German translations are usually quite good (but if I prefer to play in English), they might also have the best voice acting studios (italian ones are terrible except when it comes to Anime).
Of course, many wordplays get lost, but sometimes you find peopl who are able to add new wordplays. The german version of Grim Fandango might even be better than the original (also the main performer is brilliant).
When it comes to licenced games they sometimes also use the german voice of a english actor, Indiana Jones being a good example.
But I don't like that the characters in Mafia got the german same voices that were used in the movie The Godfather. It's not the same characters. Paulie is unique. Also Batman in the Arkham games has the german voice of Christian Bale, who is nothing like Kevin Conroy, the english voice actor used for the games.

I agree in general. That's why I wrote in my initial comment: If the translator knows his "counterparts" for idioms, puns and cultural references in both languages - the translation will most probably be absolutely fine.

E.g.: let's say there's a Czech game with a joke about/reference to Marek Vasut.
Then the translator for the German localisation needs to know (A) who Marek Vasut is, and that (B) Günther Jauch is his German equivalent.

In the best case scenario, he simply needs to exchange the name to make that joke/reference also work for a German audience (though once again: if there's further cultural knowledge required to understand that joke/reference in the first place (for the Czech audience), it might be tricky to make it work in the German localisation).

There's actually one case where, with only knowledge of English, one can see the changes caused by translation.

Specifically, Ultima 4 NES.

Ultima 4 was, I believe, originally made for the Apple 2 computer and released in the US. (Was it released on other English speaking countries at this time?) This version is, of course, the version that the DOS version that GOG sells is based on, and in particular, the text, which is in the original English (that is, not a translation), should be the same.

Then, some Japanese company remade the game for the Famicom. Many things were changed, but pertinent to this discussion is that the game was, of course, translated into Japanese. Hence, this version has gone through one stage of translation.

This version of the game, however, was later translated back into English, and that translated version was released for the NES in the US. As a result, we have a game whose text has been through two translations, one to Japanese and one back, and so we can see what happens as a result of the pair of translations. And the result is not good. (I do enjoy this version; it's just that the translation leaves something to be desired.)

Two particular issues with the translation:
* Dexterity and Intelligence were swapped on the status screen. The stat that should be Dexterity is labeled Intelligence, and vice versa.
* At the end of each dungeon, when you are about to get the stone, you need to answer a question with "Yes". In some cases, that answer is not what makes sense. (Example: "Do you flee from danger?" You need to answer "Yes" to get the Stone of Valor.) There's even one case where saying "No" gets you something like "You are worthy of the stone. Open the Chest." (player is kicked out of the dungeon) while saying "Yes" gets you something like "You are unworthy. Begone!" (path to the stone opens, allowing the player to pick it up). (Worth noting that these lines are not in the original Apple 2/DOS versions of the game.)

This particular version of the game could use a re-translation based on the original version, with the new text carefully translated so that it makes sense.

As a Brazilian guy, I have a tendency of playing games in PT-BR just because I like to see/hear the localization job, though I understand English at a very good level (I have a bit of problem with accents sometimes). Funny enough, I generally prefer subtitles instead of dubs when watching movies, series, and animation.

Though Brazilian dubs are generally considered great, game localizations were rarely great in the 1990s. Things only started getting done at a consistently good level in the late 2000s, I think.

The original Carmageddon is one I remember being good enough, when I first got the game, but after I played the original US version, I saw how bad it was. Max's Brazilian actor was fine, but he was used to also dub over the old man saying that he was in a war, making it seem that it was Max randomly spitting out the line, that made no sense. Die Anna had no Brazilian actress, they just replaced whatever few lines she spoke with more of her screaming and giggling. Finally, they did away with the intro narration.

Max Payne, on the other hand, had a pretty great translation and I always found the Brazilian voice to better match the character's look in the first game than the original US version.

While still on the subject of Max Payne, on the third game, that wasn't localized other than subtitles, the PT-BR used by the NPCs in the game sounds fine, but the swearing is generally off, specially the written ones on walls (though I could be mixing it up with FEAR 3, which I remember having some pretty bad PT-BR swear words in the walls on the Brazilian levels).

Mortal Kombat X was pretty great, though they used a local famous singer to voice Cassie Cage to poor results. Still, there were a couple of lines that got direct translations, but they don't carry the same meaning in PT-BR:
"Is he going to make it?" -> was translated as "Ele vai fazer isso?" which means the same literal thing but doesn't carry the "Is he going to survive?" meaning that it carries in English. Should have been "Ele vai sobreviver?"
There's also a bit where Cassie answers Subzero: "I don't need'em, I've got this" while she cocks her gun, which was translated as "Não preciso, eu tenho isso.", which, again, is a literal translation that doesn't carry the same meaning in PT-BR so it implies that she doesn't need her friends because she's got a gun, not because she can handle the situation by herself. Should have been "Não preciso, eu dou conta."
I later saw an interview with the singer, Pitty, and understood the problem with her acting in the game (outside of the obvious fact that she isn't an actress): her accent is pretty distinctive from every other actor in the game, and, frankly, I don't think it matches anyone from her original state and city that I've ever known.

Dirt 5 has Goku's Brazilian voice ator doing the main announcer. It creates that bizarre expectation of hearing one of Goku's catchphrases at any given moment that he is speaking. :P At least he never uses his Sponge Bob voice. XD

I've recently been playing Granblue Fantasy Versus and the PT-BR subtitles don't match the English voice overs all that well, but my guess is that the English translation doesn't match the Japanese original and the subtitles must have been based on the Japanese script.

I've also been playing Forza Horizon 5 and the localization has been pretty great so far. :)

A bit of a disclaimer: I always mention the Carmageddon and MKX issues whenever the subject of localization appears. :P

I generally prefer to play games in their original language if possible, because

1) translations can be subpar, depending on who does them, with what background and in what time
2) voice-actors for the localized version might be more of an afterthought and less professional than those in the original
3) even if they are professional, the direction often overlooks errors in the intonation, actors giving emphasis to the wrong words, because they read the sentences out of context and are not corrected - possibly because the director doesn't know the context either or because they are short on time and money
4) no matter how good, it often changes the whole atmosphere because the speakers have totally different voices etc.

That being said, since dubbing is so prominent in Germany, sometimes the German voice-actors are so funny and/or I'm so accustomed to their voices that I'd expect the dubbed version to be more fun to me than the original, despite all the above. That's more of an exception to the rule than the norm though, e.g. German Homer Simpson, German Spongebob, German Sam & Max.

Sometimes, a translation can be great. See the GBA version of Final Fantasy 5 for a good example.

(On the other hand, the PSX FF5 translation is terrible, with things like Y Burn and Mindflare, not to mention that a certain joke in a certain castle library just doesn't work in that particular translation.)

Maaaaaybe I'll put in my own input when I actually play more games in Japanese. Until then... :P

Do you think that effort using the public was a fiasco for InXile? Man, their next attempt with Torment: tides of numenera was even worse :P

They reserved part of the kickstater funds to do the translations with a "professional" company. But, in my opinion they got scammed due the poor work. In spanish subtitles it was like the translator translated the notes about the scenes instead of the real dialogue. They even destroyed the different kind of text font (which were essential to distinguish real dialogue from descriptions).

Did the German VA do Bale's stupid "mid-werewolf-transformation" Batman voice thing in his dubs as Batman? 'Cause that would definitely be a reason to avoid playing the Arkham games in German. =P

No, it's not that bad
https://youtu.be/c5rQC1Zlqvk?list=PLT5cw0HwssypxjEn2gnrAtKFsYjGzw6NJ&t=446
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7uSNZ0Naco&t=3709s


And I also think, they used someone else for Arkham Knight, but I am not sure about that.

Actually, based solely on those scenes, I'd say that guy's a fairly decent match for the sound of Conroy's Batman voice (at least as it was in the first two Arkham games, as I haven't played any others).

I'm not complaining, expressed it not right in an earlier post. It is actually quite good, but hearing that voice makes one think of the movies (which also is the intention), and this Batman is not the one from the movies.
I prefer original voice actors.

The biggest mistake I see in german localizations is that they tend to count way too much on the recognition factor. Here it's voices, but the worst examples are movie titles. Way more "Karate Tiger" omovies exist in Germany than in the rest of the world, they put the title on movies that had nothing to do with the series, it becomes real bad when it come s to Bud Spencer and Terrence Hill movies. There are four movies named after "They call me Nobody", where only one original title contains that term and several "Hallelujah" films, the only thing having in common with the others being the lead actor.