Fable review on IGN

[Troll]

hxxp://xbox.ign.com/articles/542/542632p1.html

[rufusjonz]

that sounds really cool, ps2 is starting to get dusted, hope they come out with ps3 soon -- put PC games rule anyway!

[Deattribution]

A roughly 25 hour RPG that none of the reviewers died once during hardly sounds like 'the greatest rpg ever', just like black and white was hardly 'the greatest game ever'.... Atleast it seems to have lived up to it's original title - Project Ego.

I'm sure it's solid - but Peter Molyneux is the king of over-hype.

[rufusjonz]

The Movies should be cool tho, for a while at least -- but i do agreee Molyneux is overrated -- SID MEIER and JIM GINDIN and the CM team rule

http://www.themoviesgame.com/home.html

[ISiddiqui]

Woo... I've been looking forward to this game and even though some stuff has been taken out, it looks great!

Oh, and it's 25 hours for the MAIN story, you can easily play 50-100 hours as the review said. And I didn't die once during Fallout, does that mean the game sucked? ;)

[Anthony]

what do you do in that Movies game?

[rufusjonz]

check out the link i posted...

you make movies then can trade and show them around

supposedly tons of options etc, but we'll see

has some sim/management stuff too, like how much your movies make etc

[mattwakeman]

A roughly 25 hour RPG that none of the reviewers died once during hardly sounds like 'the greatest rpg ever', just like black and white was hardly 'the greatest game ever'.... Atleast it seems to have lived up to it's original title - Project Ego.

I'm sure it's solid - but Peter Molyneux is the king of over-hype.

Absolutely. But even wiht the reception of Fable (no doubt the next project to emerge from him (Movies? Studios? whatever its called) will still be gasped at in awe.

Must be like money for old rope. Just promise the world and let the headlines write themselves...

[tucker342]

A roughly 25 hour RPG that none of the reviewers died once during hardly sounds like 'the greatest rpg ever', just like black and white was hardly 'the greatest game ever'.... Atleast it seems to have lived up to it's original title - Project Ego.

I'm sure it's solid - but Peter Molyneux is the king of over-hype.
Ya, 25 hrs if you ONLY play through the main story line.

[Blackadar]

Sounds good, but not great. NP, I'll wait on a couple of other reviews, but right now I'm expecting to buy it.

[Troll]

I bought an X-Box for this game and now that it comes out my X-Box is broke. Just my luck, oh well, it was the only game that could have made me pay 100 to get it fixed, however in that review it doesn't sound worth $150 dollars.

[ISiddiqui]

no doubt the next project to emerge from him (Movies? Studios? whatever its called) will still be gasped at in awe.

Because unlike 99.9% of the developers out there, Molyneux actually tries to do something new and groundbreaking. Sometimes it isn't as groundbreaking as he hoped, but he tries new things. And even those which are considered 'flops' are still great games (like 'Black and White').

[Blackadar]

Black and White was NOT a great game. It was a great idea. It was a horrid game.

[mattwakeman]

Because unlike 99.9% of the developers out there, Molyneux actually tries to do something new and groundbreaking. Sometimes it isn't as groundbreaking as he hoped, but he tries new things. And even those which are considered 'flops' are still great games (like 'Black and White').

I take what you are saying, I mean just look at the number of games that are being released which have a number in the title. Way too many. But my problem with Molyneux is not that he doesnt create good (or even great like Populous) games but that what he makes just doesn't ever live up to the hype which he generates. If B&W had simply been released onto the public then there is a really good chance that we would all have gone 'Wow, what a great game' whereas we a lot of people went 'Oh...why isn't it as good as he said it was going to be?'.

I would hate to think that ideas are being stifled but too much hype just increases the level of frustration and makes it more likely that companies release games for which they know that a market (even of a limited size) exists for it. Maybe games have just become their own worst enemies and now take so much money to create that originality is just too great a risk.

[Samdari]

Black and white was groundbreaking, just not fun to play.

[Calis]

Molyneux made Syndicate...for that alone he will always be loved. ;)

Black & White was awesome for the first 20 minutes until you realized how tedious the gameplay was.

I actually have more faith in Fable being good than I did before after reading this. Mostly because it sounds more believable.

[kingfc22]

Woo... I've been looking forward to this game and even though some stuff has been taken out, it looks great!

Oh, and it's 25 hours for the MAIN story, you can easily play 50-100 hours as the review said. And I didn't die once during Fallout, does that mean the game sucked? ;)
Fallout. My favorite RPG that I've ever played. I'm a sports gamer mainly, but I got hooked from day 1 and played and beat all 3.

[Anthony]

also, i don't think they died all game because they were just trying to breeze through the game and be able to report on as much content as possible. there wouldn't be much of a review if they wrote a couple paragraphs that essentially said "we'd have love to have reviewed more of the game - except there was this one part we kept dying in that we wasted all our time trying to get past". reviewers don't really play the game as you and i would - they breeze through it.

[sterlingice]

Oh, and it's 25 hours for the MAIN story, you can easily play 50-100 hours as the review said. And I didn't die once during Fallout, does that mean the game sucked? ;) You must be one of those people that things Fallout is the greatest thing ever because it's open ended.

Molyneux made Syndicate...for that alone he will always be loved. ;)
HEY! I liked Syndicate! http://dynamic2.gamespy.com/%7Efof/forums/images/smilies/cool.gif

As for Fable, sounds like fun but not breathtakingly cool and I couldn't help but get the impression from the reviewer that he was trying to convince himself the game was as good as he claimed it was (lines like "For this review, I'm doing my best to adopt that attitude, one that looks at Fable not as it was supposed to be, but as it is", "Fable's story is serviceable, but not extraordinary, which is really what keeps it from the upper-echelon of role-playing games", " Though I'm a bit down on the optional quest structure and the ease of Fable, I do think that the overall story quests are very well paced and entertaining. I just plain love playing Fable despite its fault.", etc).

Then again, I've never been a huge fan of open-ended RPGs. I prefer story-driven RPGs but those seem to be falling out of fashion. Still, I love his line about how the character seems like yours from the start rather than renting out someone elses. That's certainly an aspect of the game I'd enjoy. Still, it's not at the first games I'll buy for an X-Box when I eventually get one a year or two into next generation.

SI

[TargetPractice6]

I like open-ended RPGs, but I never got what the big fuss over Fable was all about. It seemed like it could be okay, but never got me excited.

[Schmidty]

What's the big deal? Unlike PC games, you can just rent this. If it sucks, don't buy. Who fucking cares.

[Calis]

HEY! I liked Syndicate!

Heh, I was actually being serious...Syndicate is one of my favorite games. Never really played anything like it since. Great times.

[kingnebwsu]

IGN is so predictable in their review scores. Many times they're the first to review the game and almost every time I'm able to predict their score within a few tenths of what it really is. I guessed 9.2 for Fable, and they gave it a 9.3. They overrate many games (DOA Volleyball is a 9.2!!!), yet they're the biggest gaming site on the net.

Just assume you should subtract at least something from most of their review scores to get what a game really is.

[Troll]

IGN is so predictable in their review scores. Many times they're the first to review the game and almost every time I'm able to predict their score within a few tenths of what it really is. I guessed 9.2 for Fable, and they gave it a 9.3. They overrate many games (DOA Volleyball is a 9.2!!!), yet they're the biggest gaming site on the net.

Just assume you should subtract at least something from most of their review scores to get what a game really is.

based on what he actually said in the review i'm guessing that you are right this time. sounds very average, although i'm more of a turn based/strategy rpg fan unless it is multiplayer. Too bad they dropped the multiplayer parts.

[ISiddiqui]

But my problem with Molyneux is not that he doesnt create good (or even great like Populous) games but that what he makes just doesn't ever live up to the hype which he generates.

It's not entirely his fault. He isn't the tight lipped developer that most are. He'll tell anyone what the team is HOPING to do. Unfortunetly, it'll come out as an 'expected feature' by some media pub.

I do agree though that is what hurt "Black and White". If the media hadn't ran away with it, we'd be praising it right now.

You must be one of those people that things Fallout is the greatest thing ever because it's open ended.

Not entirely. Fallout had a wonderful story, great NPC interaction, with very in depth dialogue, fun combat, AND was open ended. It's one thing that draws me to it out of many. And yes, I do much more prefer open ended RPGs to follow the line RPGs.

Just assume you should subtract at least something from most of their review scores to get what a game really is.

TeamXbox rates it a 9.1, saying it ain't perfect, but definetly worth the wait. It seems from both reviews, I'd agree.. but I hope it doesn't suffer "Since it didn't live up entirely to the hype, it sucks" syndrome.

[Ryno]

I can't remember many games that I've anticipated more. I've read five or six previews about it and all of them have been pretty glowing. I didn't know about the project until about a month ago, so the hype never really affected me.

As I understand it, instead of having difficulty levels, the quest is the same for everyone. There are boasts you can choose before the quest that makes it more difficult, such as completing without getting hit. If someone were to play on the base level the entire game, it wouldn't be too hard to imagine getting through it without being killed. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

Even if the game doesn't live up to its hype, I really like the direction that this game is taking the genre.

[TargetPractice6]

Even if the game doesn't live up to it's hype, I really like the direction that this game is taking the genre. Erm, which direction is that?

[ISiddiqui]

The customization of character for one. Having scars showing up, your character displaying signs of his good and evil choices, tatoos which have historical meaning, etc. Second how actions affect people's responses to you. While other games have had 'reputation' it only affected a few important people in every town. In this game everyone in town knows of your reputation and on seeing you acts accordingly.

[Ryno]

I guess I shouldn't say definitively until the game is released, but based on what I'm hearing, everything that you do in the game matters.

It builds upon what I really liked about Dungeon Siege. Your experience is allocated to the skill that is used.

Also, instead of chosing to be chaotic good at the beginning of the game, your actions shape your disposition (and appearance) accordingly.

I also like the open-ended nature of it.

[Anthony]

i don't like games where you have to do the same action over and over in order to build up that skill.

in Star Wars Galaxies if you wanted to be a droid maker you had to stand by a work station and craft all day long in order to build up your crafting skills while everyone got to run around shooting shit up and killing baddies.

so instead of just being able to go where ever the fun is at - you're limited to one aspect of the game at a time in order to build up a specific skill.

i don't like that.

[hukarez]

Forgot what boards I was cruising around, when I came across this link:

http://boards.bigbluebox.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=13876
Interesting read, at the least.

[Coop]

The game looks like fun...i can't wait to play it as a evil guy and a good guy. If you guys view the gamespot pics you can see how much the character can change(i think it's them who has the before and after). It's pretty damn sweet.

[Eaglesfan27]

New review of Fable up on Gamespot:

http://www.gamespot.com/xbox/rpg/fable/review.html?q=1&tag=gs_xbox_flashtop_story

They gave it an 8.6 and wrote an interesting fairly lengthy review that only adds to my anticipation for the game.

Edited: Actually, it doesn't add, but it doesn't detract from my anticipation.

[Samdari]

Anyone get this yet?

I picked it up on the way home, and it will not play in 480p mode. There are threads all over the net complaining about this. I cannot believe Microshaft f*cked this one up so bad.

[mgadfly]

Has anyone got this for the XBox?

[Tigercat]

Its only out for the XBOX. Got it today, getting ready to play it for the first time right now, will post some thoughts later tonight.

[Tigercat]

Didn't get as far as I would like, so I am not sure how much info I can give on the game. I would compare it to Morrowind, since that is the standard in RPGs on XBOX. Fable's environment is slightly more, hmm, cartoony(?) than Morrowind is. It is still a beautiful done game, but some of the characters, enemies, and backgrounds just have a feel like they are a cross between Morrowind and Kingdom hearts. (Not that there is really anything wrong with it.) The openness reminds me a little more of the first Bulder's Gate than Morrowind. Smaller game world with locations that are very plot driven. You don't get the same feeling that you can go whereever you want.

The controls are very smooth. Fighting is very enjoyable. The expressions are interesting, farting is your best friend if you don't want people to bug you. Interacting with other charcters is lots of fun.

Warning: don't kick too many chickens early in the game unless you want to be called a "chicken chaser" later. I mean, damn, I kick a few chickens as a child, and suddenly i am "the chicken chaser" as an adult? I can't wait till I earn enough money to buy a new title, I am not sure how long I can tolerate my character being called that. But hey, Rocky was a chicken chaser, eh?

[sterlingice]

Warning: don't kick too many chickens early in the game unless you want to be called a "chicken chaser" later. I mean, damn, I kick a few chickens as a child, and suddenly i am "the chicken chaser" as an adult? I can't wait till I earn enough money to buy a new title, I am not sure how long I can tolerate my character being called that. But hey, Rocky was a chicken chaser, eh?
If I had a picture from Link to the Past with the chickens attacking Link, it would be posted here.

SI

[ISiddiqui]

Got it yesterday! I really like it so far. The presentation is top notch. The graphics are great (I especially like that birds fly away when you run up behind them). I've just reached adulthood and will go on my first quest the next time I play. It seems to me, Tigercat, that even though the quests locations would be very plot driven, that after you do it, you can just wander around the country-side. The map looked very open to that. In fact I plan on doing it after the first adult quest.

Unfortunetly it seems all the girls in the guild don't look to favorably on a guy wearing a villager outfit... even when he wants to flirt with them. Ah well, maybe later on :D.