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.

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.

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.

Wow, with that poetic eloquence, how can RPS ignore his request?

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.

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!

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.

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.