[Velhart]

Xbox 360
Release Date: 10/26/10
Lionhead Studios


Well ohh boy, a sequel to a game that only came out only a short while ago. I have played through a great amount of this game already and will say, the game definitely has it's up and downs. As much as I am enjoying the game right now, it pisses me off since Black & White that Peter Molyneux has to over hype his material, making it sound like the perfect game and it turns out being "entertaining" at best.

But anyways, the story itself is pretty simple, it is 50 years later, you are a prince, which is actually a nice change of starting out. You are the son of the hero from the second game and your brother is a gigantic dick as a king. An event happens which tears you apart from the kingdom and you join together with your teacher and servant and decide to bring together allies to rebel against your brother and take the throne. So in this game, the overall main objective is to gather allies by going through the main story, or going through side attractions. If you are familiar with the Fable series then you should know how the core concept of this game works. I also love that this game goes more into the industrial era, which I love and had me hooked into the game. Not to mention that the voice acting in this game is just great, with people like Simon Pegg as one of the voice actors.

I will say, there are a lot of improvements in Fable 3 over the second one, and some things I wish they kept from the second one. First I will start with the interface. I do appreciate that the developers were trying to have the least amount of stuff on your screen as possible, but in the end it feels more inconvenient than anything. Instead of just simply going to a menu and switching out your gear or items, you are "teleported" to a hub where you enter rooms to switch out your gear and manage other things. While this is not a major inconvenience since you can teleport there and right back to where you were as long as you are not in battle, I feel that this was not necessary and would of been better off using a simple menu interface.

This game has been simplified to a large extent. If you are looking for a truly difficult game, Fable 3 is not it. There are some moments where the difficulty does go up a bit, but anyone with gaming experience should be able to go through the content with ease. Which also goes to say that this is not always a bad thing. The game still is challenging to an extent and focuses more on being fun than hair ripping, which I think they did a great job on balancing. The combat is pretty much the same, the true difference is that there is no life or magic bars. Magic is basically unlimited and health is based around how many times you are hit during combat, and immediately restored after it. The combat did a great job on mixing ranged and melee weapons, making you feel one is better than the other in a given situation. The game is a little longer than Fable 2, but not much, and once again, to get the full amount of this game is to do all the side quests around you, which makes the game a lot longer.

Overall, this game is fun and entertaining, but if you are expecting it to be "epic", then you are getting your hopes too high. I do believe it is worth a purchase or a rental at least.

[Prothescar]

Do you write for a magazine?

[Velhart]

No, I just like writing out my opinion despite if people care or not, and happen to be semi-organized.

[Prothescar]

You should.

[Velhart]

Haha thanks, I suppose. A shame I don't know the right people, and if I did, they would probably list the many flaws.

[Varizen]

Can I borrow your copy since you're done with it?

[Littlebender]

Isn't Fable III on pc? Why not just download it?

[Vigilous]

Fable III won't be out on PC until next week.

This post has been edited by Vigilous: 28 October 2010 - 01:34 PM

[Varizen]

Largely because while I'm OK with borrowing or buying used games, I don't like stealing from game developers. I like good companies to be able to afford to continue making games. Same thing with music. Although with music I prefer to avoid the record companies getting my money where I can. I prefer anything that only benefits the artist.

[Vigilous]

Vari, I give you +50 internets.

[Velhart]

I do agree that new release titles shouldn't be pirated, older systems on the other hand, mostly pre-2003, I am okay with. Love having various emulators on my phone including a PSX emulator. After seeing how much companies lose from handheld piracy, I decided I would not contribute to it.

Never really thought about pirating new music, I just listen to what is on Pandora Radio.

[Littlebender]

I just can't wrap my head around how companies lose money from pirating. If you never plan on buying the game in the first place how are they losing YOUR money?
I can understand if it's someone who never buys their games and solely pirates them but I do buy games that are worth paying for. After playing Fable II in all its incomplete buggy glory I just can't see myself giving the developers my money. I'll either pirate the game or never play it.

[Velhart]

It does affect things.

Think about it. One person buys the game, or grabs it from the store or factory they work at. They provide the game to pirate on the internet. People plan on going and buying this product. Then one person finds out that you can simply pirate the game if you take some time to get it to work. That one person tells another potential customer, then it spreads to millions and millions of people. That is a ton of potential customers that the company lost. So yes, it is money lost. If piracy was contained properly, all those potential customers would be purchasing the product.

I will use Pokemon as an example. Nintendo lost a ton of sales from people pirating the newest Pokemon games. Then you say to yourself, ohh well it also appeals to casual customers, they will purchase it. But even family friendly players are buying these pirated products to put into their DS because it is so easy to use. It is basically you download it, and then copy and paste. That is a big loss of money. Nintendo lost a ton of "potential customers". And I would say about an estimate of 80% of people who pirated it would of purchased it if it wasn't provided through piracy for free.

So yes, it affects companies greatly. But any pirate on here will think the exact opposite as me.

[Varizen]

First, I'd like to say "Nintendo deserves it. Especially after the disaster of the previous generation's trade network and their inability to use the internet to begin with"

But after that, It's exactly like Vel says. Same with the Movie Industry. Who here liked Kickass? Guess what. It did terrible at the Box Office. Pirates. Who liked Scott Pilgrim? Terrible at Box Office. Pirates. "Oh they never would have gotten my money anyway." is a weak excuse. In that case, find a buddy who IS willing to shell out the money, and borrow it. Or buy it used, play it, beat it, and sell it back.

[Littlebender]

Needless to say they aren't losing money by ME pirating lets put it that way.

[Varizen]

Yes they are. They're losing money that you otherwise would have had to have spent. If you weren't gonna play it, but do by pirating, you have thusly stolen from them causing them to lose $30. We'll neglect the $30 the retailer would have gotten. Either way, it seems small, but it's still the same.

[Littlebender]

I think you are missing the point. With Fable III I said I will either D/L it or not even play it at all. As of right now I haven't even bothered to look for a torrent.
If I do pirate it or I don't the out come will be the same. In all honesty I don't care if I am costing them money or not. It is ridiculous for them to sell half a game and put the other half out as "DLC", which in some instances is on the disc to begin with. Edit. You could also say that buying used games robes the industry as well since the developers get none of that money.

This post has been edited by Littlebender: 28 October 2010 - 05:48 PM

[Vigilous]

With used games, you're not a customer of the developer or publisher. You're a Gamestop or Best Buy customer. Someone already bought and paid for a product from the original seller. Pirating is stealing because you are taking a product that you did not buy from anyone. So actually, you're not only stealing from say, Microsoft or Lionhead, you're also stealing from a game reseller. Publishers like to talk big about how the used trade is screwing them, but honestly, if you take pirating out of the equation, their losses are minimal, as most people who buy a used game - and like it - will almost always buy a new game with either the sequel or a different title form the publisher. It doesn't matter if you're debating about stealing it. Someone else already did.

At the end of the day, you can try to rationalize it all you want, but taking something that is not yours that you did not earn, purchase, or barrow legitimately is stealing. I really don't understand how you idiots can't fathom this. Just because you cannot physically hold it in your hand does not mean you didn't steal it.

If you're perfectly fine with theft then give me your address. My office could use a new TV.

This post has been edited by Vigilous: 28 October 2010 - 09:30 PM

[renzuko]

Varizen, on 28 October 2010 - 03:53 PM, said:

First, I'd like to say "Nintendo deserves it. Especially after the disaster of the previous generation's trade network and their inability to use the internet to begin with"

But after that, It's exactly like Vel says. Same with the Movie Industry. Who here liked Kickass? Guess what. It did terrible at the Box Office. Pirates. Who liked Scott Pilgrim? Terrible at Box Office. Pirates. "Oh they never would have gotten my money anyway." is a weak excuse. In that case, find a buddy who IS willing to shell out the money, and borrow it. Or buy it used, play it, beat it, and sell it back.

yeah as others said, buying used, is still a loss to the company lol, your not a customer to the developper, your the customer to gamestop/whereever you bought the game

[Varizen]

That's also why college text books are so expensive. But the thing is, as Vig said, most people who actually do buy a game used are more likely to buy new games as they come out from that company in the future. I buy a lot of my used games from The Great Escape (a chain of comic shops in Kentucky and Tennessee that I have to plug because they're comic shops that don't suck like most do today. #1 rule of comic shops: if it's younger than 10 years old, it sucks) and CD Warehouse. I got Fable II for $10 at CD Warehouse. Considering how buggy the game was, I'm glad that's how much I paid for it, but I liked it enough to be interested in Fable III. I like the whole idea behind the series, but the second had bad execution. The 3rd seems to fix a lot of the problems I had, so I'm actually willing to pay for it new. It's a good way to test the waters for a company. If I buy it cheap and get burned, I won't get another game in the series. I know a lot of people love Star Ocean, but I bought the one on PS2 cheap at Target for $20 and I felt burned. I'm not gonna go pirating any of the other games in the series. I'm just done with that series. The only game I've ever pirated was Portal, and the ONLY reason I did it was because Valve had given it away free on Steam, and I missed that promotion. So I just pretended I was in time for the promo and everything was hunky dory. But you can bet I'll be buying Portal 2 new the day it comes out.