The Fable 2 Journal: Day 1

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I believe I was called a “rapscallion.” That made me exceedingly happy.

I’ll be honest, I’m going into Fable 2 really wanting to hate it. The original Fable for the original Xbox was one of my biggest gaming disappointments ever. It had been hyped up for over a year as “the ultimate choice making game” where you could be good or evil and explore absolutely anywhere you wanted.

This ultimately proved to be false. You were constantly fenced in by objectives and literal, physical fences,and the “moral choice” system was absurd. Either you had to be a complete boy scout and never even glance at a guard the wrong way to be a “good” hero, so inevitably most would get fed up with this honor system (including myself) and go on a killing spree that would have them sporting Lucifer horns in an hour.

After Day 1 of Fable 2, it’s too early to say whether the same mistakes have been replicated, but I will say this, I am enjoying myself. However, I believe I might have been saying the same thing after the first day of the original game, before I beat it the next day and exclaimed “that’s it”?

I’m hoping that Fable 2 isn’t nearly as easy as its predecessor, but the fact that Peter Molyneux constantly raves about the game as an “RPG for people who don’t like video games” worries me. I read an interview with one of the game’s designers where he said they didn’t put in a mini-map because people couldn’t understand how to interpret a three dimensional world in two dimensions. Well, I guess we’re all f*cked when all our cars come standard with GPS huh?

It’s things like that which have me worried about the overall ease of the game, and also the fact that you can never actually die. You just sort of faint, lose a microscopic bit of XP and then come back to life to face enemies who are still injured from the ass-whomping you just gave them.

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Is that you Link?

The bright glowing breadcrumb trail is even less subtle than a giant flashing neon arrow telling you where to go for your next quest, as it literally walks you right to the doorstep of every objective. Sure, you can turn it off, but why would I? I’m going to take advantage of such a tool if they hand it to me on a silver platter.

Going into the game I decided I was just going to drop all pretentions and be the most evil motherf*cker I could be. In Oblviion, Mass Effect and Fallout 3, I’ve been Dudley Dooright, so I thought it was time for a change. I’ve done every wrong deed I could in a few hours of gameplay, and already the townspeople are cowering in fear from me. Why the hell would I want a wife in this game anyways? I highly doubt Fable sex is anything worth watching.

One aspect of the game I’m fully enjoying at the moment is the job system. The ability to level up in different professions is pretty cool, and as a level four (out of five) blacksmith, I’m making bank to buy the best clothing and weapons around.

Also, I’m a big fan of the dog, which unlike Dogmeat from Fallout, actually seems like a living, breathing best friend, who barks and plays and rolls around rather than simply plodding around behind you . I have yet to learn all his tricks, but I’ve found him exceptionally useful for finding buried treasure and eating the jugular out of downed enemies thus far. I still need to give him a name…

I sincerely hope I keep enjoying Fable 2 as much as I am right now, but if my second journal entry is “Day 2: Game Over,” I’m going to be pissed.

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Can someone please explain to me what’s going on here?

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