Any way to force English texts in Valve games?

[ツ ᏕᏋᏒᎶᎥᎧ ツ]

I asked a few years ago, and it's obvious that if you have the Steam client in any language other than English (for example in Spanish) Valve games will necessarily have the text in Spanish, at least the old Source 1 games.

And of course, I find this annoying because I usually play games with English text and audio for simple learning reasons. The audio fortunately ‘can’ be changed, although not in all Valve games, but at least that's something.

Valve games translated into Spanish are horrible, half-translated texts, expressions that are too literal and don't make sense in the context of the conversation and even the typical bug where the texts go out of their limits.

That's why I ask this, if already in 2025 this can be done somehow... I would like to have Steam in Spanish, but Valve's games completely in English.

[ReBoot]

Have you checked the usual place, namely the game's properties? Right-click it in your library, open properties.

[Tristin]

You are misunderstanding how Steam client and games work. They are mostly separate applications. Only thing they work together are when game dev implement Steam overlay. Language being used by applications are determined by the application detecting the language that you set in your OS.

[ツ ᏕᏋᏒᎶᎥᎧ ツ]

Originally posted by ReBoot:

Have you checked the usual place, namely the game's properties? Right-click it in your library, open properties.

Sure, I've always made sure to set the language to English, but the texts for example in Left 4 Dead or CS stay in Spanish while the audio changes to English.

Originally posted by Tristin:

You are misunderstanding how Steam client and games work. They are mostly separate applications. Only thing they work together are when game dev implement Steam overlay. Language being used by applications are determined by the application detecting the language that you set in your OS.

Well, if that would be the case, how do I force it? There must be some config file out there that determines the texts language... maybe in the Registry?

[ReBoot]

Originally posted by ツ Sergio ツ:

Well, if that would be the case, how do I force it? There must be some config file out there that determines the texts language... maybe in the Registry?

That ultimately depends on the game. Some games do use OS language, most don't. Some games have language switches in their settings, others don't. Depends on the game, my dude. As such, better ask on the game forum.

[Calmly Frenetic]

Source games allow the audio, interface and subtitles to all use different languages.

The audio language uses the setting on the Steam Properties for the game.
The default game interface language is the same as the Steam interface.
The default subtitles language is the same as the game interface.

To change the whole game interface language, use a launch option:
-language english

To change only the subtitles/captions, use a developer console command:
cc_lang english
To set subtitles back to default (same language as the interface), use:
cc_lang ""

[ツ ᏕᏋᏒᎶᎥᎧ ツ]

Originally posted by Calmly Frenetic:

Source games allow the audio, interface and subtitles to all use different languages.

The audio language uses the setting on the Steam Properties for the game.
The default game interface language is the same as the Steam interface.
The default subtitles language is the same as the game interface.

To change the whole game interface language, use a launch option:
-language english

To change only the subtitles/captions, use a developer console command:
cc_lang english
To set subtitles back to default (same language as the interface), use:
cc_lang ""

Not all heroes wear capes, it really was as simple as this.... ‘-language english’. Over the years I've asked this several times here and elsewhere and they never knew how to give me a solution... they even told me it's a bug and to report it. Really, thank you very much.

[ツ ᏕᏋᏒᎶᎥᎧ ツ]

Originally posted by Calmly Frenetic:

Source games allow the audio, interface and subtitles to all use different languages.

The audio language uses the setting on the Steam Properties for the game.
The default game interface language is the same as the Steam interface.
The default subtitles language is the same as the game interface.

To change the whole game interface language, use a launch option:
-language english

To change only the subtitles/captions, use a developer console command:
cc_lang english
To set subtitles back to default (same language as the interface), use:
cc_lang ""

Hmmm seems that the "-language english" parameter doesn't work in L4D1.

[Calmly Frenetic]

Originally posted by ツ Sergio ツ:

Hmmm seems that the "-language english" parameter doesn't work in L4D1.

The -language setting currently works in Half-Life 2, Portal and Portal 2.
I know that prior to updates in Feb 2022 it was NOT working in HL2/Portal.

You may need to request Valve do similar updates for L4D1.

[Calmly Frenetic]

There is also a temporary workaround, if the -language launch option won't work...
Rename game files for the language used by the Steam interface, so the game can't find them, and it will instead use the English files by default.

Don't rename any of the "closecaption" files (for subtitles). Just change the "cc_lang" parameter using the console as mentioned above.


Since the same method applies to several different games, I'll use generic terms for:
the <language> used by the Steam interface (eg "spanish")
the <game> folder (eg "Left 4 Dead")
the <mod> subfolder (eg "left4dead")

Look in these folders:
...\Steam\steamapps\common\<game>\<mod>\resource\
...\Steam\steamapps\common\<game>\platform\resource\
(for orange box games) ...\Steam\steamapps\common\<game>\hl2\resource\

Find any files whose name includes "_<language>", for example:
<mod>_<language>.txt
gameui_<language>.txt
valve_<language>.txt
deck_<language>.txt
platform_<language>.txt
vgui_<language>.txt

Rename each of the files that include the language Steam is using.
For example, add a "_" character to the start of the file name. You might end up with files named "_left4dead_spanish.txt" and "_vgui_spanish.txt".
The game should then use English.