I find it extremely interesting to scroll down through the giant collage, seeing what other players have done with the main character from the game. Through the course of Fable II, the hero you create becomes a part of the game, to the point that when someone talks about the title you’re picturing your own hero in your head. Looking at what other people have created is almost like looking through windows into alternate realities.

Plus, it’s an excellent place to steal other peoples’ ideas and make them your own. I am totally recreating my hero to look like the Tim Schafer angel in the middle there.

Big Hero Gathering #4 [Fable II Development Blog]

A post by Sam Van Tilburgh on the Fable II development blog this morning reveals that Fable II avatar clothes are coming soon to an Xbox 360 near you. A package of Fable II clothing will be made available for purchase later this month, featuring various articles of game-related clothing you can purchase for “a few Microsoft points.” You can actually see a bit more of the Fable II gear in our post on Xbox 360 clothes and toys from last month.

A lot of people have been asking us in recent months about Fable II clothes for their Xbox360 avatar. Well, you’ll be happy to learn that we’ve got something coming your way! It’s not going to be a single shirt but a whole package of clothing! It will be available for a few Microsoft points from Marketplace at some stage this month… We’ve got one teaser image showing you a shirt, but there are boots, shirts and hats! No underwear though…

That’s okay Sam, we don’t wear underwear anyway.

Fable II Avatar Clothes are coming! [Fable 2 Development Blog]

Skate 2 turned up in the post yesterday. Considering my previous experiences with similar games – in a nutshell, utter failure at the two Tony Hawk games I’ve tried and an embarrassingly inept attempt to play Aggressive Inline – I’m not sure I have what it takes. It’s a genre I simply don’t understand. Which is a shame because I dig the idea. Any advice for getting my head around something like Skate 2?

Besides that, I’m still plugging away at Fable 2. I bought my first house yesterday, the delightfully named Manure Manor in Oakfield. I opted for renting it out rather than moving in, but I wanted to see who my tenants were so I wandered inside and tried to engage them in “conversation”. As I danced, whistled and feigned to attack the residents, they grew increasingly agitated at my invasion of their privacy. Eventually they ran outside and called the guards. I ran, too, straight out of town.

I also downloaded the trial version of The Maw off XBLA. A charming blend of Kirby and Katamari is probably the most precise description I can give it. The titular Maw eats things to absorb their characteristics, allowing you to utilise these abilities to solve environmental puzzles. Once the Maw reaches a certain size – Katamari-style – the level’s complete. It seems like the perfect time of year for this kind of short-but-sweet game. I may be tempted to grab the full version later today…

Fable 2 has finally clicked with me. The smartest move I made was not bothering to perform stupid gestures and pull ridiculous expressions for all those annoying villagers. With that tedium out of the way, I’m making steady progress. My heroine is focused on ranged attacks, so I’ve upgraded all her Skill abilities alongside Force Push. It seems to be working a treat.

In terms of the moral “choices”, I’ve found myself mostly doing good deeds, although my combination assassin/bandit outfit tends to scare people off. Which is fine since I don’t want to talk to them anyway.
The quest structure still confuses me: why do all these quests keep appearing in my log before I’ve even heard about them? How does my heroine know these quests even exist? It doesn’t make a lot of sense. And because the map is utterly worthless I’ve reluctantly turned the “breadcrumbs” on to its dimmest setting.
Later this morning I’m interviewing Dave Matthews from Monolith. We’ll be discussing F.E.A.R. 2, so if you’ve got any questions, let me know and I’ll try to ask them.
Finally, later tonight I plan to download The Maw on XBLA and give that a whirl. Anyone else picking it up?

Today I’m going on a date attending a F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin press event hosted by Monolith’s Dave Matthews (not this guy). (Wait, whaddya mean we’ve already done that joke?) I’m curious to see if it’s as scary as one of my colleagues claims and just how well the whole mech power armour stuff fits in. Oh, and whether Alma herself decides to make an appearance…

When I get back, in between writing up my F.E.A.R. 2 impressions, I’ll be jumping back into Albion to continue my Fable 2 adventures. One question on that before I go: is it at all possible to act neutrally or is it just a case of balancing your good deeds with evil ones?

I’m returning to Fable 2 this weekend. Sometime in October, just after finishing Fallout 3 and just before losing myself in Far Cry 2, I popped Fable 2 into my 360. And after spending an hour or so farting and laughing at the pathetic villagers in Bowerstone and hating myself for playing that bloody blacksmith mini-game, I popped it back out again and haven’t touched it since. I couldn’t get into it then, but now I’m determined to give it another chance. Any advice for me getting the most out of Fable 2?

Oh, and what are you playing today?

The new content will cost you 800 Microsoft Points and 500+ megs of hard disk space, but considering yesterday’s news there’s no way I can possibly avoid picking up Knothole Island. I’ve missed that little furry bastard far too much.

No, that’s not a spoiler. I call everybody furry little bastard.

Without spoiling more than I already have, a post over on the Fable II dev blog indicates that players disappointed by their particular ending can find solace at Knothole Island’s mysterious resurrection shrine.

Before you continue on, I warn you….this post could very well ruin the ending of Fable II for you, but it wouldn’t be my fault. Blame Sam Van Tilburgh over at the Fable 2 Development blog, who name checks us in the post where he draws readers’ attentions towards one particular bullet point on the Knothole Island page. “Unravel the mystical secrets of the resurrection shrine.” Now what could that possibly mean, Sam?

Now I’m not going to spoil Knothole Island for you either, so while I can’t really say a thing (or the infamous PR police will hunt me down and kill me to death), I think it’d be fair to say that you won’t be playing Knothole Island without a trusty friend on four legs….

I actually shed real tears of joy just now. Damn you, Molyneux.

The resurrection shrine in Knothole [Fable 2 Dev Blog]

In a way it is somewhat difficult to be really critical of a game which at least tries to implement a reasonably fleshed out moral system. Molyneux: “[In] Fable 2 there is much more colour to those choices: purity versus corruption, cruelty versus kindness, greed versus generosity. And then we play around with those moral choices. We want people to play as themselves rather than deciding to be good or evil.” The choices made are reflected in the player’s, the dog’s appearance, the world design and the way in which NPCs react to the main character. However, and this is my main problem with the game, it is not clear which ingame actions result in any of the world’s/NPC’s reactions …. Because there is a mix of major and minor moral decisions, it is not clear what the results of my actions are. My guess is that I took the game’s “good path”, because the city’s inhabitants seem to like me. But what made them like me? I don’t know. I raised prices 40 percent on all goods, I stole a lot of their stuff, I kicked a bunch of chickens all over the city square, and I married two women at the same time from the same town (one being a prostitute).

He goes on to offer three potential design decisions that would mitigate what he calls ‘gamer guilt’ — the desire to get through and really understand a game, without having to necessarily play through two campaigns. It’s a nice analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the morality system of Fable 2 and worth a read.

Morality and “Gamer Guilt” in Fable 2 [Valuable Games]

Have Lionhead been able to make good or bad of the Xbox 360 exclusive sequel? Our nearly epic journey of love and hatred tells the tale.

Loved
Puts The ‘R’ And ‘P’ In RPG: Fable II’s core story line may not be as memorable as other, more traditional role-playing games — it’s rather forgettable over the course of the journey — but it’s the tertiary activities, interactions and experiences that make your first (and second) play-through such a treat. During my first slog through, I stuck to my habitual good-guy guns, keeping my purity high and my hands clean, making lifestyle choices similar to my own. On the second? I was a prick, hassling villagers, raising prices on goods, aligning myself with gypsies, thieves and bandits. The actual playing is fun, with a simple, mostly intuitive combat mechanic.

Have ‘A’ Button, Will Travel: Getting around Albion is a breeze. Jumping from quest to job to whatever sale may be running can be accomplished by quickly teleporting to your desired location. The helpful golden breadcrumb trail that leads to your destination ensures you’re almost never lost.

If ‘X’, Then ‘Y’: Fable II feels less like your playing a numbers game, managing an Excel spreadsheet or rolling the dice. When you have moments of doing bad, meaning to lead an honorable existence, you’ll feel the effects. Some of the more averse effects may be puzzling though — even though I’m running hundreds of miles and battling scores of hobbes and bandits, a couple of pies a week make me a fat-arse? Really?

Man’s BFF: Your ever present canine companion is a welcome aid, locating hidden treasure, fighting alongside you in battle, ever present throughout the decades-long journey. Not once does the pup ever utter a grating “Hey! Listen!!” but rarely did I ever feel any of the much touted attachment to the beast.

EZ Money: Earning gold through the buying up of real estate and businesses makes experimenting with new equipment and keeping your supplies well stocked painless. Even the more mundane jobs, like chopping wood or tending bar have high pay outs. Even better, they’re unusually addictive.

Hated
Sluggish Interface, Useless Maps: Fable II’s menu interface for using items and upgrading your hero is slow to load and sluggish to navigate. Dealing with quests is easy enough, but It makes upgrading your skills and your dog’s abilities frustrating. Even in-game, interacting with characters and signs can be annoying. Furthermore, regional maps are difficult to decipher and border on useless, thanks to Fable II’s other navigation options.

Emotional Detachment: Finding a spouse involves little more than a chain of dancing, flexing and farting in front of the Albionite of your choice. As long as you have a decent ring and a bed, you’ll be the proud owner of a “loving” family. There’s no depth to the characters closest to you and little emotional investment in anything other your dog.

-10% Attractiveness: An aversion to the deformed, knobby caricature stylings of Fable II may simply be personal preference. Being unable to make out what exactly it is I’m fighting much of the time due to enemy and environment design? Not so much.

All The Small Things: Lionhead may have created a massive world rife with possibilities, but there’s a noticeable lack of polish applied to Fable II. Clipping, frequent loading and save screens, interrupted audio and an unstable frame rate all serve to hamper the experience. We might’ve been better off without the clumsy cooperative modes altogether.

There’s an astounding amount of stuff to do in Fable II, one of the reasons it’s so hard to put the controller down even after a all-night session of adventuring. The constant drip of new experience, new items, new side quests, new characters to interact with makes the game feel massive in its depth. At times, Fable II may even feel like its out-pacing the player, as the heaping pile of options, while gently stacked upon you, quickly becomes mountainous.

What Fable II does manage to get right is its balance of action, adventure and role-playing, all of which is presented to the player in a manner that should appeal to those of us who may not be fans of console-style role-playing games. Fable II feels like a game where Lionhead may have bitten off more than it could ever possibly chew, yet again. Regardless of the promises made, Fable II is still a feast for the player.

Fable II was developed by Lionhead Studios, published by Microsoft Game Studios. Retails for $US59.99. Completed single-player story, tested coop, and later revisited the game to play through with alternate choices.

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