Addio Fable

[Sim1]

beh a quello che ho letto Fable sta per fare flop,a parte che ho scoperto la data di uscita, 21 settembre, ho anche scoperto che la libertà d'azione sarà uguale a zero, col cavolo che potete girovagare dove volete voi, alla morro, no dovete fare quello che è stato deciso dai programmatori, insomma una ciofeca... la bella grafica e la libertà di decisione su come compiere le quest di certo non risolvono il problema... Ma perchè in un'immagine che è diventata icona del gioco si vede il protagonista passeggiare tra i campi se non si può fare? e perchè hanno detto che le foreste sarebbero state più verosimili se non le puoi attraversare liberamente e devi seguire il sentiero?

boh.. molieux ha fatto cilecca, io direi di rapire i carter e obbligarli a porre rimedio entro il 21....

 

ANTEPRIMA X-BOX ITALIA

 

autore: Antonio Jodice categoria: Anteprima data: 13/05/2004

 

Dopo tre anni di attesa, Fable è finalmente giocabile all'E3. Col fiato sospeso ci siamo lanciati sui pad ed ecco le nostre impressioni.

 

altre informazioni: Scheda | Anteprima | Recensione | Soluzione | Files | Galleria

 

Fable, dopo tre anni di immagini e filmati, è giocabile nello stand della Microsoft: due fila di screen a Lcd fanno bella mostra di loro con altrettanti pad e un nugolo di addetti che si affannano a spiegare, a chi si avvicina, cosa sia Fable e ad introdurli a questo che sembra proprio un grande gioco, ma che non è come ci si aspettava. Fable è libertà, ma quale? La prima cosa che si nota è che il gioco dei Big Blue Box non è libertà di andare dove si vuole, tutt’altro. Ebbene sì, signori, preparatevi allo shock, dato che in Fable ci sono delle mura invisibili che, quando si cammina lungo un sentiero in un bosco, impediscono di superare le prime fila di selci per addentrarsi nella foresta tutt’intorno.

 

 

In Fable non si salta e se anche risalendo una china si vede poco distante dall’area principale una piccola capanna, se i programmatori non ne hanno previsto la possibilità, questa resterà semplicemente irraggiungibile. Per spostarsi da una locazione all’altra della mappa (vastissima), almeno nelle locazioni disponibili nella demo dello show, si percorrono dei sentieri costellati di Npc e quest dai quali non ci si può allontanare, percorsi che si diramano in varie direzioni e che si allargano in spazi più aperti da esplorare, ma che senz’altro non rendono l’idea di mondo di giochi come Morrowind o Gothic. La libertà di Fable è un’altra. È quella di conoscere una donna, corteggiarla, farla innamorare regalandole fiori, sposarla per poi lasciarla, trattandola male o uccidendola senza pietà.

 

La vita è fatta di scelte

La demo inizia con un bimbo che chiede al padre di dargli dei soldi, ma questi gli propone un accordo: tanti soldini quante buone azioni compiute per il paese. Il bambino accetta di buon grado e si lancia all’esplorazione del villaggio, una scritta lo avverte che i personaggi che incontrerà, circondati da un alone verde, gli possono proporre delle quest positive che, se portate a buon fine, gli frutteranno del denaro. Pochi istanti dopo, sopraggiunge un’altra indicazione più sibillina sulla possibilità di compiere anche cattive azioni, che gli possono fruttare altrettanto denaro, se non di più, ma che gli possono dare dei problemi con gli altri abitanti del villaggio. Il bimbo arriva, se lo vuole, in un cortile soleggiato costeggiato da dei capannoni con delle casse, un adulto si avvicina e gli chiede di controllare che nessuno venga a rubare, mentre si allontana per andare a fare dei bisogni corporali.

 

 

Il bimbo si mette lì sull’attenti ad aspettare e dopo poco arriva un altro ragazzino che gli parla dei tesori nascosti in quelle casse e che lo sfida ad aprirle, pena l’accusa di codardia. Il nostro piccolo eroe si mette in guardia e comincia a difendere le casse, malmenando il malvivente e i suoi amici ed iniziando la sua carriera di condottiero senza macchia e senza paura. Il nostro piccolo eroe si gira, spacca le casse e ne ruba tutto il contenuto, senza affrontare gli altri ragazzini, suscitandone l’approvazione e assicurandosene la lealtà e cominciando una strada che lo porterà ad essere la creatura più malvagia del pianeta con corna sempre più grandi. L’aspetto più interessante di Fable è che la possibilità di compiere queste scelte non è affidata alla selezione di una o più opzioni scelte da un menu testuale, ma viene lasciata completamente al pad ed alle azioni sociali che si vogliano compiere. All’inizio del gioco si hanno a disposizione solo un paio di “espressioni”, col proseguire del gioco se ne arriverà a possedere una ventina, il cui utilizzo può essere associato ad ognuna delle direzioni del pad digitale. Per apprenderle, basterà osservare attentamente gli altri personaggi per poi usarle nelle diverse occasioni. Si può imparare ad esultare per esaltare dei compagni di viaggio ed attirare le simpatie degli abitanti di un villaggio, si può imparare ad essere galanti con una donna o ad essere scorbutici, volgari o violenti a seconda dei casi e degli scopi da perseguire. Ovviamente, si può semplicemente attaccare gli altri personaggi, causando l’ira e le ripercussioni dei loro amici, in un sistema di fazioni e alleanze che abbiamo potuto solamente intuire e che potrà fare la fortuna di questo gioco. Le varianti in gioco sembrano essere molteplici, in Fable il giorno, la notte, il sole e la pioggia si alternano e i personaggi si svegliano, vanno al lavoro e rincasano per la notte.

 

 

Se si vuole possedere una casa, la si può comprare, lo stesso se si vuole comprare un negozio ed avviare un’attività. C’è anche un’altra via: si può aspettare la notte per non essere visti, uccidere il negoziante, distruggere tutti i segni che indicavano la sua proprietà e prenderne il posto; dal giorno dopo per tutti gli altri abitanti, saremo i legittimi proprietari del negozio. Si può anche diventare i leader di un’intera cittadina, conquistando la stima di tutti gli abitanti con imprese temerarie o, più semplicemente, si può uccidere tutti gli abitanti e diventare i padroni di una città che si ripopolerà pian piano di abitanti timorosamente riverenti di un malvagio padrone. Secondo il team, la quest principale, se portata a termine senza deviazioni e sapendo esattamente cosa fare, può essere portata a termine in meno di 15 ore, giocando a fondo le varie quest il gioco si può arrivare ad una quarantina d’ore.

 

Magie e incantesimi

Nelle fasi di spostamento sulla mappa la componente action diventa predominante e la cosa che stupisce è un sistema di combattimento fluido, efficace e divertente. Molte combo, facilmente eseguibili e con animazioni eccellenti, che vedono protagonisti finemente dettagliati con vestiti, orpelli e monili animati ed indipendenti dal corpo. Decine sono i vestiti, le armi e gli accessori; tutti con un look diverso e visibili una volta indossati sul personaggio. Il design, ormai noto, è ricco di personalità e rende il gioco di Molyneux inconfondibile tra tutti quelli presenti alla fiera. Belle le scelte cromatiche e le animazioni delle magie, che possono essere lanciate con la sola pressione di un tasto durante i combattimenti. Le luci, gli acquitrini, che accompagnano il cammino, e le varie costruzioni contribuiscono a creare un ambiente evocativo e affascinante, dove le ombre degli alberi si proiettano su tutto il fondale circostante, compresi arbusti e spighe di grano renderizzate individualmente e mosse dal vento. Tutto questo ha un prezzo e il frame rate, che già non si spinge oltre i 30 frame al secondo, ogni tanto incespica sotto il peso di un lavoro improbo. Il risultato è comunque davvero notevole, tanto che Fable, insieme a Jade Empire e Doom III è uno dei giochi più belli presenti allo stand Microsoft. Il tipo di gioco non ci permette certo di esprimere alcun giudizio, tanto complessa e controversa è la sua natura, quel che è certo è che, dopo il play test di oggi, la voglia di addentrarsi nell'universo creato da Peter Molyneux è diventata quasi ossessiva. Mancano ancora alcuni mesi al prossimo Settembre, ci vuole ancora un po' di pazienza, sperando che quanto abbiamo visto sia indicativo del lavoro nel suo complesso.

[Duff]

insomma una ciofeca...

 

 

Non é certo il mio genere, ma cavolo, da qui a dare già questi commenti senza provare il gioco :?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ciao

[edivad]

COOSSSSSSSSSSSAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :x :x :x

Spero sia tutto uno scherzo perchè non posso aver aspettato un cosi bel gioco per poi scoprire che non è cosi fantastico come avevano promesso.

 

 

Chiedo scusa ancora a mattia b per quello che c'era scritto prima!

[mattia b]

(PS) (Forse ho un po esagerato su qesta ultima frase! Scusate! chiedo scusa a tutti!)

 

Hai forse accenato la pl[CENSURA] 2 ?

Ho visto che sei nuovo, forse non hai letto il regolamento. Non si possono dire parole che possono risultare offensive, sennò si ricorrerà al BAN immediato.

Ebbene, io mi sono sentito estremamente offeso.

 

 

 

 

 

BAN

[Neural]

Io non sarei così affrettato a trarre giudizi. Il fatto che nel gioco non si potrà andare dove si vuole è noto già dallo scorso E3, e se riguardate tutte le immagini pubblicate, si capisce anche da lì: vedrete lungo le strade delle staccionate perimetrali che impediscono il passaggio. Ma il punto non è questo: KOTOR è un gioco immenso, fantastico, ed anche qui non si puà andare dove si vuole ma solo seguire le strade realizzate dagli sviluppatori. Fable sarà un gioco che sotto il fronte della libertà offre molto meno di Morrowind, ma promette di offrire mooooooolto di più sotto altri fronti: in primis l'interazione coi PNG, che non si limita semplicemente allo scambio di oggetti ed a parlare del più o del meno come in Morro, ma si tratterà di una vera e propria simulazione sociale, con meccanismi come l'emulazione, l'amore, l'odio e così via.

 

Chi si aspettava un RPG alla Morrowind da Fable sbaglia di grosso, perchè non sono generi minimamente paragonabili, ed ognuno offre un lato diverso dell'intedere l'RPG. Così come KOTOR non ha tutta la libertà di Morrowind ma offre una storia molto più immersiva e tutta una serie di meccanismi che Morrowind non ha.

 

Aspettate che esca nei negozi, e poi potremo giudicarlo. Peraltro tutti gli hands-on che arrivano dall'E3 sono tutti molto positivi, quindi non credo che ci sarà nulla di cui preoccuparsi ;-)

[Sim1]

mi sento comunque in qualche modo imbrogliato... all' inizio Fable prometteva libertà infinita... alla fine se la sono rigirata come gli pare a loro, anche la storia dei capitoli non mi convince, questo non vuol dire che non lo prenderò, solo che un altro grande gioco (assieme all'halo che mi ero immaginato) non esisterà mai...

[Neural]

mi sento comunque in qualche modo imbrogliato...

 

fidati, se Fable manterrà le promesse (che non sono quelle di una totale libertà di azione ma si parla di un'altro tipo di libertà), dopo averlo finito se tornerai a giocare a Morrowind ti sembrerà di avere a che fare con un gioco limitatissimo ;-) La IA di Fable promette di essere anni luce avanti a quella di Morrowind, praticamente inesistente...

[Airluck]

Concordo con Neural.

Certo, il fatto di non potersi gettare a capofitto tra gli alberi o magari tagliare per un campo all'aperto possono far storcere un pò il naso, ma la libertà che i programmatori ci hanno promesso sta proprio nel comportamento, nelle azioni e nelle relazioni che si possono instaurare con gli altri personaggi e il mondo di Fable. Una vita sociale di tutto punto insomma.

A mio parere resta uno dei titoli più attesi, perlomeno per quanto mi riguarda :wink:

[edivad]

Io lo prenderò lo stesso ma mi ha incuriosito una cosa. Su XMU c'era una news in cui dicevano che un giorno di vita del protagonista sarebbe stata lunga quanto una nostra ora.

 

Invece adesso leggo da qualche parte che il gioco si puo finire in quindici ore.

 

Ho capito male io ho è una notizia vera?

[Sim1]

un giorno dovrebbe durare un'ora,.. per la longevità.. è un gdr, quando ti dicono: seguendo solo la quest principale lo finisci in un tot di ore... vuol dire che come minmo ce ne metti 10 volte tanto (nel caso di morro anche 100, manco iniziata la quest principale, sto con la gilda dei maghi eh eh)

[Neural]

Ho capito male io ho è una notizia vera?

 

no no, assolutamente: solo per la quest principale gli sviluppatori promettono oltre 40 ore di gioco, senza contare tutti gli svaghi e le quest secondarie, che possono portare la longevità del gioco all'infinito. Ad esempio ci sarà un complesso sistema economico che simulaerà il valore degli oggetti in base ai luoghi in cui li compri: se volessi potrestipassare tutto il tempo a girare le contrade comprando a poco e vendendo a molto, arricchendoti e comprando case in giro Opuure magari puoi dedicarti a fare il bullo e compiere azioni eroiche per far innamorare tutte le donzelle della contea ;-)

 

Senza contare che una volta finito, potresti volterlo rigiocare cambiando totalmente comportamenti: se prima avevi fatto l'eroe buono, dopo potresti voler riprovare facendo l'angelo della morte e portando devastazione ovunque tu vada, MUAHAHAHAHAH

[Zero_C@LL]

avevo letto una cosa simile qualche giorno fa girando per la rete e anche su multiplayer che se non erro hanno provato il gioco o qualcosa del genere....ma a dire il vero io prima di giudicare aspetto il gioco visto che gli ho riposto molte speranze...e in ogni caso conto di giocarci perchè è un titolo che mi ha colpito dalle prime immaggini che vidi qualche anno fa...questo è il link di multy con la loro impressione.....

 

http://www.multiplayer.it/articolo.php?id=11511

 

e questa è l'impressione che hanno avuto di Halo 2

 

http://www.multiplayer.it/articolo.php?id=11538

 

.....ad ogni modo non vedo l'ora che esca Fable.......

 

....Ciao

http://www.xbox.com/NR/rdonlyres/E41C5425-193F-45D0-B904-5065BF408CF4/0/bntfable.jpg

[Neural]

in ogni caso conto di giocarci perchè è un titoli che mi ha colpito dalle prime immaggini che vidi qualche anno fa...

 

questoputroppo è un aspetto che mi fa storcere un pò il naso: tra le prime bellissime immagini di Project Ego e gli ultimi screen di Fable, c'è un abisso qualitativo, forse dovuto al fatto che i programmatori per far gestire alla CPU tutta l'IA del gioco hanno dovuto ridimensionare la grafica. peccato, veramente peccato :-(

[Sim1]

Uno che ha provato il gioco all'E3

 

 

 

I just wanted to say that I got to spend a great deal of time playing Fable at E3. I also got to see the presentation put on by one Mr Molyneux at an after-hours gig at E3. Both were most excellent. Oh, and I got one of the two Fable tee shirts (good and evil). I chose good.

 

 

 

Lessee... the Fable demo for E3 had maybe 4 or 5 areas - a dungeon-crawl like adventure in a graveyeard, some FedEx questing as a boy in a town, and a bandit escort - to name a few of them. I played through each of them maybe two or three times. I also played around with the start menu stuff a good bit - such as inventory and such.

 

For the town, you basically start off looking to get your sister a present for her birthday. Your father tells you to do some good deeds around town and he'll give you some money. You don't have to be good, though - you just have to do the deeds. For example, one fellow asks you to watch some barrels for him, and a moment a later another child taunts you for being a goody-goody, suggesting you should break open the barrels and see what's in them. At that point, a little timer appears to show you how much time until the quest is complete (ie the guy returns). Whether you smash them or not (or leave entirely, which I didn't try), you get a coin from pops, and possibly a stern talking to from a guard - if you get caught.

 

After getting 3 coins, you can buy your sister a present and at that point there's a pretty amazing cutscene that shows that this game is going to be a good bit of Grimm's Fairtytales in terms of style. It was a dark moment that got me pretty excited.

 

The bandit escort was also interesting because it showed you how you could control henchmen who accompany you. You start off with, I think, 2 merchants looking for assistance and protection versis bandits. Soon after, you meet a third. As you travel on, you are engaged by werewolves. You sort of need, for best success, to tell your fellows to stay back, and then call them to advance when you get further along.

 

Speaking of controling henchmen, the controls themselves were fairly simple - with intuitive button presses and trigger-squeezing to change the focus - ie I believe the right trigger allowed you to cast spells, such as heal, and also to absorb the experience green bubble thingies from defeated foes.

 

One thing I kept meaning to pay a bit of attention to but most of the time didn't was the 8km draw distance thing. For what it's worth, I didn't notice any pop in of any kind.

 

The frames seemed pretty good to me. In fact, the demo movie that played on the big screen seemed to be of lesser quality to the game itself. Hrm!

 

A friend of mine tried removing all of his clothes to see what kind of impact it would have on combat, then forgot he had done this as was going into the bandit camp. Once there, everyone started laughing at him and it took him a moment to remember he was naked. Heh.

 

Overall, there were lots of good moments with this game. When I first started playing around with it, I was kind of overwhelmed and not really able to relax and play. Later that night, at the after-hours thing, I had puh-lenty of time to play as if I were playing at home, and it was there that I realized that this is the kind of game that would suck me in pretty well. I'm looking forward to it coming out, and really happy I've gotten a chance to play it.

 

 

 

I also have to say that Prince of Persia 2 looks great as well. Sure it's more of the same, but that's all I wanted. Lots of other stuff looked great, too, but Fable was the one I went looking for first.

 

I think I'd have to say that the interface was my biggest joy with the game, in particular the mini-map - and I almost hate to say it. I like my RPGs to not treat me like I'm an idiot, but I admit that the mini-map in Fable was wonderful. Push down the right thumb-stick to pull it up or hide it. It reveals where you area, the area you are in, and the location that you need to go. It also had some other blips on the map that I wasn't entirely sure what they represented. Maybe other important town folk or your henchmen and such. Rather than pull me out of the game, it allowed me to feel like I could more fully concentrate on playing the game, and in fact, there were times when I forgot it was there and would wander in circles trying to figure where I should be going.

 

 

 

It's hard to talk about things that are disappointing in a demo, because I tend to focus on the game itself and you're not playing the actual game (so far as I'm aware, these areas may or may not be actually from the game).

 

Anyway, one thing that mildly annoyed me was the inventory system. Basically, you find some leather leggings and decide to wear them. You hit back and it takes you to a menu. You choose clothing, then legs, then pick the leggings, then pick wear, then cancel back out of the menus. It seemed like a lot of button presses. Even just getting rid of the "wear" option at the end. It seems like if I pick the leggings, it should just put them on without me having to say that I picked the leggings because I wanted to wear them.

 

It was also annoying because there was a bit of a load whenever you accessed the start and back menus.

 

I couldn't seem to pick up on any feedback in terms of spell casting. It was like, I picked the heal spell and noticed my health was at full, but there didn't seem to be anything in between. Again, probably just a demo/cheat thing, or maybe it was just a low-level spell that requires no effort.

 

Determing how to interact with objects was confusing at first - ie I came up to a door and hit a few buttons, tried swinging my fist, etc., and nothing seemed to open the door or affect the door. After a few moments I simply assumed that a closed door was a door you could not open and stopped trying to explore these other houses.

 

Fighting was easy, but targeting was a little more difficult. I would often swing past my intended target a few times as I tried to do hit things. On the "adult" maps, you had a really big club and on those, it was really hard to NOT hit stuff.

 

The bow was a little less than desireable to use. I would basically squeeze the trigger to target something and then hit X, I think, really quickly. Seemed like I would fire off a ton of arrows but they didn't really seem to knock back my opponent or maybe even do any damage. I then tried using the bow in sniper mode (first-person) and that seemed to be a bit of a waste as well - though I admit that Molyneux's partner for his speech showed off some decent shooting during their demo. I say it was a waste because I had trouble aiming far enough on twisty paths to really sneak up on targets and nail them. I assume this will be much different in actual game play. Anyway afterwards, it was almost exclusively the big club for combat. Again, I don't blame the game for this, though. It's likely intended to be this way for the demo.

 

Sucking up the experience green thingies seemed to be a weird gameplay element. You are always going to want them, so to make the player always have to collect them seems... well... to be a waste of time, to say it bluntly. I'm also a little confused by the XP modifier. Apparently, every hit builds up your modifier, and every few moments out of combat or when you take hits or whatever knocks your meter down. Molyneux said there would be no cap on this modifier, which makes me wonder how impossible balancing the game will be. A good player may be able to get the modifier to exhorbitant levels and power game to extreme levels of power. Again, I'm not sure how this mechanic will play out in the actual game.

 

Molyneux said that he intended the focus to be on the story, always prodding you and pushing you, and it seemed like the story would be good. I got to see two cool cutscenes as the boy, and both got me eager to continue playing. I think good, simple, in-game cutscenes add a great deal to the play, and both of these cutscenes were well done, cinematically. Great facial expression on the boy model, too!

 

Oh, I "found" a tattoo in the game. I thought that was weird, though I don't know if it's the way the game will work or not. I assumed you would get a tattoo, and it would be permanent, and not that it would work as an item of clothing. Strange.

 

What else? I cannot think of anything at the moment, but would be more than glad to continue answering questions that people have.

 

I totally feel like this game is going to be a lot of fun, and I don't mind doing my part to let people know that it's okay to be optimistic.

 

I thought the voice acting was good. Reminded me of Black and White, though maybe it's because I'm from the US and these are two of the only games I've played with decent British voice actors.

 

Conversation was pretty simple.

 

I click on the sister, for example, and she says, I hope you haven't forgotten what today is. You remember it's my birthday, right? Did you get me a present?

 

If you click on the father he says, it's your sister's birthday and I'm not going to bail you out of this one. You need to buy her a present. You do some good deeds around town and for each one, I'll give you a coin. Have you enough coins to buy her a present yet?

 

I'm paraphrasing, from memory.

 

After you have enough coins and bought a present, sister, after being clicked on, says, Oh, you remembered. And you got me chocolates. They're my favorite. Thank you. We should go back home now and something something something (I can't remember).

 

I don't remember ever having a choice in the dialogue, but again, maybe this was just a demo with not a lot of writing work done on it.

 

A lot of people, too, I clicked on and my character would do a little wave at them and they would just ignore me.

 

Which reminds me, I was kind of surprised about one other little thing. I met a kid who said he lost his bear. I was like, oh! A quest! So later on, somewhat accidentally, I find a teddy bear (aww, how cute). I went to the spot where the kid was but... nothing! Then I remember BBB talking about how people have their own lives and such. I figured I would have to spend some time hunting him out. I eventually found him playing with another little kid.

 

It was something that was, at the same time, a minor annoyance and a minor cool thing.

 

The cutscene was in-game, yes.

 

The father and sister were done very much in the Zelda style. You know who they are but you don't really know them as anything beyond simplistic archetypes. Maybe I'm not explaining it well, but Zelda Wind Waker was completely the sense I got for everyone I interacted with, in terms of how dialogue works and in how they interact with me and in terms of their character. I didn't mind it at all. I couldn't figure out how to do any emotes - maybe my character didn't know any? So I'm not sure the full extent of interaction. I just know I tried punching dad (I don't remember either of their names) and he said, how dare you hit your father, don't ever do that again! So, of course, I did, and he said, how dare you hit your father yadda yadda... and after a third time and the same thing, I was like, oh...

 

Well, maybe it's just because it's a demo. It's a minor annoyance-but-understandable annoyance if not (you can't have plot character shut themselves off to you, of course). It would also entail a ton of work on their part to make everyone have so many reactions and such. But I guess I was kind of expecting, the non important characters at least, to do something different when I hit them a few times. Again, maybe it's because it's only a demo.

 

Totally off topic, but Molyneux said something about "giving her the rough" in respects to getting married and post-marriage activity. Haha. That made me laugh. I found a couple in the game that were getting kissy-faced, though the boy denied all activity.

 

That was one of the first things I was curious about when I started playing, or maybe it was when I was watching someone else playing, but unfortunately, I don't have a solid answer for you.

 

I remember going from an exterior map to an interior map and yeah, it was seemless - no load, no fade-to-black - though for the life of me I cannot remember where in the game this was. From memory, I don't think any of the buildings in the first map were accessible - I think all the doors were closed. And I don't remember any buildings in the graveyard (just exploding mushrooms that I couldn't figure a way around). Maybe it was in the bandit map...

 

I also tried to look through windows into the insides of buildings, but as a kid you're too small to see inside them. Shortly after, I got distracted by the gameplay and forgot to follow up on this matter on the other maps.

 

Sorry

 

Oh, I fought the giant troll thing. It was pretty rough! There was a nice boss-fight-style introductory cutscene showing it coming up out of the ground. Every few seconds it would do this ground slam, and I couldn't figure a way around it. I tried blocking, jumping (I must have done a flourish or something to jump, not sure), moving farther back, but after each one I seemed to get knocked back. He was a tough sucker and took a lot of damage.

 

On a side note, anyone read that 10-page article in Game Informer on GTA: San Andreas? Man, sounds great. I wish I could have seen that at E3, too! Not quite as exciting as Fable, but definitely up there.

 

Oh, about the camera, I noticed a few very minor glitches with the camera very rarely (I think I managed to clip the camera through a body at one point, which was neat because I saw the internals - teeth and egg-like eyes, I think), but for the most part it was very smooth and well done. Of the RPGs I got to check out, I think the Fable camera was the most solid and finished-looking. It moved slow and steadily, didn't seem to clip into objects very often, and I appreciated the height and distance away from the player. When playing, I tended to rest my fingers on the two analog sticks and just rotate as I moved the character. There's also a sprint button to help you travel about more quickly, and it didn't seem to get used up or anything which was nice. When you turn around, you can spin the camera about you more quickly. All in all, it was really good and satisfying

 

Back to Fable I was thinking I'd have trouble gauging the sound/music at first. It was pretty noisy in there. The headphones that were provided only covered one ear, and were turned up so loud that they were sounding pretty awful. But even with the volume so high, it was still hard to hear over the background noise.

 

At the after hours thing, it was a bit more tolerable in there. I think the sound was pretty good and very background / natural sounding. A lot of the sounds in Morrowind bugged me almost right away, whereas the sounds in KotOR seemed to fit more. I felt the same way about Fable. I didn't have any concerns, myself. I haven't downloaded any of the video clips that have come out since E3, but maybe some will have sound and you can hear for yourself

 

 

The areas were somewhat small-ish. The area that the boy starts in, the small village, you could get to any point from any other point within about 20 seconds or so. It was basically shaped like a trident, or a U with a third path running the middle. On the left end, up a hill, was your house. At the base was the warehouse. There was a neat bridge that reminded me of the Sleepy Hollow bridge (a bridge with a roof). You couldn't leave this area for that demo. The bandit escort map was a little smaller, but there were, I think, 4 maps that you transitioned through. It was the same with the graveyard, where there were, I think, 2 maps.

 

I know this is just a demo so you can't really relate it to the actual game, but I like the idea of small areas, tightly made, filled with content that keeps you on them for a good length of time. Obviously, doing this and making the transitions seemless is even better, but for the final game we'll either have to take the word of the devs in the FAQs and posts or wait for the finished version.

 

As far as looting went, I don't remember ever looting anything. In the graveyard map, for example, you'd be fighting along the path and you'd find a treasure chest or a bag of loot on the ground. You could grab them for a chunk of armor or a potion, for example. When you killed someone, little green floating things would escape from the body and attempt to move away from you. You could step on them, it seemed like, or squeeze your trigger (as I wrote above) to suck them in toward you.

 

I looked at the character sheet a bit but I don't remember noticing anything about leveling up and such, so I am uncertain as to how it really works.

 

One other thing I noticed and forgot to earlier mention is that when you do good and evil deeds, you see little text pop-ups that say 100 angel or devil points (well, 100 and an angel or devil icon). As with most GUI elements, it pops up in the middle of the screen, and then shrinks while floating toward its respective corner.

 

The demo was pretty basic in terms of good and evil. The one quest I mentioned entailed you being told to watch the barrels, and a bot called you a pansy, basically, for not trying to open the barrels. The two options, therefore, were to stand there or open the barrels. I am guessing I could have walked away or maybe followed the guy around, but as I wrote earlier, I didn't think to try this at the time so I don't know if it was a valid option. I did do both options here, though. I bashed all six barrels, got some loot and got attacked by a creature that was inside one of the barrels. I then ran back to my station as the guy returned and he thanked me for my hard work. I then went back to pops and got a coin, but later met a guard who told me I should be on better behavior. After this meeting, I returned to pops and he told me that he heard about the encounter with the guard and that I should do better. The only other quest involving good and evil was an encounter where you met a kid who was being bullied. If you talked to the bully, though, he had his own version of the story. I beat up both of them in separate play-throughs, and both individuals and their counterparts reacted as expected. Doing the seemingly good path, though, got me the teddy bear which resolved another quest.

 

The third coin I got from spying a guy who was cheating on his wife. They were smooching and he told me that he would make it worthwhile if I didn't rat him out. At that, a dialogue pop up asked if I wanted to accept the bribe, and I did. I think this got me in trouble with a guard again, though it might have been for something else.

 

I never saw any changes or scars to my character, but each demo level could only be played for a short while before you saw the "coming soon" end-of-demo screen. All the demo levels but the town featured you playing as an adult, and each area had two saves - one with you as an evil guy and one with you as a good guy.

 

During Molyneux's presentation, he used cheat commands to give himself good and evil maxed out ratings, high and low popularity ratings and so forth - to show how people reacted. One bizarre bit had a nobody good guy wooing a girl and the girl not interested. After making himself popular though, she became more interested and was walking around with a big heart over her head. Then he turned evil and she started freaking out, trying to run away and such, but she still had a heart over her head. Heh.

 

This game, to me, felt very fairy tale / console RPG - like a darker, less Asian Zelda game.

 

As far as comparing it to other RPGs... well, hmm... fighting seemed a bit similar to Jade Empire, though Jade Empire seemed a bit deeper. JE has multiple combat styles that create something they were calling harmonic combinations or something. Like using one style to turn a guy to stone and another style to explode the stone. In Fable, you had your two weapons (easily equipped and unequipped by using the black and white buttons) and a sniper mode, as well as your spells - so you got your diversity in that manner.

 

Both games had slow down time modes, though I never quite figured out how I did it in Fable. It seemed like if I mashed a few buttons at once, all of the sudden the game screen gained a border and everything slowed down. Dialogue in JE was more like KotOR, where you had different kinds of persuade options and your good and evil responses, though in JE they were saying the responses were more giving and selfish, or patient and impatient - to reflect asian ideals, rather than the more western good and evil themes. Fable was basically clicking through the dialogue (in this demo, anyway), and sometimes, like I wrote above, you got a text box pop-up option, like with the bribe. It seemed like more of your communication was supposed to happen in your actions - ie you don't say, I'm going to beat up you rather than the bully, you simply do it. In JE, it would have been: are you going to beat up me or the bully and you'd have your responses of I'll beat up you, I'll beat up the bully, I'll beat up the opponent of whomever has more money, I'll beat you both up and I don't care about either of you. I think I kind of preferred the Fable approach, but I want to see the finished game version of it.

 

In short, I think the only way I can compare the PC RPGs with the console RPGs is that the PC RPGs tend to be more overhead, strategic, while console RPGs tend to be more explorative and action. Fable was a little of both but leaned farther toward the console end. To be honest, I think I feel the same about KotOR and JE (from what I saw).

 

I didn't find any every day objects. In Morrowind, you were inundated with such useless items for color. In KotOR, you only got stuff you needed, for the most part. With Fable, I think I found a few potions and armor bits, I think I even found cheese and meat and I know I found the chocolates because they were for a quest. I didn't try to drop anything.

 

Chests were just like Zelda Wind Waker. You clicked on it and got a cutscene of you opening the object. I don't think you could interact with them otherwise, at least in this demo.

 

Idling characters, I think, just leaned back and forth. I don't remember idling very much.

 

Most of the areas were in the forest. You had a trail that led through it that you had to stay on. You just followed the trail and fought or encountered whatever as you went. The graveyard map was a little more open in parts, and had a good boss fight at the end with creatures who went transparent and such during the fight.

 

Each map had a starting point and an ending point. When you got to the ending point, you moved on to the next map.

 

Each demo was self-contained, in that you had to start over from the beginning and load a new demo. They didn't continue on from one to the next.

 

I don't think I ever died. No, I don't think I did. There was probably some cheat going on to keep demo'ers from dying. I remembered using heal a couple times just out of curiosity. At least, I think it was heal. You pulled the right trigger and then pushed down on the digital pad. There was a heart icon on it. I think that healed you. I don't remember noting regeneration on the mana or health. I kind of just kept playing and fighting and using spells and never seemed to run out.

 

Sadly, I'm not so proficient at being a graphics whore so it is hard for me to really say with any level of authority.

 

I will say that walking through water looked a lot like Dark Alliance. It left a nice trail in the water as you moved that looked sharp. The water was also on par with Dark Alliance in terms of quality and reflection to my, again, extremely untrained eye. However, unlike PoP, when you get out of the water you're completely dry. You're also dry while in the water.

 

Textures seemed sharp, too, sharper than Doom III, in my opinion. Or was it Quake III? Whichever Xbox game they had for this E3 that people are excited over. In that one, when you got the camera too close to something, it tended to look pixelated and icky. I didn't notice that much at all with Fable, so BBB seems to be pulling off the Xbox's limitations better than some of the competition.

 

Animations on the characters were pretty smooth, too. Poor animations in Morrowind tended to bother me, but it was good stuff in Fable.

 

The wood on things like fences and houses looked nice, and I love the style of the art. A lot of the screenshots look, well, goofy with elongated body parts and huge feet and such. When you're actually playing, or watching a video of the game, you can tell the screenshots are just somehow odd.

 

I tried to touch on it a bit earlier, but basically, whenever you squeeze the, I think, left trigger, when targeting someone, if they have a red glow about them it means you can attack them. I don't off-hand remember not being able to attack anyone. I attacked maybe 7 or 8 people - dad, sister, the bully and the bullied kid, the kissing couple... once hit they would start to get knocked back, there'd be a moment of lag as the game went into dialogue mode, and then they'd say something about not punching them. Then it would return to the game. You could punch them again but they would just say the same thing. I also tried punching the different chickens around town. They would just squak and run off; you could chase them about town but they were hard to keep up with.

 

I never noticed any weapons the ground, just armor bits in chests and maybe the loot bags. I could only buy one thing - the gift of chocolates for sister, and that was a text pop up asking if I wanted to buy them or not. I picked yes and then got a picture pop up of the item I gained.

 

As far as graphics, yeah, I was pretty happy with the way it looked. I tried to detail what I thought of the graphics on a technical level in some of these posts, as best I could, but in terms of did I like it? Oh yeah. I was like, whoo! This looks good! Way better, to me, than Morrowind. The colors were really sharp and vibrant and made everything distinct.

 

I don't think this demo was a good indication of the level of sophistication of town AI that we'll see in the non-demo areas. To be honest, in the demo, there was not much going on.

 

Like I said in one earlier post, there was a moment where a kid was wandering down a trail. I talked to him for a moment and got a quest, and then wandered off myself. When I found what the kid was looking for, I returned to that location and saw that the kid had left to go play with someone else. That was pretty neat. But other than that, your father and sister stayed their ground, as did the chocolate seller. The warehouse guy didn't move until you approached him. The guards and a few townsfolk seemed to mill about the core area of the village.

 

I actually think that's about as good as Shenmue had it, though I expect much more in the finished version of Fable. We'll all seen the movies where merchants arrive and leave and go to the pub and so on. Shenmue didn't really have any of that.

 

In the combat areas, things basically moved from their spawn in location to me. With the merchants, they basically followed me around, staying a good few feet back of me and out of the way. I wasn't able to get them caught on anything, it seems, so the pathfinding is at least decent .

 

Best graphics on the Xbox? I'd say it was up there with the best. There's not really a lot of RPGs out for Xbox, and you have to compare it with RPGs because you're using so much of the memory on things that don't exist in other games, such as NPC pathfinding, combat AI, and so on. It was definitely on par with KotOR, if not a little bit better - and actually a good bit better in some ways, such as the water which was more like Dark Alliance. It was also colorful, which made it, to me, more interesting and better looking than Morrowind.

 

I'm also hoping for a lot of cutscenes because they were really well done.

 

The player model (the hero) was amazing, and definitely better than any in any other RPG I have seen, and probably about as good as what I have seen of the Prince in Prince of Persia - except the player in Fable morphs so that gives it a thumbs up over the Prince, while the Prince probably has a ton more animations, giving it the thumbs up.