f13.net forums - Fable Gone Gold

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July 23, 2025, 05:34:21 AM

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August 24, 2004 - In development for nearly five years, Fable is finally finished. Today on its website, developer Lionhead let it be known that Fable has gone gold. This means that the long-awaited RPG is done.

Gimme gimme gimme now now now!!!!

Quote from: Morphiend

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Gimme gimme gimme now now now!!!!

Oh noes. Social life just hit rockbottom in terms of priorities.

Giddyup! Of course, it will probably hit the shelf the same week I am going to Tahoe. Bollocks.

I wish I had an X-Box and time.

-L

Quote from: WayAbvPar

Giddyup! Of course, it will probably hit the shelf the same week I am going to Tahoe. Bollocks.

Heh, I think I'm getting fired next week, so I might have lots of time.

I have time, and XBox and I pre-ordered. Of course it's been so long since I've played anything at all, I may no longer be interested in games.

Gratz to WayAbvPar on the new word. It's spiffy.

Pre-ordered. Comes with a DVD for some reason. Stupid non pr0n DVDs.

So Team Xbox and IGN have their Fable reviews up. TX gives it a 9.1 and IGN gives it a 9.3.

For those of you who don't want to bother with reading all those words, here's the closing comments of TX and IGN.

Quote from: Team Xbox

So was Fable worth the four year wait? Most definitely. Will the game come under heavy criticism for its short length and lackluster storyline? Absolutely. Regardless of its shortcomings, Fable is a breakthrough in many ways. The method in which you react with the game world and the fact that you can play at your own pace makes the entire Fable experience a truly unique one. There are many nuances and secrets that will only be found by playing through the game a second time, or a prolonged first go. The combat system and control scheme are both very clean and easy to use allowing you to simply enjoy the game; something many games cannot claim.

Fable certainly falls a tad short on many of its original claims promising an epic adventure. When I think of epic, a strong story is first and foremost in my mind. Fable’s core story is very ordinary and even uninteresting and cliché at times. Most players will be able to guess the outcome of the game far before they reach it. My two biggest complaints are 1.) there are not enough quests in total and 2.) the choices you make do not affect the overall outcome of the story that much. Even though I truly enjoyed playing through Fable twice, I still can help but feel a little bit let down by the scope. This was an adventure that I didn’t want to end, yet it did far too soon.

Fable isn’t very difficult which also hurts its longevity. While you can trade and purchase items there really isn’t much need being that most things you’ll require can be readily found during quests or when battling enemies. Health and Will potions are overly abundant and I only came close to dying once or twice. To further ensure that you won’t bite the big one, there are plenty of Resurrection Phials to be found that will automatically fully restore your health bar if it reaches zero.

There is a lot of variation to the game, everything from the way that you complete quests, a multitude of mini-games, a deep expression and economy system, and a good amount of secrets. This game design of Fable will ultimately make it an attractive experience for various types of gamers, but it still has been scaled back tremendously from what we had originally been told. Does this make it a better overall game for the mass market? Possibly. Perhaps with so many years of Fable updates and information, we were expecting something that no game could possibly be; perfect. With that being said, Fable is still one of the must-have games of 2004. My advice…try to rid your mind of any previous expectations and simply take in the entire experience. You’ll be a better gamer for it.

Quote from: IGN

The ultimate question must be asked since Peter Molyneux proposed the idea several times during Fable's development: Is this the greatest RPG of all time? No. No, it's not even the best RPG on Xbox (KOTOR's engaging story retains that crown). Okay, so it's not the greatest RPG ever, but I have to say it's one of my personal favorites. I really dig playing Fable, even multiple times. I know that some folks will be disappointed, that some will complain about what isn't there, but I still had a lot of fun and marvel at how involved I have become in my hero's life.

Fable opens a door for you, lets you see this wondrous treasure that the idea of an open world, competing heroes, and NPC interactions can offer -- but it doesn't let you through. There's a lot of great notions in the game that aren't fully realized. As I played, I kept thinking, "Why didn't they do this or that," but in the end I still had a blast playing Fable and to me that makes all the difference.

Fable's freedom is allowing you to play how you want, to make your own choices as to how you will reach the climactic battle at the end of your adventure. You will be a hero, but you can be noble like Galahad, a rogue like Robin Hood, or a tyrant like Genghis Kahn. There's not a lot to the main story, but the path to reach its conclusion is full of extras, including secrets, a bevy of collected stats (including how many times you've gotten wasted), and a giant sandbox world to mess around in. It's very difficult to enter this world without thinking about the promises made (but not kept), all of the things that once had everyone so desperately hyped for Fable, but if you can go in with an open mind, I think you'll find a game that will become one of your treasured Xbox favorites.

I read the first review, sounds like he said "great game, story sucks, way too short but hey its still great 9.1!!!!1!!"

i was left feeling a bit blech after hearing that, like the review was screaming it was a rental while still whoring to whatever game company is paying them to give a 9.1

I got the impression that the IGN review was more in-depth and that person spent more time actually playing the game than the Team Xbox reviewer. I can't remember the last time I had something good to say about IGN; I should probably mark this in a calendar somewhere.

Other than the numeric scores, I find a lot of apologizing for the game and a pretty lackluster review.

Quote from: Alluvian

Other than the numeric scores, I find a lot of apologizing for the game and a pretty lackluster review.

I got the feeling that the game could've been so much more and the reviewers were hoping it would be more, but in the end they had to service the almighty dollar and give it a high score. Will I buy it? Probably not. Will I rent it? You bet.

Worse case, I'll consider it my donation to the cause of improving in game AI.

It sounds like a game that would have gotten a 7 if it came out of nowhere.

The Molyneux games never live up to the hype, isn't that obvious?

Sounds like a rental to me, but it's something i'll definately want to see out of game design interest alone.

It seems to me that a lot of the dropped features were due to what is becoming my biggest gripe with the gaming industry, goddamned console development.

It's like an equestrian trying to ride a poodle.

I bet this game would have been a lot better on the pc. I just hope it's as fun as the first level of B&W, I'll be happy if it's a decent little sandbox to fart around in for a couple days, I guess.

Complexity doesn't automatically equal better game. Molyneux developed his concept game on the PC, Black and White, and it was not better for having the PC's extra interface complexity.

It wouldn't fix the story, but I was referring more to the repetetive npc lines and cloned models/textures, things that I'm sure will get annoying pretty quick, hurting the value I did expect to get out of it as mentioned above.

The models and npc textures in B&W were pretty bad, even for the time it was released, so you're probably right.

I miss games like Syndicate and Dungeon Keeper.

Quote from: Liquidator

I wish I had an X-Box and time.

-L

I have an Xbox and no time.

You win.

It will likely be a rental for me. I cannot justify 30 or 40 bucks on a game that even gets the happy reviewer people to comment on its short lenght. If you can play it and beat it in a weekend it is not going to earn much cash from me aside from a one time rental.

kaid

I will praise Beyond Good and Evil because it was $20. I would have been bitchy if I paid full price for it.

On the flip side, if Fable has a lot of replayability then it in effect becomes a lot longer.

much like KotOR, Fable's replayability will come in the form of "i'll try it with this kind of character next..."

I imagine I'll play through it at least 5 times, maybe more - on the assumption that after the second, I see a certain amount of distinction -- UNLIKE KotOR.

Well, one of the shortfallings listed was that the plot didn't change much dependent on how you played. Still the same game.

And replay for me will depend on what the 'evil' path is like. In Kotor evil was homocidally mentally retarded. I could not play the 'evil' path because it was so fucking stupid and badly done. Why didn't I just wear shoes made from puppy heads?

I'm looking forward to Grand Theft Auto: Puppy Head Shoes.

Quote from: Lum

I'm looking forward to Grand Theft Auto: Puppy Head Shoes.

Who isn't?!

If it is such a great system, hopefully they will eventually release expansion(s) for it to make it longer.

I feel much less bitter that this was released strictly as an Xbox game now. Looks like I'm not really missing all that much.

Quote from: hirebrand

If it is such a great system, hopefully they will eventually release expansion(s) for it to make it longer.

It would be awesome to get some of that "premium content" for Fable, but is it even Xbox live enabled?

Quote from: Alluvian

Quote from: hirebrand

If it is such a great system, hopefully they will eventually release expansion(s) for it to make it longer.

It would be awesome to get some of that "premium content" for Fable, but is it even Xbox live enabled?

It's listed on the Xbox Live game list as Live Aware only, so no content downloading.

GameSpot has their Fable review up now as well.

Review on Gamespy. Seems to be yet another good-looking and short XBox action RPG, with some strange choices in the design.

Why can't we have more good 40-65 hour rpgs? 12 hours is over before you know it pretty much. I like my rpgs 1000 page novel sized.

Quote from: CassandraR

Why can't we have more good 40-65 hour rpgs? 12 hours is over before you know it pretty much. I like my rpgs 1000 page novel sized.

Perhaps Star Ocean 3 is more your speed?

I am still buying Fable. I've waited too damn long for it, and I'm not about to let bad reviews get in my way...

I'm such a consumer whore.

Quote from: CassandraR

Why can't we have more good 40-65 hour rpgs? 12 hours is over before you know it pretty much. I like my rpgs 1000 page novel sized.

Tales of Symphonia seems to fit that category by their words anyway. I'm on hour 11 or so and am still on the first disk and only at the first plot twist. From what I've seen of the game, I have a long way to go.

Plus, the replayability will be very good since you can play any of the characters as your main during combat. (Plotline stays the same of course.) I might spend some hours just using each one in different combats since the system is really pretty fun.

Of course, you'd have to get a GC, which would bring your volume of new titles to a steady crawl for the future.

Funny thing is, when it comes to the game being described as too short, the same thing was said about Black and White. Is Fable really 12 hours long, or is the game itself interesting enough that you can enjoy the sandbox-like aspects for a far longer period of time?

Although, it'd be tough for a RPGish game to have as much sandbox factor as a God Sim. But then, this is Peter Molyneux we're talking about... he would probably design a Tic Tac Toe game with massive sandbox factor.

If you did zero side quests and zero exploring and ran from Main Plot Progress Point to Main Plot Progress Point, you can marathon your way through Fable in 12 hours.

Thats what they're saying, anyway.

Personally - I plan to spent a WHOLE LOTTA HOURS working on my haircut.