With E3’s closing, gamers have a ton to talk about. A new Mickey Mouse game, a Kirby game (yay!) and, my personal favourite: Fable III’s release in October (see the trailer here).
I immensely enjoyed the first two Fable games, and saw a vast improvement between the first (released in 2004) and the second (2008). As announced at E3, the third game will see an amp-up in graphics (though Fable II was absolutely stunning, the third looks even more dazzling and detailed) and a huge change in gameplay.
First of all, Peter Molyneux, the game’s creator, promises a “more memorable story” than the one in Fable II. This makes me wonder just how crazy this dude is – I remember Fable II’s story quite well, and, in fact, cried so hard during the end of that game that I ran out of Kleenex (“A Perfect Day” ring any bells?). I loved the stories in both of the previous games, though Fable III’s story sounds pretty enticing: You play as the son/daughter of your Fable II character and set out to overthrow your brother, the evil king of Albion. Once you’ve overthrown him, you become the ruler – and this is where the moral choice stuff (one of my absolute favourite parts of the game) hugely comes into play. Will you be mobbed in the streets with adoring subjects, or the target of assassination plots? (I’m leaning towards the latter – evil always equals way more fun.)
Though the whole ruling-Albion-with-an-iron-fist part of the game sounds pretty cool, I’m also really interested in the first half. Rather than gaining experience points (as you did in the first two games), players gain followers. You start the game with three, and once you’ve amassed 300,000, it’s time to overthrow the king. “Followers” seem to be similar to “fame” points like in other games – for example, once you’ve completed a great act of heroism, you gain a number of new followers. Getting married, divorced, having kids and owning property also have an effect on your number of followers.
Another really cool thing about Fable III is the weapon evolution system. Weapons evolve to suit your character, depending on how you use them: long, flourished attacks cause your sword to grow in length, while quick attacks could slowly morph your sword into a dagger. Ranged and magic items will also be customized in a similar fashion. According to Shacknews, “Eventually, a weapon will be so customized that it will take your name, forever branded with your influence” – holy troggs, I’m excited!
Anyone remember co-op from Fable II? No? That’s because it sucked. I tried it once and immediately got extremely frustrated with being locked into a screen with my boyfriend (who likes to take the lead in video games). We never tried it again. Apparently Fable III has changed all that: your buddy comes into your world (via Xbox Live) and can go off on their own, get a job, do quests – whatever they like. My favourite part? Molyneux says: “You can marry your co-op buddy. You can have sex with your co-op buddy - sorry, Americans - you can have children with your co-op buddy.” Awesome.
Now, bear in mind that Peter Molyneux is famous for his huge promises that he (unfortunately) often fails to deliver upon. All of these cool-sounding features of the third Fable installment are definitely cause for excitement, but perhaps it makes sense to keep expectations at a moderate level.
Fable III is set to be released on Oct. 26, 2010, giving fans a few months to play through Fable II again - your Fable III world will be linked to your world from the second one, so you may want to have a few save files to see how being good or evil in Fable II affects the world in III. Fable III is being released for the PC and Xbox. I will be playing it on the Xbox to bask in the glory of Albion on the big screen!
Information from this Shacknews article.
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