Gaming Fable 3 Review

Can Fable 3 weave enough comedy and innovation in to avoid our ire? We find out.

http://www.bit-tech.net/gaming/xbox-360/2010/10/29/fable-3-review/1

 

how did they go so wrong after how amazing fable and the lost chapters add on were?

 

I posted a big list of complaints on a gaming forum, but I'll repost some of the highlights here. I picked this up at midnight release, but I wish I had waited a year or so...

* The 'map' is a stylized representation of the world, and bears little resemblance to how the actual world is laid out. Paths are misleading, buildings are improperly placed, etc. As such, your character does not have a position marker on the map, because it doesn't actually correspond to anything. This is incredibly irritating.
* They have gotten rid of almost all menus, instead opting for pedestals and other items you interact with to buy, sell, and change weapons/costumes, etc. Neat idea I guess, but their execution is awful.
* Interacting with NPCs is just slow, you go up to someone, hit interact, screen fades to black, comes back, you do your interaction, fade, etc. It makes me not want to interact with anyone.
* THERE IS NO WAY TO SKIP DIALOG. (Someone PLEASE prove me wrong on this, I've mashed every button during dialog!) I keep captions on in RPGs so I can just skim over junk and skip stupid dialog -- like a husband and wife arguing about chickens. I so do not care.
* The AI is awful. A couple times I've just tried holding down X to block, and the AI has continually attacked me from the front only to get blocked. I only tried this on very basic creatures, but I was perfectly safe, and they never attacked from behind. Maybe this will improve with more difficult enemies.
* Like wise, you can aim manually with your ranged weapon, but the auto aim is so perfect, why would you bother?
* The graphics have barely, if at all, improved. Ugly motion blur (like Halo Reach) that just looks like LCD ghosting, seemingly no anti-aliasing, and any time a particle effect is on screen, that region gets rendered at 1/4th the resolution. So if you stand in front of fire, your character's head becomes a pixelated mess.
* I got 10 hero points for saving 9 chickens. I got 5 for saving some woman's daughter that was a mile away trapped in a cave surrounded by feral wolves.
* Lute hero, and the rest of the jobs, are awful. The indicator of when to hit the button seems to move at about 20 fps. Laggy as crap.

 

The first 2 sucked as well, never really was an RPG from day one, its a simplistic adventure game for kids, honestly amazed it gets as much attention as it does, iguess MS spends a pile on advertising. its a crap series from one of the most annoying developers.

 

I always thought it was an adventure game for kids too. Good for what it is though, at least the first one was which is the only one I tried. I realised it's not a real RPG and it probably wouldn't appeal to most people over about 17.

 

I don't know what it is about the Fable games, the world seems charming and a fun place to explore, but damned if they can't hold my attention for more than 15 minutes. I never seem to be able to get into them.

 

The first Fable was amazing, but I barely managed to finish number two, and I don't see myself ever picking this up. I know it sounds elitest, but my God, they have gotten far too casual for me.

Fable 2 was so simple it could be completed by a monkey. I don't know what it is, but it's as if the developers are like

"****, we need to add more extras! I want fart animations and bare-bones basic relationship features in this game, NOW!"
"But we don't have enough time! It's impossible!"
"No it isn't. Make the combat as basic as humanly possible, remove armour, cut out as much as possible out of the core gameplay, and use the saved time on the crappy little extras"
"Genius!"

 

See? This just holds up the old adage that you can't polish a turd. (well, technically you can: http://www.dorodango.com/about.html but still...) BUT, it does seem that you can cut out some of the crap and make a smaller, more streamlined turd. Lionhead has distilled the essence of crap!

Fable 4 will be further refined into a game where there is nothing but a field of chickens. The goal is to kick all the chickens you encounter as you cross the field while trying on different outfits as you go. Halfway though the field, you suddenly look evil. At the far side of the field are 3 women that you can choose from to kiss and marry - a stunted mutant, a beautiful maiden, and a devilish vixen. Fable 4! Adventure in a deep explorable world where your choices matter! And introducing a revolutionary feature - you can name your character!

Peter Molyneaux is a talentless hack who makes even Uwe Boll look adept at his art.

 

That review is a 7? It reads like a 5, or maybe 6, at best. Seems Joe actually liked the game, just hates himself for doing so?

 

Taken from the score guide:
"It’s not a product for everyone, but it’s one that is well-worth considering if you are in the target demographic."

Sounds about right for the game. It isn't broken per se, just diluted far too much.

 

hmm... gave up with these games since the let down from Black and White.

 

Yea, I didn't get the feeling it was going to be rated a 7 either. The tone of the review reads like a 5 to me

 

Heh Molyneaux is hopeless imo. Only decent thing he ever did was Populous about 200 years ago.

 

Screw Fable 3, Dungeon Keeper 3 anyone?

 

that would be great, or a new Syndicate! Never gunna happen though. Molyneauxuxxu is an incompetent bore now.

 

New Syndicate is coming. Developed by Starbreeze, published by EA.

http://www.bit-tech.net/search?q=syndicate

 

Wow nice! Thanks. I thought I dreamt that... but seems not. I love squad based games and there are so few to choose from these days. Another one I want is Hidden & Dangerous.

 

I don't know if the game has the same TV ad in the UK as here in the US, but it features my favorite song by the Black Angels "Young Men Dead". It seems like an odd choice for a game that sounds like it's for kids but it has that "life in wartime" revolutionary vibe to it that I guess this game is supposed to have.

 

zim2411 made some excellent points, I agree with all of them. I never played the first two Fable games. So I was expecting, what the commercials basically claimed this game to be. I was expecting moral dilemmas, world-shaping choices, and customization. These are misleading ideas.

I was very excited during the first part of the game - it all seemed very promising. Disappointed by the simplicity of the combat (literally just hit one button over and over again) but I thought that it might grow more complex with time. When I made my first "big" choices in the game, I was thrilled. Some of these choices seemed very important - I spent several minutes on some of them, just thinking about what was right for the kingdom I wanted to shape in the game.

Well, none of it matters. In one of the most anti-climatic "endings" (it's not REALLY the end of the game technically, but it's as close as you get in this game I guess) I've ever experienced in any game showed me that NONE of the choices I had made had ultimately made any difference in the outcome of the ending or really in my overall play at all. What felt like big choices were just gloss on this game, there was no TRUE purpose to any of the choices. The choices only lead to one tiny cut scene or another, that's the only real difference.

The professions are a joke. It is the exact same mini game for 3 different professions (blacksmith, lute player, or pie maker). There is literally no difference in any of them, and they are dull and repetitive.

The character interactions... well, there aren't any! Whether you are building a friendship with someone, just working up to a sexy random romp, are trying to get a quest, or are working up to marriage - the interactions are exactly the same. There is no difference in how you act or how they react. They are absolutely meaningless interactions. The "main" characters of the game have NO interaction with you. Other than them addressing you in cut scenes, you will not get to talk to these characters or have personal relationships or unique dynamics with them. It is an utter waste of cool characters with great voice actors.

 

I guess I can agree that this game is made for kids... but all the blood they added to Fable 3 and some of the adult humour makes me think that they don't know who they are making this game for. I have to also admit that it is much easier combat-wise that the first Fable and that disappoints me