Fable 2

[Explodingsims 3]

Well, I didn't see a thread for this yet, so I though't I'd make one. 
The new RPG Fable 2 is in the works, and I just saw an article about it in Xbox Mag, so I figured we could dicuss it here/
Here what I know so far:
It is due to release in 2008, When the leaves on the trees are brown (Fall)
and this is what is known about the Game:

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The Game its self takes place 500 years after Fable, in a colonial time. (Or as I call it: "The Era of Tri-corner Hats')
Fable 2 enhances the innovative system of morphing one's character based on their actions. Character morphing revolves around two main alignments: Good and Evil. New aspects of the character alignment system include corruption (drinking too much), purity (working hard in one's employment), kindness and cruelty which will enhance a character's features. Corruption and Purity do not follow their respective moral alignments. A character may be "Good" while still performing corrupt deeds and vice versa.

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The player will encounter a pet dog that will stay with him or her for the rest of the game. Molyneux has stated that the dog is an entity that will get the player to care, to experience love or hatred, when he announced this feature at the GDC 2007. Every dog will be unique in some way and morph depending on a variety of factors, such as the player's alignment. The dog will assist the player by performing a variety of tasks. The dog can alert the player to threats without alerting enemies of the player's presence. In performing this task, the dog has replaced the mini-map which was present in Fable. The dog can also attack whichever enemy the player is most vulnerable to. The enemy chosen will depend on various factors, for instance, which weapon the player has drawn. In a recent interview and game demonstration Molyneux showed some of the interactions players can have with their dog, including buying toys, playing fetch and rewarding or punishing their dogs for their actions. The dog will morph according to the player's alignment; A pleasant character's dog will appear pleasant while an evil character's dog will appear scary.

[purpledaddy 6]

I'm actually thinking about getting Fable -The Lost Chapter as a way to play an RPG again. I'm playing Fate right now and I think it is the ultimate casual game for the genre. You go into the town, get a quest, go into dungeon and beat monsters and go back up into the same town and replenish and then repeat. It's been many years and I don't know if it shows its age (or mine), but I think Baldur's Gate is the ultimate RPG in terms of story, character development, landscapes, strategy, maintaining Dungeons and Dragons aspects, and graphics for its time. I was never into D&D but if it was like Baldur's Gate I could see the appeal.  I'm looking forward to trying Fable.  And I think it's only 20 simoleons at a local Best Buy.

[Explodingsims 3]

Heres some pictures and art of what we can expect!!
Purpledaddy: That would be a good place to start, however, if you want to spend a little more money, you  might want to get "The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Game of the Year" It's a fun game, and comes with two expansion packs....Look it up online! 

[your_adress_here 11]

I really like the idea of the dog... I'm just not sure if I would want him all the time with me. It would be cool if you could just have him stay at your house or something, or put him some place where it could be taken care of, not just abandoning it.

[purpledaddy 6]

Well, now I am playing all three!  

As simple as it is, (i.e. one dungeon/one town and fighting being about point and clicking), Fate has been quite addictive.   My daughter plays this one w/ me and we continually compare and compete about which level we make it to. I tend to die a lot in this game b/c I find myself getting in the middle of swarms.  But getting the booty and upping the levels feels very tangible in this game.  It really pays to specialize and spend level up points almost solely as either a fighter, archer, or mage in this game.  My daughter likes playing a wizard and she likes the tag along pet.  Even though I like the special effects of mages in the genre, I feel more gratified melee'ing everything out.

I pretty much bought Fable: The Lost Chapter & Elder Scrolls: Oblivion about the same time.  I've made it through the introduction of each.  

Fable is fun.  I'm discovering that generalization of the character's characteristic points across melee/archery/magic could well be key here.  I'm eager to what quests lie ahead, especially in terms of how it will affect morality and the growth of the "Hero" in either direction.  Since grabbing dropped stuff is the norm in RPG's & FPS's, I had to teach myself to hold back when grabbing booty to see if the game considers it to be a good or evil choice.  The combat play is appealing and satisfying. Having to grab the green orbs to get credit for experience is annoying.  I like the first and third person views. The graphics are great, albeit slightly cartoonish.  The music is enjoyable;  somehow it reminds me of Star Gate SG-1.  Contrary to some of the walkthroughs I read, I actually like Whisper.  I kind of see a Lord Boler/Briscoe County Jr. (fr The Adventures of Briscoe County Jr., a quirky western/sci-fi hybrid tv show on FOX in the early '90's) relationship between the two.  I almost wish they could be partners, even potentially spouses, instead of antagonists. My daughter actually wanted me to buy Fable over Oblivion b/c she (okay, I  ) thought it had a pet in it.    I wish "The Hero" could be customized more from the beginning. You can't even choose the name, race or sex!  Something tells me the game is more about the evolution of the character than about the story.

Oblivion, on the otherhand, is epic.  It's one of the most life-like games I've played ever, be it RPG, FPS, Strategy, or Simulation.   Even though the game goes into great details about customizing the character, it's focus is definitely about the LOTR-like story.   Despite that, I am definitely enjoying the intricacies of customizing the character, including strategizing about the race, class, and skills, etc.  Not only is there specialization, it is specialization w/in specialization; yet it still pays to have certain skills that cross classes.   I've made it to the part at the end of the introduction where I can change the characteristics of the protagonist before heading out on my own.  I am doing multiple saves to see and experiment with different combinations before starting out of the city.  The graphics are extremely detailed and realistic.  Anything else almost seems cartoon like.  The music and voice overs are larger than life.  (I have a hard time imagining "Captain Picard" as an elder elf-like ruler though! )   I

[Explodingsims 3]

Sheesh! Sound like you love Oblivion as much as I did! Trust me, this is a game that sucks you in, and keeps you captivated untill the end. And even after you finish the main storyline, there is STILL 200 hours of Sidequests to do...I still haven't even finished everything after 3 months! And then the Expansion packs add even more! Knights of the Nine gives you special, powerful armor, at the cost of you having to be good 24/7. The Shiving Isles is where it's at! This is pretty much an entirly new game, You have a new realm, about 1/2 the size of Cyrodill, and tons of new quests! It's all worth it!

No new Fable 2 news BTW.

[purpledaddy 6]

Yeah, a week later, I'd say I'm sucked in!  Playing Oblivion is almost like entering a real LOTR type world!   I'm on the verge of clearing up room in the family budget w/ Mrs. Purple Daddy to buy Knights of the Nine and Shivering Isle to make up for not  getting Game of the Year edition.

There's so much attention to detail, right down to shadows and reflections of the moon and the Imperial City from the other lands!  Sim City and The Sims should be so life like!   And you know the company is meaning business when they use Patrick Stewart, Sean Bean, Lynda Carter and Terrence Stamp as voice talents!  I didn't catch who the composer or the orchestra was in the credits was, but the theme and background music really help sets the town w/out being intrusive.  I was blown away with the introduction featuring a majestic aerial flyby of the Tamriel, then Imperial City, leading to the opening scene in the prison with Stewart's booming authoritative voice setting the story up. 

Even though the central story is supposedly the main thing, I'm playing the game in a leisurely style, enjoying the open-endedness, soaking in the atmospherics, playing through the countless dungeons and caves, and engaging in multiple quests.  My character I'm playing is a stealth thief-like fighter of the fighter oriented Redguard race w/ a thief birthsign.   I wanted to do melee but I also enjoy stealth and stalking fr past experiences w/ the Splinter Cell series and from the initial escape from the prison.  I may retry and experiment w/ a pure knight/pallidin or a pure mage though.  

I think the only quirks I have w/ the game is the repetitive voices and responses, which is pretty much typical in any game, and that doing split specialization and alterating and modifying the character as you progress can be difficult.  But other than that I am having a blast!

Thanks for the recommendation!

[toxicpiano 125]

I love oblivion. I'm top of the Assassins and thieves guild and have only done the first 3 'missions' in the main story quest. I'm also saving up for a house in Skingrad.

[Explodingsims 3]

Well, There's new Fable news:

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Albion is expected to be 10 times the size from the original game with 20 fully free-roaming regions and roughly 30 dungeons to explore. There are around 100 augmentable weapons, 70 augmentable clothes, and 20 different tattoos and haircuts. There are only eight basic spell types, but they are upgradeable to varying degrees, allowing for around 80 spells. There will be more than 160,000 lines of "AI-driven dialogue", over 150 unique quests and more than 6 minigames. While Molyneux has stated that the player can complete the main story in 12 hours if they rush through it, it would take much longer to complete everything in the game

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And the Uber Cool part, Multiplayer!

An off-line co-op mode was announced and shown at the 2008 GDC. The mode of co-op is somewhat similar to that of Gears of War; in that players will be able to drop in and out of other player's games at will. The host player can set certain rules; eg. how loot gained is split between the players and if friendly fire is active or not. Guest players will get an hourly rate of pay for helping the host out. Guest players can keep all the gold and experience they earn to take back with them into their own game world. Molyneux demonstrated the possible consequences of active friendly fire in the GDC demo; the "henchman" player killed his character's husband, leaving his (female) character's son an orphan. Molyneux mentioned that the player will be able to visit his/her son/daughter in the town orphanage, however to also expect the child's disposition to possibly go to the extreme of resentment. Molyneux demonstrated this as a degree of the freedom available in the game. The actions of the henchman player are permanent in the host player's offline game, so killed NPCs will not be revived. Also, the henchman player's dog will not be able to join the host player's game. Molyneux also mentioned that the host player would be able to gift items to any visitors that enter their world during co-op

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Purpledaddy: Yeah, you gotta love the detail in both the Graphic, Audio and Gameplay, Everything in that game melts together to make it a rich experiance! You seem to following what I did, soaking it all in, then working on the plot. I acctually started the game twice:

The First time I was a Nord/Knight/Lady, and Got about 1/8 thourgh the game, but I had slain too many NPCs, and missed out on some quests...

So I restarted as an Imperial/Assassin/Tower, and finished the Game, and then some...

And you're right, the Dioloague does get a wee bit repetitive. Although, I did find the Character modifiying easy...

And once again, I'm going to recomend the Expanstion Packs!

[Explodingsims 3]

NEW NEWS ALERT!!!

(That was an odd sentence...)

Well,

1. We have a release month: October!

2. The Death System has been reworked:

On the 24th of June 2008, Dene Carter, creative director of Fable II, revealed the new design. Upon losing all health, the hero falls and loses an unspecified amount of experience. This experience is exchanged for a 'burst' of energy, allowing one last 'heroic struggle' in which the player rises to their feet and knocks all enemies away, leaving the player momentarily safe from harm. The area is not reset and the player does not replay the scene upon death, they simply carry on from the moment of death.

Sounds good!

As for Oblivion, I'm replaying it, and I'm actually having fun!! That's never happened when I replayed a game!! It's slightly unsettling. Of course, it has helped me succeed in collecting all the books in the game!