become "professional" voices.
    http://www.casting-network.de/Offener-Bereich/Videos/cn-klappe/15-Das-grosse-Feld-des-Sprechens!.html

    Yet, unfortunately, you seldom hear these people. "Professionals" normally know what they are worth, while German publishers, if they at least want to spend ANY money on the voice acting, normally take the short road and just hire celebrity actors/comedians - or voice actors known for dubbing certain celebrities - instead of the one most fitting for the job.

    What happened to the German dubbing of Season 2 is much more brutal. Upon hearing samples, I can't even determine if the speakers really are bad. They hadn't got a chance in this production, because obviously no one told them what the story is or in what situation their character is in. They read the stuff from the page because the recording studio doesn't set aside enough time for the instruction of the voice actors. Consequently, intonation and emphasis are wrong in_literally_every_sentence. I think, for a voice actor who loves his job, this can be very, very painful.

    On a sidenote: Kudos to the "new" German voice of Max: Contrary to MeisterGlanz, I think she actually manages to sound almost like the German Season-1-voice. THAT's incredible. Nonetheless, she suffers from the same intonation/emphasis/lackluster translation problem as does everybody else (and also, I didn't think "the German voice of Bart Simpson" fit Max in the first place). You just can't listen to that ****. If you halfway knew the business... you'd empty your stomach on the feet of the studio which did that.
  • edited May 2010
    I've played most of Telltale's games (S&M1, S&M2, ToMI, W&G) and I had no problems at all playing them in English. Still, I am a fan of German dubs, as long as they're well done. Germany has a long tradition in dubbing, I'd even dare to say they're leading in that area. "Curse of Monkey Island" and "Grim Fandango" had probably the best German adventure game dubs ever (in terms of casting, translation and the voice-acting itself), so to me each game has to compete with those. Season 1 of S&M had a decent German dub, considering it not being a high-budget production like Grim or Curse. Of course, something of the original writing will literally get "lost in translation", but you should still aim at making the best of it.

    Juicy tidbit: A regular poster on a German dubbing forum e-mailed the company that produced the German dub of Season 2, of course with some factual criticism, and telling them that altogether he didn't like their work on Season 2. The answer he got was obviously not meant to be sent to him, but supposed to be forwarded to someone else in the studio, because it only said "Just some jackass."

    I guess that says it all.
  • VainamoinenVainamoinen Moderator
    edited May 2010
    Juicy tidbit: A regular poster on a German dubbing forum e-mailed the company that produced the German dub of Season 2, of course with some factual criticism, and telling them that altogether he didn't like their work on Season 2. The answer he got was obviously not meant to be sent to him, but supposed to be forwarded to someone else in the studio, because it only said "Just some jackass."

    I guess that says it all.

    Link, please! ;)

    edit: Found it!
  • edited May 2010
    Ich hab gelesen, daß die Synchronisation relativ übel geraten sein muß. Wie schlimm ist es denn nun wirklich? Hat jemand ein paar Audioschnipsel oder einen Videolink?

    Persönlich kenne ich niemanden mehr, der sich für die Deutsche Fassung interessiert, da sie alle bereits die Englische Version gespielt haben. Schade, daß es nicht zeitgleich eine gute Synchronisation gab oder die Spiele zumindest mit lokalisierten Untertiteln ausgeliefert wurden.

    Macht doch auch einen Heidenspaß sowas zu tun und gerade Deutsch ist so eine wunderbare Sprache! :O)
  • JakeJake Telltale Alumni
    edited May 2010
    I wish we had the resources (time, people, infrastructure) to do a simultaneous translation, at least of subtitles, but we still do not. With Wallace & Gromit, we were fortunate enough to have Microsoft on board from moment one to help us out. Maybe someday.
  • edited May 2010
    taumel wrote: »
    Ich hab gelesen, daß die Synchronisation relativ übel geraten sein muß. Wie schlimm ist es denn nun wirklich? Hat jemand ein paar Audioschnipsel oder einen Videolink?

    Click here!
    I actually think the new Max voice is, while not as good as the original, a decent replacement. But Sam's new voice is just bad.
  • edited May 2010
    Wow, Sam's voice sucks balls in this dub.
  • edited May 2010
    Hmmm, sicherlich suboptimal, wobei ich denke, daß man fairerweise den Stimmen auch eine Chance geben sollte. Manche Stimmen passen, manche weniger und einiges wirkt zu affektiert. Bioshock hat für mich immer noch die beste Syncronisation aller Spiele bisher; sogar besser als das Original.
  • edited May 2010
    Click here!
    I actually think the new Max voice is, while not as good as the original, a decent replacement. But Sam's new voice is just bad.

    Typisch deutsche Version eines Spiels. Da möchte man sich einfach die Ohren ausreißen.
  • edited May 2010
    Es würde Max sicherlich begeistern, wenn Du das in die Tat umsetzt!
  • edited May 2010
    taumel wrote: »
    Es würde Max sicherlich begeistern, wenn Du das in die Tat umsetzt!
    Man kann es mit dem Fan-sein aber auch ein weeenig uebertreiben... :eek:

    np: Blamstrain - The Discourse Discord (Boiling Point)
  • edited May 2010
    I warned you guys, didn't I?
    I said it a 100 times to all of you people who were complaining that their localized version hadn't come yet.
    I even predicted that, when it came, everyone would be complaining that it sucked...
    Now, this moment has come.
    And the only thing I can say is:
    I told you so.

    Now where's that spanish guy who keeps complaining about his localized version...
  • edited May 2010
    Jake wrote: »
    I wish we had the resources (time, people, infrastructure) to do a simultaneous translation, at least of subtitles, but we still do not. With Wallace & Gromit, we were fortunate enough to have Microsoft on board from moment one to help us out. Maybe someday.

    Have you considered official nonofficial translations? Like, letting fans do it for free but then putting their work available for download on your site or linking to it (while specifying you're not responsible for quality or lack thereof) or something along those lines?
  • JakeJake Telltale Alumni
    edited May 2010
    Avistew wrote: »
    Have you considered official nonofficial translations? Like, letting fans do it for free but then putting their work available for download on your site or linking to it (while specifying you're not responsible for quality or lack thereof) or something along those lines?

    It has been considered. Maybe someday!
  • edited May 2010
    Jake wrote: »
    It has been considered. Maybe someday!

    That would be neat. I'd love to work on French translations, but I just wouldn't have a place to host them.

    ...of course I would have no idea how to make the into a patch, either >.>
  • edited May 2010
    Joop wrote: »
    I warned you guys, didn't I?

    I knew it would suck so I did not buy the localized version. The little snippets in the linked forum-post were more than enough.
  • edited May 2010
    @Leak
    Ich glaube Du hast das ein wenig zu ernst genommen! ;O)
  • edited May 2010
    Joop wrote: »
    Now where's that spanish guy who keeps complaining about his localized version...
    There's no need to be harsh.
    We Spanish people have the right to complain about a Spanish localized version... which is NOT on sale in Spain.
    I know most of Dutch people are multilingual (at least bilingual, English or German besides Dutch), and maybe no game at all is Dutch localized, so you can play the English version as soon as it is released. But just imagine that you are used to play in your own mother language, and after almost three years of waiting you find that, although the game in your language exists, you are not able to buy in your own country. There are no reasons to be at least a little upset?
    Not that I really need the localized version, though. In fact, I purchased all Telltale's games from Telltale's store, the english version.
    But as a Spanish gamer, I think that our situation is unbearable, and so I will keep complaining here as much as I want (when I have a reason to, obviously), in behalf of many other Spanish gamers who can't speak by themselves.
  • edited May 2010
    @Javi-Wan Kenobi
    I wasn't talking about you specifically.
    There was this really crazy spanish guy who kept cursing and screaming at Telltale for not making a Spanish dub.
  • edited May 2010
    Ah, OK then.
    I think it's been longtime since that guy's last post, and, being me one of the last Spanish people talking about it, I felt myself alluded.
    Just to keep it clear: if I ever did curse and scream at someone, it wasn't Telltale, just their choice as distributor (Curse you, you filthy Atari Namco Bandai Partners guys!!!:p)
  • edited May 2010
    I know most of Dutch people are multilingual (at least bilingual, English or German besides Dutch), and maybe no game at all is Dutch localized, so you can play the English version as soon as it is released.

    The same in the Nordic Countries. At least in Finland only games that have an age rating of 3+ or 7+ (somewhere around those figures) are dubbed or have localized menus. But hey having no dubbing forces kids to read. So something positive about watching TV all day long or playing something :)

    Just a side note: For some strange reason the TV-series "Bold and the Beautiful" was aired with Finnish dubbing (guess it was an experiment of some sort) for a week and if I remember correctly everyone hated it. Even I had to check it out just to know and it was so pathetic it was hilarious :D
  • edited May 2010
    Avistew wrote: »
    Have you considered official nonofficial translations? Like, letting fans do it for free but then putting their work available for download on your site or linking to it (while specifying you're not responsible for quality or lack thereof) or something along those lines?

    I think it would be rad to see a bunch of you guys who are fluent in both English and another Language work on a fan translation, either visual or speech. It seems that it has to be something that you guys would have to be proactive about opposed to Telltale.
  • edited May 2010
    PainDealer wrote: »
    The same in the Nordic Countries. At least in Finland only games that have an age rating of 3+ or 7+ (somewhere around those figures) are dubbed or have localized menus. But hey having no dubbing forces kids to read. So something positive about watching TV all day long or playing something :)

    Yeah, kids' games are usually dubbed in Dutch. At least, I remember playing the first Spy Fox game in Dutch. As far as I remember, that was a good dub though.
  • edited May 2010
    ...and Black&White (scrap the 'good' part though).

    I can still remember the national outrage... :D
  • edited May 2010
    From what I've heard, the Dutch Beyond Good & Evil dub was good. So apparently it's rather hit and miss.
  • edited May 2010
    This thread makes me want to get this version now.

    I'm a fan of things that are so unintentionally horrible that it becomes funny again. Like Turkish Star Wars, or 3 Dev Adam. I also speak a little German. It sounds like this dub would amuse me, at least for a little while =)
  • edited May 2010
    Jake wrote: »
    It has been considered. Maybe someday!

    I wonder what the percentage of non-US sales there are? From these forums it seems like an awful lot, but I suspect we're just a very vocal minority.
  • edited May 2010
    Ripcord wrote: »
    This thread makes me want to get this version now.

    I'm a fan of things that are so unintentionally horrible that it becomes funny again. Like Turkish Star Wars, or 3 Dev Adam. I also speak a little German. It sounds like this dub would amuse me, at least for a little while =)

    I think this might be enough for you then:
    http://www.lvlup.tv/forum/index.php?/topic/2408-angespielt-sam-max-season-2-allzeit-bereit/
  • edited May 2010
    Ripcord wrote: »
    I wonder what the percentage of non-US sales there are? From these forums it seems like an awful lot, but I suspect we're just a very vocal minority.
    Well, Germans are VERY PC-loving Adventure-loving gamers, so there's them, and then the rest of Europe.
    Most Adventures these days come from Germany...
  • edited May 2010
    I went to Youtube and watched the intro part of Icestation Santa. It was horrible in many Cases:

    1. "Brain Salad in Blender! MR. Spatula": While the Tranlation is ok, the timing is extremely off. Sam looks shocked much earlier then he should from his Exclamation, and I don't think the Video is out of sync, because other lines work better.

    2. They replaced the Line "If a problem comes along you must whip it whip it good" with something i don't know. But Afterwards still say it's Devo.

    3. While I think, "Santa Claus" (as an expression) is well known, I don't think anyone here really calls Santa "Santa Claus". It's either "Weihnachtsmann" (literally "Christmasman") or "Nikolaus" (probably closer to Santa Claus). Still they kept "Santa Claus".

    Avistew wrote: »
    Have you considered official nonofficial translations? Like, letting fans do it for free but then putting their work available for download on your site or linking to it (while specifying you're not responsible for quality or lack thereof) or something along those lines?

    I REALLY like that Idea. And I think, i would try to contribute to the translation (but not the voice acting ;-), if that was even included in your suggestion).
  • edited May 2010
    Jake wrote: »
    It has been considered. Maybe someday!

    My work on that is not that Awesome, but I could try =P. LatinAmerican ver, that it...
  • edited May 2010
    I always hated dubbing, from English or to English. Always stick to subtitling, I always say, and keep the voices original, whether they're English, German, Japanese, Klingon, or even Female.
Sign in to comment in this discussion.