Who's pumped for Fable 2?

[Thor.]

No not yet, i only bought 6 houses and haven't left oakville yet lol, its a great game so far.

 

off topic

 

One problem that i hate about the xbox 360 is it that it has a ati chipset, and the refresh rates are horrable, also the lack of V.Sync.

[WrathOfDeadguy]

I'm not evil enough. I've been playing the "good" side of things... allowing, of course, exceptions for the generous numbers of bandits I've been slaughtering with gun and sword.

 

The dog has to be one of the best-implemented (if not the best) pets in the history of gaming- his pathfinding is pretty good, he succeeds in distracting and finishing off enemies, and the whole sniffing out buried treasure bit continues to be helpful. He's found quite a few hidden goodies that I wouldn't have even noticed while en route to complete quests.

 

I can't say whether I like the way purity/corruption is determined, though- I can't help but feel that the player is punished a bit too much for the occasional pie or drinking binge, while not being given nearly enough credit for eating 'healthy' foods and frequent exercise (i.e. traveling a lot and fighting). It shouldn't be quite as simple as becoming a blimp after a few game hours of indulgence. That's a fairly minor complaint, though- eating more veggies does balance out the occasional vice.

 

The only other complaint I have is that the expressions are a bit too cartoonish. The game is more whimsical than something like Oblivion or Morrowind, and that's part of the appeal, but the first time I saw my on-screen avatar break out in a face-deforming grin, chest puffed out, just to throw a thumbs-up sign at someone- against the general atmosphere of the game, it seemed very out of place. It isn't, however, something that must be done all the time in order to progress, but it would've helped maintain immersion if the animations had been... deemphasized a bit.

 

Other than that, great game- easily the best $60 I've spent on a game in the past few years. It runs well, has very few bugs (and no game-breakers that I've yet run into, which is more than can be said of most releases), and is incredibly addictive in that time-eating sort of way that very few titles ever manage to achieve. The difficulty curve is shallow, but I think that was a wise decision- eliminating the looming specter of death (and the accompanying compulsion to save before turning every corner) has the very welcome effect of keeping the player in the world- not dealing with loading screens because the last miniboss pulled an unstoppable desperation combo out of its arse. A little more thought could've gone into the mechanics of being 'knocked out' (maybe a loss of game time or something else, i.e. being thrown in a cell then having to break out), but I'm happy enough that I don't need to look over my shoulder every five seconds for that one enemy with that one uber-powerful attack... I sank quite a few hours into the game the first time I plugged it in precisely because there was no sudden break in the gameplay prompting me to check the clock- which, IMHO, is one of Fable 2's greatest accomplishments.

 

In case you couldn't tell, I'm with the camp that says "death" as such is an obsolete concept in a singleplayer game- we all know the player is going to reload the last save and play as if it hadn't happened anyway, so why force them to re-play whole sections of the game- which will, no matter how 'hardcore' the gamer, eventually frustrate and annoy- when you could introduce some other mechanic to substitute for death? Immersion is what makes a singleplayer game, especially an RPG, enjoyable for the vast majority of its players, and there is nothing in gaming that pops my suspension of disbelief faster than dying. The game is supposed to be a story, and when the main character dies the story ends- death and reloading a save being analogous to scrubbing out the last paragraph of a book and re-writing it every few minutes so you can go on reading. Hero being outnumbered, outmatched, and knocked on his/her arse as the Big Bad Monster closes in = dramatic tension. Hero being butchered and cutting to a loading screen = bad ending followed by denial.

 

9/10, and that's only because there are some minor issues- such as the occasional AI hanging up on a doorway, the dog occasionally trying to reach loot via an impassable barrier, the over-exaggerated expressions, etc. Nothing at all that would in any way keep this game from being worth every single penny of its price tag.

[jojo man]

The dog has to be one of the best-implemented (if not the best) pets in the history of gaming- his pathfinding is pretty good, he succeeds in distracting and finishing off enemies, and the whole sniffing out buried treasure bit continues to be helpful. He's found quite a few hidden goodies that I wouldn't have even noticed while en route to complete quests.

 

Agreed. I'll admit, that at first, I was skeptical about having a dog tag along and spoonfeed me info, but it's turned out to be an excellent addition.

 

 

I can't say whether I like the way purity/corruption is determined, though- I can't help but feel that the player is punished a bit too much for the occasional pie or drinking binge, while not being given nearly enough credit for eating 'healthy' foods and frequent exercise (i.e. traveling a lot and fighting). It shouldn't be quite as simple as becoming a blimp after a few game hours of indulgence. That's a fairly minor complaint, though- eating more veggies does balance out the occasional vice.

 

I agree with this too. During the crucible, I went into it being the epitome of physical fitness. During the course of the fighting though, I wolfed down 2 Blueberry pies, and some Rancid beef jerky, and suddenly I was rotund enough to double as a wagon wheel. And it's taken me a fair bit of time getting myself back into fighting form.

 

The only other complaint I have is that the expressions are a bit too cartoonish. The game is more whimsical than something like Oblivion or Morrowind, and that's part of the appeal, but the first time I saw my on-screen avatar break out in a face-deforming grin, chest puffed out, just to throw a thumbs-up sign at someone- against the general atmosphere of the game, it seemed very out of place. It isn't, however, something that must be done all the time in order to progress, but it would've helped maintain immersion if the animations had been... deemphasized a bit.

 

I don't disagree that they're a little over the top, but I got a few good 'n cheap laughs out of them. If you haven't already, try deliberately botching the fart expression.

 

Other than that, great game- easily the best $60 I've spent on a game in the past few years. It runs well, has very few bugs (and no game-breakers that I've yet run into, which is more than can be said of most releases), and is incredibly addictive in that time-eating sort of way that very few titles ever manage to achieve. The difficulty curve is shallow, but I think that was a wise decision- eliminating the looming specter of death (and the accompanying compulsion to save before turning every corner) has the very welcome effect of keeping the player in the world- not dealing with loading screens because the last miniboss pulled an unstoppable desperation combo out of its arse. A little more thought could've gone into the mechanics of being 'knocked out' (maybe a loss of game time or something else, i.e. being thrown in a cell then having to break out), but I'm happy enough that I don't need to look over my shoulder every five seconds for that one enemy with that one uber-powerful attack... I sank quite a few hours into the game the first time I plugged it in precisely because there was no sudden break in the gameplay prompting me to check the clock- which, IMHO, is one of Fable 2's greatest accomplishments.

 

In case you couldn't tell, I'm with the camp that says "death" as such is an obsolete concept in a singleplayer game- we all know the player is going to reload the last save and play as if it hadn't happened anyway, so why force them to re-play whole sections of the game- which will, no matter how 'hardcore' the gamer, eventually frustrate and annoy- when you could introduce some other mechanic to substitute for death? Immersion is what makes a singleplayer game, especially an RPG, enjoyable for the vast majority of its players, and there is nothing in gaming that pops my suspension of disbelief faster than dying. The game is supposed to be a story, and when the main character dies the story ends- death and reloading a save being analogous to scrubbing out the last paragraph of a book and re-writing it every few minutes so you can go on reading. Hero being outnumbered, outmatched, and knocked on his/her arse as the Big Bad Monster closes in = dramatic tension. Hero being butchered and cutting to a loading screen = bad ending followed by denial.

 

9/10, and that's only because there are some minor issues- such as the occasional AI hanging up on a doorway, the dog occasionally trying to reach loot via an impassable barrier, the over-exaggerated expressions, etc. Nothing at all that would in any way keep this game from being worth every single penny of its price tag.

And I agree with this as well. It seems the developers have addressed (to varying degrees) some issues that have been at the very least nuisances in other games.