Fable has arrived...

[Reaver]

Well, I finally got my mitts on Fable. I work nights, so today when I woke up at 2:30PM I immediately got dressed and drove down to the local Gamestop where I'd preordered it months ago. When I pulled up they had a sign on the door that said they wouldn't have the game in until 5PM - 6PM. I went and said, "You have got to be shittin' me." They were like, "Oh, yeah, well, um..." but I'd already turned around and stormed out. I was mad. On the drive back to the house I called Best Buy, and they had it, then I called a local EBGames, and they also had it. But, it really wasn't worth my time to go get my money back and then go somewhere else, so I just went home and worked out. After an hour and a half of that, then a shower, I called Gamestop and asked if they had it available. They did, so I sped off, picked up my copy with plenty of evil glances cast about, then sped home to play what I'd waited years to get. Was it worth it?

So far, yes. I've only played it for a few hours (I had to go to work, grumble grumble), but what I've seen so far has been great. I love the music, the voice work, the lush graphics, the environments, textures, and especially the gameplay. Combat is so simple and yet so satisfying. I can't wait to get locked in some epic battles. It feels like a combination of an RPG and an adventure game, not fully either yet with the best of both. Really cool stuff.

Anyway, I'll post more as I play more. What are your thoughts?

[Astrakan]

I, too, will post more later as I'm only a few hours into the game as well. I just wanted to chime in with something that at first concerned me. For the first little bit of the game there's a lot of handholding and limitations imposed upon you. This is basically just there while the backstory is being told/played. Once you get past that everything is hunky dory and the game really shines.

Can't write more. Gotta go play.

KM

[MooglePorn]

Hmmmm... Gamespot never called me... I guess I'll go down there when I wake up. Can't freakin' wait!

[Frank Gunn]

Originally Posted by MooglePorn

Hmmmm... Gamespot never called me...

Come on, Moog. What's another day or two?

[MooglePorn]

Originally Posted by Frank Gunn

Come on, Moog. What's another day or two?

Yes, and I just acted SO upset...

Anyway, I picked it up today and played a good bit... made it through the training. The game seems great... combat is excellent, freedom is so far only "good", but I figure after training it goes way up... I already know I want to be a bad ass magician... Check back after I play more.

[billyslits]

Played a little bit this afternoon and just got past the training. So far I'm pretty satisfied with the game. I just got to the first town after the training and I'm looking forward to exploiting all the freedom this game offers.

As a side note, I had some problems getting this game to play in 480p on my television. It seems to have some problem communicating to the Xbox itself that the game should be displayed in 480p. It loads up but doesn't snap into the proper resolution.

If you're having this problem there is a way to force the game into 480p. On the dashboard, you hold in the two triggers, click down on the joysticks and then load the game. This forces the dashboard into 480p and causes the game to load in that resolution.

It's kind of a pain but it works.

[Reaver]

Huh, I didn't have the progressive scan problem at all. Weird...

[Sycowulf]

Originally Posted by billyslits

As a side note, I had some problems getting this game to play in 480p on my television. It seems to have some problem communicating to the Xbox itself that the game should be displayed in 480p. It loads up but doesn't snap into the proper resolution.

If you're having this problem there is a way to force the game into 480p. On the dashboard, you hold in the two triggers, click down on the joysticks and then load the game. This forces the dashboard into 480p and causes the game to load in that resolution.

It's kind of a pain but it works.

Thats interesting, I had a guy come to work to return an xbox (a pretty green Halo edition xbox nonetheless) with that problem, he swapped it out, and then went home, and the second one did the same thing... We gave him back his green one after that of course But thanks for the info, ill definitely have to remember that.

[MooglePorn]

This game's addicting as all hell. I was up until 4 in the morning killing bandits and raiding the farm... I'm already getting a slight "sickly" look to me I think, since all I'm using is Magic... I try to never use anything else. With the great spells this game has, and the ability to build your mana bar up fast, I don't really need to...

Is anyone fishing? I've already caught a ton of cool shit like life bar enhancers, mana bar enhancers, trophy fish, potions, etc... There's so much shit to do, anyone saying the game is short is definately rushing through it... I'm at 5 hours and have only done the first couple quests...

[jmoney]

My "pre-order" from outpost.com is still back-ordered.

I don't really have too much time to play, with classes having started but it still just pisses me off.

[Sycho]

Originally Posted by Sycowulf

Thats interesting, I had a guy come to work to return an xbox (a pretty green Halo edition xbox nonetheless) with that problem, he swapped it out, and then went home, and the second one did the same thing... We gave him back his green one after that of course But thanks for the info, ill definitely have to remember that.

see http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...hreadid=446444

[sub780lime]

i have a choice, its between this game, battlefront and burnout 3. i think im leaning toward battlefront because right now i dont have the time to invest in such a involved game, i may wait until christmas or next summer

[Frank Gunn]

Is 'Fable' a good girl's game? Are the controls difficult? Do you die a lot? Is it really really complicated?

[MooglePorn]

To answer some questions...

1. It's not really THAT complicated... more like Zelda with some added life simulation... It's nowhere near the depth of Morrowind really, with tons of factions and races and shit to memorize, plus millions of quests and factions to join... it's much more basic. The most complicated thing I've done is get married, and basically that was just "flirt expression, flirst expression, give gift, flirt expression, propose". The biggest innovation the game offers is that how you are percieved heavily impacts the way people treat you... but I wouldn't call it "complicated".

2. The controls are basically the same as the newer Zelda games with only the added stuff like "expression" and "gifts". Those aren't really that hard to manage, it's just another menu to deal with. Basically, you assign them to directions on the pad, hold "R" down, and then hit the direction on the pad... Done deal.

3. I haven't died at all, but I'm not sure that means it's easy. It's not especially hard either...

4. A girl's game? Once again I'll compare it to Zelda, since I think you need to like the basic premise of the game to enjoy it, and the basic premise is action RPG. Also, you can modify your appearance a lot, but you can't be a girl.

At the moment I am married and on the good side... I didn't actively try to be good or evil, it just sort of ended up this way. I'm up the the "Dark Wood", which sounded like a place to put off to tomorrow...

[KSC2-303]

I just finished the game. Ultimately, it was disappointing.

If it wasn't called Fable, I'd give it a 6.5-7 out of 10.

Since it is called Fable though, I'd give it a 4 out of 10.

5 years in development makes me think they spent 4 years figuring out how to have sex without being obscene.

Pros:
+ Great music, sound effects, visuals, etc.
+ Extremely well done experience system
+ Lots of side quests/mini-games
+ Intuitive controls that can be customized to your needs

Cons:
- Story an afterthought
- Social interaction and business hollow experience
- Side quests are extremely repetitive (Go kill a bunch of guys, go escort this guy to this place, go rescue that guy, etc)
- Extremely short, especially for an RPG (I beat it in roughly 11 hours. I did do some sidequests, but skipped many due to how repetitive they sounded. Variety isn't "Kill bandits, defend guards" or "kill guards, defend bandits")
- Many glitches
- Horrible item system: no real equipment/weapon customization to give a unique feel
- Unbalanced evil/good points (getting divorced is more evil than killing your wife, provided you can kill her and not run into a glitch)

I guess the biggest complaint I have about Fable is what I was promised that wasn't delivered. I was hoping to be able to run my own business. Buying products for cheap, selling for my own decided markup. I wanted to be able to have my own flower shop if I felt like it, get married, have a kid, etc. I was hoping that killing a family full of children in the middle of the townsquare would get me pretty much banned from the community and ostracized by the surrounding areas. All I got was a hefty fine and a few evil points that had so little effect I was only 2 bars (out of 7) away from being perfect good.

I got a game that claims to be free of linearity but is nothing of the sorts. It's like a poor man's Morrowind, replacing the millions of lines of text with constantly repeated sound files.

To be honest, when you really, REALLY look at it, Fable offers nothing that Final Fantasy or any other major RPG line hasn't offered beforehand.

Don't mistake poorly linear social interaction, a few tacked on mini-games, and a bucketload of repetitive side quests as "open ended gameplay".

[MooglePorn]

You expected too much, and that's your problem. Many people thought this was going to be even more open-ended and realistic than Morrowind, which is certainly not the case, but it's still a fucking great game. Judge it by it's merits, not what you expected it to be, and you'll find that while far from the next brilliant revolution, Fable is ultimately at least a GREAT RPG.

Point for point...

Originally Posted by KSC2-303

If it wasn't called Fable, I'd give it a 6.5-7 out of 10.
Since it is called Fable though, I'd give it a 4 out of 10.

Either one is being silly. This game is an 8 at least, very easily. Most "customer reviews" have it in the 9's.

Originally Posted by KSC2-303

Cons:
- Story an afterthought

Well, I'm not at a point where there's a real story yet... so far it's basically "you live here and do either good deeds or bad ones"... Is that a fault? Maybe, but I'm assuming the story picks up later in the game, and even if it doesn't, one fault won't kill it.

Originally Posted by KSC2-303

- Social interaction and business hollow experience

How so? I'm digging it... I'm a powerful magic guy, so people call me "master"... I'm attractive so the girls like me.... I'm good, so people clap when I come to town. You actually have to try to get women to fall in love with you, people to follow you, etc. I think it's groovy, but again, not the depth you expected.

Originally Posted by KSC2-303

- Side quests are extremely repetitive (Go kill a bunch of guys, go escort this guy to this place, go rescue that guy, etc)

And Morrowind really offered something more? Are you kidding? That game was even MORE repetitive. I don't really find Fable to be bad in this way at all... it's a hack n' slash RPG, of course that's what I'll be doing most of the time...

Originally Posted by KSC2-303

- Extremely short, especially for an RPG (I beat it in roughly 11 hours. I did do some sidequests, but skipped many due to how repetitive they sounded. Variety isn't "Kill bandits, defend guards" or "kill guards, defend bandits")

You rished through it, I guess because you didn't like it, but you still rushed through it. I'm at 10 hours and I just finished the Dar Wood for the first time, with the escort quest. I know I have a LOT left to go...

Originally Posted by KSC2-303

- Many glitches

I haven't had one single glitch problem.

Originally Posted by KSC2-303

- Horrible item system: no real equipment/weapon customization to give a unique feel

What do you mean by this? You can certainly customize your look with all the different clothes they offer... and you can certainly customize your weapon with the jewels they give you... Once again, you're basing everything one comparing the game to morrowind, which you should not do.

Originally Posted by KSC2-303

I guess the biggest complaint I have about Fable is what I was promised that wasn't delivered.

I don't really pay attention to previews until right before the game comes out, so I don't know what they promised you... but this is a damn fine game... judge it on what it is.

Originally Posted by KSC2-303

I got a game that claims to be free of linearity but is nothing of the sorts. It's like a poor man's Morrowind, replacing the millions of lines of text with constantly repeated sound files.

The repeating sounds can be annoying, but no more so than the city folk in GTA3. You're still comparing the game to Morrowind! Stop! It's nothing like Morrowind!!! It's more like a Zelda game, with lots of depth added to it... It's not what you want because you want it to be something it isn't meant to be. Don't take this long as hell reply with any malice or anything man, I'm just a big fan of this game so far, as are many, and I wanted to stand up and defend it I guess. 95% of the gamefaqs board is very happy with it, and most of those who aren't do nothing but compare it to Morrowind, a game it is nothing like. Compare it to Zelda and your score will go way up... promise.

[KSC2-303]

Originally Posted by MooglePorn

You expected too much, and that's your problem. Many people thought this was going to be even more open-ended and realistic than Morrowind, which is certainly not the case, but it's still a fucking great game. Judge it by it's merits, not what you expected it to be, and you'll find that while far from the next brilliant revolution, Fable is ultimately at least a GREAT RPG.

I'm not judging it on what was expected, but that is part of the disappoint that is impossible to not address.

Comparing it to what was promised, it's an utter failure.

Comparing it to what else is available (Suikoden, Final Fantasy, SW: KOTOR), it's mediocre.

Either one is being silly. This game is an 8 at least, very easily. Most "customer reviews" have it in the 9's.

I never trust customer reviews, because 95% of them are bullshit. Fanboys giving a game a perfect score 6 months before it comes out, and people giving it 1s because "they know it's gonna suck".

IGN rates almost any good game as a 9+. Why? Because "sound" and "presentation" collectively have more weight in the final score than "gameplay", which is fucked in my mind. With the IGN scoring system, a game can still get a very high score with broken controls, a messed up camera, and horribly uneven gameplay, as long as it looks and sounds pretty (Doom 3 is a technological feat, but plays the same as Doom 1 nearly 10 years ago).

Well, I'm not at a point where there's a real story yet... so far it's basically "you live here and do either good deeds or bad ones"... Is that a fault? Maybe, but I'm assuming the story picks up later in the game, and even if it doesn't, one fault won't kill it.

The fault is they begin to tell a story and then just quit. They tell you so little about your family except "your blood is the key". Wow. Talk about the easy way out.

Hell, they tell you absolutely nothing about the main villian until you're basically at the end of the game trying to stop him.

The "you can be good or evil" motif isn't an excuse for bad storytelling, especially when you can be nicer than Jesus Christ and then do something evil at the end to get a different "evil" ending.

How so? I'm digging it... I'm a powerful magic guy, so people call me "master"... I'm attractive so the girls like me.... I'm good, so people clap when I come to town. You actually have to try to get women to fall in love with you, people to follow you, etc. I think it's groovy, but again, not the depth you expected.

Actually, it's almost all based on renoun, a statistic which inevitably goes up. You can't lose it.

Or maybe it's the title, which you can buy at a store and people will call you that (You could have the lowest scariness and highest attractiveness with the title "arseface" if you wanted.)

Did you know you can't even fail in this game? Meaning if you chose a side mission, fail, you have to keep doing it until you win? I would have prefered a failure to count against your renoun and fame.

It would have been nice to walk down the street and been like "Why are you here? Aren't you supposed to be tripping over your own two feet running away from bandits, you coward?". Hell, I could literally kill an entire family in a town, in front of everyone, pay the fine, and then be welcomed back with arms wide open.

And Morrowind really offered something more? Are you kidding? That game was even MORE repetitive. I don't really find Fable to be bad in this way at all... it's a hack n' slash RPG, of course that's what I'll be doing most of the time...

Morrowind allowed you join an guild, and faction, anything you wanted and treated you as such. The only choices you have in Fable are "good" or "evil" (relative terms since you can kill an entire town full of people and still be considered good), and if you want to help bandits or townspeople/traders.

You rished through it, I guess because you didn't like it, but you still rushed through it. I'm at 10 hours and I just finished the Dar Wood for the first time, with the escort quest. I know I have a LOT left to go...

That's the thing. I didn't rush through it. A lot of people on Penny-arcade.com forums took their sweet time like I did and STILL beat it in less or slightly more time than I did.

Did I do every side quest to milk the time I played? No.

Why? Because I don't need to play 50 escort sidequests to realize 1 is more than enough.

I haven't had one single glitch problem.

You will. In towns where you can't carry weapons, no one can be killed. So I trapped someone in a building, cornered them, and punched them, gaining +1 evil for every 3 or so punches (which is nothing) while gaining bucketloads of experience which would only end when I quit. So right there is an infinite melee experience bug.

Or you can go into a town where you CAN kill people and find out some people can't be killed. I tried to clear out Oakvale only to find out the fight club leader can't be killed (All hits acted like fist hits, which can't kill).

You'll find them. That is, unless you stick to the completely linear poorly told storyline or the repetitive side quests.

What do you mean by this? You can certainly customize your look with all the different clothes they offer... and you can certainly customize your weapon with the jewels they give you... Once again, you're basing everything one comparing the game to morrowind, which you should not do.

For every weapon type, there are 5 total classes: iron < steel < obsidian < master < legendary.

For 4 of those, you can add 8 different augmentations (legendary weapons come with some augmentations and can't have any others added).

That's not weapon variety. Jesus Christ, how many different combinations of weapon could you have in FF7 which was what, 7 years ago? Or FF10 even more recently? Or Suikoden 1, 2 or 3 for that matter?

For an open-ended game where you could do anything, I guess blacksmithing isn't one of them.

I don't really pay attention to previews until right before the game comes out, so I don't know what they promised you... but this is a damn fine game... judge it on what it is.

I did judge it on what it is.

It's a poor man's FF replacing action hack-and-slash instead of turn based combat.

The repeating sounds can be annoying, but no more so than the city folk in GTA3. You're still comparing the game to Morrowind! Stop! It's nothing like Morrowind!!! It's more like a Zelda game, with lots of depth added to it... It's not what you want because you want it to be something it isn't meant to be. Don't take this long as hell reply with any malice or anything man, I'm just a big fan of this game so far, as are many, and I wanted to stand up and defend it I guess. 95% of the gamefaqs board is very happy with it, and most of those who aren't do nothing but compare it to Morrowind, a game it is nothing like. Compare it to Zelda and your score will go way up... promise.

If you followed the hype, I'd just say you're rationalizing.

I can't tell you how many people on the PA message boards are saying "Well, this isn't Peter Molyneux's game, he had nothing to do with it", etc, trying to defend all the shortcomings.

For every one person that says that, I can find 20 articles from reputable sources (news papers, video game websites and magazines) and quotes directly from PM's mouth that state elsewise.

After all, I wasn't the one who said Fable "will be the greatest RPG of all time". Peter Molyneux did.

I'll admit, if this game didn't take so fucking long (4 years) and wasn't hyped up as an evolution in video games, I'd probably have a sunnier outlook. But it was.

I knew it was going to fail in all the hype it generated because the hype it started was insane. They claimed each tree, EACH BLADE OF GRASS, could be remembered and grew with you in time (which one of the major features, aging in real time, was also removed).

If Ford promised their 2007 model cars would go faster than the speed of sound, hover in mid-air, and be completely self-navigated, it's safe to say Ford would and should get shit when they arrive and all they added were more colors.

As an action RPG, it's an ultimately mediocre at worst, above average at best game that is ultimately forgetable.

Pardon me for being bored with a game I've played better versions of before (Morrowind, Final Fantasy, Zelda).

[MooglePorn]

You say you aren't judging it by what was promised, but then you outright say you are... You continue to compare it to Morrowind and Final Fantasy, two games it is NOTHING like... You say I'm "rationalizing", but I didn't really know anything about the game until I read the IGN hands on preview, which the final game certainly matches... so what am I rationalizing?

The game is a Zelda game with some added sims-like features, end of story. I wouldn't call it "free roaming" and I wouldn't dare say it's "revolutionary", and if that's what was promised to you, I'm sorry. It sounds like a lot of shit they said it would do got dropped, and that's sad I guess. The point is, judged as a Zelda-like game, it kicks all kinds of fucking ass, and is probably the best Zelda-like game EVER, excluding Zelda itself.

[IKEA_boy]

Well... my dad can beat up your dad!

[Ruined]

Fable is a good game and there is really no game you can compare it to, which makes it a great buy just for that reason. It's unique and innovative, and also not perfect - though most games that are unique and innovative aren't perfect, thats just the nature of the beast.

[decorm]

Considering Peter Molyneux said that it would be "the greatest role-playing game of all time," I think anyone has a right to judge it by what was promised. I haven't played it so I cannot give my opinion on it.

[Ruined]

Originally Posted by decorm

Considering Peter Molyneux said that it would be "the greatest role-playing game of all time," I think anyone has a right to judge it by what was promised. I haven't played it so I cannot give my opinion on it.

I think "greatest" really depends on the individual. Many consider Zelda:OOT to be one of the greatest action/adventure games of all time, and it doesn't even crack my top 50. I, like others, want to devote some serious time to this game to really explore it before giving in depth comments. It very well make some "greatest" lists due to its unique nature.

[MooglePorn]

Originally Posted by IKEA_boy

Well... my dad can beat up your dad!

My Dad's dead...

Seriously, I'm not fighting... just trying to offer my opinion. I didn't want anyone to cancel their plans of purchasing Fable based on the low opinions presented above, because frankly they're the minority. I wanted to make sure everyone knew the game does in fact kick ass for most people who've bought it.

A lot of people DO complain about the length though, and since I haven't beaten it I cannot comment. All I know is I'm 90% sure I'm a far way from the end, and I've got 10 hours logged. If the game ends in another couple hours, then I'll agree it's way too short... if it goes on another 10, then it's fine with me, another 10 after that, then it's aces. Grand Theft Auto 3 can probably be beaten in 10 or 15 hours, but I've logged at least a 100 on it... Fable seems like something you can similarly rush through, but if you take your time and explore everything the game has to offer, it could take ten times as long.

[KSC2-303]

I'm not saying it's a bad game.

But I am saying if I paid $50 for it, I'd be very fucking disappointed.

If you've got money to piss away, by all means. But for those of us who only want to make good investments, it might not be the best decision to buy it blindly based on the hype and what you've read by people who've invested practically no time or simply refuse to see the flaws.

Moogle, you might disagree with my overall opinion, but do you disagree that:

- The social interaction system is completely hollow, based entirely on renoun? You can get married by waving to a stranger, giving them a bunch of gifts, then handing them a wedding ring, for Christ's sake. And what are there, maybe 5 wave files your wife says when you get married?

- All the side quests are pretty much the same: escort someone, go kill some people/a boss, rescue someone)

- The maps are extremely linear allowing for no deviation across it's narrow p