It's been a couple of weeks since I finished The Testament of Sherlock Holmes, so I thought I would start playing a second time. I opened up a game save that was near one particular cutscene (the only time that Holmes calls Watson "John") and read along with all the following dialogue. I think I have always set my large file adventure games to show the subtitles. I wondered to myself if I am in the minority. So, out of curiosity...

Do you play your games with the subtitles ON or OFF?

On. I like knowing exactly what the characters are saying.

Subtitles on here too.

Ana

Always off - it distracts me as a tend to read ahead rather than listen.

"On" for me !! In some instances speech can get drowned out by music or other stuff and then it's lost !!

On.

On.
With some games I'd like to turn off the voices and use the subtitles instead, but few games give that option. And I hate when subtitles or other text disappears before I'm done reading it.

I'm happy that you noticed that. It wasn't in the original dialogue, but I added it in as I felt that it was such an intense scene between the two of them. ACD never did have Holmes call Watson by his first name.

Always off. Like Flotsam say its a big distraction away from the screen for me and I much rather listening to a game than reading a game. There is only one game that I voluntarily chose to turn on the subtitle and that was Lost Crown. I got tired of saying "What the heck did he say" with that crazy way that Nigel was talking. I just couldn't understand him.

Thanks, everyone, for taking the time to respond. I am enjoying reading your responses. Looks like, so far, more folks like keeping the dialogue on screen. I'm gratified to know that I'm not the only one.

Rushes, I thought that was a brilliant decision to add "John" to the dialogue! Next to the ending, that was my favorite scene! Bravo and hats off to you for your insight! I was immediately reminded of the Granada series, in which - if I am remembering correctly, there was only one time in that series when Jeremy Brett as Sherlock called Watson "John" - in the episode where Jeremy had shockingly cut his hair very short and they were on vacation in Cornwall investigating some poisoning deaths and Sherlock inhaled some of the poison.

Jenny100, I agree with you about text disappearing too quickly. Although I can't recall the names of the games, it seems that there were a few BFG games that did that.

Yes, that was 'The Devil's Foot'. Great episode.

As for subtitles -- I most always have them on. Occasionally, in-game music can drown out dialogue, in which case I find subtitles invaluable for catching what was missed.

I always have the subtitles on, especially since my family often plays with me. Its easy to wonder what that word was when it gets a little noisy in the hall or if it just wasn't enunciated all that well. As Rushes notes, sometimes even their own background music or sound effects will drown out the spoken words. If you can read what was said, such moments are far less annoying.

Since a lot of cut-scenes do not repeat and only a few games give the text anywhere, its one of the options we look for as soon as the game starts

I always keep them off, as I find them too much of a distraction from what's going on onscreen. I end up reading the game instead of watching what the characters are doing.

There are exceptions, of course. As GreyFuss mentioned, The Lost Crown is one of them, though I had no trouble understanding Nigel, in spite of his bizarre speech patterns. However, the ambient sounds tend to drown out the voices in that game, so I leave them on. Ditto for Black Mirror 2. And in Runaway 2, there is one scene with some aliens that I am not able to understand at all, so I'll turn them on just for that part and then turn them off again afterward.

For the most part, though, I prefer to leave them off, and it annoys me when the game does not give me the option to do so. Luckily, that doesn't happen too often.

Always on. If there's a lot of conversation, I can read at my own speed and hopefully, click through some of it.

Subtitles always on; that way I can play late at night with the volume down when the rest of the house is asleep.

Definitely ON.

Hi always on, as some times the voices seem to fade in and out.
In 15 Days I couldn't get the sound up to hear even with speakers so it must have been a bad recording.
Also when a game is in a language I don't speak but the sub titles are in English, otherwise couldn't play.
Yes sometimes the text runs out, when I'm trying so see what is going on and reading at the same time.

Charllotte

Always on. Like Becky, I like to know exactly what they are saying and sometimes I miss things when it's just audio. Or I just can't quite understand them sometimes.

But it's always a question with me when I install the game because they are a distraction from watching the action - characters during the scene. Still I turn them on because I don't want to miss anything.

Always on for me! English is not my first language, and I would have big troubles understanding everything without subtitles

Thanks for all your replies.
I think I'll continue to keep subtitles on for new games, with (maybe) set to off for a repeat play of a game.

The same with Carla

I always leave the subtitles on. For me it's not too distracting, let's me catch words that I might have missed, and gives one more benefit: at a glance I can recognize a character response that I've already gotten. In many games you can click through the rest of the response and move on. Without subtitles you'd have to listen a while longer before being sure the response is a repeat. Guess I'm a little impatient at times.

I prefer to have them off unless a character is difficult to understand.

I always keep the subtitiles on.

I like to play with subtitles on - the downside for me is I don't pay as much attention to the visuals of a scene but playing with them off I find myself distracted by the visuals & miss important info in the dialogue!