Lethal Weapon
Novice
- Joined
- Oct 31, 2007
- Messages
- 39
I've been reading about this for a while now, Polish gamers giving examples of their own and gamers from other countries describing the dialogues as 'getting the job done' but nothing special and occasionally bad and non-sensical. I probably wouldn't start a thread about this were it not for the fact that one of the guys in the localization team decided to post about this at gamefaqs under the user name Martin Pagan. This is what he has to say
It seems like CDP put much effort into providing us with a good translation. If the initial uncut translation still exists how hard would it be to mod it into the game? Is there enough interest out there to justify such an effort?
Let me guess, Atari?
Not that dialogues are important in RPGs or anything. We just need the summary, right?
No problema! We've all played Oblivion, so we know how to use our imagination to fill in the gaps! Hah!
Here is the evaluation of one of the guys playing the Polish version
It would be interesting if some of the Polish readers here posted their own translation of some of the dialogues for comparison purposes.
It seems that nearly every vulgarism has been translated to 'bastard' too.Click here to read the whole thread.
Update: Editing down the original English adaptation has been confirmed by Sande Chen, another member of the localization team.
Update 2: Lead designer Michal Madej has confirmed shortening of the original script by 20% to meet agreements with Atari. He posts at Gamebanshee under the username Severian.
Update 3: Martin Pagan's post and Sande Chen's post I was referring to have since been deleted. I know it is normal for gamefaqs to delete old threads such as the one that Martin Pagan posted in but I have no way of knowing what happened to Sande Chen's post.
The translators are not to be blamed in this case. The initial version of the translated script was much closer to the original and much better. Then for some reason the translated script was horribly cut, or rather butchered, and ended up what it is.
It seems like CDP put much effort into providing us with a good translation. If the initial uncut translation still exists how hard would it be to mod it into the game? Is there enough interest out there to justify such an effort?
I do not know who is responsible for this. Someone wanted the English script to be shorter for some reason, maybe to save on voice recordings.
Let me guess, Atari?
Let me give you an example.
One of the nasty grannies in the Temple district (or whatever the name in English was - the first part of Vizima proper you get to) says something like this when you barge into her house (in Polish): "Where the hell do you think you're going with all the dung on your boots?! Out with you!" which was cut into "Who are you? Get out!" in the English version.So you can imagine how much was actually lost in translation.
Not that dialogues are important in RPGs or anything. We just need the summary, right?
...in some instances the cut lines made no sense at all so whoever was doing it either had no idea about Polish or English.
No problema! We've all played Oblivion, so we know how to use our imagination to fill in the gaps! Hah!
Here is the evaluation of one of the guys playing the Polish version
More generally, I think the dialogues in this game are brilliant, one of the best I've ever heard (if not the best - the more I plat, the more I think that the last one is correct) in computer games. They are mature and serious, but extremely funny at the same time! It's not so easy to make the game that is amusing without ruining the dark, obscure atmosphere, but this time the developers managed to do that.
It would be interesting if some of the Polish readers here posted their own translation of some of the dialogues for comparison purposes.
It seems that nearly every vulgarism has been translated to 'bastard' too.Click here to read the whole thread.
Update: Editing down the original English adaptation has been confirmed by Sande Chen, another member of the localization team.
Update 2: Lead designer Michal Madej has confirmed shortening of the original script by 20% to meet agreements with Atari. He posts at Gamebanshee under the username Severian.
Update 3: Martin Pagan's post and Sande Chen's post I was referring to have since been deleted. I know it is normal for gamefaqs to delete old threads such as the one that Martin Pagan posted in but I have no way of knowing what happened to Sande Chen's post.