Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Kicior]

I've been learning German for quite a long time (8-9 years) and it's still a lot worse than my English (quite an achievement ). I think the biggest problem is the lack of contact with the language. Video games (trolling BS12 until I got permabanned xD), browsing the web (TV Tropes ruin my life) and watching Let's Plays improved my English A LOT.

I'd like to improve my vocabulary (grammar is manageable. Kinda) in the same (i.e. as entertaining as possible) way. Do you know any !!FUN!! games (except Stranded), websites or LPs (preferably with subtitles) I can waste my time on and learn German in the process?

Brackets FTW!

[Sappho]

There's a great German-language fan-made sequel to Zak McKraken: http://www.mckracken.net/cms/between-timespace-2/download.html

Good voice acting, high production values, very well-made game. I'm pretty sure there's an English version too, but if you're looking to improve your German, this helped mine a lot.

[Il Palazzo]

If old games are a-ok, then try Biing - a NSFW hospital manager game, if oogling oversized secondary female sexual characteristics is your thing:
http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/12/03/saturday-crapshoot-biing/
There's also a sequel.

...or one of the very fun rpgs from the Das Schwarze Auge universe:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dark_Eye#Video_games
Granted, I've only played the Realms of Arkania trilogy, but the universe itself and the ruleset are fun and a welcome alternative to the usual D&D fare.

[Dorftrottel]

Hi Kicior, native german speaker here.
As for games, anything made by Jowood is originally made in german. I had doses of fun with "die Gilde" 1&2, it's called "Europa 1400: the guild) in its international release. Gothic 2 is also fun, and i think it aged quite well. If you can get hold of the original versions of them, i think you might have fun with them.

There are some german let's play dwarf fortress out there, but most of them have very cheap microphones and bad pronounciation.
Anno 2070 and minecraft are also very popular in german let's play. If you have a particular game you are interested in watching a german let's play of, I or some other Kraut might help you to pick a speaker with good, audible german.

If you are interested in mediaval history or role play gaming at all, i recommend http://geschichtsirrtuemer.teucom.net/wp/ .
It's a website about popular misconceptions in RPGs or about mediavel history, and it's really funny and entertaining.
You could also check out http://www.nichtlustig.de/ , a very popular and extremely weird german cartoon. There are also english translations of them (google for notfunny), if you need help understanding them.
A good place to start is the first one (http://static.nichtlustig.de/toondb/000501.html), as they are often running gags that you don't get if you didn't read the past ones.

[Delta Foxtrot]

I watch the occasional let's play, and occasionally I come across a German let's play. I don't know German so I of course skip them, but the fact is that I've found a ton of English LPs, dozens of German and little else. Since I've found them without looking, I assume there's a good supply of them if you actually look for them. All of this is of course anecdotal, but I suggest looking for some let's plays by adding the word 'German' in the youtube/google search query, if that's how you find your LPs.

If you like reading, you should check the international section of your local library for German books/comics, assuming your area has good libraries.

Google some lists of good German films to watch, they've got a decent film industry going. I personally know mainly of Werner Herzog's stuff, but he might be a bit too artsy for your tastes.

I also second the Gothic series in general, they're German made and well rated RPGs. Now that I think about it, many older RPGs come with German localization, so if you're into Fallout and the like, try to get one in German if you can.

[Trif]

I think there are a few strategy games... the Anno series is from a German developer, and Die Siedler, too I believe.
All of the Crysis games and the original Far Cry are German, but I haven't played them.
And if you're looking for something more story-oriented, Daedalic made some good adventure games (I can recommend Edna Bricht Aus).

Regarding Let's Plays, Gerugon is doing one of Dwarf Fortress right now, it's pretty good. He usually plays oldschool RPGs and the likes.
And I think Gronkh is pretty popular. He played a lot of stuff, you'll probably find something you like.

[Saegge]

I´m German and I like watching lets plays too. There are many very good lets players in Germany and they have a wide range of games. If you like old games, you should go with PhunkRoyal. He was one of the first big German lets players. He is an amateur actor, so his pronounciation is very good although his voiceactiong sometimes becomes very weired. Another one with a very clear voice is Lightcatcher. He plays Zelda, Elite Force and Drakensang. HerrDekay is a very good address for Nintendo games. Cause, I´m German I don´t know how the subtitles are, but I´m sure you´ll find someone you can understand a bit, at least.

For games there is Gothik, as mentioned before. A newer one is Risen of the same developers. If you like City-planning games there is the Anno-series and the Tropico-series. I played Tropico 4 recently. You are a dictator of a caribean Island. The game has a very interesting setting and much humor. Your advisors have very strange missions. Nontheless, the game plays kinda slow and often you just have to wait. If you like old Scummgames like Maniac Mansion or Zakk McKracken, there is Maniac Mansion Mania. A German website where everybody can create own little Scummgames based on Maniac Mansion. These are called 'episodes'. Every episode has a play time of about 20 minutes, iirc. Every one has its own plot and its own riddles, as they are from various fans. Nontheless, there are many running gags and many hilarios ideas. At this time there are 88 episodes available.

Also I´d suggest you to communicate with Germans. Sounds hard, as Germany is much smaller then the US, but I think you could get a group together, to play games online or something. As far as I know, there are many Germans at this board.

However, I which you much fun learning our 'fantastic' language.

[gimlet]

For playing boardgames online, http//www.brettspielwelt.de was awesome and busy - maybe learn the games a bit on the english channel/with english text and then switch to german?

Also a fun old game was MadTV, and MadTV2 is *only* available in German afaik - there's not a *lot* of text though, but translating the movie and show titles could be fun...

[Absolute Niro]

I stumble upon lots and lots of German let's players by chance. A quick search on Youtube should bring up plenty of results, just add "german" to your usual search query.

[Kicior]

Thank you for your responses

just add "german" to your usual search query.

Believe it or not, I've tried it I wasn't very succesful because of Sturgeon's Law.

[Meph]

Why not add "Deutsch" to your search query ? Or use google.de ?

Any big game is fully translated into german btw, you could play with german audio and use english subtitles...

[Onlyhestands]

Wasn't that massive Oblivion Mod, Nehrim originally made in German?