Dude, I'm with you 100%. I live in Italy and video game translations are a major bane. I first realized this when I played the Italian version of Metal Gear Solid for the PS1. MAN that actually made me realize just how good the English dub really was.

I don't like dubs - the idea of middlemen messing with somebody else's art - but when done right they can be just as good, if not better, than the originals. As gamers much of what we play is translated and redubbed from Japanese material, and often it's brilliant (MGS, Final Fantasy). I don't object to games being translated, obviously, and I accept that if I want something to be translated & dubbed in my language to make me able to understand it, I will most likely have to put up with a loss in artistic quality. On a side note, I make it a point to watch stuff (games, flicks) as much as I can in the original version, be it English, Italian, German, French, Japanese or whatever - i.e. subs > dubs. But I understand that may not be everybody's cup of tea.

Including multiple audio streams is not a very viable option, especially with "big" games like Fable - they'd have to include an extra disc at least, and while it would be feasible now that consoles have hard discs too (allowing you to install the audio stream of your choice, for instance) I guess it doesn't make sense to make the least bit of effort just to please us few purists.

What I don't understand is games like Final Fantasy, which have English voices but localized subtitles. Subs take up next to zero, so why not keep a multilanguage option for the subtitles? That really makes no sense to me, especially considering PAL games are distributed continent-wide.

But the thing that REALLY ticks me off is that you can never be sure when you buy a game. In Italy there are games that are fully in English, with English dubs and Italian subs, fully in Italian and multilanguage. You have NO way of telling what you're getting without playing it. They'll usually tell you whether the content is in Italian, but no mention of a possible English option. Shop assistants don't have a clue, obviously. Nobody cares.

I once asked this guy at a shop whether God of War had a multilanguage option and he told me "Dunno, but it's definitely in Italian." I asked him if it could be played in English. He looked at me like I'd just asked to buy an empty bottle of Coke. When he realized I was serious, he mumbled that he wasn't sure.

There is an underlying problem - games are still considered a lower form of entertainment, akin to cheap comedy and as far as can be from proper art. Films on DVD have multiple languages. Bookshops are stashed with novels in their original languages. But for some reason there still aren't enough gaming enthusiasts to warrant the same thing for games. Although I have seen some Wii games sporting "multilanguage" labels, which is cool and definitely a step in the right direction. But I'm still buying all my games from the UK, just to be on the safe side.

There is one instance where Italian dubs are constantly and vastly superior to English ones, and it is with anime. And sorry for the rant.

For Welkstar, I studied Italian at University as well. Believe me when you get a bit more into it you'll change your idea about Italian dubbing. Thank God for Dvds and Sky.