X10: Joystiq's Fable 3 Impressions.

[Gikoku]

X10: Joystiq's Fable 3 Impressions.

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(Click Logo for the rest of the Fable 3 Impressions)

Receiving a live demo of Fable 3 from Lionhead, er ... head and Microsoft Games Studio boss Peter Molyneux during today's X10 event, we learned that it, in his words, "is all about power and uniqueness." Well, that and Charles Dickens. (More on that in a sec.) Yes, the game is up, running and actually looking pretty far along at this point. But Molyneux was much more keen to talk about some of its new gameplay mechanics than anything involving graphics, sound or other trimmings.

First up, he revisited the premise of the game. It's set in Albion, which -- as we noticed right away -- has become heavily industrialized. You play as the son or daughter of the hero from Fable 2, with Molyneux confirming that you can import your saved game from that title, but that it "will make minor, not major, changes to the story." The game's structure will have you starting out as a "nobody," getting people to believe in you and eventually starting a revolution. About half-way through, you'll be the king or queen of Albion.

The Albion in the demo could certainly stand a change in ownership. It's smoggy, grimy and the streets are full of the homeless, poor and starving. The factories are full of everyone else, including children as young as five-years-old. Molyneux says that all of this is inspired by the works of Charles Dickens; in particular, Oliver Twist. As bad as it is, he promises you'll eventually have the power to change it all, should you choose.

Forum screw-up, I can't link to the full article thanks to Project-Ego's 'swear filter'.. Sorry, guys. :ninja: It'll link back to the main page, so just scroll down the page.

Or, you can head over to IGN for their X10 preview on the game: http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/106/1068751p1.html

 

[Albion Knight]

Re: X10: Joystiq's Fable 3 Impressions.

+rep Thanks for the info!! So what is Fable III since it's not an RPG Adventure. An Action SIM
OMG I Just finished reading it Our Weapons Will Morph How Sweet is that! I think I'd rather my sword level up than my character's stats sounds cooler.

 

[Gikoku]

Re: X10: Joystiq's Fable 3 Impressions.

+rep Thanks for the info!! So what is Fable III since it's not an RPG Adventure. An Action SIM
OMG I Just finished reading it Our Weapons Will Morph How Sweet is that! I think I'd rather my sword level up than my character's stats sounds cooler.

You're welcome, Todd. ^_^

I'm impressed with the new touch mechanic, it makes me think of the controls in Heavy Rain, hopefully we can get some videos up on here soon, I'm dying to see this thing in action.

 

[Necromancer]

Re: X10: Joystiq's Fable 3 Impressions.

I'm not really sure how I feel about this. I'm going to be getting Fable 3 no matter what they tell us about it, though. And although it's not labeled as an RPG, it will still most likely have many RPG-like aspects like Assassin's Creed 2. I'm also a little skeptical about how well this new experience system is going to work. However, I have faith in Lionhead, and I think they can make it work.

 

[Albion Knight]

Re: X10: Joystiq's Fable 3 Impressions.

A key point that is being missed by some is that there will be no experience points, no health bar no orbs and no augments. This does not mean that there will be not leveling, no health, no weapon bonuses no rewards for your efforts. It seems to me that the numbers that have been traditionally used to measure all those things will be taken away so that we are left to experience those changes and effects. Rather than just saying "Sweet I just did 250 points of damage we might see our character hack a troll and watch it get weaker and closer to death with each strike we blow. This would be an awesome way to make a game.

We already see the character grow larger with strength and taller with skill and grow blue lines with magic why do we need the numbers to validate what we can see with our eyes.

What I imagine Peter and the Lionhead team saying to us is get off the menu and play the game. There shouldn't be any choices to make on the menus. They should be made in game.

Taking this idea a step further what if you no longer had an "inventory" If the character wants a new weapon they put down what they have and pick up a new one, all done on screen. "Entering a shop" would mean your point of view would change so that you could see the actual products and when you chose to buy it the hero would pick it up. No more of this carrying 136 different weapons in our inventory! You can carry one melee weapon one ranged weapon and that's it for weapons. I would love this! I hate spending time on menus.
Get rid of the menus and inventory etc and I'll enjoy my experience a lot more.

The one thing I can see wanting a menu for is quests. How about instead of taking me out of the experience with some strange alternate universe where all I see is the menu have the hero pull out a pad of paper and a pencil or a scroll and quill, to go over plans. The hands would still be seen. if a new quest was added there would be an animation or of the hero pulling out the scroll and writing it down. As he or she completes a task there would be an animation of them crossing it off.

 

[Walker]

Re: X10: Joystiq's Fable 3 Impressions.

I reserve judgement, but I'm very concerned about the "Gamerscore influencing things" deal. I don't have a very high one, because, well, I suck at it.

Does that mean that I'm going to be stuck with an ugly-ass ax? Or worse, an ineffective one? That would **** me off. Otherwise, maybe it'll be cool.

EDIT, before I even posted initially: Just watched the video. "little horns" sound stupid, so thank god my gamerscore is low, I won't have to worry about them. Plus, I was a little worried that he was only saying "sword," but then he mentioned "Ricardo's Ax of Hobbe-Killing," yay for axes.

I wonder if the weapons will be named with your hero title or your gamertag? Probably the gamertag, if I had to guess. And yeah, the morphing weapons should be cool, after seeing the video, if they don't **** it up.

 

[James Butts]

Re: X10: Joystiq's Fable 3 Impressions.

A key point that is being missed by some is that there will be no experience points, no health bar no orbs and no augments. This does not mean that there will be not leveling, no health, no weapon bonuses no rewards for your efforts. It seems to me that the numbers that have been traditionally used to measure all those things will be taken away so that we are left to experience those changes and effects. Rather than just saying "Sweet I just did 250 points of damage we might see our character hack a troll and watch it get weaker and closer to death with each strike we blow. This would be an awesome way to make a game.

We already see the character grow larger with strength and taller with skill and grow blue lines with magic why do we need the numbers to validate what we can see with our eyes.

What I imagine Peter and the Lionhead team saying to us is get off the menu and play the game. There shouldn't be any choices to make on the menus. They should be made in game.

Taking this idea a step further what if you no longer had an "inventory" If the character wants a new weapon they put down what they have and pick up a new one, all done on screen. "Entering a shop" would mean your point of view would change so that you could see the actual products and when you chose to buy it the hero would pick it up. No more of this carrying 136 different weapons in our inventory! You can carry one melee weapon one ranged weapon and that's it for weapons. I would love this! I hate spending time on menus.
Get rid of the menus and inventory etc and I'll enjoy my experience a lot more.

The one thing I can see wanting a menu for is quests. How about instead of taking me out of the experience with some strange alternate universe where all I see is the menu have the hero pull out a pad of paper and a pencil or a scroll and quill, to go over plans. The hands would still be seen. if a new quest was added there would be an animation or of the hero pulling out the scroll and writing it down. As he or she completes a task there would be an animation of them crossing it off.

No inventory would drive me insane, and would never be any good in my opinion.
I Will miss the xp orbs and health bar and so on.

 

[Dark Drakan]

Re: X10: Joystiq's Fable 3 Impressions.

Forum screw-up, I can't link to the full article thanks to Project-Ego's 'swear filter'.. Sorry, guys. :ninja: It'll link back to the main page, so just scroll down the page.

What was it that messed it up?

Im interested to see this in action to as the no experience points, no health bar no orbs and no augments sounds like Fable did when it was still Projectego. When they had the idea that your strength would be determined by how often you used Heavy Weapons etc to build that strength. If you only used bows and daggers (when they were included before being removed) your character would have remained slim and nimble. If you used heavy axes and hammers your character would bulk up to accommodate the extra strength needed to swing such a weight.

 

[Cain]

Re: X10: Joystiq's Fable 3 Impressions.

Looks pretty good. I guess the no XP and inventory is what was meant to **** us off.

 

[Gikoku]

Re: X10: Joystiq's Fable 3 Impressions.

What was it that messed it up?

Joystiq had the word "p i s s e d" in their url, to say they weren't ****ed off, but the filter replaced it with asterisks, making the link invalid.

 

[Dark Drakan]

Re: X10: Joystiq's Fable 3 Impressions.

Joystiq had the word "p i s s e d" in their url, to say they weren't ****ed off, but the filter replaced it with asterisks, making the link invalid.

Ah i see, i shall rectify that.

 

[Sabbath]

Re: X10: Joystiq's Fable 3 Impressions.

Im just hoping they don't forget the will users, I'd rather my spells developed into a menacing weapon or a graceful horror rather then be forced to use a sword.

 

[Devil Keyz]

Re: X10: Joystiq's Fable 3 Impressions.

wow the no health bar seemed sucky, but what there replacing it with would be much more better IMO, makes the combat flow better and u don't have to be constantly looking up on the left side of the screen. likemyother posts, im very excited