Fable II (not disappointing anymore!)

[MinisterofDOOM]

It's Fable all over again. Everything that was promised is there...but it's all halfassed. Coop is steaming scat with a SHARED camera beween both characters. What the HELL kind of crap is that?

Meanwhile, I can't even play the game because the UI is cut off at the top of the screen. I can't read quest/info text and can barely see my health meter.It seems pretty much everyone with SDTVs is having this issue, as well as a good number of people with HDTVs. I've seen other people's games on SDTV and I seem to have a worse case of the issue than most: many can still see enough to get by. I can't see crap.

Additionally, the menu system is severely slow, clunky, and convoluted. The "context sensitive" buttons are next to useless thanks to the vagueness of the icons, and using expressions outside the context sensitive buttons is massively convoluted.

I only had time to play the game for about an hour this morning, but what I have seen has been pretty damn disappointing. There's NO excuse for a broken UI in a release version of a game, and doubly so when there was a patch available on release day!

Cutscenes are broken, too. They're almost all interactive, but since there's a lot to show sometimes, there will often be a "focus" option where holdint LT will move the camera somewhere else. The problem is, the sound stays behind. OR maybe it doesn't. It's not even consistent. But in one cutscene showing something far away, you could press LT, the camera will zoom off, and the NPC's voice will fade to nothing and you'll miss what they're saying. Then next time, you'll press LT to see the target who is speaking, but if you let go and the camera returns, the target's voice will fade. Geez. Realistic surround-sound is great, but can't we have the voices follow us in these instances so we can actually USE the focus feature? I mean Half Life had interactive "cutscenes" back in 1999 and they weren't broken. I think 9 years later is plenty of time for other developers to have the idea nailed down, too.

[Axel Grungy]

that sucks. I never played the first one but always wanted to. Well you better add it to the "disappointing games" thread.

[packerjd04]

I really want to try the game, i've heard mixed reactions to it so far.

[MinisterofDOOM]

Okay, I've put some more time into the game now and had time to experience it beyond the surface. My impressions at this point:

Combat is a lot of fun. It can get frustrating, but it flows well and the spellcaster system is excellent. I'm glad developers have finally outgrown the mana system. Hurling fireballs one after another at a horde of enemies really reinforces the idea that your Hero is a rare and powerful beast. NPC reactions are good, there, too. ("How did you do that?! You didn't even touch him!")

The steering is still kind of bleh. And I say steering for a reason. Like the first Fable game, you really steer your character more like a car than you do control them like a person. It's this weird blend of WASD FPS control and freeform action game control that leaves you kind of lacking the best of either. Steering while running is numb and delayed, it feels like molasses or a 1980s Cadillac.Fortunately when you slow to a walk, it reverts to a more action RPG control feel, so combat doesn't suffer.

The game's economic system is a lot of fun. But it has a major problem: just like real life, it takes money to make money. And getting the necessary funds to start investing in the economy is TEDIOUS as hell. It's worse than the most boring MMORPG crafting. You don't make money from quests anymore, so you have to do JOBS. You can serve drinks at a bar (most fun but rarely available to do) chop wood (least profitable but easiest) or forge swords at a blacksmith. The last one is the best choice for early moneymaking. But the problem is that it takes FOREVER, is tedious, and just gets dull. Each sword takes 5 hammer hits, and each hit takes a timed button press while a moving ball passes over an ever-shrinking target area. At first, it's easy but makes crap money ($40 per sword...for perspective, investing in even the smallest thing takes thousands, and weapons cost thousands as well). As you make swords, you can gain a gold multiplier that increases with every perfect sword. One screwup on ONE hammer hit and the modifier resets. As the multiplier increases, so does the button puzzle difficulty. And you get 4 promotions, each of which increases your base gold per sword.

The good thing about the economic market in the game is that you continue making money on investments (which can be market stalls, full-fledged businesses, or houses for rent) while the came is turned off. The bad thing is that you don't make much at first. Roughly 9000 investment one morning returned $500 9 hours later. Which means more tedious blacksmithing.

You can make money from your quest spoils as well, which helps a lot. But not getting paid for quests is stupid.

There's a safety button that turns off friendly fire so you don't accidentally kill people. Problem is, they still react strongly to you if you accidentally draw a weapon or cast a spell...which is VERY easy to do. Also, once you become relatively attractive (not difficult) every woman in the game follows you around town. Sounds fun, until you realize how much they get in the damn way. The temptation to kill them all is very strong.

Context-sensitive D-pad commands have replaced the manually-assignable d-pad commands from the first game, which SUCKS. The game NEVER gives you the commands you want, which means you ALWAYS have to dig through the terrible menu system to do what you want. Even drinking a health potion takes ages because there's no single button for it and they're buried in sub-sections of sub-sections of the menu. Not exactly what you want in the middle of challenging combat.Plus, the game overrides ALL d-pad commands for ones it deems important. And by that I mean if you have a major quest objective you've met, the game will prompt you to move on my removing ALL the d-pad commands so that it can show ONE quest icon. There are 4 directions. Why do 3 disappear?

So yeah, like Fable, Fable II is a lot of fun, but there have been some extremely BIZARRE design decisions in the game.

Oh, and I found a possible solution for the UI bug:It seems MS is freaking smart and actually makes a VGA cable for the Xbox. Native VGA support...AWESOME! MS wins big there. So I ordered one and I'll be running my 360 through my widescreen PC monitor from now on. Not only will Fable's UI work, but I'll have widescreen support AND I'll be able to read the text and minimap in GTAIV!

[OldmanPurdy]

VGA support works really well its a bit washed out compared to compnent and hdmi but considering that most next gen games have alot of artificial contrast it evens out.

[MinisterofDOOM]

My big concern is my monitor, as it's a POS and doesn't support resolution scaling. Since the 360 doesn't output 1440x900 I'll have to run a lower-res 16:9 or 16:10 setting. I hope I don't end up with a fuzzy picture from running a non-native resolution.

[packerjd04]

Im digging the second post MoD, makes it sound like it'd be more worth it now. Still on the fence, but I really am tired of waiting for shooter after shooter (i would say fps but then someone would say what about gears). I would love to add a new rpg to my games list, Fable 2 might be it even with its problems (which sound like they should get fixed by a patch or 2).

[Loki]

I was severely bored by Fable. Fable II isn't even on my radar.

On the other hand, I got Saints Row 2 and it's pretty fun despite not liking the first.

[MinisterofDOOM]

I picked up a VGA adaptor locally instead of waiting for shipping, and it fixed my UI issue. I've been testing all my Xbox games in HD now, and they all look vastly better and more readable (not surprising).

Fable's definitely fun if action RPGs are your thing. The freedom to do other things (like build your empire, family, etc.) adds a lot of fun. It's the kind of game you can choose to relax in.

But the broken coop is extremely disappointing. It was the biggest thing about Fable II for me, and with that out of the picture the game is only good as opposed to great. Good with some MAJOR flaws that can be fixed and hopefully will be. If they're not, it doesn't say good things about Lionhead.

EDIT:Bwahaha, nice push-button KVM switch (meaning no keyboard shortcut switching, which means it'll switch even with no PC turned on and no keyboard connected) means I can now swap back and forth between the 360 and PC on the same monitor on the fly. But since I do have a keyboard connected, I now have easy keyboard access for the 360, too (instead of a spare keyboard sitting on the table in front of the TV). Nice.

[jkerr240]

I know what your sayin, the game has its ups and downs. For instance the controls are horrible, least the movement is. Its hard to get a smooth pace running in this game, but other than that the combat is pretty nice and how the game dont end when you die it just takes away experience, but once you start playin youll have plenty of EXP built up that it wont matter.

Another cool thing is your canine companion who you start out with helps you find treasure chests and buried treasures that other wise you wouldnt know where there.

And as for the jobs, easiest one that pays good is the bartender iv found, im level 5 and i make 75 a pint and every 3 pints you get it adds a gold multiplier, so the more skilled you get at pourin the beer the more money you make fast.

overall not a bad game, but like you said the pause screen is verrrrrrry slow, and pisses you off quite abit. but i found if you hit the left and right bumpers that it makes it a little quicker to get to the category your looking for. and theres a glitch that gets you unlimited exp if you havent gotten the patch yet, if anyone is interested.....

[packerjd04]

Hey MoD and jkerr, after you beat the game is that it or are there a lot more hours worth of quests and what not???

[MinisterofDOOM]

There's more. In fact there are some quests that only become available after you defeat the villain. But even aside from those, the Job rotation stays the same, and most of the non-story quests are still available to do. Plus there's the whole empire-building thing to do with businesses and houses, and there's still more character building to do.

The ending of the game was really well-written and powerful. Lots of great strong characters (good and bad) and a feeling that what you did really did have an impact on the rest of the people in the world.

[packerjd04]

Cool i was hoping there is a lot more to do after the main quest line because i have heard the story is very short (less than 10 hours?). I am interested in seeing how fallout 3 turns out, so maybe in the next couple days ill pick up fable or fallout, then of course i have to remember that gow is coming out in a week so who knows. Thanks though!

[MinisterofDOOM]

The more I play Fable II, the more I enjoy it.

My first little taste of the game was definitely jaded. The morning had already been terrible, I left work 2 1/2 hours late which put me in hellish traffic to boot. Walmart's corporate screwed up return shipping on a recalled PS3 game and sent Fable II back instead, so I had to wait for Target to open. Then the GUI/TV issue presented itself, and shortly after which I learned that coop--my most anticipated feature--was broken. So I was pretty pissed.

A few days later I've finished the story with one character and own nearly all of Bowerstone, and I've started a playthrough with a second (and much less scrupulous) character. I'm having a lot of fun with both characters. It's not often that I genuinely enjoy the early stages of RPGs the second and so-on times through, but that's exactly what's happening with my 2nd Fable II character.

[packerjd04]

Thats good to hear .

[packerjd04]

Finally picked up Fable 2 tonight and i am actually really happy with it right now, the jobs are oddly addictive. Also a friend and I did co-op and wrecked a whole town for about 20 minutes, it was humorous.

[MinisterofDOOM]

My friend had me kill his wife for him in coop. Then we discovered that Henchman actions affect the Hero as well. Ooops. Guess I shouldn't have done it in the middle of a busy street...

I'm having fun being evil in my 2nd playthrough. I intentionally killed 4 people in front of a guard (somewhat of a feat considering how fast people run when they see you attacking). I got through 3 of them before the guard interrupted me with the prompt to pay a fine, do community service, or resist. I chose community service, then as soon as the prompt window disappeared I finished killing number 4. I "failed" the community service and was again prompted to make one of the 3 choices. I chose community service again (more on that in a minute) but noticed that my fine had gone WAY up. For the first 3 people it was only a few hundred. The 4th with parole violation was a couple grand.

Community service rocks, though. Basically, it's win/win for the player. You commit a crime (gain) then you choose community service as your sentence, and community service is always fighting. So you get experience for fighting. No loss anywhere. Sometimes it's easier just to pay a fine if you're trying to get something done in a hurry, but most of the time it's a nice setup.

[packerjd04]

I also found out henchman affect the hero last night right before we decided to wipe out a town, good thing it wasn't saved since im being mostly good this go. I had a good laugh when i gave that girl the rejection letter, also after reading some of the notes and what not they really do give you a laugh most of the time. Even in childhood reading the warrants there are things like "assault with a item that we did not think could possibly be deadly but turned out otherwise" (something along those lines). The game is good so far and i cant wait to get home and play some more

[Future240]

The more I play Fable II, the more I enjoy it.

My first little taste of the game was definitely jaded. The morning had already been terrible, I left work 2 1/2 hours late which put me in hellish traffic to boot. Walmart's corporate screwed up return shipping on a recalled PS3 game and sent Fable II back instead, so I had to wait for Target to open. Then the GUI/TV issue presented itself, and shortly after which I learned that coop--my most anticipated feature--was broken. So I was pretty pissed.

A few days later I've finished the story with one character and own nearly all of Bowerstone, and I've started a playthrough with a second (and much less scrupulous) character. I'm having a lot of fun with both characters. It's not often that I genuinely enjoy the early stages of RPGs the second and so-on times through, but that's exactly what's happening with my 2nd Fable II character.

So over all would you say it lives up to its word?

[MinisterofDOOM]

No, it doesn't live up to it's word. But it's still a LOT of fun.

[BusyBadger]

I was a little disappointed when I read your original post. Not because of your opinion, but because of what it was - I had picked up Fable II but not played it yet (I was at work when I read your post - don't tell the boss!).

I played it the next day and was a little let down, the controls seemed a little sluggish (usually a deal breaker for me, that and bad camera angles) but like you, as I played I enjoyed it more. I was immediately drawn in to the storyline, loved the graphics and eventually got to the point where I could tolerate the sluggish controls.

I'm about 60% through the game now and am really enjoying it. Its not everything that it was built up to be, but in the day and age of G4 hype what game is? I'll play through it a few time to pick up most of the achievements before I pick up Falllout 3 (when it hopefully drops) and get a bigger open world game.

But I am still disappointed about the crappy Limited Edition that was released - if anyone sees Peter Molyneux I want a metal game case.

[Future240]

Think I will wait till I can find a deal on it before I get it.

[NSR_s30]

My buddy picked up the first when it came out, it was sooooo boring it put me to sleep. Seriously and the 2nd doesn't look much better.

[packerjd04]

Finally decided i'd finish the main storyline last night, as to the ending I wouldnt say i was exactly happy with it. I don't want to spoil anything here but I was looking for something more umm confrontational.... now its back to side quests and owning the world lol.

[MinisterofDOOM]

I actually really liked the ending and confrontation because it really drove home who or rather WHAT the villain was. The final fight was intense, but then the hows and whys needed to be wrapped up. And regardless of how that final blow goes, the fact that THAT is what ends it says a lot about Lucien and his...I guess self-delusion? After all that suffering and death, all that evil, and it comes to that. It kind of puts a different perspective on everything. And I have a feeling it'll become even clearer when the sequel or expansion hits.

Think of this, though:As evil as Lucien was, he was really just an amateur. He's the "kid who found his dad's gun." He wasn't even sure what he was doing, and he did ALL that damage. It's almost a stage-setting for something much more sinister yet to come.

[packerjd04]

I agree that it does set a nice stage. I dont know about you but i didnt even get to pull the trigger, i was listening to him hah. Have you got some of the legendary weapons? I got the katana yesterday and i think damage/speed wise its the best? Looks pretty nice as well i just wish i could add an augment.

[MinisterofDOOM]

Yeah, I hear comments from a lot of people who had that shot taken from them by that JERK. For me, I pulled the trigger the second he turned red.

I have the legendary katana, too. It's a nice weapon as far as damage and speed, but I hate the augments it has. I want to add my golden and experience augments instead. I don't care about appearance or lightning damage.

[packerjd04]

Yea i havent found the right weapons dealer to get a master longsword with augments, thats what i would like. I love the look of the ml. I also got the legendary axe for 8/8 perfect in the crucible, its a pretty beastly looking piece of weaponry hahah. Have you found any legendary guns? I know you get one from the shooting range but the best ive gotten is 131

[MinisterofDOOM]

From what I've heard, turret or clockwork pistols are the best guns for the shooting range.

[packerjd04]

I actually bought a clockwork pistol today, pretty sick weapon.