Fable 2 Update

[AlNom]

Lionhead Dev Blog (? I think)

Seeing as there are well over 70 people already working on Fable 2 there is a lot to report on. I could tell you about the technology guys who are creating the tools for the team, or the artists who are creating concept art, models and textures to be used ingame. Or I could tell about the MoCap sessions that were organized for the animators (no man should ever see Dene Carter in lycra!) or how the scripters are cracking on with all the quests and story, or how the programmers are experimenting with the gameplay and how the code affects what is possible in Fable 2. However, if I did that, not only would our publisher shoot me in the face, the team would also be upset and I might say things I come to regret further down the line (when inevitable changes are made). So I'm going to pick one subject that's quite vague and allows me to say a few things without revealing anything too early. Oh and there are no spoilers included! No, really!

It's a pretty short read, so go to the link to read everything . The story is set 500 years after Fable, but there isn't too much other info.

 

[AlNom]

Peter seems quite intent on keeping his mouth shut, so you will have little to fear. I really liked Fable, and I look forward to this too. I liked roaming around Albion and how the locales changed drastically. I hope they'll be expanding the world much much more with lots of enemies. One of the things I didn't like in the aftermath of finishing the main story was that there were few powerful enemies to kill.

My guess is Holidays 2008

 

[Shifty Geezer]

I'm expecting a lot of this game. All the things Fable was going to be but never quite got. For one, I'm sure we'll have trees that grow with you

 

[pipo]

Interview: http://www.spong.com/feature/10109398

 

[Platon]

So what happened 23rd of September last year? And what game concept was applied only once to a game and that was 30 years ago? Hmm, in mysterious ways Peter speaks...

 

[AlNom]

Hm... 1976...Fairchild game system:

x Fairchild 26 Alien Invasion
xI Fairchild 11 Backgammon / Acey Ducey
xI Fairchild 12 Baseball
xI Fairchild 21 Bowling
Fairchild PR Casino Royale
x Fairchild 19 Checkers
x Fairchild Democart
xI Fairchild 2 Desert Fox
xI Fairchild 16 Dodge It
xI Fairchild 9 Drag Race
xI Fairchild 23 Galactic Space Wars
xI Fairchild 18 Hangman
xI Fairchild 8 Magic Numbers
xI Fairchild 6 Math Quiz I
xI Fairchild 7 Math Quiz II
xI Fairchild 10 Maze / Cat and Mouse
x Fairchild 15 Memory Match
xI Fairchild 17 Pinball Challenge
xI Fairchild 24 Pro Football
x Fairchild 13 Robot War
xI Fairchild 22 Slot Machine
x Fairchild 14 Sonar Search
xI Fairchild 5 Space War
xI Fairchild 4 Spitfire
xI Fairchild 1 Tic-Tac-Toe / Shooting Gallery / Doodle / Q...
xI Fairchild 3 Video Blackjack
x Fairchild 20 Video Whizball

Sept 23 2005 according to Wiki:

* Filiberto Ojeda Rios is killed following a shoot out with the FBI. (BBC)
* Lester Crawford, U.S. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner resigns; citing old age. Critics accuse Crawford of incompetence regarding Vioxx, cloned beef, approval of malfunctioning heart devices, and alleged corruption. He served two months in office. (AP on Yahoo!)
* Israeli-Palestinian Conflict:
o At least 10 Palestinians die and 80 are injured when a truck carrying home-made explosives explodes during a Friday salat parade organised by Hamas. Hamas blames Israel, claiming an Israeli plane blew up the vehicle, while Israel and the Palestinian Authority blames Hamas. (Jerusalem Post), (ABC News)
o 3 Palestinian gunmen are killed following an Israeli military incursion into the West Bank. (BBC)
o At least 3 Qassam rockets fired from the Gaza Strip hit the Israeli town of Sderot. The Palestinian Islamic Jihad claims responsibility, saying it fired 10 rockets at Israel. (The Jerusalem Post) (Ha'aretz)
o A United Nations report says that since 2000 61 Palestinian women have given birth while delayed at Israeli checkpoints, resulting in 36 newborn deaths.(BBC), (Reuters), (Sydney Morning Herald)
* Conflict in Iraq: Five Iraqis, including three members of the Iraqi Turkmen Front, die following a bomb on minibus in the capital Baghdad. (BBC)
* Hurricane Rita: 24 mostly elderly people are feared dead after a bus evacuating them from the path of the hurricane caught fire. (BBC)
* Earl Krugel, a leader of the Jewish Defence League, is sentenced to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to a plot to blow up a mosque in Los Angeles and Lebanese-American congressman Darrell Issa's office. His co-accused, Irv Rubin, committed suicide in 2002. (BBC) (Jerusalem Post)
* German election 2005: After talks between CDU/CSU and Alliance 90/The Greens, a "Jamaica coalition" between conservatives, liberals and greens is ruled out.
* In the Netherlands, Victor de Bruijn signs a living-together contract with Bianca de Bruijn (to whom he is already married) and Mirjam Geven, rekindling the polyamory / legalized polygamy debate throughout the Western world.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

A game about polygamous bombings in Palestine?

Or perhaps the news article was more local to Molyneux? Maybe something in the Surrey Advertiser about the Pirbright flower show? Theme Gardener anyone?

 

[RancidLunchmeat]

Good thing he's keeping his mouth shut this time. Because he apparently went bozo prior to the release of Fable. Every time I read anything about Fable or Fable II, half of the comments are backhanded compliments 'Good.. but didn't live up to the hype' or.. "Looking forward to Fable II, hope it can be what Fable was supposed to be."

Puts developers in a tough spot, they've got to get people interested in their game and express how its different than previous games, yet.. can't over promise and under deliver.

The main 'problem' with Fable for me (not having read any of the 'hype' so I wasn't disappointed in something not being included I had expected), was a simple function of game type/mechanics. The good/evil choices you made in the game were essentially meaningless because you could buy your alignment. Combine that with the overall easy nature of the game, and you lose a huge factor to the game.. that your decisions influence your environment and those around you.

If it were more difficult.. almost to the point of impossibility, to alter your course from good or evil after a certain point, the game would have been more fun. The choices were supposed to have consequences, but they ultimately didn't

 

[AlNom]

Good thing he's keeping his mouth shut this time. Because he apparently went bozo prior to the release of Fable. Every time I read anything about Fable or Fable II, half of the comments are backhanded compliments 'Good.. but didn't live up to the hype' or.. "Looking forward to Fable II, hope it can be what Fable was supposed to be."

He kept talking about features that would be in it; issues with development and the hardware led to cutting back a lot of the more ambitious ones, but they at least fixed some things with The Lost Chapters re-release.

The worst and best was when he actually came out and apologized for the letdown - admitting it &...having the guts to admit it.

Puts developers in a tough spot, they've got to get people interested in their game and express how its different than previous games, yet.. can't over promise and under deliver.

id software and 3D Realms seem to have learned that. And Remedy is just insanely quiet about Alan Wake.

If it were more difficult.. almost to the point of impossibility, to alter your course from good or evil after a certain point, the game would have been more fun. The choices were supposed to have consequences, but they ultimately didn't

I get the impression that they realize all the faults that gamers have pointed out and that they are trying to address that. Let's hope they get it right.