Admittedly, I haven't played nearly as many games on the 360 as other people. I think I've played most of the big titles, except Halo 3. Recently I played through Mass Effect, which I enjoyed quite a bit, but I think Fable2 is overall a better game. The only area where Mass Effect tops it is in the dialog options. Fable still has the silent hero.
Fable2 definitely does away with a lot of rpg standards. There aren't many stats and not a lot of different loot. Your only choice in character creation is male or female, though you can play dressup and stylist during the game. The combat is very action oriented and simple, but very well implemented. It encourages to be flashy and exciting rather than finding the shortest path to victory. I've never died and I don't think you can die. It seems like there are very easy ways to get experience and gold, so the standard rpg grind does not seem to exist. Edit: And to clear up this point, this is not meant to be a negative. On paper, it might sound bad to some people, but the focus in this game is really on role playing and adventure. Do you want to massacre a whole village because some guy kicked your dog and then watch their economy plummet a la Robert? Go for it.
Played some co-op with Robert last night and had a much better experience than my first try. The camera is still weird at times, but it was fun. You can lay some serious ass kickings in co-op, which is cool.
Talking with Robert, we both seemed to agree that Fable2 is really a game where you determine how much fun you're going to have playing it. You aren't forced into anything, so if you choose to skip all the side quests and extra content, just focusing on the main story and approaching combat in a utilitarian way, you won't have nearly as much fun. The game is pretty huge, and long if you try to do everything, and so far I haven't gotten tired with any of it. This is going to be the first game I'll attempt getting all of the achievements. They all seem doable and fun.
