Fable 3 - Mass Murder and Gay Marriage and Regicide, Oh My.

[Lantyssa]

[Bunk]

[Muffled]

I would be on a Dead Rising/Fable mashup like stink on a zombie.

[Tarami]

That's when you get to the next stage of the game - you'll be 1.2 million babies in debt and with a couple of weeks to shore up the numbers. Molyneux sees it as the final, ultimate fan service.

[LK]

The game seems too transparent now. My physical appearance is a result of five stars in Strength, Stature, and Magical Aura.

Lots of grinding. Lots. x_x Winning over villagers for Guild Seals is so mind-numbingly one-track and bad.

[NiX]

I'm seriously considering restarting and playing an over the top evil character, just because the "good" choices in kingdom running appear to be all along the lines of "doing something to make people like you - and doom the kingdom to ruin". If I'm going to doom the kingdom, I might as well have fun doing it.

I had this exact same though half-way through the decisions.

[Azazel]

So is this thing even worth buying once it hits the bargain bin? - My eventual plan was to buy 2 copies frm the bargain bin for co-op once it drops to about 27% of launch price/hits GOTY.

[NiX]

So is this thing even worth buying once it hits the bargain bin? - My eventual plan was to buy 2 copies frm the bargain bin for co-op once it drops to about 27% of launch price/hits GOTY.

Haven't played co-op, but I imagine bargain bin would be worth it. At least with someone else you can go through the quest content and then do some city running and group sex!

[LK]

Someone be my friend and help me do some Co-Op achievements? I'd like to unlock that Demon Door in Mistpeak Valley, for starters.

[Koyasha]

So I was pretty busy earlier and didn't get around to getting this until today, and the first comment that's bugging me after a couple hours is that any reasonably quick movement seems very, very blurry.  I'm not sure if my TV and this game don't get along well or something, but all things considered the graphics look worse in this game than Fable 2 because of the blurriness.

Other than that I'm liking it okay.  The weird 'menu' system is mildly annoying, but it's less bad than I expected.  Some things are actually quite nice this way, others are just a pain, like the map being apparently the only quest list that I can find thus far.  The minigame jobs that I have played so far are more enjoyable than Fable 2's, though that's not saying much.  They'll get old quick if you have to grind them for several hours for 'seed money' like you did in Fable 2.

[LK]

Jasper bugged out in my game and stopped providing all VO. It has done a good job in tarnishing the game experience.

[Azazel]

Hm. Bargain Bin/Gold/Goty version then, hopefully with bugs worked out as much as possible.

Can't wait to hear from his Molyneauxness about what will be in Fable 4. 

[AcidCat]

Something about Fable has always had that comfort-food style addictive quality and so far this game is the same for me. The overall atmosphere and feel is still very much Fable and it feels like an old friend. I don't mind the new sanctuary menu, all things considered it improves on the old menu system. Little things annoy, like the quick screen fade-ins when you enter and exit every single interaction with NPCs (did the previous games do this? I don't remember) - but so far the annoyances are minor and easily overlooked. I like the new map that shows much more detail when you zoom in. Combat is still satisfying if simple - I like the new ability to combine two different spell schools.

[LK]

I've found that the progression of the Day / Night cycle detached from the  to be jarring.

Also, the single save system bugs the hell out of me because some achievements are detached from my current morality play. I may play Good and then have to start all over to play Evil, but if Fable 4 comes along and if it pulls from Fable III save data like Fable III does for II, I will have the "wrong" character data being imported.

[Azazel]

Can you transfer your "proper" save to a USB for safekeepng or something like that? Not an ideal outcome, but a workaround, perhaps.

[Koyasha]

I did some looking and it sounds like you can start a new game without losing your current one.  If you save manually, then start a new game, you can go to Game Management and your old Hero will still be available by using Load.  Just tried it out since I felt like I might start over anyway, and it's correct, at least as far as being able to save multiple heroes - looks like you can have a total of five different hero saves.

[Koyasha]

Found a somewhat frustrating moment here, so figured I'd warn everyone who has not reached that point about it.

There's a quest where you have to chase a white balverine.  Turning in that quest is a point of no return, make sure to finish up anything you need to do (and I don't mean just quests, but bookkeeping/running the kingdom matters too) before you turn that in, because you don't seem to get a chance afterward.

Edit: There IS a chance to do things after turning in the aforementioned quest, as long as you do not complete the next two items on your agenda afterward.

[LK]

That's fucking stupid. I was wondering why a review mentioned to transfer the funds on Day 168.

I own all of Albion and get about 100k gold every 5 minutes. I find that you can just let that role over for as long as you want if you don't proceed through your royal checklist since time is inconsistent with the kingdom's demise.

[jakonovski]

Sooooo, anyone had a game-killing bug yet?

[LK]

Couple crashes, one during loading and another when I was fighting in Mostpeak Valley and had the camera facing the distance. Game has had a couple chugworthy moments.

[Bunk]

So the first play through, I married my pre-order create a villager. And then she died of random bug disease.

Second play through, she has decided to become a transvestite, and has no interest in marrying me at all - only being my best friend. Appraently this is a rather widespread bug. More funny than anything, but of course there are people on Lionhead's forums demanding class action lawsuits over it.

[LK]

Pen is Mighter Than... I'm trying to get the book from Chillbreath Caverns but I can't seem to get to where it is. There's two cavern entrances and I'm looking for a third I just can't find.

[Morfiend]

I am really disappointed in this game.

A few non spoilerish thing.

1) The glowing trail. This glowing trail really makes the game feel on rails. I dont recall if they had it previously, I think they did, but not to the extent it is in this one. It basically holds your hands through everything. Yes, you can turn it off, which I did. But then the game removes all quest and hud info. ALL. I would like to know what a quest giver wants me to do, even if I dont want the glowing trail to take me by the hand right there. This really pissed me off.

2) The game feels dumbed down from Fable 2, which is hard to imagine. But it is. Everything slaps you in the face. Even the morality choices are colored Blue sparkles or red flame.

3) Kingdom ruling. Crap. Straight up crap.
I think Nix said it perfectly, so instead of just writing it all out again Ill quote him:

Alright, so I beat the game and here's my spoilertastic review of the second half of the game:

I will echo whoever said why couldnt he give us Fable 2 with more content. I think this is the first time in the series that I am genuinely disappointed in the game. Its just bland gameplay stacked on top of fail mechanics.

[Rendakor]

1) The glowing trail. This glowing trail really makes the game feel on rails. I dont recall if they had it previously, I think they did, but not to the extent it is in this one. It basically holds your hands through everything. Yes, you can turn it off, which I did. But then the game removes all quest and hud info. ALL. I would like to know what a quest giver wants me to do, even if I dont want the glowing trail to take me by the hand right there. This really pissed me off.

This was in Fable 2, and was one of my biggest complaints against it.

[LK]

Doesn't even work right in this one. It bugs out all the time and is very unresponsive except in extreme circumstances.

[NiX]

2) The game feels dumbed down from Fable 2, which is hard to imagine. But it is. Everything slaps you in the face. Even the morality choices are colored Blue sparkles or red flame.

I tried to mention this, but didn't know how to explain it. Most of it is the same as Fable 2, but every tweak they've made really dumbed it down. Sometimes it's subtle, but enough to give you this nagging "Why does it feel so simple?" feeling.

[Koyasha]

One of my main complaints is the interaction.  I never liked the fable interaction system anyway, where you get to do seemingly random and bizarre actions for people, but here we don't even get to choose which interaction to do.  Just a general theme 'friendly, funny, or nasty' and the specific interactions are either randomly selected or go in order.  Due to this, of course, NPC's no longer have favorite expressions and such as they did in Fable 2.

The menu system or mostly lack thereof I've gotten over, it's actually pretty nice for many things.  Except weapons.  In order to switch weapons I have to pop back to my sanctuary (2 seconds of black screen) then switch to the armory (another 2 seconds of black screen) then run to the type of weapon I want, scroll through the displays, and select which weapon I want.  On the other hand, the way it works for clothing I quite like, especially with the mannequins and such, and double plus especially with the three saved appearance slots.

Overall, there are a number of things I like about this one better than Fable 2 (being able to manage property entirely from the map screen is nice)...and yet there's so much that Fable 2 does better, also.

[LK]

Map screen needs a Repair All function. Going to each property was annoying. Cash becomes irrelevant before this gets super annoying though.

[Koyasha]

Comments having finished including some ending spoilers:

On general commentary, while the game was pretty good, I've got to say...I think Fable 2 was the better game in most respects.  Fable 3 improved a few features, but set a lot of stuff way back as compared to Fable 2.  To be specific: a menu for switching weapons would have been very nice.  The lack of maps really irked me, since the map table's 'map' is so inaccurate, and also doesn't show your precise location.  Lack of ability to choose your own expressions was annoying.  Weapon morphing system seems like it was a lot of work for no benefit, because the legendaries were almost universally superior to the hero weapons that morph, so why would you ever use your hero weapons?

[LK]

None of Fable III's unique features had the level of depth and polish needed to make them good. By that standard, Fable II is a more complete game because all components in that game were implemented better.

The dog, for example. In Fable III it's fluff. In II it was new and more a part of the core experience. The dog in 3 was like a Zelda game with a boomerang that never matters in core gameplay; a useless holdover. Just a lot of reused, sloppily inserted tech.

The "holding hands" feature was a joke compared to the prerelease importance played on it as an emotional device.

[Koyasha]

Well holding hands I liked, and I never actually listened to any of the prerelease stuff.  I liked holding hands because I always found NPC's following me tended to get stuck all over the place, and at least grabbing them I have some direct control of where they're going.

On the other hand, I hate that you can only interact with one person at a time.  You can't even show off your trophies to a crowd.  Renown was completely removed and basically integrated into the guild seals system when it was used at all (as a gating mechanism for certain quests).  They really simplified a lot of stuff too - I fired up Fable 2 and got reminded of how much more complex a lot of things are there, and not the annoying things that should be simplified.  Things that add depth to the NPC's, like having three separate meters for how NPC's feel about you, the love/hate, the fear/funny, and ugly/pretty.  How they have particular expressions and gifts they like best, and some that they dislike.  And the removal of titles.

[FatuousTwat]

Wow. So no more Chicken Chaser? Bleh.

[AcidCat]

Yeah, I am enjoying the game, but I really agree with most of the complaints about game systems that were eliminated or marginalized. It could have been a better game, oh well.

[Njal]

Yeah, I am enjoying the game, but I really agree with most of the complaints about game systems that were eliminated or marginalized. It could have been a better game, oh well.

Exactly my feelings as well. Since I'm playing it on my daughter's XBox, I'm hoping that the PC version will have some more depth. I was going to buy it for PC guaranteed but I may change my mind unless there are some improvements in the PC version (highly unlikely I'm sure)

[NiX]

Wow. So no more Chicken Chaser? Bleh.

The first quest you get involves you dressing up as a chicken and you receive that title for completing it.