The Fable Series - Fable III out now!

I imagine that the narration might be different. So far I've only gone through STF with good characters, so Theresa talks of "justice" and whatnot.

 

Fable III announced.

 

Now if only they'd port Fable 2 to the PC, so I can get excited about Fable 3.

 

Just read the details in the link. I have to say, this sounds a lot like the hype that Lionhead provoked before Fable II, talking about how you choices "affect" Albion. But I'm really not sure about this. I mean, being the ruler of the Kingdom seems like an amazing add-on, but I'm almost 90 percent sure that this game will not live up to it's expectations. We'll just have to see.

 

Shortest. Press conference. Ever.

The first trailer.

And here's what we can expect from the game, in more detail from Eurogamer:

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[color=blue][b][i]Fable III[/i] Preview

Preview by Christian Donlan[/b]

Picture it: the land of Albion in the age of steam. Through the cobbled streets of its towns, crooked houses with slated roofs compete for the afternoon sun with angry eruptions of unlikely machinery, valves match steeples for control of the skyline, and oily goop drips into babbling brooks that run beside fields of already queasy sunflowers.

"You'll see new marvels of the industrial age, devices that the people of Albion are amazed by," enthuses art lead John McCormack. "Half of Bowerstone will be turned into this mass of pistons and steam and clockwork -- everything's moving." You'll have to picture it for yourself at the moment, because these are early days for [i]Fable III[/i] (a game which, even if it's a disaster, will probably go down in history as the best title ever accidentally announced on Twitter, by Jonathan Ross). Prototypes are up and running deep inside Lionhead's offices, but none of it's ready for the likes of us just yet, unless you're willing to move to Guildford, fake a CV, and wing a job as an advanced AI programmer.

A recent chance to sit down with the designers and learn about the early stages of the game's development revealed no hints of Natal, no suggestions if the Milo experiments are bleeding in, no news on what's become of your dog or your trail of breadcrumbs, and no crazy schemes for online modes. The team is willing to give us a tantalising taste of what it is they want to do, but nobody's ready to reveal exactly how it's going to be done.

Instead, there are stories. Stories like this: Several months ago, no matter how many exactly, as [i]Fable II[/i] was chugging nicely towards release, a small group gathered in a meeting room at Lionhead. They had come to decide what [i]Fable III[/i] would be -- and what it wouldn't be. It's a special moment for any game, but particularly poignant for this one: a series that hangs upon choices was having its own mechanics enacted in real life. Perhaps Peter Molyneux even kicked a chicken a good distance at some point during the discussion.

"We started to think about [i]Fable III[/i] halfway through [i]Fable II[/i]," says McCormack. "You're always thinking about the future, and because of the speed of the industry, you're trying to pre-empt any lag. You get to the end of a game, and hopefully you know what you're doing next already. It's really unfocused at this stage, though, because you don't want to tie yourself down too early. So what we do is we present Peter and the designers with a range of art, a range of things that [i]Fable III[/i] could be -- all the settings and eras and styles it could be. Anything that tickles your fancy. You put together what you think is a logical progression, but also what you think is a crazy progression, and let the designers and artists work together to choose the best one."

And what they chose, once again, is something of a mish-mash. "The entire [i]Fable[/i] idea is a fairytale twist on European history and myth," says McCormack. "What we've settled on is to go about 50 years on from [i]Fable II[/i]. So we've loosely chosen the Napoleonic period, and we've started to pull in a bit of Regency, a tiny bit of Victorian, and we're plugging in an early industrial age to Albion. It's a Napoleonic fairytale."

Ships and cannons and troops, metal and rivets and chattering pipework: [i]Fable II[/i] was already a game built from details -- anyone who ever stopped to watch the hot blast of animation thrown out whenever one of Albion's humble clockwork doors got ready to open will know that -- and this tentatively mechanised environment is a proposition that sounds entirely fitting, even if it promises to significantly alter t

 

Another new Fable III video up, this one showing a behind-the-scenes look at Molyneux's crew acting out a potential scenario from the game -- this time, the King and his advisors judging and sentencing a Castle Fairfax servant accused of some type of crime (she gets into a heated argument with the King). Plus some other scenes involving political intrigue, looks like.

If this game actually gets you into the nitty-gritty, nuts-and-bolts minutiae of governing a country day to day (like these videos indicate), terrific. Down and dirty politics is what I want to see.

Also: Dignitaries from other countries have been announced. Will we be able to see people from Fable II who went to Samarkand? It seems like anytime they wanted to remove an important character from the story, that character would say: "I'm going to Samarkand to (insert something here)." I'd love to see what Reaver thinks about my character having bought his mansion.

Plus, the target Fable III release date officially announced. Late 2010.

I'm guessing that "Late 2010" means October/November 2010, since Fable II also had an October release date. If nothing else, it looks like the 360-exclusive lineup looks better next year than it does this year. Finally, MS can stop binging on third-party multi-platformed games (like they mostly have been doing this year, IMO), and have a more balanced line-up of exclusives in 2010.

 

Looks cool.

I really hope they tone down the overly silly elements of the world, though. Obviously humour is integral to Fable but I remember when reading about the first game that they tone was going to be along the lines of a dark Fairy Tale, which isn't exactly what we got

 

Fable II can be pretty dark, it just depends what you get up to.

There's the obvious activities like murder, theft, prostitution and the whole Dark Temple thing. What lies behind some of those demon doors is pretty ****** up.

 

Molyneux confirms microtransactions will feature prominently in Fable III.

Also, Natal-compatibility confirmed.

 

I'm pretty concerned about this trend of price gouging we're seeing. Consoles may have gone down in price but games seem to be getting more expensive and are charging more for content we used to get included.

I hope it doesn't become the norm, it's becoming too expensive to be a console gamer.

 

From IGN:

Lionhead Set to Debut Fable III Next Month.

...at Microsoft's X10 event in San Francisco. Plus, some new Fable III wallpaper revealed:

[image=http://xbox360media.ign.com/xbox360/image/article/106/1060013/fable-iii-20100111011213010.jpg]

 

Cool. I recently started a new game of Fable II. If you look past Molyneux's broken promises, I still think it's a vastly underrated game.

 

Molyneux: Fable III could get you "super pissed-off."

Actually, I don't mind an increased focus on decision-making and resource management. Not one bit. That's what was promised last year for the sequel, and what seems to actually be on the way in the final build. As in, managing your kingdom, conducting treaties, declaring war, etc. Factor in variables for taxation, renown, and more, and it all starts to sound less like a traditional RPG, and more like an RTS. Ultimately, that's probably a bit too radical a departure for one of Microsoft's flagship franchises, but hey, it would certainly piss fans off.

Not too thrilled about it being "episodic" in nature, unless it's something like 75-80% in-box, and the other 25% is DLC like "Knothole Island." I'm betting that it'll be in-game, pay-to-play DLC, but in the vein of what Gran Turismo 5: Prologue was going to be. That is, the game ships with a few features and items that are severely limited, and makes you buy the rest. (Though if I end up having to pay 100 Microsoft points to drink a beer in the pub or "play" with my wench, I'm going to be really pissed.)

 

I'm open to something different. I never considered Fable II to be a traditional RPG, more like third person adventuring with some choices.

I really enjoyed the financial management side of it though, I hope a similar mechanic returns for Fable III.

 

IGN:

Fable III In-Depth Look.

This sounds interesting. No experience points, no health-bar, no orbs, and no augments. Achievement-whores, take note:

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[color=blue]Weapons are crafted in combat, and the way that players wield them in battle will influence the end result. Kill innocents with a blade, and it will begin to drip with blood, but use it to slay evil characters, and it will start to glow. The more a weapon is used, the bigger it gets ?- we're shown a hammer that's been used for two hours, and it's almost twice the size of the starter model.

There's smarter ways that weapons will progress as well, and here's where we get to see one of Molyneux's trademark big ideas. [b]A player's gamerscore will be tied into weapons, ensuring that each one is entirely unique.[/b]

They'll grow in value the more they're used and will all be available to trade online ?- and in case you're wondering why anyone would want to get rid of something they've spent hours crafting, [i]Fable III[/i] will offer a large incentive for players to sell their weapons, though what that will be remains a secret.[hr][/blockquote][/color]
"My" son in [i]Fable II[/i] was black, so I'm pretty sure he wasn't mine. Does it still carry over? I'd hate to have to use the kid my wife had with some other dude as my main character. Also, I have to shake hands with a person if I want to trigger an event? Hmmmm...not so sure about that; I'm very much a hands-off person, and really don't want to be shaking hands with beggars, prostitutes, and the like -- I'll be able to purchase disinfectant, right?

With no health bar, does that mean you're invincible? Or will it be like [i]Call of Duty[/i] "superman" health? Also interested in what Peter has up his sleeve about the menus.

 

Whole crapton of new screenshots revealed at Microsoft's X10 conference:

[image=http://xbox360media.ign.com/xbox360/image/article/106/1068889/fable-iii-20100212061245642.jpg] [image=http://xbox360media.ign.com/xbox360/image/article/106/1068889/fable-iii-20100212061248455.jpg] [image=http://xbox360media.ign.com/xbox360/image/article/106/1068889/fable-iii-20100212061251345.jpg] [image=http://xbox360media.ign.com/xbox360/image/article/106/1068889/fable-iii-20100212061253970.jpg] [image=http://xbox360media.ign.com/xbox360/image/article/106/1068889/fable-iii-20100212061256236.jpg] [image=http://xbox360media.ign.com/xbox360/image/article/106/1068889/fable-iii-20100212061259470.jpg]

Also, the new video that just went up this morning on LIVE (an X10 interview with Molyneux) actually showed some gameplay footage, including the above-mentioned weapons-enhancements, and one blade in particular that lets you grow angelic wings if you use it in a "good"-aligned fashion (mentioned in the IGN piece). Looked freaking awesome. The new footage of Albion/Bowerstone looked pretty great, as well.

I still have one question, though: Suppose your character in Fable II never married and never had children, so how are they going to explain them having a child? Will they just claim that when I wasn't playing, my character went against everything I had him do by not forming attachments with people and never having relationships beyond casual sex, and suddenly he finds a wife and has children in his final years? That would be rather anti-RP for some folks. Or will they just ignore it, and your kid just spontaneously appears in your house one day? Or maybe you adopt someone? That would make sense, I guess -- my character being an orphan, and living in the castle all by himself, when he sees an orphan who reminds him of himself or his sister, and takes the child in.

I think they plan on using the saved games from Fable II so they can see which was the last choice of the those three options. As for the marriage-thing in Fable II, they'll probably just say that after the events of the second game, the "hero was married" somehow. I don't think that the save-import will be exactly like that on Mass Effect 2, in terms of lots of tiny personal decisions carrying over.

 

I think xplay named it their game of the year if I'm not mistaken. Anyone ever watch that show, btw? I've been watching Sessler off and on since he was on Extended Play back on Techtv (not before gamespot tv though...)

I'm excited about the possible Ico-esque physical interaction system. I'm a little worried he'll dumb the game down too much by taking away too much customization options though.

 

GameSpy Editor Roundtable Discussion: Fable III.

From the article:

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[color=blue]Before people start thinking that the series has turned into some kind of [i]Civilization[/i] clone, let's be clear. The latter half of [i]Fable III[/i] will be about ruling Albion. The first half is another hero campaign that leads to a violent coup of the existing abusive monarch. That isn't to say that there aren't sweeping changes to the [i]Fable II[/i] formula. I was really surprised by all the ways that Lionhead flipped the script on us.[hr][/blockquote][/color]
Also, this part:

[blockquote][hr][color=blue]The character evolution and weapon "crafting" systems Molyneux described were eye-opening. Female gamers, he mentioned, didn't like how in [i]Fable II[/i], their characters would get all big and bulky the more they powered up their melee ability. In [i]Fable III[/i], characters who use light-bladed weapons will look different than those who use large hammers. But it's how these weapons change based on the player wielding them that was really neat. Rack up plenty of kills, and your weapon will become longer and heavier. Play an evil character, and your weapon will drip blood, while playing a goody two-shoes will cause it to glow, instead.

Here's the one that really got me worked up: [b]Your weapon will have a different texture depending on your gamerscore. That's right, someone is finally going to reward us for collecting all those achievement points. You can even trade these unique player-modified weapons, and they'll always remain branded with your gamer tag.[/b] In fact, you may end up encountering your own weapon at a later date, modified by its new owner, and end up buying it back.[hr][/blockquote][/color]
Hunh. [face_thinking]

 

John Cleese will be your Fable III butler.

 

John Cleese? Jonathan Ross? This is going to be great.

 

The Awesomeness Trifecta? will be complete, if they manage to get Stephen Fry back for a second go-round.

Reaver was supposed to be immortal, and I'd love to hear him bitch at me for having redecorated his house in the last game.

 

AWESOME TRAILERS!

 

I just got Fable II yesterday and am enjoying it.

 

Villager Maker

How riveting...