You get a dog, and it is awesome and rad. and seems like a real dog! Except no crap that you have to clean up. It did mark a light post though. It helps you find buried treasure, and will help you a little bit in combat.
There are condoms in the game! If you have unprotected sex, you can have offspring, and even get STDs. (I haven't got one yet, but can't wait until I do!). You can have um...er...homosexual relationships and even get married to someone of the same gender (if that's your thing). You can also have one night flings, although I had a lot of trouble with this...it wasn't as easy for me as it was for My Girlfriend's character (go figure).
And then there is the really cool part, is that you can play CO-OP with a friend (on the same console - which My Girlfriend and I were doing, OR over XBOX Live). The person playing as a henchman only gets to choose from 6 pre-generated looking henchman, but you get all your powers. However, the primary player is the only one that can interact with merchants and such. But, when the 2nd player is logged on, they even get a share of the experience and gold earned that gets returned to the character in their game! It's awesome.
As an Henchman, your actions affect the primary players game. So if I walk around in My Girlfriend's game farting a whole lot, it will reflect in how people feel about My Girlfriend's character. I could also shoot her husband (out of jealousy of course) and she would have to live with the consequences. There are a few movement and Camera issues with multiplayer, but there is a handy Teleport feature where the henchman player can instantly appear beside the primary player if someone gets stuck.
The only other issue I have with the game is the magic casting. The thing I like is that there is no mana. You can just blast away at will until you're blue in the face. All spells have a area effect and a targeted effect (which is cool). So Lighning for example can be shot at some guy, or you can blast everyone within about 10 feet (2 squares - heh heh). But as you hold down your magic button, the game automatically changes spells to higher level spells that you have achieved. So, if I want to cast a fireball at someone, and I only have it at level 1, AND I have level 2 Lightning, if I hold down the button too long it will automatically take level 2 lightning. I would have prefered some kind of wheel system for casting (or something) as it isn't intuitive to switch spells on the fly, although perhaps when I get used to it I will find ways to use it better.
The art direction in this game is awesome, and puts other titles in the genre (like oblivion) to shame. Music score is pretty fantastic too.
Game is soo good.
I enjoy making some minions (Raise Dead) to protect me, then summoning a gigantic hurricane (Lv. 5 Vortex) and then when they're done spinning aimlessly in the air, I call down beams of pure lightning energy (Lv. 4 Shock).
Of course if all else fails there's the dexterity styles that allow me to shoot enemies in the head, and the Masterwork Cleaver for if I'm feeling a little bit mean.
Overall, they did everything better except for one which I will S-block.
spoilers
At the end of the game you get the choice to either bring back everyone who died while working on the tower; bring back your sister, family (killed by Lucien) and your Dog (also killed by Lucien, but while protecting you); or get heaps and heaps of gold.
I made the wrong choice by bringing back everyone who died while working on the tower since that is truly the "right" thing to do, but after wards I found my self seriously regretting it.
By taking away the dog (Snoopy in my game) they took away a gameplay mechanic along with it, thus I can't complete digging quests anymore, which are kind of useful.
But for as much as I disdain what they did, it actually felt like a true Sacrifice (the name on the card you can choose [sacrifice-tower people, love-important people, wealth-no one but you])
I made the wrong choice by bringing back everyone who died while working on the tower since that is truly the "right" thing to do, but after wards I found my self seriously regretting it.
By taking away the dog (Snoopy in my game) they took away a gameplay mechanic along with it, thus I can't complete digging quests anymore, which are kind of useful.
But for as much as I disdain what they did, it actually felt like a true Sacrifice (the name on the card you can choose [sacrifice-tower people, love-important people, wealth-no one but you])
I'll pick it up if I see it.
My only real complaints about the game are that the frame rate can be fairly slow, that it's a bit more buggy than it should be for release (here's hoping for a patch soon), and that you can't take your character's likeness into a game as a henchmen.
I'm glad they got rid of mana, too. It's much more fun that way. Seems to me the D&D 4e team were thinking along the same lines as the Fable 2 team when they came up with at-will powers.
Like loading a new area to have you facing the wrong way. Move forward a few steps and suddenly you're going back the way you just came from.
There are other annoying bugs. My wife had a "duplicate" husband. The inventory says she's got two families, and the same guys is listed. I figured I could help her fix the problem. I joined her game and killed one of them. (Though, I think there was only one- but it was listed twice.) Of course that caused all kinds of problems for her characters story wise. In the end, I did save her from getting a divorce.
I think I'll go cry now. Along with everyone else who doesn't have a 360.
I'm waiting for the PC version, which will probably come with additional stuff anyways
How viable is playing an archer? The only use I ever found for archery in Fable was sniping someone before battle, then it was back to melee or magic.
Well, since technology has progressed 500 years, they've gone to using flintlock rifles, pistols and the variations therein, although the crossbow has stuck around.
As for using the ranged aspect of gameplay, it's actually very viable given that you now have three attack buttons (X-Melee Y-Ranged B-Magic), so you can rapidly switch between the attack styles, in addition, after you level up your 'Dexterity Style' enough you can easily take out enemies from a distance.
In fact, the new combat system has been revamped so well that I actually went to upgrading my will spells before my other abilities, whereas before I would wait till the end of the game when I have experience to spare and then max out all the magic.
How viable is playing an archer? The only use I ever found for archery in Fable was sniping someone before battle, then it was back to melee or magic.
Are you sure? I found archery the most powerful style of combat in the original Fable, which made everything else unnecessary. Lock onto an opponent, move around, hold attack button for a while, kill him. Actually, I hope it was a bit weaker than it was before.
How viable is playing an archer? The only use I ever found for archery in Fable was sniping someone before battle, then it was back to melee or magic.
I haven't really been using the ranged attacks much, but I will give you what I know so far.
At first, you can buy yourself a nice gun or Xbow, and blast away from the hip. It works pretty well and is easy to do and keep running back from opponents. You can always just "shoot from the hip" by tapping the "y" button and quickly blast a shot off at the closest target.
As you level up your ranged attack skills, they can do more damage, and you can aim at targets by holding the "y" (you will get a crosshair for aiming). Aiming takes a little longer, but I believe it does more damage and lets you choose targets easier. You need at least this level of ranged attacks to play the gargoyle mini-game (they are 50 of the pesky little critters hanging on walls and bridges and such all over albion).
At Higher levels I'm not sure.
Shotguns(?) and Blunderbuss' are the most powerful, but slowest to load. Pistols are the least powerful, but fastest to shoot. Xbows are somewhere in between.
My girlfriend has been focusing on this style of combat and seems to be doing well....
How much customizability is there with the character? I am betting it starts off the same like Fable 1 where you look the same as everyone else starting off. But, once you get going how much can you alter your appearance?
Whack fol the daddy O,
Whack fol the daddy O,
There's whiskey in the jar!
:D
When I get it for the PC I plan on being a Highway Man (or Woman) with a trusty pistol and rapier :P
How much customizability is there with the character? I am betting it starts off the same like Fable 1 where you look the same as everyone else starting off. But, once you get going how much can you alter your appearance?
Well there are a whole bunch of hair styles and clothing. And the cool part is you can get fat if you eat too much, taller if you advance a lot in ranged skills, etc. The best part is the dyes. You can dye your hair and clothing pretty much any color you like...you just have to find and apply the dyes. Once you have a color, you can use it over and over again on as many items as you want.
Want a bright pink and orange nobles outfit? It's yours. A black explorers cape...done. Pretty cool stuff.
Are you sure? I found archery the most powerful style of combat in the original Fable, which made everything else unnecessary. Lock onto an opponent, move around, hold attack button for a while, kill him. Actually, I hope it was a bit weaker than it was before.
Archery was too slow when there were more than one opponent. While I'm pulling back the string, the enemies rush me. If shooting is faster in Fable 2, excellent.
OH! Please tell me you don't go bald when you grow horns?
*shrugs* I haven't grown horns yet.
EDIT: Although, I have started to get glowing runes on my face...I think from using a lot of magic?
Do you still age really fast? I found that annoying in the first game.
No, not really; granted, I haven't played too much yet, but the aging system got changed. Instead of aging every time you level up or whatever, the time passes each time you enter a new area (for example, the walk from Bowerstone to Oakfield might take 3 hours, so, when you go, you age 3 hours).
I wouldn't be surprised if there was plot-driven aging, though.
OH! Please tell me you don't go bald when you grow horns?
From one of the screenshots on the back of the case, i don't think so; I can't find a pic, but it looks like the horns grow more out instead of curled up.
When I get it for the PC I plan on being a Highway Man (or Woman) with a trusty pistol and rapier :P
I was a highwayman. Along the coach roads I did ride
With sword and pistol by my side
Many a young maid lost her baubles to my trade
Many a soldier shed his lifeblood on my blade
The b******s hung me in the spring of twenty-five
But I am still alive.
Musha rig um du rum da,
Whack fol the daddy O,
Whack fol the daddy O,
There's whiskey in the jar!
:D
As I was going over the far famed Kerry mountains
I met with captain Farrell and his money he was counting.
I first produced my pistol, and then produced my rapier.
Said stand and deliver, for I am a bold deceiver,
musha ring dumma do damma da
whack for the daddy 'ol
whack for the daddy 'ol
there's whiskey in the jar
I counted out his money, and it made a pretty penny.
I put it in my pocket and I took it home to Jenny.
She said and she swore, that she never would deceive me,
but the devil take the women, for they never can be easy
I went into my chamber, all for to take a slumber,
I dreamt of gold and jewels and for sure it was no wonder.
But Jenny took my charges and she filled them up with water,
Then sent for captain Farrel to be ready for the slaughter.
It was early in the morning, as I rose up for travel,
The guards were all around me and likewise captain Farrel.
I first produced my pistol, for she stole away my rapier,
But I couldn't shoot the water so a prisoner I was taken.
If anyone can aid me, it's my brother in the army,
If I can find his station down in Cork or in Killarney.
And if he'll come and save me, we'll go roving near Kilkenny,
And I swear he'll treat me better than me darling sportling Jenny
Now some men take delight in the drinking and the roving,
But others take delight in the gambling and the smoking.
But I take delight in the juice of the barley,
And courting pretty fair maids in the morning bright and early
Are the area larger this time around? I didn't like the first one since each area was so small and confined.
Simple answer, yes.
Long answer, they've made areas much more expansive when they warrant space (tombs still have a feeling of claustrophobia, excavated caverns are much more spacious), all in all, they've made everything a good deal larger.
Simple answer, yes.
Long answer, they've made areas much more expansive when they warrant space (tombs still have a feeling of claustrophobia, excavated caverns are much more spacious), all in all, they've made everything a good deal larger.
Indeed; if I remember correctly, the entirity of Albion was increased in size by about 10% or so.
Simple answer, yes.
Long answer, they've made areas much more expansive when they warrant space (tombs still have a feeling of claustrophobia, excavated caverns are much more spacious), all in all, they've made everything a good deal larger.
That's good to hear. I've always hated in the first one that no matter where you are, be it a forest marsh or whatnot, everything just seemed like many oddly shaped corridors connected to each other. It felt like one large continuous dungeon than a world.
But now, maybe I'll take the risk and plop down the $60. I also found out about local co-op. A huge plus for me.
Indeed; if I remember correctly, the entirity of Albion was increased in size by about 10% or so.
The size was increased by 10 times, not 10%.
The size was increased by 10 times, not 10%.
This is accurate.
why is it rated M anyway?
The farting.
Or the sex.
One of those.
I was going to get Fable 2 today... then I saw Fallout 3 and got sidetracked. :P
Way to many games this October and coming November.
Way to many games this October and coming November.
Yes the Christmas curse strikes again with games.
Way to many games this October and coming November.
Seriously... Fallout 3, Gears of War 2, and Fable 2. All buy worthy. And then there is that Dead Space game... which is at least rent worthy.
-Fallout 3
-Fable 2 (though unfortunately/fortunately waiting for PC version)
-Mirror's Edge
-Left for Dead
-Red Alert 3
-Far Cry 2
-Dead Space
Then later on in next year:
-Starcraft 2
-Empire: Total War
Every year I feel more and more like us PC users are being marginalized.
I dunno, besides for Fable 2, a large majority of games this year are either PC-exclusive or have a PC version as well. I think there is an actual upswing lately for PC games.
I know Its not related to Fable II or Fable I , but are there any good games for Wii ? I don't think I'd be allowed to play Fable II due to the M title , why is it rated M anyway?
Sorry to come back to this, but I had to address it.
The M title is due to the fact that you can pay for *****s, decapitate people with guns and sharp shooting; because you can massacre an entire town and be rewarded for it because it's a quest (evil of course).
Oh yeah, and you can get married, have children (through the aforementioned bumping uglies) and then, on a whim, kill your wife and child.
Now while granted, this is all a choice, the fact that the game gives you the choice is the reason it's rated M.
/rant
Used to be they'd have a PC version along with the Xbox version right at launch. The KOTOR games were like that. Had to wait YEARS for Jade Empire. Months for Mass Effect. No amount of bonus content excuses a long wait. Either bring the PC version out at launch or not at all, and stop jerking my chain.
Didn't you hear? Many developers are favoring consoles because of PC "piracy". Of course they fail to realize that piracy is also rampant on consoles and handhelds alike.
Either bring the PC version out at launch or not at all, and stop jerking my chain.
Given that option most companies would likely opt for "not at all", so are you really sure you want to issue such an ultimatum?
Dude this game sounds sick, I almost rented it today but the **** monglers at Hollywood video didnt have any copies...
WTF is a "mongler"?
Didn't you hear? Many developers are favoring consoles because of PC "piracy". Of course they fail to realize that piracy is also rampant on consoles and handhelds alike.
Damn pirates needing to play their stupid games for free and not paying for them like the rest of us law abiding citizens, driving single player PC RPGs into the dirt.
Actually that brings up a difference, if as you said you can kill your child. Guessing you can kill other children, this is a difference from Fable 1 where you couldn't.
You can also have sex with multiple people at once. I think my husband's (RL) record in the game is six people at once. And you get STDs if you have unprotected sex.
Be warned, this game can get addicting. And it probably isn't that long if you play straight through the actual story missions but most of my time playing so far has been doing things other than actual story missions.
Sounds.... Interesting , I'd probably never be allowed to play it. Unless it only hints at those themes...
No, it is pretty open. You go find people who accept your proposition, then you go find a bed. The screen goes blank and you get some 'interesting' dialogue.
Never is a long time :P Who exactly is going to stop you in ten years?
I hope at some point they make another Jade Empire game.
I'm glad to see more rpgs coming out. It seemed like there for a while it was hard to find a good rpg game.
I hope at some point they make another Jade Empire game.
If you are ever interested in a light hearted and slightly silly videogame rpg, look at dokapon kingdom. My husband and I spent a weekend playing it and haven't finished and thoroughly enjoy it.
Ok, so, having played Fallout 3 for a bit, its the most amazing thing ever. Its the Fallout character creation system with Oblivion quality graphics and gameplay. Fantastic.
I've taken to calling it, "Elder Scrolls: Fallout Edition"
Aaand a little bit of mud on my face as you apparently cannot specifically target children in Fable 2. Although you may be able to sacrifice them at the Temple of Shadow, I haven't checked so, who knows.
What does happen if you kill your wife is they take your child away and put him/her in an orphanage.
I'm honestly starting to think that I've either missed a section of the tutorial or there's a page missing from the game manual, because if they were going to have melee weapons only be used for smashing the odd crate, rather than fighting with, you'd think they would have mentioned it somewhere.
OK, yes, you can fight with your sword, but it only took a few battles for me to start questioning what the point of having one is. The enemy AI has exactly the same ability to combat someone using a ranged weapon as it did in the first game; that is, none whatsoever. Rather than charging in, swarming you and giving you no room to breathe (let alone fire) they instead opt to stand mostly immobile at a range of about three or four yards, which is basically the same thing as flatly and sincerely asking to be shot. Occasionally they'll shuffle forward a little or wave their weapons meaningfully, but rarely do they ever make an effort to close the distance.
As soon as I witnessed this AI pattern, I immediately knew that, just like in Fable I, if I focused my efforts on developing my ranged skills, I would pretty much be able to complete the game without getting hit once (which I have done in the past.) It's even more godly in this game because not only do you not have to reload after every shot, (in the case of clockwork guns) but you also don't risk getting a sore thumb from having to firmly hold down the button over and over again to make your shots more powerful, and the game automatically targets for you.
To make it even worse, you actually have to spend experience points on combat techniques now. For ranged users, what this means is getting to add a few fun and nifty abilities to an already godlike fighting style. For melee users, this means you're going to have to kill a hell of a lot of enemies before you can fight worth a damn.
Remember flourishes? Yeah, you have to pay before you can use those now. Remember BLOCKING? You have to pay to do that too. Essentially, before you buy these upgrades, you have to just swing wildly and hope nobody decides to swing back. And just to compound the whole affair, the third melee upgrade you can buy ACTUALLY GOES TOWARDS MAKING YOUR RANGED ABILITIES EVEN MORE POWERFUL. You sure won't see that happening in reverse, though.
I suppose it makes sense; I mean, if in real life you had to fend off a group of attackers and you were given the choice between a sword and a firearm, it'd be a no-brainer. But this is a fantasy roleplaying game. It's not supposed to be a clear cut case of "Guns are better than swords." I'm not saying that going melee isn't a viable option, but you're going to be stuck with the nagging feeling that you'd be kicking so much more ass if you'd put the sword away and start shooting people.
It's like having a generic, run-of-the-mill, second-hand three-door hatchback, and a Ferrari. Sure, the cheap car works perfectly well and it'll get you where you need to go, but the whole time you're in it you'll be thinking "I could be driving my Ferrari."
Except in this case, a Ferrari doesn't really convey the scale of the matter. It'd be more like the choice between a moped, and Optimus Prime transformed into the Batmobile.
Speaking of vehicles, your character now handles like an excavator with a missing tread. Being driven by a giraffe. I know it's not very realistic to be able to turn on a dime in split second, but, you know, it's also not very realistic to be able to THROW LIGHTNING BOLTS AT PEOPLE. The point is it's smooth and it doesn't feel sluggish and oppressive.
While we're on the subject of lightning bolts, what the hell? Eight spells? That's it? What happened to my buffs? Why can't I heal myself anymore?
AND WHY THE HELL DID YOU TAKE MY MINIMAP AWAY? WHY, LIONHEAD? Yeah, I've got the dog now, that's great. The dog doesn't tell me where the stores are. The dog doesn't tell me where the exits are. The dog doesn't stop me from having to open my menu every five seconds (and then wait another five seconds for the menu to LOAD) just to make sure I'm FACING IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION.
And is it just me, or is this whole "breadcrumb trail" thing extremely unreliable? It's like half the time it works, and half the time it says "Screw you, I'm not telling you where to go today. Just look at your minimap and find the quest marker. OH WAIT I FORGOT YOU DON'T HAVE ONE ANYMORE HA HA HA UP YOURS SUCKER"
That's enough for now. More details as they come up.
Its just Elder Scrolls style first person play. Its like the best features of each game! Soooo much fun. But there does need to be more caravan guarding. :P
It's funny, but you almost say that like the Elder Scrolls series actually had some good features to incorporate.
...the ps3 is better in every way...
Except for two things: games library and fun.
Alright, we've seen enough praise for this. Let's harp on some flaws, shall we?
Sorry, your attempt at being Yahtzee has not succeeded.
Oh, of course. Everyone who talks about the things that are wrong with a game is trying to be Yahtzee. He totally invented that. Nobody ever did anything like it before Zero Punctuation came along, no siree.
Your attempt at sarcasm has also failed.
So there.
No, boy, it didn't.
Who are you calling "boy"?
It was a sarcastic remark and you took it as such, rather than thinking I actually meant what I said on the surface, and you were also able to successfully determine what the underlying message was. Ergo, it worked perfectly well.
If that is what you imagine to be true then it goes far to explain why you do it so poorly. Employing sarcasm is not remotely the same thing as doing so with deftness or skill.
So there.
What a clever retort. You really showed me.
What a clever retort. You really showed me.
Damn right I did.
Also, you're ugly.
Let's get it back on topic, thank you.
It's funny, but you almost say that like the Elder Scrolls series actually had some good features to incorporate.
I love the Elder Scrolls games. I have played every single one, and there is not an Elder Scrolls game that I did not think was the best RPG of its time. The mix of Elder Scrolls movement/FPS style targeting with Fallout style character building and body part V.A.T.S. targeting makes for an amazingly fun RPG experience. So yes, I do think that the Elder Scrolls series had many good features to incorporate. Quite frankly, I don't really care if you disagree...
I love the Elder Scrolls games. I have played every single one, and there is not an Elder Scrolls game that I did not think was the best RPG of its time. The mix of Elder Scrolls movement/FPS style targeting with Fallout style character building and body part V.A.T.S. targeting makes for an amazingly fun RPG experience. So yes, I do think that the Elder Scrolls series had many good features to incorporate. Quite frankly, I don't really care if you disagree...
Suit yourself. I suppose some people out there actually enjoy watching paint dry too. I don't claim to understand it, but there you go.
All you vegetarians out there will be pleased to hear that eating tofu is still considered the pinnacle of righteous piety, at least as far as food goes.
It’s even better here, though, because this time the quality of the tofu you eat actually affects how many good points you receive. Apparently, eating stale, mushy tofu isn’t as virtuous as eating smooth, quality tofu.
Who came up with this idea and why wasn’t it immediately dismissed? OK, I can kind of see where you’re coming from if you’re taking the whole “meat is murder” angle; eating tofu doesn’t require the butchery of fluffy animals. Fine. Why doesn’t this apply to other non-meat produce? Eating apples or carrots doesn’t make you more righteous, so what is it about coagulated soy milk that’s so damn holy? I’m not saying I dislike the stuff, but I can’t say I’ve ever felt like I’ve made the world a better place by eating it.
In theory, you could massacre an entire city full of people and let the whole world know of your terrible, murderous presence, and then “make up” for it by just eating a huge amount of luxury tofu, whereupon all transgressions will be forgotten and you will be hailed as the saviour of mankind.
It doesn’t just make you good, though; it also makes you more “pure”. Yes, you now have another karma meter to worry about in the form of the purity/corruption scale. What does this refer to, precisely? I don’t have a clue. Apparently “purity” comes from doing things like working as a smith, sleeping with your wife and the aforementioned tofu, whereas “corruption” involves setting a high rent on property that you own and eating meat.
So while devouring animal flesh (with the exception of the infamous ‘Crunchy Chicks’; between that and the chicken kicking minigame, I can‘t help but think that someone in Lionhead Studios had a bad experience with domestic fowl as a child) doesn’t make you evil, but it does make you corrupt.
This essentially means that if you eat a lot of meat, you will grow horns.
I'm serious.
To my understanding, (and for whatever reason) the visage given to evil characters in Fable 1 is now what “corrupt” characters get in Fable II, (being evil just makes your skin pale or something) and, as mentioned, meat-eating increases your corruption. You do the maths.
I was going to say that I’ve never noticed any bony protuberances on my head in spite of the fact that I love a good steak, but really, I shouldn’t complain about it being unrealistic, because ultimately it makes about as much sense as growing horns for murdering people. That doesn’t make it feel any less silly, though.
It’s as if they didn’t really put any thought into it. The good/evil meter at least flows somewhat naturally from the way in which you play your character, but the purity and corruption issue is just contrived and unnecessary. It feels less like “If you play a corrupt character, the game will morph your appearance to reflect this” and more like “If you want horns, eat meat."
I almost hate to say it, but a “Lawful/Chaotic” meter probably would have worked better and been more fun overall.
Suit yourself. I suppose some people out there actually enjoy watching paint dry too. I don't claim to understand it, but there you go.
And yet, every Elder Scrolls game has won countless awards, and has generated a massive fan following. I guess you just know better then everyone else...
If you don't like it, fine. But that doesn't mean that the Elder Scrolls were not amazing games, or that their contribution to Fallout 3 has not led to an amazing game. It just means you have different tastes then a lot of other people...
And yet, every Elder Scrolls game has won countless awards, and has generated a massive fan following. I guess you just know better then everyone else...
If you don't like it, fine. But that doesn't mean that the Elder Scrolls were not amazing games, or that their contribution to Fallout 3 has not led to an amazing game. It just means you have different tastes then a lot of other people...
IMO, Oblivion was horrible. I was deathly bored with the game after 10 hours, and that's including mods. I'd hate to play vanilla for longer than an hour. Because of my distaste of Oblivion, I am skeptical of Fallout 3. But from what I've heard, Bethesda has listened to the complaints of the previous game and made changes for the better. Which is a good thing to me and I might pick up Fallout 3 soon.
And yet, every Elder Scrolls game has won countless awards, and has generated a massive fan following.
Whoopee. Sometimes terrible and/or mediocre things manage to do that. Look at the Halo series. Average trilogy of shooters, nothing particularly special about them aside from shiny graphics, and yet it's probably made Microsoft enough money to buy America.
IMO, Oblivion was horrible. I was deathly bored with the game after 10 hours, and that's including mods.
Wow, you lasted that long?
For me it was about ten minutes.
Suit yourself. I suppose some people out there actually enjoy watching paint dry too. I don't claim to understand it, but there you go.
So what would you claim is an enjoyable game?
So, just because you have an opinion doesn't mean it is empirically true.
Then why are you acting like it's great because of people's opinion of it?
So what would you claim is an enjoyable game?
In terms of RPGs? Fun combat, developed characters, an interesting world and a good, well-told story. That's all it really needs. "Freedom" and "non-linearity" are both well and good, but if I'm too bored by the actual game to take advantage of them then there's no point.
Why are we still talking about this? I don't think my original off-the-cuff remark deserves this kind of scrutiny. Let's get back to the moral implications of tofu.
Then why are you acting like it's great because of people's opinion of it?
I didn't. I acted like its great because of my opinion of it, and pointed out that I am far from alone in this opinion. Thus, I pointed out, that it is not awful because of your opinion.
In terms of RPGs? Fun combat, developed characters, an interesting world and a good, well-told story. That's all it really needs. "Freedom" and "non-linearity" are both well and good, but if I'm too bored by the actual game to take advantage of them then there's no point.
Want to name a couple you actually liked? I'm curiouse to see where your tastes lie, considering the fact that you don't like the Elder Scrolls games, Fallout 3, Fable 2 (and it seems you had problems with Fable as well), and the like.
Want to name a couple you actually liked? I'm curiouse to see where your tastes lie, considering the fact that you don't like the Elder Scrolls games, Fallout 3, Fable 2 (and it seems you had problems with Fable as well), and the like.
Actually, I haven't played Fallout 3 yet. I was just ragging on Oblivion, because I (like many people) do not relish the idea of Fallout 3 just being "Elder Scrolls with guns." I'm almost certain that once I give it a try I'll be yearning for the semi-strategic isometric combat of the first two games, but if the "feel" is still there and the roleplaying aspect is still as developed, I'll live with it. I would have preferred it if Fallout had just stayed Fallout, though.
I've also exaggerated my dislike of Oblivion a tad, as I am wont to do with these things. I didn't really think it was terrible, but there was just nothing there to rope me in. Story, combat, interaction; everything felt bland across the board, and the multitude of other niggles like being unable to attack from horseback led to a uniformly sub-par experience.
If you didn't pick it up from the first paragraph, I enjoyed the earlier Fallouts. I'm also a fan of the Baldur's Gate series and Planescape: Torment.
Wow, you lasted that long?
For me it was about ten minutes.
I started on the 360 and got bored within a few hours. Once I gave it a second chance for the PC with many mods, the game was enjoyable for a while, but it still turned out 'bleh' in the end. So yeah, I lasted that long because of mods alone. Which is sad when you think about it. ;)
And yet, many people disagree with you Wight_Chocolate and ssvegeta555. Many people think Oblivion was an amazing game (I am one of those).
You'd be surprised how many people don't much care for Oblivion.
Let's get back to the moral implications of tofu.
This is too good to pass up, mind if I sig this?
Back to the topic at hand.
In terms of the Tofu = Halo and Meat = Horns, my thought is that Lionhead is trying to make every decision count; the problem is that they're doing it the wrong way. I mean hell, you can't even get thin by fasting! Honestly how is it that I have to eat to get thin? That seems a bit counter-intuitive on quite a few fronts.
On a whole, they need to take a look at which decisions should count as opposed to making every minuscule decision count (donates thousands to the temple of light, doesn't ever charge full price for rent, seen as aggressive and scary because he's wearing clothes traditionally associated with highwaymen).
On to the problem of Gun v. Melee.
While the guns are definitely more powerful on singular opponents, those opponents traditionally being dumbed down AI, when you get surrounded (via undead at the crucible) the gun becomes rendered relatively useless next to a wide swinging weapon or well charged area spell. Now yes, these times are few and far between (I've had it become a problem maybe 7 times in the hours I've put into the game, not counting crucible) but that's because they're trying to attract a larger audience*. I actually found myself using my cleaver more then my rifle when going through the game and I found that I was able to get through just as easily using my butcher's tool as my firearm, in fact when I'm done playing Fallout 3 I'll probably go back and try going through focusing primarily on magic and see how well that compares.
Quick synopsis: It's all a matter of personal preference.
I'm going to go pass out now.
*Molyneux stated point-blank that he wanted the game to be so easy that anyone could pick it up and play it, but have it so that the hardcore gamers would receive a better experience by the end. This has obviously miffed a very many hardcore gamers, but they're less numerous then the countless 'casual' gamers meaning that they're voices will be drowned by waves of the, "massive fan following".
You'd be surprised how many people don't much care for Oblivion.
You would be surprised how many do... what is your point?
You would be surprised how many do... what is your point?
That Oblivion is not as highly praised as some believe. Many mods were created to fix the glaring problems (leveled enemies, instant teleport, mounted combat, textures, lightning, bugs, combat in general, menus etc) Bethesda apparently listened to the complaints to make Fallout 3 that much better. The world as a whole seems to be smaller in Fallout 3 but more varied and doesn't have that 'cloned' feel like in Oblivion. In game menus seem to be tailored to the platform (i.e. PC or Console, not a 'one size fits all'). Combat is improved from what I've seen, esp with the VATS system. Dialogue and Voices are much improved. Story actually has meaning and consequence.
These improvements to the formula Bethesda is known for is apparent to me. And I haven't even played the game yet, this is all from observations and previews etc. Not to mention, that many fallout fans and Oblivion haters were very skeptical about this game, but were pleasantly surprised.
Now I'm not putting you down for liking Oblivion, you like it, and I don't. Simple as that. But the complaints about Oblivion were taken into consideration to create something better in my eyes. Funny how I turned an Oblivion rant to a Fallout praise post. :P
Suit yourself. I suppose some people out there actually enjoy watching paint dry too. I don't claim to understand it, but there you go.
Spurious comparison.
All you vegetarians out there will be pleased to hear that eating tofu is still
It’s as if they didn’t really put any thought into it. The good/evil meter at least flows somewhat naturally from the way in which you play your character, but the purity and corruption issue is just contrived and unnecessary. It feels less like “If you play a corrupt character, the game will morph your appearance to reflect this” and more like “If you want horns, eat meat."
You've missed a very key point: it's a joke. Fable is packed to the teeth with jokes and humour. Tofu making you "pure" and meat "corrupting" you is one of them, a sly dig at those self-righteous vegetarians and vegans who actually believe that rubbish.
For me it was about ten minutes.
Which doesn't strike you as perhaps less than ample time to make an informed decision?
Spurious comparison.
Hey, some people enjoy eating feces and having their testes stood on.
Objectively speaking, watching paint dry seems a tad less unlikely and is much more comparable to the Oblivion experience, which I would classify as exceedingly dull rather than painful and unhygienic. Although if it'll really make you happy, I'll go ahead and withdraw that light-hearted comment.
But you have to WANT it.
Which doesn't strike you as perhaps less than ample time to make an informed decision?
Perhaps you missed the part where I said I was exaggerating. I don't think ten minutes would have been enough to get me out of the prison, let alone find a horse and discover that I can't attack whilst riding it.
Yes, I was kidding when I said that. Yes, I played the game for more than ten minutes.
You've missed a very key point:
No, I haven't. I am intentionally taking this a tad more seriously than I actually should be.
You know, kind of like what you've been doing with my posts? That.
This is too good to pass up, mind if I sig this?
If you want to, sure.
in fact when I'm done playing Fallout 3 I'll probably go back and try going through focusing primarily on magic
WHAT?
You know, kind of like what you've been doing with my posts? That.
Actually, I don't take anything you say seriously.
That's probably for the best.
BTW, had to mention that your name is the only one other than Tyler Do'Urden that ever made me laugh out loud.
Mind you that post was written on 4 hours of sleep and a 20 hour day.
When do you think the PC version of Fable II will come out?
I'm thinking about 6 months from now. :raincloud
I bought it for my PC so it had all the extra content even.
I played the sequel at my buddies house and I was hoping for improvements upon the first game...
I can sum up my feelings with this line:
All aboard the hype train, first stop dissapointmentville!!!!
The games advertisements make bold claims about the open endedness and how about all of your choices effecting everything....when it has the depth of a platformer title like spyro the dragon or sonic the hedgehog.
I wouldnt even call it an rpg any more than I would call Super Mario World an RPG.
This was not a pimple on Oblivions butt. And neverwinter nights 2 is better any day of the week!
Japp style RPG's are more my taste...but if it has to be western, then DnD games and elder scrolls are all I will touch.
Except Neverwinter Nights 2 is almost universally reviled for its bad camera.
But, it should be reviled for its even worse update system.
I cannot get the updates to the game that I need to go past the half way point of the game.
It is that buggy, that because I can't download the game twice(that is apparently how much space is needed to get the updates) I can't finish the game.
I'm just hoping that someone eventually uploads screenshots of the Character Morphs on the 'Net for all to see...
This has NOTHING TO DO WITH OBLIVION OR FALLOUT! Jeez, follow the conversation would you? ;)
RE: The moral implications of Tofu. I think it is hilarious. The best three things about Fable 2 are (not necessarily in this order):
1) The humor and silliness of Fable is pure genius. These guys get that the world is a laughable place and have managed to capture that in their game.
2) The freedom to be completely pious and holy and good and fluffy, vs. the freedom to be evil, horrible, nasty, rude, and just plain bad is also the best thing about the game. It even changes the world a little bit and people in the world react to you differently depending on how you behave. Lion's Head has done this better than anyone else I have seen.
3) The whole SIMS aspect of the game where you can make people like/dislike you, buy a home, have a family, create a wardrobe, kick chickens, etc. is pretty fantastically fun and an easy way to waste time. The nice thing is, it is there if you want it, or you can just plow through the story and disregard social interactions for the most part. It's optional.
I have found advantages and disadvantages to all the combat forms. I prefer magic myself, but if you are mobbed by guys...nothing beats a big weapon to keep the hordes off. Sniping is loads of fun. I do have to admit though, that the ranged combat is really quite powerful. Headshots for the win.
I do have to admit, there are still a few little buggy bits to Fable, but overall I would say it is a really good game.
------------------
Now, RE: Oblivion:
I didn't hate Oblivion, but I didn't particularly care for it either. I think it was a little over-hyped and over-awarded. The leveling system was WAY too muddled and 1 guy and 1 girl delivering every single line of dialog hurt my brain*
I will admit though, I am intrigued by fallout 3. Hopefully they got another 2 voice actors (for a total of 4) just so we can have some variety.
------------------
*Except the part with Patrick Stewart at the beginning.
BTW: How many Cardassians does it take to screw in a light bulb? 4, because "THERE ... ARE ... FOUR ... LIGHTS!!"
Sorry...bad Star Trek joke.
This has NOTHING TO DO WITH OBLIVION OR FALLOUT! Jeez, follow the conversation would you? ;)
I'm a rebel, I don't have to follow conversations! :P
Anyway, I beat the game a couple of days ago, and my character was Good/Pure. He's a bad-ass.
I'm a rebel, I don't have to follow conversations! :P
Anyway, I beat the game a couple of days ago, and my character was Good/Pure. He's a bad-ass.
My first play-through I have been playing a good/pure character. I haven't finished the game yet as I work 70 hours a week and I have been taking my time in the game (I spend a lot of time buying places and making outfits and interacting with people). My goal is to eventually own everything I can and make rent pretty much free for everyone! But first I have to make enough money to buy everything, so for now I have been keeping the prices fair.
I do intend to play again as evil...but I don't think I want to be corrupt. I like the sound of Pure/Evil better.
My first play-through I have been playing a good/pure character. I haven't finished the game yet as I work 70 hours a week and I have been taking my time in the game (I spend a lot of time buying places and making outfits and interacting with people). My goal is to eventually own everything I can and make rent pretty much free for everyone! But first I have to make enough money to buy everything, so for now I have been keeping the prices fair.
I do intend to play again as evil...but I don't think I want to be corrupt. I like the sound of Pure/Evil better.
My husband has three characters, one good/pure, one good/corrupt and one pure/evil. It is really interesting what they put on the good/evil axis and what is on the pure/corrupt axis.
I just started over and it amazed me how fast you can go through the game when you aren't bothering to do most of the social/marrying/furnishing/clothes buying parts of the game!
P.S. - Sorry if that wasn't you.
Good luck, dude; you may want to lower the economies of the towns you try to buy first (i.e. Steal, loot, murder, ect.) to make the prices lower.
I've designed a method that's actually quite useful for buying all property everywhere in Albion without having to even lower the economy, I call it the 'Man in tophat with moneybag' scheme' (I'll have to work on shortening the name of this sometime).
It unfolds in this manner: Buy every property you can until you're raking in at least 5-10k per 5 minutes; go off and do something else for a while such as play another game or be social; profit.
I'm in the middle of this plan at this moment and I expect at least near 500-600k by the time I play it again.
Cheers.
I've designed a method that's actually quite useful for buying all property everywhere in Albion without having to even lower the economy, I call it the 'Man in tophat with moneybag' scheme' (I'll have to work on shortening the name of this sometime).
It unfolds in this manner: Buy every property you can until you're raking in at least 5-10k per 5 minutes; go off and do something else for a while such as play another game or be social; profit.
I'm in the middle of this plan at this moment and I expect at least near 500-600k by the time I play it again.
Cheers.
Very nice; also, as a new name, I suggest:
E.G.O.
Entire
Game
Owned
Yeah, it's kind of lame, but whatever.
Very nice; also, as a new name, I suggest:
E.G.O.
Entire
Game
Owned
Amused Response: Only if I get to speak like this...meatbag.
Amused Response: Only if I get to speak like this...meatbag.
I don't really get the reference; i was referring to how the original Fable was codenamed "Project Ego".
If you can rake in cash as quickly as you could in Fable: The Lost Chapters, I'm not too worried about hurting my morality or purity.
Well, after reading some forum chatter, I discovered that it is, in fact, quite easy to gain a million gold in about a hour or so.
The shops now have sales and shortages; they usually go with price decreases/increases of 25%, 50%, and 75%, if I recall correctly. Of course,during a sale, if you sell stuff, you get less for it; probably proportionate to how big the sale is. But during a shortage... Can you say "Ka-Ching!"? ;)
I do want to start over and check out some of the other choices, but I also want to finish up with the current character. (Only have 41 of the gargoyles.)
He's talking like HK-47, a homocidal prejudiced assassin droid from Knights of the Old Republic. He refers to humanoids as meatbags. If he can hurt one, he will. Just for kicks.
- Melee and ranged combat is incredibly boring. My choices are hold the button and attack or tap the button. After fighting the AI of the game's 6 enemies a few times, combat becomes tedious.
- All of your magic is controlled by 1 button. Really? You cant map your spells all over the controller and actually make it easy to use on the fly?
- Everyone in the towns are clones or almost clones. Why am i supposed to care about a spouse when everyone looks the same and gives me the same tired diologe?
- Multiplayer is lame. You cant even play a model that looks like your own character in someone else's game.
- Lack of customization. Having your actions effect your appearance is cute, but what if i want to be evil without looking like satan? What if i want to be good and have horns? After games like Mass Effect that let you modify minute facial details (and basic things like ethnicity), Fable's total and utter lack of such options is disappointing. The fact that i really didnt think 90% of the clothes fit the characters i wanted to make didnt help either.
- Disappointing quests. There just didnt seem like there were that many, and most of them were tired "go to location X and fight some dudes" cookie-cutter affairs.
Fable was fun for awhile and thought it was an ok game until i got Fallout 3. The new Fallout is seriously the best game ive played in as long as i can remember and i would recomend it over Fable 2 to anyone with a 360 or PC.
Haven't got round to buying the game yet, but currious to know: can you chose your character's race on this one?
No, you can't, unfortunately; I really don't get why game designers do this; I may not be an expert on programming, but surely it wouldn't be hard to make a few alternate color palettes to change your skin tone from white, to black, to a more brownish-tan (for south and central Americans), or to a lighter tan (for Asians and such), could it?
- All of your magic is controlled by 1 button. Really? You cant map your spells all over the controller and actually make it easy to use on the fly?
- Everyone in the towns are clones or almost clones. Why am i supposed to care about a spouse when everyone looks the same and gives me the same tired diologe?
I like the game a little more than it sounds like you do, but I have to agree with you on these 2 points.
I really wish they would have done the Spell system differently. Something like what they had in Mass Effect or some other, better menu system would have rocked.
And, all the clones all bugging you for a ring all the time gets a little tedious. I have started slapping anyone that asks.
I do really like the social interaction system though. It could be refined a little more, and it would be nice if it wasn't so easy to make everyone love you...but I think the point is that when you are a celebrity, the masses become infatuated with you regardless of what you do.
As far as the shooting and sword fighting goes, it is pretty easy to button mash and make it through this game. You can time button presses to do combos and make flourish attacks, Snd sometimes blocking can be really handy, but all the extra attack options are really unnecessary at the end of the day because you can defeat most opponents just by repeatedly pressing x.
I never thought about multi-ethnic characters for the game, but now that it has been mentioned, it would have been nice.
Regardless of the games shortcomings though, I still find it remarkably charming and really fun to play. My real estate empire is coming along nicely and I now have more gold than I think I can spend.
He's talking like HK-47, a homocidal prejudiced assassin droid from Knights of the Old Republic. He refers to humanoids as meatbags. If he can hurt one, he will. Just for kicks.
Thank you for getting this, I was rendered speechless at someone not knowing one of the most notable characters in Kotor, a game based of the d20 system and using Starwars RPG rules.
No, you can't, unfortunately; I really don't get why game designers do this; I may not be an expert on programming, but surely it wouldn't be hard to make a few alternate color palettes to change your skin tone from white, to black, to a more brownish-tan (for south and central Americans), or to a lighter tan (for Asians and such), could it?
I don't think it's a tech issue. Maybe a black protagonist just wouldn't make any sense in the story.
I do really like the social interaction system though. It could be refined a little more, and it would be nice if it wasn't so easy to make everyone love you...but I think the point is that when you are a celebrity, the masses become infatuated with you regardless of what you do.
That was another thing i forgot to mention. While the social interaction system is nice in theory, and actually pretty novel as far as game mechanics go, it's execution seems pretty flat to me. I can literally go up to anyone attracted to my gender and get them to fall in love with me by cycling through 2 expressions for 30 seconds.
Regardless of the games shortcomings though, I still find it remarkably charming and really fun to play. My real estate empire is coming along nicely and I now have more gold than I think I can spend.
Its my own fault for ruing my fun when it comes to the real estate mini-game. After i bought my first house it took me about 5 minutes to figure out how to get infinite money (actually more like "indefinite" money) within a span of 20 mintutes. I abused the system and easily bought every building in the whole game over the course of an hour or 2.
This isnt exactly a flaw in the game as much as it is a problem with my need to exlploit loopholes (as long as they dont actually involve entering cheat codes ;) ).
I don't think it's a tech issue. Maybe a black protagonist just wouldn't make any sense in the story.
It deffinately takes place in a non-historically acurate fantasy world, so I think they'd actually have to go out of their way to explain why there couldn't be a black protagonist.
On a side note, sometimes you have black kids so obviously your wives are meeting some black "protagonists" somewhere. ;)
No, you can't, unfortunately; I really don't get why game designers do this; I may not be an expert on programming, but surely it wouldn't be hard to make a few alternate color palettes to change your skin tone from white, to black, to a more brownish-tan (for south and central Americans), or to a lighter tan (for Asians and such), could it?
Nope, it would just be a texture replacement. As long as they use the same model and rig (i.e. body), a texture change to a different ethnicity is all that is required. It would mean more work to create new textures for each avaliable body variation, however (such as gender, age, size ect).
Nope, it would just be a texture replacement. As long as they use the same model and rig (i.e. body), a texture change to a different ethnicity is all that is required. It would mean more work to create new textures for each available body variation, however (such as gender, age, size ect).
Couldn't they just re-color the regular texture, then? I can do that with 'freakin GIMP in a few minutes.
Also, as for The White Sorcerer's thoughts, the majority of the women at the Gypsy cap are dark-skinned (maybe not "black", but close to it). So is Garth, and besides, you never learn abut the hero's Parents anyway.
That brings up one thing, though; if they inserted an option to change the Hero's ethnicity, they'd have to do the same for his sister, Rose. Annoying, I suppose, but I wouldn't be surprised if sales increased because of the fact that you don't have to be white.
Its my own fault for ruing my fun when it comes to the real estate mini-game. After i bought my first house it took me about 5 minutes to figure out how to get infinite money (actually more like "indefinite" money) within a span of 20 mintutes. I abused the system and easily bought every building in the whole game over the course of an hour or 2.
Please share.
It deffinately takes place in a non-historically acurate fantasy world, so I think they'd actually have to go out of their way to explain why there couldn't be a black protagonist.
Not really. You play a descendant of the original game's protagonist, who was white.
Couldn't they just re-color the regular texture, then? I can do that with 'freakin GIMP in a few minutes.
Also, as for The White Sorcerer's thoughts, the majority of the women at the Gypsy cap are dark-skinned (maybe not "black", but close to it). So is Garth, and besides, you never learn abut the hero's Parents anyway.
That brings up one thing, though; if they inserted an option to change the Hero's ethnicity, they'd have to do the same for his sister, Rose. Annoying, I suppose, but I wouldn't be surprised if sales increased because of the fact that you don't have to be white.
They could re-color, but it wouldn't look good in my opinion. There are facial features that needed to be drawn into the texture, like high cheek bones, position of eyes, width of the nose etc. Some facial features common to an ethnicity might not be able to be drawn in and they would have to create a new head model to and model them directly onto the model.
Please share.
You get money from rent and stores you own every 5 mintues in real time while playing and i discovered that you still get some of this money when youre not even playing the game. This means that as long as you're not connected to Live, you can just keep setting your system's clock a head a month or so a get tons of automatic rent money. I found out that the amount you get while not playing the game tops out at around 10x the normal amount you collect every 5 minutes, so youre going to have to quit the game and reset the clock a few times to get truly huge somes of cash.
The best way is to do it is to buy an expensive house or business that nets you a lot of cash, do the trick a few times, and immediately spend all of your earnings on more high yield properties. Once you own enough stuff, youll be able to get hundreds of thousands in gold every time you reboot your game.
i didnt bother using this cheat until i beat the game once though, since i thought it would ruin some of the fun. Ultimately i didnt feel that guilty since i think that grinding boring monsters with a boring combat system for dozens of hours for the same amount of gold is a waste of time.
Not really. You play a descendant of the original game's protagonist, who was white.
Didnt someone say it took place 200 years later? You can easily go from white as snow to black as night in few generations. I have black friends with white ancestors only 2 generations back and you would never know it.
Didnt someone say it took place 200 years later? You can easily go from white as snow to black as night in few generations. I have black friends with white ancestors only 2 generations back and you would never know it.
It's 500 years, and for a bit of lore, the only people in Fable 1 who weren't white are Thunder, Whisper, and the people from Snowspire. Thunder and Whisper came from a continent that was across the ocean, and the only way to Snowspire was a magic ship that was missing for ages. Also, if your character didn't KILL Thunder and Whisper, they left for their homeland near the end of the game. So, there wasn't really anybody in Albion to produce non-white children. I'm guessing Garth came from a distant land as well, seeing as he is the only black person in Fable 2.
Final point, the most advanced mode of travel in Fable 2 is a carrige, and Guild Seals are few and far between, so nobody could go to Snowspire either due to a lack of magical ships.
Show
Apparently it is called Samarkand. At the end of the game, he asks Theresa to send him there. Reaver asks to tag along for the "hot nights, exotic foods and...uninhibited people". Which is odd because I was under the impression that Samarkand was a real-life Asian city that was the home of the real Aladdin in the original 1001 Nights.
It's 500 years, and for a bit of lore, the only people in Fable 1 who weren't white are Thunder, Whisper, and the people from Snowspire. Thunder and Whisper came from a continent that was across the ocean, and the only way to Snowspire was a magic ship that was missing for ages. Also, if your character didn't KILL Thunder and Whisper, they left for their homeland near the end of the game. So, there wasn't really anybody in Albion to produce non-white children. I'm guessing Garth came from a distant land as well, seeing as he is the only black person in Fable 2.
Final point, the most advanced mode of travel in Fable 2 is a carrige, and Guild Seals are few and far between, so nobody could go to Snowspire either due to a lack of magical ships.
500 years ago there were no black people in the US and now there are millions. You really do have to go out of your way to have a reason why there can't be a black protagonist in a fantasy world, especially when its already been established that black people already exist there.
Really, the lack of racial options is clearly the result of laziness on the part of the developer or the fact that they simply assumed everyone would be ok playing yet another white protagonist.
I was under the impression that Samarkand was a real-life Asian city[/sblock]
Not odd at all. Fantasy fiction makes use of real-world names all the time, has done for decades: Albion, the the setting for Fable, is also an ancient name for Britain; a Shire was the name for an administrative district in Anglo Saxon Britain (Berkshire, Worcestershire, Lancashire et al) ; Middle Earth is a translation of both Mediterranean (like the sea) and Midgard (old Germanic name for our world), etc….
500 years ago there were no black people in the US and now there are millions. You really do have to go out of your way to have a reason why there can't be a black protagonist in a fantasy world, especially when its already been established that black people already exist there.
"Can't be" and "isn't" are two very differnt things, though.
Really, the lack of racial options is clearly the result of laziness on the part of the developer or the fact that they simply assumed everyone would be ok playing yet another white protagonist.
It is neither.
"Can't be" and "isn't" are two very differnt things, though.
Sure, there's a difference but the point still stands that you can't make a non-white protagonist.
It is neither.
Why are you so sure?
Sure, there's a difference but the point still stands that you can't make a non-white protagonist.
Yeah, but that's not what you said. There is a world of difference between "can't be a black protagonist in a fantasy world" and "you can;t play a black protagonist in this particular game".
Why are you so sure?
Common sense and any number of interviews with Peter Molyneux about the game's design and intent. It is neither racism nor laziness, a black protagonist does not suit this story in this world at this time.
Just cos a great game does something a certain way (character creation freedom in Mass Effect, for example) does not mean every game has to follow suit. After enjoy years of the "go anywhere, do anything" free-form sandbox design of the GTA series I often find that linear game design can be very frustrating, but I also understand the intent behind it and why it is not appropriate for all games.
Yeah, but that's not what you said. There is a world of difference between "can't be a black protagonist in a fantasy world" and "you can;t play a black protagonist in this particular game".
I stand by my statement. You have to go out of your way (explicitly make up some exception) to say that there cant be a black protagonist when you already have established that black people exist in the fantasy world.
Common sense and any number of interviews with Peter Molyneux about the game's design and intent. It is neither racism nor laziness, a black protagonist does not suit this story in this world at this time.
That pretty much sounds like the "lets make another white protagonist and hope nobody cares" reason though, especially considering non-white races exist in the game. There was nothing in the storyline that really necessitated having a white protagonist and there honestly wasnt a single thing in the story that would have made any less sense if the protagonist wasn't white. The "hero of will" gets to be none-white so why do we get hosed on our options as the main character of the game?
Just cos a great game does something a certain way (character creation freedom in Mass Effect, for example) does not mean every game has to follow suit. After enjoy years of the "go anywhere, do anything" free-form sandbox design of the GTA series I often find that linear game design can be very frustrating, but I also understand the intent behind it and why it is not appropriate for all games.
The racial thing is just part of what is disappointing about character creation in Fable though. One of the big selling points of the game is the protean nature of your own personal character but then when you actually get your hands on the game you discover that you literally have a 100 times less customization options than something that's supposedly less deep, like Facebreaker, any WWF game or even Fight Night.
Its true that just because a great game does something a certain not every other game has to follow suit but in this case Fable doesnt actually gain anything by taking things in a different direction. Limiting options compared to other games may or may not have been a concious design decision but ultimately i think limiting options for no apparent reason is pretty lame.
500 years ago there were no black people in the US and now there are millions. You really do have to go out of your way to have a reason why there can't be a black protagonist in a fantasy world, especially when its already been established that black people already exist there.
Really, the lack of racial options is clearly the result of laziness on the part of the developer or the fact that they simply assumed everyone would be ok playing yet another white protagonist.
This isn't the US, this is Albion, there aren't enough black people in the game to warrant your character being non-white.
There are Akavir in The Elder Scrolls, but you can't play as them.
There are Kowz in Tales games, but you can't play as them.
There are Balors in D&D, but you can't(well, shouldn't) play as them.
There were females in Fable 1, but you couldn't play as one.
This isn't Burger King, you can't have it your way.
And for your information, this has no bearing on developer laziness, it takes extra time and effort to re-design the same textures (including the fact that your sister would have to be remodeled as well), time that they instead decided to put towards animation, lighting, voice acting, etc...
This isn't the US, this is Albion, there aren't enough black people in the game to warrant your character being non-white.
Thats a bit of a cop-out considering youre supposed to be the super-special hero of legend (not to mention that one of the other super-special heroes is black!). Exactly how many black people do you need for one to be a hero anyway? And just how many people in Albion have horns growing out of their head or halos?
This isn't Burger King, you can't have it your way.
And for your information, this has no bearing on developer laziness, it takes extra time and effort to re-design the same textures (including the fact that your sister would have to be remodeled as well), time that they instead decided to put towards animation, lighting, voice acting, etc...
In a game where "the hero with a thousand faces" aspect is one of the biggest selling points, having extremely limited customization was a big disappointment for me. I totally realize that it takes extra time and effort to re-design models but when you have plenty of other games out there with much deeper customization, it just doesnt seem like an adequate excuse. When i play Fallout 3 or Mass Effect i can make a character that looks exactly like anyone i can think of and the game still has a lot more side quests, at least as much graphical detail and a lot more voice acting than Fable 2 does. I guess from some of the aspects of the game that people were hyping up i expected more and the game just didnt live up to the expectations that other games have set for me.
In fact, most of Africa itself has enough foreign genetic material that most of its inhabitants no longer have truly black skin - it's brown, really.
If you can be black and have white ancestors, then you can also be white but have black ancestors, regardless of what color your skin actually is. If you can call Obama a black president, you can, with the same authority, also call him a white president.
PS: In case you didn't get the point, relating skin color to "ethnicity" is completely and utterly stupid. If you can have skin as pale as Robert Redford's and yet have two parents with brown skin, and still be called "black," then neither "black" nor "white" really has any basis whatsoever in terms of genetic reality.
How about that, the entire world is white!
Let's please stop the racism. There is no black, there is no white.
There are no black people in the US, or very few. Every person who doesn't have skin as black as night probably does not have ancestry from Subsaharan Africa (which would mean that they're not black) or has some measure of genetic inheritance from other locations (which would also mean that they're not black).
In fact, most of Africa itself has enough foreign genetic material that most of its inhabitants no longer have truly black skin - it's brown, really.
If you can be black and have white ancestors, then you can also be white but have black ancestors, regardless of what color your skin actually is. If you can call Obama a black president, you can, with the same authority, also call him a white president.
PS: In case you didn't get the point, relating skin color to "ethnicity" is completely and utterly stupid. If you can have skin as pale as Robert Redford's and yet have two parents with brown skin, and still be called "black," then neither "black" nor "white" really has any basis whatsoever in terms of genetic reality.
How about that, the entire world is white!
Let's please stop the racism. There is no black, there is no white.
"Ethnicity" and "race" get confused all the time by a lot of folks, not that its an excuse. Even in Fallout when you pick your race, "hispanic" is a racial choice.
That being said, its pretty disingenuous to just say "there is no black or white". Of course there are "black" people and "white" people. "Black" and "white" happen to be the terms our culture uses label people of a certain assumed background and/or appearance. Just because these are socially invented concepts and not ones supported by contemporary biology, it doesnt make their distinction unimporatant or non-existant.
I don't get it.I'm assuming that means this thread has gone off topic? If so, I agree, and I apologize for my part in it.
Now, back on topic...
Fable II is awesome. Some things could have been better (like the bar fights that were supposed to be in there), but it's still pretty bad-ass.
Fable II is awesome. Some things could have been better (like the bar fights that were supposed to be in there), but it's still pretty bad-ass.
You mean Molineux teased you with features and then didnt put them in his game?! He would never do such a thing! ;)
From what I've seen Fable II is consistent, if nothing else.
Massive derailment.
I don't know exactly how to describe Molyneux. I like his work, don't get me wrong. But he tends to promise a lot and then fail to deliver because he was too ambitious.
I'd rather someone aim high and fall short than aim low and hit the mark.
Also, I agree with Jayne; I'd rather he thought up all this awesome stuff, even if it didn't make it in in the end, than just give us some crappy hack n' slash (not that all hack n' slashers are, mind you).