By Alec Meer on December 30th, 2008 at 6:07 pm.
I’ve been having a lovely time playing your Fable II videogame on the Xbox Three Hundred and Sixty entertainment machine over Festivus, but sadly all the while I couldn’t help but think “gosh! If only this was also available on the IBM Compatible electronic typing machine.” Because then I’d be able to write many thoughtful words about it on this delightful weblog, and any of our lovely readers who feel RPGs are a bit too grim’n'guts’n'gunplay these days could relax into something entirely light-hearted and so delightfully determined to reward rather than penalise its players.
Please heed our calls, good sirs. You were gentlemanly enough to give us a PC edition of Fable The First a short time after its Xbox The First release, so we fully anticipate this bright-eyed ruffian arriving on our doorstep any day now. If it was available on dear Madame PC, you’d also be able to use her many buttons to fix the horrific spell selection system. That would be nice, wouldn’t it?
Of course, you would have to change the job mini-games to something a little less game-paddy and monotonous, and would have to put up with more hot-tempered people rudely proclaiming that they don’t think it’s an RPG, the morality’s too binary, they’re offended by bodily functions and that there’s no replay value. They might be a little bit right, but don’t pay too much heed to such miseriguts – I think you should do it anyway.
kisses,
Alec
ps – I really liked it when Zoe Wanamaker said “kiss my arse.”
30/12/2008 at 18:14 SwiftRanger says:
Didn’t PCG UK already made two very strong hints in their recent issues that this is coming to PC?
30/12/2008 at 18:14 Pags says:
I would like this to happen sometime soon too, though mostly because my 360 went into RROD mode two days after christmas. Bawwww.
30/12/2008 at 18:18 Über Nerd says:
Let me see, farting as a communication option…
…no thanks.
30/12/2008 at 18:20 Pags says:
Evidently you have never played Abe’s Odyssee, Über Nerd.
30/12/2008 at 18:21 Pags says:
Oddysee*
Curse you, intermittent Edit Function
30/12/2008 at 18:25 Heliocentric says:
Abe farting isn’t a method of communication. Its a lethal weapon. Actions speak louder than words eh?
30/12/2008 at 18:27 Alec Meer says:
It’s absurd that so many people seem to define F2 by the farting thing. It’s one option amongst dozens, you don’t ever have to use it, and no-one ever farts at you. Also, the populace will deem you a bit of a pig rather than a posho if you do keep doing it.
Me, I generally communicated by playing the lute and sock-puppetry.
30/12/2008 at 18:37 Caiman says:
Fable II is indeed excellent. While I’m sure it’ll be better when it eventually comes to the PC, I’m not sure if my rig will run it, and with the 360 version I don’t have to worry about whether it will be crippled with idiotic DRM. The PC is getting harder and harder to defend these days, sad to say. Still, at least it has King’s Bounty.
30/12/2008 at 18:39 Kieron Gillen says:
AND IN THE GAME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
KG
30/12/2008 at 18:41 Cian says:
I am more excited about this arriving on the beige box than any other coming release.
30/12/2008 at 18:42 The Hammer says:
Too late, Kieron. Someone else commented before you. :(
But still – I entirely agree. Fable 2 is the console game this year that has most intrigued me. Despite the many problems I had with the original, I still loved it very much, and any opportunity to play this sequel will not be passed up.
30/12/2008 at 18:45 MisterBritish says:
*addendum; If you could also assign ‘Eat a Pie’ to it’s own key that would be nice. Something like ‘Ctrl+Alt+Shift+P’ would be suitable, rather than ‘WASD’, or ‘Mouse1′, in case you were wondering.
30/12/2008 at 18:52 Man Raised By Puffins says:
I once gave an impromptu puppet show to my merry band of followers to while away the time before I executed them (midnight is the best time, or so I understand). One lass found it so impressive she gifted me a shitty necklass just before she was about to be brutally beheaded, handily stepping outside the execution circle to do so. Suprisingly she seemed a bit perturbed to now be standing amid a pile of headless corpses and steadfastly refused to follow me to the execution circle again, culminating in a Benny Hill chase around the Temple of Shadows before I finally cast Blades to finish her off. Fun times, and probably my number two game of the last year.
30/12/2008 at 18:54 The_B says:
Must have been funnier than the My Family Christmas specials, at any rate…
30/12/2008 at 18:56 Tei says:
I would love to have a XBox 360. But I will be banned the 3th day, because I would use homebrew software on it, maybe install Linux, maybe install more ram, and fix the wrong thermal design.
A console is like that Tree on the paradise. You can have the tree, but not byte the apples. I will do, and get banned from the paradise till 9/9/9999.
Theres also the mindset of console players that modding = cheating, evil. Thats kills me, but is not fatal. What is fatal is the mindset of the games. The mindset of the console games *really* disguste me .. with a passsion… !!. It get on my nerver every game that have “checkpoint” saves, pressing R , L , U in the right order, or that type of crap
30/12/2008 at 18:58 clovus says:
Nah, just shoe-horn in some really terrible mouse/keyboard controls for the goofs who don’t own a gamepad for their PC. I blame all of you no-gamepad-PC-gamers for the Fight Night series never coming to the PC.
I really want to use Floyd Mayweather to whip Ricky Fatton again….
30/12/2008 at 19:00 Pags says:
Whenever I farted at another Mudokon they would giggle, was my version of Abe broken? :(
30/12/2008 at 19:04 Dinger says:
I dunno guys. I tried the Psychonauts PC Demo, and when it became evident that the disorienting 3rd-person view was only hampered further by a bad mouse pan=thumbstick translation, and I found myself having to repeat the same section over and over because the “walk forward” control suddenly and seamfully became a “walk off the side” instruction, I nuked the install and decided that even the best writing and gameplay expressed through a passable console port does not make a PC game. If you don’t make the controls native, the only people you will impress are journalists and those who own consoles. Nobody else buys gamepads for their PC, even if they’re merited.
30/12/2008 at 19:07 Jonas says:
I too would appreciate it if I were able to read your word-thinks about this game, which I too have played and found immensely enjoyable. Though I do object to the description of Fable 2 as “entirely light-hearted”, as it does contain some fairly grim scenes, rendered all the grimmer by their stark contrast to the more pervasively twee parts of the game.
Too bloody right about the spell casting system. Thank heavens I played a Skill-based hero.
30/12/2008 at 19:10 Alec Meer says:
Re grim scenes – yeah, absolutely. Though they’re the exception rather than the rule, and don’t really define the game as a whole.
30/12/2008 at 19:11 shinygerbil says:
Sadly, I jumped straight in and bought Psychonauts for PC without trying the demo. Interestingly enough, while hastily bolting mouse+keyboard controls into it they somehow managed to engineer it in such a way that despite my best efforts to re-remap my 360 controller, I was still required to use the keyboard for certain bits and pieces of the interface and game.
And needless to say, thumbstick -> mouse -> thumbstick is bad, and someone somewhere should feel bad.
30/12/2008 at 19:16 Jonas says:
Alec: Yeah that’s true, but for some reason they’re the first thing I think about when recalling the game. Probably because they really stand out like that. Especially that A Perfect World thing right before the end. Man. Filled me with a truly profound sadness. Damn near made me cry.
30/12/2008 at 19:20 Jochen Scheisse says:
I buy gamepads for the PC, if only to beat Last Blade 2 on Neo Geo Emu. With Psychonauts I prefer the Keyboard, because it doesn’t have half circle back half circle back A+B combos.
30/12/2008 at 19:21 RichP says:
Microsoft is the publisher, eh? Doubt we’ll see a Steam release.
30/12/2008 at 19:21 Eli Just says:
Sooner is better than later. I waited 7 months for GTA IV and they still screwed it up royally. I’m not going to purchase another game that makes me wait that long, no matter how good.
30/12/2008 at 19:25 roryok says:
@Eli Just
Hear Hear. I loved the first fable but after the fiasco that was GTA IV on the PC I have completely lost confidence in Microsofts ability to publish a game properly on the PC.
30/12/2008 at 19:29 RichP says:
Publisher: We’ll release the PC version months later, fail to optimize it, load it with bloatware, and still charge full price!
[three months later]
Publisher: The game didn’t meet our unrealistic sales expectations! Fuck you, PC gaming is teh deadz!!111~!
30/12/2008 at 19:34 Eli Just says:
@RichP Exactly, when PC gamers have already heard about all the issues in the console version and are already over the novelty of the game because it’s been out for months already, they tend not to want to spend $50 on it, and the publisher says it was piracy that caused low sales and that it would have been worse if they had released it any earlier, just causing a negative feedback loop. Hooray incompetence!
30/12/2008 at 19:36 Homunculus says:
It’s absurd that so many people seem to define F2 by the farting thing. c/f the Witcher, cards.
30/12/2008 at 19:45 Kadayi says:
I’d of thought this was a certainty to turn up on PC eventually. There is just too much of a ready RPG audience out there to pass up the opportunity to make some more bucks (esp in this financial climate). Looking forward to it because despite it’s shortcomings I enjoyed the first one.
30/12/2008 at 19:56 psyk says:
Fable 2 – The lost chapters.
30/12/2008 at 20:21 Psychopomp says:
“It get on my nerver every game that have “checkpoint” saves, pressing R , L , U in the right order, or that type of crap”
Now now, why must every game allow you to make a perma-save anywhere? A good checkpoint system is one of the best ways to insure that the player themselves doesn’t ruin the tension you’re going for, via saving constantly.
30/12/2008 at 20:33 Butler` says:
Was pretty sure this was coming to the PC.
30/12/2008 at 20:34 jives says:
Why would you lose faith in Microsoft because of the GTA fiasco. Rockstar are responsible for that one.
30/12/2008 at 20:50 SanguineLobster says:
Uh, I believe it’s spelled ‘Gawrsh’
30/12/2008 at 21:06 Jeremy says:
I’m all for a light hearted adventure, we’ll have plenty of dark and grim RPGs to play, namely Dragon Age. Looks to be quite serious in tone, so I’ll gladly take a stab at farting my way through adventures.
30/12/2008 at 21:10 Tworak says:
Maybe they’re waiting until they have functional co-op in the game before releasing it on the PC.
Heh.
30/12/2008 at 21:13 Ghiest says:
I’m an avid pc gamer, and as I spent the Christmas around my brothers house (was his Christmas present :P) it was played quite a bit. I have to say I really, really do like the game, sure it has some faults but don’t all games?
Not sure how this would translate across the PC though, as you have said it’s a bit … arcadey for a PC RPG.
30/12/2008 at 21:50 Real Horrorshow says:
Almost all Microsoft Game Studios games from the 360 come to PC eventually. Think about it for a minute.
I’d bet a couple shillings that Gears 2 will come to PC too, whether Grandmaster MC Cliffy B Dogg likes it or not.
30/12/2008 at 22:36 Optimaximal says:
It’s silly how PC gamers are leaping on the word ‘exclusive’ as meaning ‘definitely no other platforms than the native/lead’…
‘Exclusive’ too me has always been ‘buy our console, Super Mega Machine X, because it’s not on the Y-station II’ and has 9 times out of 10 expired after 6 months.
30/12/2008 at 23:18 Flint says:
So I take it I’m the only one who had no problems with the mouse/keyboard controls in Psychonauts.
30/12/2008 at 23:29 Jahkaivah says:
No Flint, i’m wondering what the hell they are talking about as well.
30/12/2008 at 23:38 qrter says:
If a game has to depend on its save system to create tension, something has gone horribly wrong in the design process.
(Shamus Young wrote about this on his blog)
Yes. I hated those controls. Made me stop playing the game, which was a shame because I did enjoy what I had played until then.
30/12/2008 at 23:44 PC Gaming Master Race says:
Admit that you guys want to cover console games as well as PC Games, we won’t hold it against you… much.
If your going to talk about any console related news it should be the sad demise of Free Radical. What a loss that was. Too bad none of the time splitters came to the PC. They were truly unique deathmatch games.
31/12/2008 at 00:28 Man With Lobster Avatar says:
Those looney mix-&-match bot deathmatches in Timesplitters 2 have provided some of my favorite shooty fun.
31/12/2008 at 00:30 Hidden_7 says:
Yeah I’m a little stranged out by these “Psychonauts had terrible mouse/keyboard controls” posts too. They were never even a problem for me.
Re: Fable 2, yeah I’m looking forward to this one on the PC as well, even though I never beat the original Fable, got stuck on some timed mission I had to replay several times and then just gave up; it was charming, but not so much so that I would struggle through an annoyance like that.
31/12/2008 at 00:37 Dr_demento says:
I really, really, really liked Fable 2 for many many reasons. The combat was stunning (best melee combat ever save Assassin’s Creed), the character interactions were great, the worldbuilding was awesome, the general atmosphere (something any number of RPGs forget) was absolutely genius, the dog was a fantastic idea well-implemented, and the humour was spot-on. Oh, and the grim bits really were shockingly grim. In short, everything except the godawful menu system was brilliant (curse you, Lionhead! When will you learn?). It was better than Fable, but then I was actually unable to play Fable it had such bad menus.
@PCGMR: Yes. PC-centric sounds so much more inclusive, don’t you think?
31/12/2008 at 00:51 Larington says:
Regarding intermittent edit function, I tend to find I can edit when logged into forums, when I’m not logged into forums my ability to edit comments goes bye bye.
I really want to see Fable 2 on PC, I am completely unwilling to buy a 360 or PS3 when I’ve got a perfectly good gaming system that I can use for all sorts of other tasks as well.
Also, I’m uncomfortable with this becoming a mostly PC and occasional console blog by its mandate, as an on-the-fly thing fair enough, but theres plenty of console centric blogging out there and RPS is one of the few places on the Internet which balances that tilt back in the right direction. Translation: I like it the way it is, thanksverymuch.
31/12/2008 at 01:07 Alec Meer says:
That is indeed the truth of the editing system. We’d love to fix it, but are far too stupid.
On covering consoles – for the squillionth time, no. That doesn’t mean we can’t acknowledge the bally things’ existence or comment enthusiastically/scathingly on games likely to reach PC. E.g. this here Fable II – there’ve been persistent rumours, and the PC port of its predecessor sets a strong precedent for it happening.
31/12/2008 at 01:25 MetalCircus says:
I loved the kiss my arse bit too.
31/12/2008 at 01:28 Larington says:
@Alec: (On editing foibles) Thats fine by me, as it might help draw more traffic to the forums, I can only see that as a good thing.
31/12/2008 at 01:39 jackflash says:
I’m continually surprised by those who like Fable II. I consider the first Fable to be one of my favorite games of all time, but found its sequel to be forgettable in almost every way. Strange.
31/12/2008 at 03:23 DigitalSignalX says:
I wanna read the threads where console players wish PC games would come out on their platform. Oh wait.. there are none. Sigh.
31/12/2008 at 04:10 Pidesco says:
Frankly, almost all RPGs(and games of other genres, as well) these days, spend their time mindlessly rewarding the player for everything they do and avoiding stepping in front of the player’s path to generic epicness, so a RPG which happened to penalise the player once in a while would be nice.
31/12/2008 at 05:25 Real Horrorshow says:
@ DigitalSignalX:
You’d be surprised. World in Conflict, Crysis, The Witcher, and several other PC exclusives are highly desirable to the consolites I know. You’d be surprised how many say they wish they had a good rig and want to play something like Company of Heroes. The biggest obstacle is this mythical “$4000 rig” that’s been accepted as fact by the average gamer, thanks to uninformed dipshits in the gaming press like Adam Sessler.
31/12/2008 at 06:05 Dinger says:
By the way qrter, Shamus Young is wrong. Prince of Persia is not the first game to do what he claims — indeed, it’s one in a long tradition of restoring close to where things went wrong (even what little of Psychonauts I played — before cursing the stupid mousestick and reversing directional controls — did this). And, in basketball, you shoot baskets more than once. If you reward succeeding at something once, and then forget about it, you’re not going to get any learning either. Design needs to run deeper than that.
31/12/2008 at 07:20 Thirith says:
Also: the original Aliens vs Predator would have lost a lot of its tension with unlimited saves. This does not make it a bad, or badly designed, game. I was glad to have more than one save after the patch, but having them be a limited commodity worked wonders for that game.
31/12/2008 at 07:34 Thirith says:
(Note: Shamus Young makes good points much of the time, but some of the time he’s pretty much a more articulate version of the AIM. What he says hits the right buttons and is easy to agree with, but that doesn’t always make him right IMO.)
31/12/2008 at 07:42 Tei says:
Checkpoint saves are lame. You are forced to continue playing till the next checkpoint, even If you dont need to. Also is just a tecnical limitation imposed to gameplay. It break inmersion and is also a excuse for simplistic “state machine” games, where a level is either clear, or full populated after a restore (his status is saved as a boolean).
Now that most consoles have hard disk, I hope this “feature” goes the way of the dodo.
31/12/2008 at 08:02 Heliocentric says:
I’d be sad to see check points go. In a linear game i don’t want to be book making. And i don’t want to be repeating things. Obviously if i fail at a task that kind of repeat is fine. But dying after a long travel and having to repeat the travel? Repeating a now boring task? Eh. But nor do i want to be thinking about saving. Saving has kept me able to play games i found terrifying at night though. Bloody jumpy out at you bits.
31/12/2008 at 10:04 Dan Lawrence says:
nothing to do with Fable but I love this graph of John’s:
http://pool.cream.org/pics/graph.jpg
Singstar *is* objectively better than MGS4 :)
Joking aside, I know which game I’ve played regularly for more years despite it being fundamentally unchanged from the PS2 copy I picked up 4 years ago.
On Fable 2: I really wish this would come out on PC as I was totally intruiged by the economic aspects.
31/12/2008 at 10:09 Funky Badger says:
SWAT 4 has no checkpoints.
31/12/2008 at 10:17 Heliocentric says:
neither does pong.
31/12/2008 at 10:28 gaijin says:
I’m pretty sure the “console games have checkpoints” argument should have gone the way of the dodo already. In pure-bred shooters maybe, but all the games I’ve played recently have allowed you to save where you like…
31/12/2008 at 10:41 Caiman says:
Well gaijin, I’ve played Fable 2, Far Cry 2, GTA IV and Lego Indy on 360 recently, and only Fable 2 had a “save anywhere” system implemented. Perhaps these are unrepresentative, but I totally disagree with removing the ability to save anywhere. Regardless of whether it’s a gameplay crutch, or whether it adds to the atmosphere, it’s basically a hardcore gamers only option. Those of us who are not hardcore gamers but have a life hate these checkpoint systems, because we don’t like the game to dictate how much time we want to play it. If I want to quit right now because something important has come up (the baby is crying, or I have to pick the wife up) I don’t want to spent 5-10 mins fighting my way back to a safe house / save point. It’s pure arrogance on the part of the designers.
31/12/2008 at 11:13 gaijin says:
caiman, i quite agree. Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t mourning the demise of checkpointing. I just had the impression it was becoming less of an issue. You’re quite right though, I’d forgotten about GTAIV – but that’s probably because over the years I’ve got used to abandoning GTA missions in disgust when i make a minor cock up half way through, and starting them again later when i’m calmer.
31/12/2008 at 11:32 Heliocentric says:
Oh for sure. Mandatory get to save point checkpoint stuff is bullshit. But checkpoints aka autosaves are great in addition to regular saves..
31/12/2008 at 12:20 Man With Lobster Avatar says:
In other console news, Claire Redfield keeps winking at me.
31/12/2008 at 12:23 Tei says:
I disabled automatic checkpoints in Fallout 3, after accidentally breaking the law in Nuketown and using a door.. bang… autosave overwritten in a undesirable state.
Autoaim is also disabled on most games. Maybe is hard to aim with a pad, but is natural with a mouse.
“Shot and cover” gameplay can’t be disabled (the GoW gameplay), trough because *is* the point of the game.
Fortunally enough, The Horrible menus of Obliviun can be moded to make then more like a PC game. But some games have a “XBox Live-ish” menu interface that can’t be modified.
You can’t fix the gameplay of Overlord to be more playable with a mouse, some movements are ankward.
You can’t mod GTA to have quicksaves, is not optional.
There are lots of games withouth the option to change the FOV.
The FOV is intended to reflect the distance from viewer to the screen. On a TV the distance is long, so some FOV values make sense. On a PC + monitor, a different FOV value make sense. People like T2 hardcode the FOV into games like Bioshock, so you are forced to play with a wrong FOV value, and this can make you sick IRL.
Consoles are different than Personal Computers, is a different culture, is a different use, a different people, a different controls, … A bad port from console to PC is like a text traduction with Babelfish.
Babelfish, from Ukanian to spaniah back to ukanian:
I have been awhile having charming playing of its game of video of fable II in the machine of the hospitality of Xbox tresciento and sixty on Festivus, but sadly all the short while that could not help but think “gosh! If only this were also available in the machine to write electronic compatible with IBM.” Because then he would be able to write many thoughtful words it in this weblog exceeds charming, and anyone of our charming readers who feel RPGs is a small piece also grim’ n’ guts’ n’ gunplay at the moment could relax in something entirely glad and so charmingly solved to compensate something that its players. It please pays attention to our calls, good Sirs. You were quite noble to give us to an edition of the PC of the fable first a brief period of time after his Xbox the first launching, so we anticipate completely to this gross one of shining eyes now that any day arrives in our threshold. If available in lady PC were considered, you also could use his many bellboys to determine the system frightful of the selection of the enchantment. That would be pleasant, no? By all means, you would have to change to the mini-games of the work something a little less monotonous game-rice and, and would have to tolerate one more people of bad genius crudely that proclaims that she does not think that it is a RPG, the binary one of the morality also, functions offend corporal it and no that value of the answer are. She can be that reason has a little, but does not pay too much attention to such miseriguts – fodder that you must do it anyway.
31/12/2008 at 16:17 Mogs says:
Fable 2:
Do not want.
31/12/2008 at 16:27 Chalkster says:
@Tei
I know a guy who talks like that.
If you can get past the mangling of English, he’s a pretty fun guy.
I guess what I’m trying to say is if you try, you’ll find a way to enjoy any crappy port. I had no problems with psychonauts, simply because of how amazingly awesome the writing and gameplay were.
31/12/2008 at 18:52 Putter says:
I don’t usually have problems with ports or DRM, but I guess I’m the exception. I have a good computer and a 360 controller, so Psychonauts, Resident Evil 4, and now even GTA 4 have had zero issues running or controlling (I actually had much more issue with Beyond Good and Evil which had irritated me with no controller support). I’d much rather have a port that some internet men call crappy just because it isn’t PC-centric than no port at all.
31/12/2008 at 19:06 R. says:
I would love to have a XBox 360. But I will be banned the 3th day, because I would use homebrew software on it, maybe install Linux, maybe install more ram, and fix the wrong thermal design.
A console is like that Tree on the paradise. You can have the tree, but not byte the apples. I will do, and get banned from the paradise till 9/9/9999.
Theres also the mindset of console players that modding = cheating, evil. Thats kills me, but is not fatal. What is fatal is the mindset of the games. The mindset of the console games *really* disguste me .. with a passsion… !!. It get on my nerver every game that have “checkpoint” saves, pressing R , L , U in the right order, or that type of crap
So yeah, pretty much that entire post was typical blinkered bullshit. Well done.
Personally, Fable 2 lost me when just trying to communicate with one person lead to half the bloody town following me around like a lost puppy, I couldn’t even spend quality time with the baby because there was a gaggle of would-be suitors invading my home. Sure, I could just take them all to the Altar of Shadows and feed them into a meat grinder but that’s not the real solution. The real solution is to not have purely AoE communication.
Oh and guys, just write about GAMES, full stop. Enough with this ‘I wish it were on PC silliness. You’re excellent writers and if a game captures your imagination, I want to read about it in as much depth as possible, not see some go ignored because they may never get a PC port and you’re afraid of upsetting the hardcore nerds who get sand in their vagina whenever anything threatens their little PC worlds.
Merry New Year.
31/12/2008 at 21:55 dhex says:
but this is a pc-centric blog. that’s what makes it good.
as an aside, it confuses me why “sand in the vagina” is the only formulation for “complaining too much” – beyond the implicit sexism (those who complain are women, women bad, etc etc) it would seem far easier to relate to the idea that sand in the urethra would hurt just as much and lead to many complaints.
31/12/2008 at 22:19 Tei says:
I can’t read again StarshipTroppers, becaues of the political far right message. I was a teenarge the first time. Now I can’t read it.
The console to me is a proposition for “Starship Troppers” ^ 32. Is a totalitarian world (the consoles) where the most elemental freedom (like the freedom to change the FOV) is disabled. And for that, I can’t taste any more, nothing more, of consoles. I have enough for a life.
I understand that people can read Starship Troppers, and be happy with it, but I don’t.
To me, a console is some sick anti-utopia where a corporation has the control, and limit your freedom, …this big brother is always watching your wrong/rightdoing, and have a hand capable to send you to permanent isolation (banning).
That people like that is proff enough that we are doomed, I tell you, doomed!
31/12/2008 at 22:36 Stromko says:
It’s funny how so many comments here are bellyaching about a checkpoint system that doesn’t let you save anywhere. Fable 2 does indeed autosave when you complete a quest, job, or (iirc) change location, but you can also save it off at any time.
You only get one save slot per character, which I think does help give weight to your actions, but aside from the (unskippable) in-engine cutscenes you’re never forced to keep playing until you get to the next checkpoint.
It’s not a perfect game, but I’ve been pleasantly surprised by Fable 2 and have been playing it nonstop for the last six days. It’s very different from the original, all types of combat work differently, and the intent to show the consequences of your actions over years of game-time is more fully realized. It appears so far to be a drastically longer game, but that could be because it’s more open and less linear. There’s a lot of optional quests, jobs, towns, shops with various sales / shortages to pull you away from the main quest, not to mention bustling back and forth to keep all your various wives happy should you go the chronic polygamist route.
I can really only recommend it as a rental because of course, mileage varies, but I think that’s the case with a lot of games. From everything I’ve heard co-op is broken, and I’ve ran into a couple marriage-related glitches (pro-tip: don’t take a wife in Oakvale and have her live in a dimensional pocket if you’re doing an evil playthrough or it f**ks up an optional but important quest), as well as sound-glitches when too damned many villagers are cooing at me. I’d also have to say the combat, while good, is noticably easier than in the original Fable, mainly because there’s less on the line. You only make a maximum of +300% experience from a fight, so there’s a less drastic progression difference. Also if you manage to make boatloads of gold and find a well-stocked potion merchant you can buy potions that net you 64,000 experience, the equivalent of about ten major late-game fights. At least it means you don’t have to grind monsters for XP, and there’s tons of different ways to make gold.
31/12/2008 at 22:57 RichP says:
and you’re afraid of upsetting the hardcore nerds who get sand in their vagina whenever anything threatens their little PC worlds.
Wow, with that poetic eloquence, how can RPS ignore his request?
31/12/2008 at 23:32 Stromko says:
On the whole PC vs consoles thing, having both I’d say the PC would be the most impossible to live without, even if we’re restricting this purely to the merits of gaming on whatever platform. You can get a crappy PC or a nice scratchbuilt machine for the same price as a console, and access about ten thousand times as many games as any given console.
Consoles have some merits though. The software industry’s tacit insistence that there is no piracy on the consoles mean there’s still a wealth of rental options, as well as (most times) decent trade-in value. As for the hardware itself, you never have to mess around with drivers (or DRM root-kits), and they are mostly a lot more reliable.
I can’t say anything about the 360′s infamous failures myself, mine’s worked for four years and has never needed repairs, but I get the sense I’m in the minority on that one. Still, good luck trying to get a replacement for a failed 400$ videocard if your warranty is expired, hm? Since Microsoft seems to care more about maintaining a high user population rather than making a profit on the hardware, they seem to treat their console customers much better.
Patches are a black eye for consoles though. Many games are still released with glitches and issues, and very few are ever fixed. There’s usually patches if there’s show-stopping multiplayer bugs, but that’s it. The only saving grace is you can be more certain of getting a refund or store credit, or at least trade-in value, for any game that doesn’t work or is just crap. IIRC you have the same rights with a PC game, but you’ll need luck and persistence.
So mainly the advantages of owning a console is you aren’t treated like a peasant rabble by an *sshole industry. Yes, Microsoft or Sony or whoever has the ultimate power, but they wouldn’t dare lose a customer who only makes them a profit if they stay a customer for years and buy dozens of games.
31/12/2008 at 23:51 Larington says:
@RichP: (Regarding that other chaps comment) Yeah, proof positive that women play computer games and not console games. (I’m not serious with that comment there before anyone says anything)
Slightly more serious though, “sand in your vagina”? What a daft phrase, I fail to see how anyone who uses it could ever be taken seriously.
01/01/2009 at 00:36 Dorian Cornelius Jasper says:
@Tei, on Starship Troopers: Well, at least Heinlein appreciates the poor bloody infantry. He also appreciates Past Nastification, though that’s another book altogether. And I have no freaking clue where I was going with this train of thought.
06/01/2009 at 13:03 Bozzley says:
Fable 2 was my favourite gaming surprise of 2008. It’s not the be all and end all, and a lot of what it does can be seen as contrived bollocks. Take the on it’s own terms, give if the benefit of the doubt (be patient with that dog) and it’s fucking belting.
The stuff that’s nicked from other games, it does damn well. The new stuff it adds, it does damn well too. It’s got flaws, but so does every game ever. It’s got things you’ll never have seen in a RPG before. It’s got things you’ll never have seen in any game ever.
I can understand how people don’t get it or like it, right up until the bit where you can rename your character “Nobhead”. After that – anyone who doesn’t like it is wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong.
06/01/2009 at 16:21 Chupa says:
According to Peter Molyneux, it’ll be “crazy not to”. So I’m supposing that there will be a version but not anytime soon. Microsoft will prefer to let the sales on the 360 run for a little while longer. They get more revenue from the console version.
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