Buon Giorno, Guten Tag, Здравствуйте

More Cyrillic means I'm talking about Metro 2033 again. Specifically, Metro 2033 as the latest in a particular method of play I've been embracing lately. If a game is set in a specific real-world location, and the language track for that place is available, I'll switch the dialog and play with English subtitles. Most recently it was playing Metro 2033 in gravelly, pack-a-day Russian. But for the last several months, it's also been Assassin's Creed II and AC: Brotherhood in Italian.

Not only does this provide a more immersive experience, but it spares one from the still too-common misery of sub-par voice acting. Not dissimilar from preferring to watch a film in its native language rather than dubbed.

This preference isn't without shortcomings, though. I don't think I've ever seen a game subtitle its ambient chatter. It's unfortunate, as those brief overheard conversations often contribute far more to world building than some named NPC spouting exposition. And of course, this is really only purposeful if the game is meant to be immersive. Switching the voiceover in an RTS is probably going to be little more than annoyance.

Far Cry 2 splits the difference in an interesting way. Some of the enemies barks are delivered in English, but just as many are in Afrikaans, Swahili and maybe a few other languages. This does well to convey the multicultural cavalcade of horrible mercenaries that make up Far Cry 2's cast. It also provides gameplay information by letting you know where enemies are, but not necessarily exactly what they're thinking and planning. And it prevents the endless torrent of barks from becoming recited truly ad nauseum ("FISHER!").

If you're playing Metro 2033, Assassin's Creed or another game with a particularly strong non-Anglophone sense of place, I highly encourage you to at least try switching the voice track. Soon, you won't even notice and hearing English will begin to sound bizarre. Are you aware of any other good candidates for "native" language switching? S.T.A.L.K.E.R. seems obvious, but I'm not sure if it shipped with a Russian voice track.

Oh, and if the next Assassin's Creed is set in Revolution-era France (please, let it be so), there's no way I won't be playing it in French. Vive la révolution!