Fable 2 -- this time, you get a dog! Oh yeah, and muskets.

and i think a lot of the reaction will be like this:

http://allgamesradio.ning.com/profiles/blog/show?id=502933:BlogPost:8742

And as the dude says in the 3rd demo vid, "If i can get you to care about that dog, I've got you."

Fable 2 doesn't have a release date, but it's definitely not coming out this year. Maybe next fall?

shit, i thought it was this year.

Apparently, there are now multiple dog companion breeds to choose from.

i want a basset hound. 10 solid minutes of dungeon-exploring action and adventure before naptime.

I want a weimariner. Who I will name Man Ray. And will get to do funny things and put them on Youtube.

funny stuff from the wiki

Death

The initial design was for the player character to die for good when he or she was defeated, and have the character's children take over as being playable (if they had any). This did not work, however, as playtesters harvested children as dozens of extra lives, prompting Lionhead developers to create another new "death" system.

The second design was that the player's character would not die upon defeat. Rather, he or she would fall unconscious once he or she loses all of his or her health. The enemies would then injure the character while they were unconscious by beating, kicking or stabbing them, which would have left permanent and humiliating scars. Falling unconscious could be avoided with one of three sacrifices: gold, reputation or experience gained.

At GDC 08, Molyneux indicated in interviews that the design for death had changed due to player feedback during play testing. It was found that players would rather turn off their console than subject their character to permanent disfigurement.

On the 24th of June 2008, Dene Carter, creative director of Fable II, revealed the new design. Upon losing all health, the hero falls and loses an unspecified amount of experience. This experience is exchanged for a 'burst' of energy, allowing one last 'heroic struggle' in which the player rises to their feet and knocks all enemies away, leaving the player momentarily safe from harm. The area is not reset and the player does not replay the scene upon death, they simply carry on from the moment of death.

playtesters harvested children as dozens of extra lives

haha, always a fun phrase to read

I wonder if they'll give Yahtzee a cameo voice role

it's causing me physical pain that this is 360 exclusive. i should stop looking at previews but i can't. if i had any money at all i would happily spend $260 to be able to play this when it comes out.

haven't played this enough to form any opinions, but I do like how they handle the on-line interaction. when you are in the same general area as another gamer, a little orb will appear with their name and picture. you can choose to interact if you want, or just ignore them. some stranger gave me 5000 gold the other day just 'cuz he liked my University of Georgia gamer pic.

I wasn't interested in this at all until I read the 10/10 Eurogamer review, but now I expect I'll be picking it up at the weekend. It sounds like just what I need after sucking at Fallout 1.

So how is it?

It's... okay? Less exciting and engaging than I would've thought. Feels like I've only just started. I bought a roadside bar.

I'm really enjoying it! It feels like a very big, detailed and beautiful world to explore so far (compared with oblvion, which was big and beautiful but not detailed enough, so lots of locations felt like cut-and-pastes of other locations). Combat is very simplistic but still feels satisfying somehow...the system for the development of skills reminds me of God Of War more then anything else. I'm still not hugely far itno it though. Ooh, I played that little game on the website and won a chicken suit in the man game!

this game seems good but I think it might of killed my xbox

I'm really strting to fall in love with this game now. I bought myself a little clifftop farmhouse, with a thatched roof and a beautiful windmill out back. There's a chopping block round the side, and I can happily spend days there, just chopping logs and watching the sun rise and set while I pile up lots of gold. I bought myself a monk outfit, why? Because it look intrsting. A big part of me just wants to live in my little house forever, and to forget all about the main quest, the revenge tragedy, my heroic destiny, and all that saving-the-world guff.

I might like this more if I trusted it to take me further into the story. I keep exploring and it's clearly too early in the game for me to do it; I couldn't afford a house if I tried.

I really want to play this. But I went with Fallout 3 instead.

you guys are making this sound like animal crossing with monster beatups

I heard the main quest was so short that I don't want to get too far into it past the Hero of Will bit I'm on now, but I still have that feeling that it's too early to explore everything. I'm getting 7 gold every five minutes RIGHT NOW, WHILE I'M AT WORK, for renting out my caravan/hovel in the traveller camp.

Get this nagging feeling that all this hilarious Expression shit is just like the persuasion minigame in Oblivion, in that it is completely retarded and bears so little resemblance to any actual human interaction that it ruins the immersion a bit

I mean y'know "Oh, that's brilliant! Yes, that's really good! That is my favourite expression! Oh, yes!", what the fuck?

GCCcCA: your feeling is correct. Interacting with people isn't fun or engrossing if they're all completely idiotic.

It's not as immersive as I want it to be, that's for sure. I actually quit playing Oblivion for this, cause I figured my girl would be more into it cause you can get married and have a dog and the graphics are better, but I'm starting to question my decision.
Honestly, the Oblivion minigame is more complex than Fable's interaction. Here it's mostly fart till you can't fart no more and then somebody wants to marry you. Apparently renaissance RPG land is a little like the seedier corners of the internet.

Anyways, I'm playing hooky from work today with a headcold, so maybe I'll put in a few hours.

Ha, I bought the same house on the hill, got married, etc and STILL am not even close to working on the main quest (I suppose I could get busy with that monk, but why bother?) but am chopping wood instead.
I'm terrified I'm gonna not be able to stop myself buying Fallout 3 and that will be the end of my hero's journey.

aaaaaaand like a total consumer whore, I went and bought Fallout 3 on my lunch break.

Where's the report, forks?

report on...?

the state of capitalism today

I'm strongly recommending investing in wood chopping, sword smithing and rummaging through every random container you see. Also diving every time you see a little whirlpool.

On the plus side, Fable 2 enthralled my girl enough (and fallout 3 creeped her out enough), where she's actually volunteered interest in playing it through on her own; a first for any console RPG.

Ha, I was hoping for a similar response from Claire (I wanna try co-op). But no.

Got married and had a baby, regretted it almost instantly though. Going to find it hard to resist slaughtering her and setting the baby on fire.

The option is there!

Co-op mode is worth a try, I'd say. The cameras can be a bit finnicky — trees and other things can block your view, and sometimes keeping the camera behind one player is a challenge. And unfortunately there doesn't seem to be an easy way to 'transfer' items, so if the second person is near-death you can't send them a shiny apple or potion or something. If they die they're out of the game for 10-15s while they 'regenerate'. The second player also has pretty limited interaction with villagers, but it's definitely helpful to have another person on combat-heavy quests. It's probably a bit useless for non-combat quests, unless you're content to dance for villagers (and then frighten them away by throwing down loads of magic).

I'm also getting more annoyed each time I go into Bowerstone. Everyone flocks to me and asks me why I'm too cheap to buy them gifts or too non-committal to buy them rings, and then when I go to a dig spot in an alleyway a bunch of kids follow and corner me for five incredibly frustrating minutes, demanding autographs and then getting angry when I ignore them because I'm too busy button-mashing the controller to try to push them out of the way. This game would be a lot better if villagers didn't stalk me every time I have stuff to do :(

I killed my wife...and they took the baby into care before I got a chance to burn it! Boo!

I enjoyed the initiation ceremony for that dark sect up on top of the hill - taking 5 cute fluffy little chicks, and eating them alive. But I'm thinking about turning my back on the dark side again now. I feel like being evil is sapping some of my motivation to push ahead with the main quest...maybe just happier being a goody.

but how is the game going?

That IS the game! "animal crossing plus killing" is weirdly accurate.

Accidentally done crossbowed wifey in the neck while attempting to chase Abby the Stylist out of the marital home with safety off. The game should give you the option to hold off waves of Social Workers in a mini-siege before they take Junior away. They should also have had a trial mini-game, as casually agreeing to pay 250 gold for manslaughter seems a little easy. I made more than that in dowry.

Also allowed me to just nip straight round the corner and incinerate Abby the Stylist for her part in the whole sorry affair. Fucker intrudes in mah home, the door of which ah can not close, but she's the first one to run to the fuckin guards when mah attempts to defend mah property go awry. It was nice to have a reasonable excuse for a proper heel turn.

I enjoyed the initiation ceremony for that dark sect up on top of the hill - taking 5 cute fluffy little chicks, and eating them alive.

I'm having trouble reconciling my intention of remaining good/pure/vegetarian with my OCD about completing everything in a game. I can't shoot all the gargoyles and get all the treasure chests unless I get into the Temple of Shadows, but I can't get into the Temple unless I abandon my non-meat non-evil ways (also my second accidentally ate two of the five crunchy chicks).

Please advise

"animal crossing plus killing"

NEED

also my second accidentally ate two of the five crunchy chicks

I accidentally did a lot of things

this game is like Bully to Oblivion's GTA

I'm having trouble reconciling my intention of remaining good/pure/vegetarian with my OCD about completing everything in a game

^THIS

I'm having trouble reconciling my intention of staying atractive/thin/pretty with my love of the healing powers of meat pies

I'm having trouble reconciling my intention of staying atractive/thin/pretty with my love of the healing powers of meat pies

^^exactly

also, reconciling hatred of ugly blue magic lines and dislike of using magic in general with wanting to get through crucible first time around

The insipid villagers ended up driving me down the evil path, eventually. A crowd of a children and onlookers were alternately praising, jeering and begging at me while I was trying to get at a vendor to buy / sell some gear, and I may have....set them on fire, a little, repeatedly, in my frustration. Also the Temple of Shadows and its Wheel of Torments / general comic-book evil is great fun.

Hmm, I'm getting to the point I always reach in rpgs, where the main quest takes you away from the lovely pretty countryside and into some dismal depressing wasteland areas (Westcliff, in this case), and I start to lose interest. Hopefully I'll push through all that tonight though. Can't deny the combat is getting more interesting as it gets trickier, so that helps.

I had trouble reconciling my intention of staying atractive/thin/pretty with my love of the healing powers of meat pies

^^^^title of my auto-biog

Are the dowry's only any good if you get a wife, or did my female character just pick a poor husband?

hark, fellow game OCDers: there is a non-evil way into the Temple of Shadows.

The insipid villagers ended up driving me down the evil path, eventually. A crowd of a children and onlookers were alternately praising, jeering and begging at me while I was trying to get at a vendor to buy / sell some gear, and I may have....set them on fire, a little, repeatedly, in my frustration.

it took me like twenty minutes before i gave up on the virtuous path and started trying to stab those stupid kids. stupid, invincible, identical kids.

So is it actually beneficial to get married or buy property in this game? I don't get what the benefit would be, and would rather save my money for weaponry / pies.

Property is TOTALLY worth the investment, but better to do it earlier in the game. It gives you a constant revenue stream.

I've just found the Winter Lodge. Scared the shite out of me.

I can't wait to get my copy of this! So awesome!

My girl warrior is really hard to look at, what with the ugly blue veins everywhere.

Winter lodge was a great moment, yeah. I'm through with the main quest now, I own castle fairfax, and I had a sex change! I'm now a fat evil old hag. The first DLC is out next week though, I think?

As if she wasn't ugly before, now she's back from the Spire and has no hair. She looks like an uglier Telly Savalas.

can't decide betw. this, lost odyssey and eternal sonata : /

anyone played all three?

Fable2>>>>>>>>>>sonata. Haven't played Lost Odyssey though.

I played Eternal Sonata. It's a really mediocre JRPG with a half-interesting combat system. (I'm still half-way through my Encore playthrough.) I played a little Fable 2 and it looks amazing (and my own copy should be showing up any day now.)

Just based on my experience, and what people have told me, go with Fable 2.

Lost Odyssey seemed alright. Lot of wandering round searching out every cranny while having to deal with random battles, in case the boss you fight ten minutes later can only be defeated by the power you didn't collect earlier. Also lots of reading overwrought short stories. Kind of just stopped playing it for no reason but will probably come back to it.

Fable is fun but the people in it and the way you interact with them are completely retarded, despite that being the main selling point of the game

I really dig this game, I just wish it happened to be challenging in any way.

I plumped for this in the end cos there is some weird price war going on in the uk right now which means most new AAA titles (w/the exception of dead space and l4d) are selling for relative pennies

so far it's gorgeous

stay away from meat pies unless you want a fat hero for eternity.

heh, i've been listening to Biggie a lot lately too Poly.

I'm making a hip-hop mix for my indie nerd friend.

the combat in this is so satisfying; ultimately it's just button bashing with combos but it's implemented in a really elegant way and has a nice feeling of progression

I was really unsure of this from the previews and reviews and was all set to dislike it but it's utterly charmed me

also the dog is implemented really well

^loldogmeat post

you guys are making this sound like animal crossing with monster beatups

― El Tomboto, Tuesday, 28 October 2008 05:15 (1 month ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

it's more like a next-gen, very british OoT

stay away from meat pies unless you want a fat hero for eternity.

The upcoming DLC will include a slimming potion, apparently.

Patch coming soon too, which will fix lots of issues (one of my wives has vanished! And I managed to trick a limited edition content code out of MS (i would've felt a bit bad about this if it wasn't for the fact that some of the achievements are only available to people who bought the limited edition, skanks), but I've been unable to actually pick the goodies up in game yet - apparently that'll be fixed too).

I was pretty down on Fable after playing the first one, but this thread (plus amazon's big sales) convinced me to get it. I could really use a meat pie about now.

does this work if you didn't buy the ltd edn?

Worked for me! :-)

cool, I plugged in my details

I've just returned from the spire, and I am fat & flies around me; I think my clothes make me look fatter than I am : /

found a really great way to make a quick buck is wait for a -50% weapons sale, buy up everything they have and then sell it all back to the bowerstone blacksmith; you can turn 3000 gold into 15000 gold very quickly that way

ngggh I just turned my original 3000 gold into 132,000 in the space of 3 in-game days

^this is the sure-fire way to make a quick buck; I seem to have turned this gentle, idyllic land into my property kingdom and am raking in 6k gold every 5 mins. feel like a will-using sarah beeny now : /

also just found "the enforcer" blunderbuss - thing sounds like a cannon!!

I wish this game had better inventory management (e.g. ability to stack up potions and use all at once, ability to manage all property rents and stall prices at once)

that being said, still great; on the last leg of the quest now; own quite a lot of property (10k a day income), a couple of legendary weapons and a halo!!

thought the ending in this was handled really well, and the "perfect day" part was actually quite touching

Just got this in the mail! Will play tonight!

(Makes up for losing my Fallout 3 copy -- see: F3 thread for details.)

yeah, that sucks dude : /

hopefully you'll enjoy this just as much

quite surprised how well rec'd this was by america, given how british it is but I guess good gameplay is universal

Mordy, I found Fable 2 and Fallout 3 to be total apples and oranges. I'm curious to hear what you think about them in contrast.

Loading it up in about an hour, so I'll let you know!

I can send you some gifts if you want mordy, like some dosh or a leet gun... not fully sure how you do that tho : /

I had my first freeze 5 minutes in! I put it aside to watch some Family Guy - then I'm going to start it up again.

I figured out how to do it: if you (and I) have online orbs set to "friends only" in the game options and I come across you in the world I can gift you stuff, so if I see you in albion I'll hook you up

Awesome!

woah

this is freaky

if you turn on everyone's orbs, suddenly there's lots of little gamerpics floating around the world that you can interact with and eavesdrop on their conversations : /

I'm logging in.

huh. Froze again. I better clear stuff off the top of my 360. Maybe it's overheating?

you can interact with and eavesdrop on their conversations

...which mostly seem to be about hero dolls, in my experience.

Could do with hooking up for some co-op though, there's a couple of achievements you can only get while you're playing with somebody else.

DLC drops 22 dec which is a bummer, I was looking fwd to it

Hope the patch is sooner, can't pick up my Limited Edition goodies until it arrives.

DLC delayed again : /

Couple questions:

Is it worth it to try to get gifts from the towns people? Ive kind of avoided the silly ass expressions mini game.

Are there any skills not worth spending any xp to upgrade? Dont want to waste xp on will spells that are useless (assuming I havent done so already)...

Either way this game is pretty fun. Good xmas gift.

just got this, not really digging it. feels disappointing after fallout 3, and (for me at least) way way glitchier. the points where for no apparent reason i seem to be unable to walk other than at a crawl, spots where i can't jump off a ledge but a foot to either side and i can, and where i am supposed to left trigger to look at a point of interest, at which point i can't hear the fucking person i am next to that is telling me why it is of interest (this is for some reason particularly infuriating). we'll see if it improves, but im thinking that this just isn't quite my thing.

dog is the most awesome dog in a game ever, though.

oh yeah also i hate hate hate the trail of gold mechanic, makes me feel like i am fucking up whenever i go against it, even though i'm not, so i keep trudging blindly along on the main quest.

xpost

Is it worth it to try to get gifts from the towns people? Ive kind of avoided the silly ass expressions mini game.

Are there any skills not worth spending any xp to upgrade? Dont want to waste xp on will spells that are useless (assuming I havent done so already)...

For Will, don't upgrade anything other than Time Control, Raise Dead, and either Shock or Inferno. You don't need more than level two on either Time Control or Raise Dead. Inferno is slightly less powerful than Shock but more viscerally satisfying, imo.

The townspeople are largely irrelevant unless you're trying to achieve some sort of community standing (very good, very evil, etc.). Even if the person thinks you're a total shit, it isn't too hard to win their affection back, so there's not much to worry about.

i am supposed to left trigger to look at a point of interest, at which point i can't hear the fucking person i am next to that is telling me why it is of interest (this is for some reason particularly infuriating). we'll see if it improves, but im thinking that this just isn't quite my thing.

This aspect of the game never improves, but it becomes somewhat irrelevant once the game moves more in the direction of combat.

oh yeah also i hate hate hate the trail of gold mechanic, makes me feel like i am fucking up whenever i go against it, even though i'm not, so i keep trudging blindly along on the main quest.

You can turn it off!

level 5 blades was pretty handy for defeating shards

not sure how I feel abt this game, now the dust's settled

I found it satisfying, despite obviously being inferior to a number of games.

I lost a lot of XP in the Spire disobeying. Did I gimp my character for good?

Naah, you'll be rolling in exp soon, and you can buy potions in Bowerstone that give you 62k of all 4 types of exp.

I am loving this game so much. I just finished the Spire quest and returned to the mainland, and my child is no longer an infant. Naturally to celebrate I didn't wrap the rascal and we have another child on the way. My wife complained that I was cruel b/c I'd soon be leaving again but when I'm giving her like 1000 gold a day to keep up the house I think she can manage. I have so much gold it's ridic, and I've hardly had to do anything to get it: I got up to 5 stars in blacksmith and woodchopping in my first three days of playing this, bought a few stores in Bowerstock, and that was all: the money just poured in.

I finished the main quest last night for the first time. I have mixed feelings about the game, having now played through. The ending of the main question was cool, in that it wasn't what I'd expected at all (I'd read no spoilers). And there are several quests left to do. But I'm not convinced I want to keep playing. I've maxxed out all but one of my strength and skill attributes, and didn't rely on will enough to care about getting a couple more of them to 5 stars. I bought the castle and got the King of Albion title, and still have over a million gold to spare. So why keep playing? I wouldn't say the game is too easy, but a problem I have with a wide variety of games (RPGs, Civ, e.g.) is that the endgame is too rushed. Once you get these great abilities, the game rarely scales up enough to let you use them. And with Fable 2 I'd add gold: if it's so easy to get millions of gold, give me things to spend it on! Not just one 5 star outfit, but bunches! (Yeah, I could dye it, but wtf.) I guess I could cross dress. But seriously: I loved being in this world, but without anything to progress toward, I have a hard time wanting to bother.

euler otm

Did anyone here bother with Knothole Island? I've picked it up but haven't touched it yet (my current todo list is something like 1) finish main Fable 2 quest (DONE), 2) Finish main Fallout 3 quest, 3) play knothole island, 4) play operation anchorage, 5) play the other FO3 DLCs, which will no doubt be out by then, 6) FINALLY get back into L4D).

But yeah, hoping there'll be quests in knothole which might make good use of a powerful, rich character.

Popped this game in yesterday for the first time in awhile, and was having a hard time justifying the experience when I have Skate 2 sitting there. And unlike some of you, I haven't even finished it yet.

I don't know about Knothole Island. I'd love to spend more time in the world but I'd like either some way to use what I've earned, or for the further story to be really great. The way the game played out the main quest was pretty great, I thought, maybe not as a narrative on text, but in the way you *played* that narrative (I'm avoiding spoilers). So maybe the DLC will have something similar. I have a bunch of other games I want to play so I think I'll wait and come back to Fable 2 later.

Hmm, the ending of this game was totally weak.

Ha, this is the first RPG my girlfriend ever played start to finish and she was really pissed about it! She came away feeling cheated!

I was gearing up for the usual boss bloodbath, and so this was a nice surprise, in the abstract. The perfect day thing kinda takes my breath away, though. I haven't played many games with parts like that (exploring the experience of death) and would love to hear about and play others if this one is comparatively badly done.

I just wanted to fight with Lucien. The perfect day thing was lovely.

yeah, I know there are lots of haters on board here, but got to agree the perfect day thing was a nice touch, not even all that corny either tbh

Do they play Lou Reed on the soundtrack?

Hmm, some of the missions after you beat the game are harder and more satisfying than the game itself.

well that was some unclimactic bullshit

At least you got to finish it. The final part of the final quest is "go home to see your wife". And my wife has vanished, due to a bug which it doesn't look like they're ever going to fix.

I stopped this when I got bored with slogging away chopping logs with the odd quest, went back to it, had completely forgotten all the controls and instead of gently laying my wife into bed for a night of passion....shot her in the head instead, oops.

haha pretty sure "unclimactic" is only a word when you've been up way too late drinking and playing a video game.

hahah, you have found the secret of Fable 2!

Incidentally, I thought they fixed that bug... but it doesn't work retroactively maybe?

Wasn't fixed when I checked a couple of weeks ago. If it is a non-retroactive fix...well, I'm not about to replay the whole game.

anyone play fable 3?

trick me once shame on you, trick me twice shame on me, made the same stupid game 3 times in a row and eventually i get off board.

I will probably get it eventually but not yet.

I got this and I like it ok. Kinda more of the same shit but I dont mind it as I got a grip of free time on my hands these days..

might get this for the eventual $10-$15 but yeah, after what 15 hours of Fable 2, funk dat at full price