Why Fable 3 is an Embarrassment to Video Games
I just beat Fable 3, one of my most anticipated games of the year, and much to my surprise, I absolutely loathed it. It’s strange, because in many ways it’s exactly like Fable 2, which I actually chose as my game of the year when it was released. So why then, do I hate, hate, hate this one so much?
I liked Fable 2 because it improved over its predecessor. It expanded customization, skills, the plot, everything was deeper, richer and had more thought put into it. Yes, it still had some issues to be resolved, but surely those would at least improve somewhat in the third chapter, right?
Fable 3 might be one of the laziest games I’ve ever played. There are virtually no differences in gameplay or features from the last game, the designers not bothering to add new weapon types or spells. Not bothering to make any of the jobs different from each other, any of the people different from each other, or any of the weapons different from each other. Baking pies is the same mechanic as forging iron, a nobleman is just as uninteresting in appearance and speech as a peasant, and a magic gun kills foes as easily as a regular one.
I feel so strongly about all the things that are wrong with this game, what you’re about to witness is literally the longest single post in Unreality history. It’s a rant of epic proportions clocking in at 2,800 words and counting. I detail each aspect of the game that infuriates me, and if you’re a fan of the series, or just come here because you like hearing me bitch about stuff, then boy, this is the post for you. Read on.
The Poorly Played Out Plot
You want me to be king? No thank you.
The fact that I’ve already beaten this game is the genesis for me writing this post at all. I liked Fable 2 because it kept going long after I thought it had reached its peak. But when I thought Fable 3 was just getting started, things were over in a flash.
I have no problem with the first part of the game. Gathering allies across a nation by doing various quests to win their favor might not be the most original idea in RPG history, but it’s acceptable enough. Soon I was ready to overthrow the king, and so I did with ease. (Spoilers ahead from now on in this section).
But now, the game tells me, your journey is just beginning, you’re king now and have to decide how to rule. I am literally now given the option to be an angel (good) king or devil (evil) king, (with wings to match) by deciding how to rule the kingdom. As it turns out, my brother was such a dick to prepare for an incoming invasion of evil, and I would have to now decide whether or not to please the people at the risk of their safety, or become hated but fend off their impending doom.
The way to do this was to fill the kingdom’s treasure with gold. I needed $6.5M to save them all, and making $100,000 every five minutes of gameplay (as I owned almost every store and piece of property in the country) I thought I had a pretty reasonable shot with 365 days on the clock.
WRONG.
The second half of the game is not a half at all, it was merely an extra hour or so, where each day you would wake up, wander over to your throne room and make some decision whether or not to build an orphanage or farm the children for their organs. One decision always made the people happy, but cost you an ass ton of money, and the other would make them boo you in the streets, but the literal mountain of gold in your treasury would grow.
For the first few days, I always did the nice thing, thinking by the time the invasions rolled around I would have enough coin to finance the entire war myself, and as proud owner of every building in Albion, I figured that was a reasonable goal.
But then time started speeding up. After my first day of rule, there were 360 days left. After my next, 290, then 220 and all of a sudden 120. This wasn’t a year at all! After I finished the last item on each daily list, I would automatically be teleported into the future by an uncertain amount of days. I was never sure what was ahead, so how would I know if I had enough time to make the financial goal?
As it turned out, I didn’t, not by a long shot. Despite sinking millions of my own cash into the treasury, I only had $2.2M when I finished day 122. I’ll wander around later, I thought, I’ll let my cash amass and then transfer it to make sure I save everyone.
Does 122 days left sound like the last day of something to you?
But it was, and after I finished one last arbitrary quest, I was thrust into the thick of the invasion, with no way to turn back, or earn more cash or upgrades. Most of Albion was slain, and what should have been an entire chapter of the game was reduced to a poorly constructed hour of insipid account keeping. I can’t believe this game is actually over this quickly.
The Cake-Walk Combat
…and repeat
I’ve given Fable a free pass on this for a while now, but it’s gotten to the point where something must be done. This game’s combat system is unreasonably unbalanced, and makes the entire game practically a joke. Even doing a huge chunk of the sidequests, I’ve beaten the entire thing already, and the combat system has been a major contributing factor helping that along.
The only time battles are difficult are when the camera zooms in to show an enemy you’re killing in slow motion. This might be logical if you’re performing a rare special move, but the game is programmed to execute the slo-mo command at random, even during normal maneuvers, and sometimes when you’re say, shooting a skeleton 100 feet away, it will zoom in on its slow motion demise for 5 seconds as in the meantime, you’re getting swarmed by 6 other enemies.
In Fable 3, your sword is more or less useless. If you want to take on a group with your melee weapon, you’ll have to block, lunge, parry, dodge, charge attack and your opponents will block half your attacks. And that’s if there’s only one of them. Being surrounded by a crowd makes sword fighting even more unbearable, because after all, why would you want to swing a sword, when you can roll away and blast everyone with a rifle? The gun is the far easier alternative to the sword, as no enemy in the game can effectively block bullets. There’s a reason swordplay in combat went out the window once gunpowder was invented.
But why shoot a gun when you can just explode everyone onscreen with magic? Yes, magic is still massively overpowered in Fable 3, and the charged area of effect B attack is the key to winning any battle. Not only are there no new spells at all in this “new” game, but the old ones are as unbalanced as they ever were. Spells like Vortex and Force Push are still useless, while the lightning attack remains the “kill everything” button present in the first two games. And now with the power to combine spells, I can electrocute AND burn my enemies to ash, and it if that doesn’t kill them instantly (which it usually does), I can slice and shoot them as they hang there motionless, frozen by electricity for what seems like ages.
This tactic works on literally any enemy in the game. I just spend five minutes mashing B electro-fireballs at the final boss who was frozen in place by the spell. Sure, it took 30-40 hits to kill him as opposed to the usual 4-5, but never was there any real danger to me. In fact, I’ve died a grand total of once in this entire game, and I’ve only used 2 health potions in my entire combat history. Yes, it’s true, I could choose to only use the sword and combat would generally be a good deal more challenging, but that’s like saying I should play through Halo Reach‘s campaign using only a pistol even though there are way better guns available. It’s not my fault B is a “win button” nor should I be the one responsible for making the game more difficult by handicapping myself.
If you’re going to design a game for children, it’s probably not a good idea to rate it Mature.
The Mind-Numbing Navigation
“Where the f*ck are we?”
Navigation in this game is a train wreck. Yes, Peter Molyneux’s brightly lit breadcrumb trail taking you to your next destination is still in place, though I have had the game glitch several times where the trail wouldn’t appear at all, or would flutter in and out like the magic dust had a fuse that needed to be changed.
But the problems lie more in the fast travel system and mini-map. Let’s say I want to go to a town to buy a toy boat for my kid. A relatively simple task right? In a normal game, I’d press select to pull up the mini-map, locate the store, which is labeled on the map, set a waypoint for it, fast travel to the town, and follow the waypoint until I got there. In Fable 3? Here’s the process :
I press start, I’m taken to my Sanctuary where I have to walk over to the map. I zoom into the country, then find the city I want. I zoom in further. Now, I can’t set a custom waypoint, so I just have to fast travel to the city in general. Based on no discernible criteria, I may teleport two feet from where I need to go, or I may appear 3 miles outside of town, and have to fight three legions of mercenaries to get there.
Once I’m in town, I don’t know where the shop is and my options are either to walk around to every story I see, and press A to read the sign in front of it to see if it’s the store I want, or I pull up the mini-map, which is a crude 3D rendering of the city that looks almost nothing like what surrounds you. I hover over every building until I find the right one. Again, I can’t set a waypoint, so I have to take note of what’s around it. Problem is, I can’t even see where I am on the map, as there’s nothing to indicate anywhere that “YOU ARE HERE.” How the hell do you forget something that simple in a game in 2010?
I unpause from the mini-map, and am instantly lost as the surroundings look nothing like the map I just came from, so I wander around aimlessly until I stumble upon the shop by accident or give up and decide my kid doesn’t need a damn toy boat after all. Custom waypoints, a readable, easily accessible map with a “You are Here” feature are things we take for granted in most modern RPGs, but in Fable 3 they seem to be luxuries the designers couldn’t be bothered with.
Edit:
People keep telling me I missed an aspect of fast travel, where you can use the magnifying glass to travel to a specific building, and you’re planted nearby (sometimes) and are led there by the glowing trail. I just went and tried what you said and it does work. I guess since it said “Do you want to travel to Bowerstone Market” rather than “Do you want to travel to the Blacksmith’s” I didn’t know I was being led there, and the trail was now guiding me to the store rather than the current quest I had active.
Looking back, I did try this magnifying glass method when I was playing before you all brought it up, but sometimes it would plant me at the door, sometimes it would plant me far, far away, which I didn’t understand, and didn’t get that the trail had now changed to be directing me to that location. This would all be solved if they just made it so you could fast travel to any property sign, and I’m not sure what would have been so difficult about that.
Maybe I’m a moron, but if I can play through the entire game twice without realizing that mechanic was in place, I don’t think it’s very intuitive or showcased properly.
The Ridiculous Relationships
Ugh. Let’s get married. I guess.
The character interaction system in Fable is, and has always been, absolutely moronic. Far lazier than Bioware or Bethesda, Lionshead merely fills the worlds with a bunch of lookalike NPCs with no actual dialogue. Sure they dress differently in various regions, but the graphics are so bad, all their faces look like something out of a horror film. And you’re supposed to want to befriend, impress and DATE these people.
Lionshead’s solution to making human interaction intolerable was not to change anything, or make any NPC have anything meaningful to say, no, they simply give you XP for performing “expressions” now, a Sims-like form of communication that rarely involves words.
But it’s not even like these expressions correspond to the person you’re talking to. Sure, maybe I’ll seduce Mary the bartender with a few dance moves, but I’d rather not to do the same to Sam the Blacksmith. Why not pick another option? I can’t, because usually only two expression options appear onscreen at a time, and my other choice is to dance like a chicken.
At first I was going to choose some random NPC to date and marry so I could experience that aspect of the game, but after not being able to tell a 20 year old maiden from a 60 year old crone because of supremely awful character models, I gave up. Until Elise.
Elise was my girlfriend at the time I chose to spare at the beginning of the game. There was a mildly interesting subplot where I rescued her from kidnappers and made her break off her engagement. Later, I randomly found her in a bar, and the game seemed to want me to propose to her, so I did. Seeing as she’s the only unique looking female NPC in the game, it seemed like a good decision.
I took her back to our newly bought mansion for our honeymoon night where we did the nasty in one of Fable‘s typically retarded blacked out sex scenes. But when I woke up the next morning, apparently it started to burn when I peed.
I marry the girl the game more or less sets me up with, try to have a family with her, and I get an STD, even though she’s the only in-game woman I’ve slept with? You gave the female lead in your own game an STD? Seriously?
“GODDAMNIT!”
So finally, after a whole lot of itching, I did manage to pop out a child. It was actually kind of a magical moment, as I’d skipped doing so in the previous games as I heard they were simply chores. I had a little infant girl I named Ivy, and I would sing to her and be a good dad.
But what did I find when I returned from my long voyage to Aurora? My little Ivy had grown into a seven year old BLACK GIRL. Look, I’m not trying to be racist here at all, I’m merely pointing out the supreme laziness that accompanies something like this happening. Though as far as I can tell, you can only be a white hero (an issue in itself, as I’m pretty sure you get even whiter with “increased moral standing”), and the girl’s mother is most definitely white as well. Clearly rather than take the five minutes necessary to write code that factors the parents’ race in, there’s just a completely random child generator system in place that can produce a kid of any kind of appearance, regardless of pesky things like genetics. Pure laziness. I’d try for another kid to see what would happen this time, but I don’t want any more STDs. I also suspect my wife has cheated on me with a black guy.
Every so often my family makes me come back home so they can give me a present, or I can give them a present, but that’s really it. There’s mild satisfaction from having a virtual family love you, but after the initial good vibrations, it does become a chore.
The entire character interaction system in Fable is horrific. There’s no reason to want to talk to anyone, as no one ever actually has anything to say. The only time you’ll hear anything remotely interesting is during a quest, but even then, the dialogue is full of Fable’s horrible writing team that desperately tries to be funny with every line, but rarely ever is.
This is the exact opposite of say, Mass Effect, where practically every person you see has something worth hearing. Could you see Commander Shepard walking up to the Asari consort and flapping his arms like a chicken so she likes him enough to give him some meat pie? I understand it’s a different kind of game, but again this is rated “Mature” after all, though everything about the game is the farthest thing from it.
In Conclusion
There are many more things I could talk about here. I could say how my dog apparently has been kicked in the head since the last game and can’t find treasure without getting stuck on a wall for twenty minutes. I could say how the characters skate around the screen with a physics engine that thinks cobblestone is ice. I could talk about how annoying it is to not be able to load a previous save when you realize you’ve accidentally drained the lake in your back yard to make way for a mine. I could talk about how lame it is to lead a grown ass man through a dangerous cave by the hand, only our hands don’t actually touch 80% of the time due to poor programming.
I just don’t understand how you can take a game that was pretty good but then add absolutely nothing to it for the sequel, and in some instances even takes features away. I don’t understand how you could make it shorter, make combat even less balanced and somehow make the world uglier and less worth exploring. I just don’t get it.
AND STOP MAKING ME HOLD DOWN A TO OPEN DOORS.
(contact the author at paul@unrealitymag.com)
Dude, she cheated on you. That’s the only explanation.
Seriously, though, just play Fallout: New Vegas.
She wouldn’t dare!
I hear New Vegas is just more Fallout 3, much like this is just more Fable 2 without fixing anything that was shitty. Do you still have to use VATS every three seconds?
Oh good Lord, if you’re annoyed by games that go backwards instead of evolving do NOT play Fallout: New Vegas. The gameplay, graphics, sound and music are identical to Fallout 3 and the storyline, quests and setting aren’t nearly as interesting. It’s a $60 lazy retread of a game that was, essentially, Oblivion with guns and mutants. I loved Oblivion and Fallout 3, but the third time is not a charm.
So far the fall releases have been really underwhelming. Medal of Honor got wtfpwned by reviewers, New Vegas is a dull retread, Force Unleashed 2 is getting terrible reviews, Fable (as usual) fell short of its promises… Help us Assassin’s Creed you’re our only hope.
You’re an idiot Fallout New Vegas exceeds Fallout 3 in every single way. Could you get any more ignorant? You are probably the biggest dumbass on the planet if anyone is a fan of Fallout 3 then Fallout New Vegas is a must play. Damn how retarded are you seriously do you just like to bitch about things like a little girl. First off it wasn’t meant to be a whole new game, it was supposed to have the same system. Don’t look at the game like whiney little bitch look at it as a fan of the series. I would much rather have New Vegas than 3. For several reasons. Better weapons, cooler city, hardcore mode (which you probably didn’t play on cause you’re a dumb bitch) iron sights aiming so you don’t have to use VATS all the time. Way better DLC, probably the deepest most interactive conversations I have ever experienced in any video game. All of your SPECIAL stats effect something in the game. A low in Intelligence will make you completely miss the point of things (kind of like you and you’re dumb out look on things and you’re ignorant bitchy attitude) agility makes you run faster, strength helps you hold your gun more steady, charisma adds way more conversations. The game has a much larger variety of weapons and armor. An amazing variety of memorable characters. The ability to join factions and use a factions clothes as a disguise to sneak into enemy strong holds. A car more compelling story than Fallout 3 so you’re obviously a complete idiot if you thought otherwise. Every single action changes the way your story is you’re whole game could have been spent killing everyone leading to a dark ending. Believe me I know I’ve new this game so many times and every time was different this game has the highest reply value than in any other game. You can gamble and play an awesome game called caravan for hours. There are to arenas to fight in one where you fight different salves and one where you are put up against different creatures. If you have no imagination and you’re an idiot like I know are then you won’t get it but for those of you who like to role play and immerse yourself in a spectacular world this game is for you. Hunt a bighorner and pick cactus fruit and take it back to your camp cook the meat use an empty bottle to make some cactus water and enjoy your night under the stars. So yeah dumb ass go ahead and tell me this game has no changes and is just a lazy Fallout 3 remake. But I just so many reasons on why you’re an imbecile for truly believing that. And people don’t listen to one mans ignorance try it for yourself and look at with the love you showed Fallout 3. When i got it the day it came out my only issues with it were all of the bugs but at this point they’ve all been fixed. Dumb ass.
You need a life. You really, really need a life.
@Velovan, you really expect Ubisoft to make Brotherhood anything more than an expensive add-on to AC2?
Doesn’t look like their is anything that could possibly be somewhat original coming out until Bioshock Infinity & DA2 (maybe)…
Are you dumb too Dishonored Dishonored Dishonored Dishonored.
LMAO! You had me rolling after the bit about the dog finding treasure liked he’d been kicked in the head. Priceless!!!
@ Skeebo
Even if it is, I don’t particularly care (especially since I’ll Gamefly it). AC2 was, for me, pretty close to perfection. It had insanely fun gameplay and an incredibly original setting and story. It was cleverly written and improved upon the original in every possible way. The developers seem to have an idea of the few issues that need to be addressed and (hopefully) will do so in Brotherhood. However, in this instance, I would take an expansion and be happy until Assassin’s Creed 3. Especially since Brotherhood has only been in development for a year.
I’ll agree with you that Infinity and DA2 are the only truly original offerings on the horizon. I would, however, add Portal 2 to that list because Portal was fucking awesome.
What the hell is DA2 whatever it is its obviously not popular enough to get an abbreviation.
Ah… missed Portal 2. I haven’t played AC or AC2, though I’ve heard rave reviews and for the most part I like Ubisoft games, when they aren’t putting out shovelware.
Personally I’ve found Fallout: New Vegas to be much superior to Fallout 3 in terms of the setting and characters. This one was made in collaboration with the original Fallout developers so the writing is better, the quests more intriguing and I find I just care more about the people and world than I did in Fallout 3. It’s the same graphics and same interface but the stories and setting are all new, and really that’s the whole point. The companion system is much better with a real reason to actually have them now. They’ve added a reputation system on top of the Karma system where you’re neutral with everyone (even the baddies) until you do something to make them like you or hate you (and thus become enemies) meaning you’re picking sides constantly. The game can actually be played as a shooter now since they’ve added proper sight aiming instead of VATs being the only way to hit anyone. I’ve rarely use VATs as it seems I’m better at shooting than the percentages it gives me anyway. This also means you can actually snipe for real now. Definitely if you played Fallout 3 for over 100 hours and got burnt out ont it then this isn’t for you. It’s a much improved Fallout 3 in my opinion and I’m liking it a lot more.
As for AC: Brotherhood. I can’t wait. AC2 was perfect (I actually loved AC1 despite everyone’s gripes) and the new features and improvements have me really excited for this. I loved the Manor and village stuff in AC2 where you upgraded things and the city changed. The fact that they’ve expanded that to the entire city of Rome is just awesome. The multiplayer beta was a little underwhelming mostly because no one was playing it properly. I hope that isn’t the case when it actually comes out.
They really, REALLY need to ditch that shitty Oblivion engine they have been using for 5 years or whatever. It’s horribly out-dated and ugly. I hate the “zoom in to the person your talking to using a static camera angle and also time freezes all around you except for the person you’re talking to”, the feeling that I’m hovering on the ground rather than walking/running, and among many other things.
Start from scratch, Bethesda… heck, even use the UNREAL engine. It sucks playing on dated engine. Feels like I’m gaming 5 years ago.
That being said, I will still play Fallout New Vegas.
@ Skeebo
Seriously, rent AC2 or pick it up used. I passed over it at first too and then finally played it this past January and was blown away. In an industry of CoD, Halo and God of War clones, AC2 stands as a great example of what happens when a developer actually tries to do something original. It’s also a blueprint for how to take an average game and make the sequel a masterpiece.
@ Guy
I’m happy that you’re enjoying New Vegas more than Fallout 3. I’m just not feeling it this time around. Oblivion and F3 pulled me in and didn’t let go until 80 hours later. New Vegas just feels like a cheap cash-in to me. The combat isn’t that much improved. It’s still more effective to go to VATS every 5 seconds.
The setting isn’t nearly as atmospheric as bombed out D.C. was. Nevada is the most boring state in the world outside of Vegas. Why would you put a game there? And the story lacks any emotional connection. For example, you don’t get to see your character grow up. You just get planted in the middle of nowhere.
I just keep hearing more and more retarded things from you is your brain a potato? You are an idiot New Vegas is one of the best settings ever and it so doesn’t feel like a “cheap cash-in” ( especially since that oxymoron doesn’t make any sense but then again you are an idiot.) Every thing about it is better than 3 sure the main story in 3 is great but that’s all you’re a kid for like 5 min and then you’re life just flashes by. At least in New Vegas every mission is amazing and the things you do actually effect the game and how each faction looks at you. You’re just so dumb you can’t even comprehend what a good game is.
Yeah New Vegas is more of the same, but when the same is as badass as FO3 its well worth it. And there is nothing backward about it. Granted the modding weapons, creating ammunition, creating items, faction relations, etc. ARE new additions they certainly don’t make NV a new game but do add elements.
Since its release almost my entire free time has been consumed by NV. And being made by some of the FO/FO2 creators its story is more compelling for those who played FO/FO2 compared to FO3.
Paul. Yes. High five yourself.
This is really depressing, I also loved the heck out of Fable II. Good thing I read this, I was thinking of buying it.
I really hope that Black Ops isn’t as crappy as the rest of Fall’s… Man, wtf happened to 2010? The first half of the year was stock-full of amazingness, and now we’re into the season when supposedly the best games are released and we’re getting a whole bunch of crap.
Ah well. Early 2011 will bring Brink and Crysis 2. I suppose I can wait a couple extra months for those lumps of greatness.
I finished this game last night and have the EXACT SAME issues as you do; right down to my black son. This was a great read that pretty much nails down the problem with Fable III. I feel your pain brother.
This post made my day. I’m hungover at work on a Friday, and totally needed a laugh. Thanks, Paul!
Castlevania: LoS is a lot of fun once you get into it (even though it’s not a Castlevania game, but whatever), and Vanquish is truly a great game. Very unique, very polished, and very challenging.
Haha, guess you married a slut
While I agree that most of your points are valid, the game isn’t as bad as you think. Sure, the “second half” of the game was short, but I didn’t enjoy being the king at all. The decisions either left me feeling like a dick for breaking my promise, or they left me feeling stupid for getting everyone killed. I also think the new skill system is far superior to the fable 2 skill system, the fact that you can now upgrade weapons depending on how you play the game is pretty amazing. But you are completely right about the mini map and fast travel system, its simply awful, navigating around towns is like trying to find your way out of a maze especially since everything starts to look the same. And the new store system sucks, even if you can find a shop they only have like one item on display, and since you basically start with the best weapons in the game, whats the point of even spending your money.
As far as New Vegas, that game was a bigger let down than Fable 3 IMO. Sure it was made by the original company that made fallout, but that just makes things confusing to everyone who started playing with fallout 3. There is no depth because no one knows who the NCR or Ceasers Legion are. There was depth in Fallout 3 because the whole “coming out of the vault” concept meant that the new world was as new to you as it was to your character. While in New Vegas your basically expected to know whats going on, which granted most players playing will. The combat is awful, the true iron sights thing sucks and its mostly because the engine just doesnt allow for fast paced gameplay. Lastly fallout in general has one of the worst colour schemes ever, the whole state of nevada looks boring and similar, sure its post a nuclear fallout but that doesnt mean everything has to look like puke.
You know, while I liked Fable 2 as I played it, after I finished it, I hated it and sold it as soon as I could. Now, in my mind, it’s just trash and I will never touch Fable 3. The gameplay was enjoyable in Fable 2, but the story was balls. The ending was horrific pathetic. And all the annoyances you noted were in Fable 3 were present in Fable 2 as well. Stupid NPCs. Piss-poor dialogue. Tedious jobs. I think the concept for the game series is great, but the execution is just plain pitiful.
As for Fallout New Vegas, why would it be a bad thing to have more of Fallout 3? Yes, there are the funky glitches and the occasional freezes, but the glitches can help you as much as hinder you and the game auto-saves often enough that freezing isn’t too tragic. I think I enjoy the Mojave Wasteland more than the Capital Wasteland, just because it didn’t feel so dirty and depressing everywhere. But, as one review pointed out, there doesn’t seem to be as much going on in the Mojave Wasteland. But it IS a desert, so what do you expect, I guess. The storyline for New Vegas is more interesting too and the locations seem, on the whole, more enjoyable to visit. Plus, the companion setup is much better and you can get Boone, who’s the shiz. Actually, no, cuz he would snipe shiz in the head before you can even spot it.
I am sorry, but I don’t see your point…you sound like a fan boy who got over hyped and let down. Every game has its downsides, especially games the size of Fable. Name a perfect game, I can write a 3000 word essay on whats wrong with it… Point being Fable 3 brings so much to the table and you’re worried with holding A to open doors, instead of noticing all the innovation; the Aurora level is enough proof of that. It is probably the best RPG this year… clearly you don’t play enough video games to know what an actual embarrassment looks like 🙂
P.S. Fable 3 is a bloody long game I am currently around 20+ hours in and yes you can save up the 6.5 mil. if you actually take your time and not speed run through the game 🙂
Oh boy. I’ll start by saying that New Vegas really is more of the same. That I cannot refute.
And I have enjoyed every minute of the game for it.
Now, the NCR and Caesars Legion are not that alien or unfamiliar, since the NPC’s in New Vegas BOMBARD you with info on the major factions.
I never knew of these factions before this game, but now info about them feels second nature.
MrDudeMan, it sounds a bit like you haven’t really played the game all that much. I know that probably isn’t true, but come on.
The broad statements that are completely disconnected from the game and your own argument (from the factions, the iron sights “sucking” because the engine isn’t designed for it, to the circular logic of the storyline expecting players to know whats going on, but the majority of players already knowing beforehand anyways[?]) make it sound like you’ve just been watching gameplay vids on Youtube.
Now, this game is most definitely not perfect.
I must agree that NV looks like shit for the most part. And the human NPC’s look kinda clunky. Not just clunky, but very inconsistent with the rest of NPC characters that look excellent. And the sporadic freeze ups. Oh, those getting annoying, even if they are uncommon.
If you were to remove those 3 issues, this game would be perfect.
I’ve played it, haven’t beaten it yet as I went to fable 3, but Im on the final part of the main story. The iron sights really don’t work in my experience, though it could be because I just suck at it. If they’re too far away I miss, and if they’re charging forward they move too fast to hit. Also I didn’t spend a lot of my time talking to NPC’s, and the only thing I knew about Caesar’s Legion before googling them was they they were assholes who kept trying to kill me because I rescued the powder gangers.
I agree with everything in this post. Such a let-down. I loved the first Fable and really liked the second, this is just bad.
Couldn’t disagree with this drivel more
I have to agree completely with you. (Let me tell you all now, I’m definitely in the let down fan boy category, so don’t even bother telling me.)
Fable II was a let down from the first. I’m sure even if I hadn’t played The Lost Chapters version, I’d still have been let down (…WAS there a non-The Lost Chapters version?). The graphics were wonky and it was exceedingly glitchy. I fell through the world four times in just the first hour of game play. As for the wonky graphics, if you ever got your character fat and put on the Highwayman Coat and looked at your character’s thighs, you know what I mean. Most importantly, it lost most of the epic scope. And the fast travel system. Eeugh. The “your spouse is 137 miles away and is about to start hating you” bit was annoying, especially when you traveled those 137 miles and “Your wife/husband has divorced you.” pops up. Your spouse knows your a Hero, so why the hell did they get so worked up when you disappeared for a reasonable amount of time on Hero standards?
Fable III was an utter joke. I read somewhere that Peter Whatshisname loathed HUDs and the like, so he began getting rid of them starting with the mini-map-to-sparkly-breadcrumb-trail in Fable II. I applaud his sense of innovation and progression with doing away with them in their entirety (except for the fact that, ya know, the Sanctuary is just a giant start menu that takes longer to navigate), and I have to say it could have been the alternative to start menus in the future (think like the 3D revolution in movies) if only it had been a little more polished.
Next, and again the most important thing, Fable III is only a fraction as epic as Fable II, which wasn’t very epic at all. I’m sure it has something to do with the industrial revolution. Fable III immediately became less about the adventure aspect and more about saving the disenfranchised citizens of Bowerstone first from Logan and second from the darkness that was already plaguing Aurora. I’m not sure what throwing away 400k gold did to stave off the darkness since there are almost no soldiers in Aurora. Maybe the darkness just wanted to dim the gleam of gold coins? Bah, plotholes.
Unrelated, but where did that one snowy place in the far north of Fable I go? It completely disappeared, and that was my favorite place in all of Fable I. Minus the Arena, of course, but the Arena doesn’t count because you only got to go there once.
Anyway, the map. URGH. Shitty in every regard. “Fast travel! …Okay, now where the fuck am I?” It gets WORSE if you stumble across some glitch where you can’t fast travel except via quests.
And there’s the Road to Rule. Oh, who needs individual Will, Skill, and Strength experience and General experience when you can just make the game half-assedly and throw in those crappy guild seals? But I forgot where I was going with this, so moving along to:
The absolute worst change of all–the inability to do what you want when you want. You’re at the mercy of when your onscreen D-Pad pops up all because the Peter McDeveloper guy doesn’t like HUDs and menu screens. Sure, it has good timing for when you’re about to die a painful death and lose the bragging rights of that one achievement whose name escapes me, but if I want to burn through all my health potions in the middle of town because I like watching the effect caused by it or I don’t want to eat all my pies at the stall to get fat, then let me damn it! It’s nothing big, but it’s the thought of not having that freedom.
I feel better.
The game pauses time between ruling days so you can do what the hell you want for as long as you want to. For example I’m on the weight of the world quest atm and I’m leaving it uncompleted. I have as long as I need to make the cash. The big problem there though is that it doesn’t tell you or even hint at this. I only found out becuase in a panic and a ‘Oh shit I’m going to have to restart the game’ moment I checked the interwebs.
The Mini Map is a big issue for me and im glad I purchased the strategy guide. They seem to have left very basic aspects out of the UI for example an inventory that makes sense and wth is with the shops that sell one item?
I have a problem with the npc’s in that the only vaguely attractive guy was an evil git who verbally abused his wife and then promptly dissapeared out of the game. My friends and I enjoy the humour though perhaps its because we are British.
I’ve been playing for less than a day and im on the countdown bit, that’s a bit crazy/ dissapointing for me but Walter did warn me that I should get things done before Aurora but alas… I wanted the Final Fantasy esque wizard outfit. On that note anyone notice the merc outfit is curiously Fallout Leather Jacket Armour- like o,o
100+ hours into Fallout Vegas though and I prefer it vastly to Fable 3 so far. You seem to be able to boost to the end of RPG’s these days if you like. You have to adamantly make the effort to avoid the main quest chain to enjoy the side content. It’s kind of a wierd trend.
I enjoyed Fable 3, at first. I thought it was going a little fast, and everything was predictable, but, I was looking forward to all of the things Lionhead promised would happen when I became king. Of course, when I became king, I had five days to make choices. I beat the game within five hours, and that included the time I took for food breaks, to walk around the game’s world, and text.
I remember over-throwing my brother, sparing him, and thinking how odd it was that I’d become king so quickly. Realizing that I had another year of game time, I figured I’d have at least another three or so hours to make money, and do the best I could. Every chance I had (after court), I’d go out, buy a few new properties, and work as a pie maker. I was making good money daily, and I figured I could keep promises. I had to give up a few things, causing people to boo me in the streets, call me a dick, and tell me to leave the country, but for the most part, I tried my hardest. I checked the day on the 120th day, and, although time was passing quickly, I figured I’d have a few more options for a half hour or so. HOWEVER, Lionhead was laughing in the background, stating, “You would think so, but you’d be wrong.” Thus, I was forced into the battle with the darkness. I would have been worried, but, I didn’t need health potions, it’s IMPOSSIBLE to die in the game (given the whole revived upon death every time situation), armor doesn’t exist in this game, and my weapons were top notch. Also, I was shooting flaming swords.
During the final battle, I barrel-rolled, shot my rifle, paralyzed you-know-who, and attacked when I had the chance. I was never even presented with the option to restore my health. The sand demons were stronger than the final boss.
After beating the game, I had to wonder around for a while due to everyone being murdered. A few hours later, everyone came back.
I’ve finished all of the side quests.
I have nothing left to do in a game I spent $80 on.
I would play it over, but the replay value is shit. I already know what’s going to happen with everything.
My children are ungrateful, my wife gave me an STD, I can’t seem to find a “repair all” option for my multiple houses in many cities, there are only about eight reasonable expressions for talking to people (unless one is so inclined to scare/bully), none of the towns people say anything interesting, I hate going to the sanctuary instead of having a simple menu, I’d enjoy seeing my health bar instead of guessing, I would like more spells, I would have liked more clothing options (the only clothes I wore were the blue, starter prince clothes, I would have liked a reason to continue playing the game, long past the finished missions.
You’re wrong about one thing, though. If you go over a building with your magnifying class, and “fast travel”, you’ll end up right by the building. I always do that.
Hi i bought this game 1day ago and i agree with everything that you said the first half of the game is good but the New side to fable 3 the ruling part is way to short and the end of the game is very poor after the ending you cant even rule albion and if your good everyone is dead anyway and there is nothing to do apart from some crap little side quests big let down…… and yeh i married elisa to and somehow had a black kid when were both white plus hopefully there will be an update to make the game more enjoyable after the ending.
I beat the game, and enjoyed it to a point but what pisses me off is the fact that you can barely do anything when it comes to ruling the kingdom. But the one thing that pisses me off the most is why the hell do my wings hide? Unless I chose the “ultimate evil” expression when I’m interacting with something. That’s stupid. I have looked the almost the exact same all the way through the game.
SO my husband and I were very excited for this game to drop (well me more so then him, I was obsessed with my Fable 2 character) but alas we soon found out that our anticipation was for naught. I have to agree with all the things you wrote; from the wonky, random camera zooms to the inane villagers to the Sanctuary. I took an extra day off workm in fact, to marvel at the shiny new graphics and to see what new uber weapons may have been created. there are no such things in this installment. The story line was shaping up to be intresting and then all of a sudden I was the Queen of albion with almost no effort. I havent finished the game yet (work all weekend) but my husband says there much to be desired. I too hate holding A to open a door. boo.
My fiance and I had a black baby too. lmao
when you choose a location on the map you can go to where you want inside a town, if you hover over a place with your magnifying glass till its enlarged then do a fast travel it takes you right to it.
Thanks for this review – I had already decided not to purchase Fable 3 as I expected it’d be exactly like this: dissapointing.
Molyneux is an absolute arse and always fails to deliver.
RPGs, these days, with the technology we have on offer – should be EPIC.
I remember playing Fable 2, getting my big house at the end and thinking sweet. Now what? Now nothing.
Its like most RPGs – End-game SUCKS. There is nothing interesting to do and your awesome weapon is for nothing, your mansion is for nothing. Switch off, stick the game under your bed.
Can’t say I’m dissapointed but I’d have liked Molyneux to come through for us, for once.
FYI you can leave a waypoint on a shop. Simply highlight the shop and press the fast travel. The guide trail will now lead you to the store/house etc.
Molyneux has never come through for anybody, ever. Just saying.
You’re wrong about one thing, you can set a custom waypoint to a shop in a city. I do it all the time, I highlight the shop with the magnifying glass and them press fast travel and your golden trail will lead you right to the shop.
I wish I could make my character black but alas I am a minority and minority doesn’t rule, the majority does! Or so you think.
I rarely pass comment on these stories but this one, I have to. You could not be more right. It’s an awful game. I enjoyed Fable 2 and couldn’t wait for 3. It was my biggest let-down in gaming history. It’s illogical, irrational and annoying. The people who do speak to you talk slowly, move slowly and can’t fight; as a result I just want to tell them where to go and get on with the quest. In fact, If I could just get on with the quest instead of walking behind a slow fat bearded man who was scared but still waddled along at a painfully slow pace, I would have completed the game in 4 hours instead of 5. I feel completely robbed. Why did they take weapons out? why did they take augments out? Why did they reduce the amount of clothes? Why have I got to stop and press A when I want to talk to someone, when in the old game I could simply highlight them and talk away. The new spell system is pointless, I stand there, hold down B and wipe out all of the (also reduced in variety) enemies around me. The game is arduous, uninteresting, slow paced and it’s over before you know it. When I watched the video previews of the game I remember seeing that it was possible, when you were king, to tax different areas different amounts, depending on how evil you want to be…. Complete rubbish. You get one chance to decide on taxation policy and that seems to have little effect. Even when I completed the game and 4million or so of Albion people were wiped out, nothing changed. I saw a dead woman on a bridge and a few more free seats in the pub, which like you I couldn’t find because of the stupid map. To sum it up in one word – Lazy. It was such a shame, they could have just given fable 2 a new story line, added in a few new features and I would have been more than happy. They have removed so much content and replaced it with nothing. Waste of money, it really was.
My friend their was a nail and you hit it on the head and just when I thought it wasn’t perfect enough, in your “Conclusion”, you emphasised even more the absolute and truly annoying factors about the game and it’s disappointment for what is and was to be a whimsical and fun experience, into a truly sad and unequivocal let down.
Fable 3 is the best game i have ever played, gave me that unique Zelda OOT feeling i had lost for years
So, this article is an embarrassment to video game reviews
2,800 words that explain why i passed on fabel3, it’s devolved into childishness. when games like fallout3, mass effect, dragon age origins and oblivion had moved the rpg genre into more epic and mature gaming, fable3 appears to be focusing on making the series more kid-friendly.
peter mediocre may be a spokesperson for the industry, his games may sell well, but fable4 needs to have decent battles, epic story and more interesting npcs… and less family building and baking pies.
@meaticus
This is thing, I would forgive a lot of this ridiculous simplification crap if this really WAS trying to be a game for children, but because of a few instances of dirty humor, this is a Mature rated game, and mature gamers don’t want a control scheme that’s “press B to win always.”
how much is anyone willing to bet that alot of DLC will be coming out for the secong “half” of the game.
and whats with the going on a long trip to a distand land again?
thats 3 times in 3 games
first was that snowy place in fable
then the spire in fable 2
and aurora in fable 3.
and its getting more underwhelming every time they do it.
About the fast travel controls. I think you missed this, OR this part was glitched for you.
For fast travel, when on the map, zoomed in to a particular city, I can “highlight” a building or quest by mousing over it with the magnifying glass, and when I press x-fast travel while the object is highlighted I’m taken just steps away from the place, with a golden trail leading me the rest of the way.
I believe it uses buildings you can purchase as well as Demon Doors as the initial locators.
@fabgeekling
Yeah, I just made an edit in the post about this. It works, but it still is pretty glitchy, and non-intuitive.
I completely agree with everything you have said. I beat the game in about 6 hours. I tried to take things slowly and get the most out of it. The enemies are so easy to beat, there is very little challenge.
I used to like gambling while waiting for the shops to open, no more of that :(.
Overall I’m very disappointed with this game. I was looking forward to it for months before it was released. Took the day off work to buy it on the 26th… What a waste.
But wait, heres a $20 DLC that adds another hour to the game, gee thanks Lionhead.
I feel that this is a bad review. Not even a review, really, just a childish rant. It sounds like you’re frustrated from failing the game and you’ve decided to bitch about the whole game and say it was bad because you didn’t get the best ending the first time you played through it.
All you’re accomplishing is to diminish my respect for you as a reviewer.
I really loath AND admire Peter Mol.
I LOATH him because he makes OUTRAGEOUS promises game after game, and people get excited about what’s to come and buy lionhead games.
I ADMIRE him because he makes OUTRAGEOUS promises game after game, and people get excited about what’s to come and buy lionhead games.
Lionhead is THE MOST overrated game studio by far!!
I would challenge anyone at that studio to come forward and defend their “choices” with this game
As gamers we should DEMAND that studios be accountable in some way for charging money for absolute garbage!!
velovan, don’t put your faith in assasin’s creed. You’ll only get hurt.
Peter Molyneux isa a liar!!! Always was!!!
Seriously, for a real RPG this generation, play New Vegas. It has better writing, better mechanics (the guns have real iron sights and you don’t have to use Vats, armor and ammo types matter, etc etc,) and a well planned world.
It is mind-blowing that people are saying Fallout 3 had a great story, it was pretty crappy. New Vegas isn’t a masterpiece and is still fairly linear, but it doesn’t hold your hand the entire way through, you kind of have to figure out what to do, and the characters aren’t as flat and forgettable as in 3. Like, the writing is light-years ahead.
Anyway, calling it a step backward like Velovan did, is mind blowing. The only thing that sucks is that Obsidian were forced to use Gamebryo.
Fable 3, like most RROD – Box 360 games, is way overrated. If you want to play GOOD games for REAL gamers then you need to buy a PS3. PS3 has real games such as the 2009 GOTY Uncharted 2: Among Thieves while all the 360 has are children’s games like Kinectimals and Halo which have crap online, crap graphics and a crap story. Halo 3: ODST got laughed out of the building when it got put up against Uncharted 2 for GOTY, want to know why? Because gay games like Halo are low – quality pieces of trash that aren’t worth a damn to a real gamer. REAL gamers want REAL games, which is why Uncharted 2 blitzed gay games like Halo in the race for GOTY 2009.
So, what I can infer:
1) You liked Fable 2 better than the first? Mistake.
2) It seems you just rushed through the story, which defeats the point of the game, really.
3) You complain that the combat is too easy, and that’s true, but apparently the only way you fought was spamming magic and guns because you couldn’t properly use a sword.
4) Again, you say the game is too easy, but the entire Navigation section was you complaining about how the game wasn’t holding your hand every step of the way.
5) So you don’t like Fable brand humour. Get over it. It was ever present in Fable 2, and you liked it. The tone was much more serious in the original Fable, and you liked it less than 2. Make up your mind.
With that, I leave you. I’ll be happy to defend my refutations in continued debate, should you extend an offer.
PS: Quit whining.
Not a serious review.
Not even a serious article.
Just a list of rants, some objective, some just excuses to throw shit.
Many aspects you talk about are just aspects of how Fable is tought not defects or things to be “embarassed”.
To publish a tipical trollage post as an article is the only embarassing thing I can see here.
OK OK OK… we get that you can fast travel people….. but the rest of the review was spot on. The game has been thrown together and more money has been spent on the advertising than the programming. This is the most ridiculous waste of £60 that i have EVER seen. They have taken out lots of the good things from Fable 2 and replaced them with crap. I am a HUGE Fable and Fable 2 fan and i still have them and play them… however on the first day of playing 3 i was yawning and ready to put Dead rising 2 back in… I dont like the map system that has no way of seeing where you are, i dont like the shops that sell 1 item and thats if you are lucky, i dont like the fact that the pre game App doesnt work right even though any mug off the street can design and sell an app that works right every time. I could go on but whats the point? for the people that like the game…. good for you. for the people who have any kind of standards when it comes to gaming then i know you will agree. I know there is a risk of over hyping a game that then turns out to be average but this is not even average. Its childish but has parts that i wont let my children see due to the adult nature of it. what exactly is the target audience?
Problems with rant.
1.You can set a custom way point to a store or specific area just zoom in on the map and press X on the spot you want to go.
2.You only hold down A to open doors if it’s a quest area due to it needing some extra time to load and confirm.
3.It seems like you rushed the game just to get to the part where your king. There is so much more you can do beforehand that will make the game more enjoyable.
4. You should be creative with the battle system. You know how to flourish like in fable 2? Use that more often your weapon changes with the more assassination and flourish moves you do. I could go over all the nice features but I do agree with some of the bad ones you put up there.
5. (This is the exact opposite of say, Mass Effect, where practically every person you see has something worth hearing. Could you see Commander Shepard walking up to the Asari consort and flapping his arms like a chicken so she likes him enough to give him some meat pie? I understand it’s a different kind of game, but again this is rated “Mature” after all, though everything about the game is the farthest thing from it.) Did you see the quest where the child died? 0.o Noted that was my DLC quest but still. lol. There are some pretty raunchy things in this game.
What I agree about the rant.
1.If it’s not for quests the dog is pretty useless but a nice gimmick none the less. I have yet to see the dog chase a rabbit though that’s more because I did not pay attention to the dog and stuck to battling. :/
2.The choice you make at the beginning is tough…unless your an @$$ of course. I find more people tend to play the good character in fable games…I play both. It’s more interesting that way. I also make a Grey area (Neutral) character for fun.
3.Genetics…I just have to say….yeah…that needs to be fixed.
Conclusion:
Overall I disagree with what you had to say. It’s definitely not game of the year but it’s not the embarrassment to gaming… there are much more terrible disappointments out there…. like Pokemon’s repeated storyline. XD
Feel free to email me if you wish to counter my rebuttal.
dude, i was really disappointed with fable 3. i fell in love with fable 2 and was so pumped for the sequel. everything this guys says is true. fuck this game. every sequel coming out is just a modified rehash of whatever sold last time. no one wants to take a risk. is just seems like the game industry is hitting a big slump. i wasnt blown away by AC2 either. it was the same shit, just in new towns. i like the story though
Dude your 100% right about everything but you forgot one really bad thing… when your low on cash and would like to sell somthing (like ALL RPG games) you cant, well as freely as you should be able to. You have to hunt down that shop that buys all your stuff but never sells anything ( say… somthing your didnt mean to sell )
for some reason the shop keeper in bower stone market wouldnt buy my pointless gems. i went to bright wall where he only had 5000G to offer. so i went to anora and low n’ behold for what ever reason they didnt have a shop keeper. at this point i felt so f’ed off i sold afew houses to get what i wanted. i went back to bower stone and he wanted to buy my crap again… thank you so much ( i killed everyone after that) oh and the weapons suck hairy cat nipples
you sir (Paul?) are a lad. i agree with everything you said.. it wouldn’t have taken a genius to make this game infinitely better
i got to Elise before she even started humping the orphanage guy, first time pregnant with a little boy. no STDs from her at all.
Keeping her happiness up even if you marry her AFTER you’re king (you get a quest if you saved her from a certain crook running around blackmailing) is a nightmare. I can’t give her any of the jewels or items i have aquired.
I merely kiss, dance or for some odd reason pat a cake, then back to kiss. No matter how many times you do this, the little arrow doesn’t go up.
OOoh the glowing trail bug, what i thought was funny was the supreme lazyness in even the background loading screens.
For some reason Major Swift’s wanted poster shows he’s Captain Swift… he’s obviously been lying to every character in the game about his rank ! madness !
i won’t talk about the graphical glitches, the hand holding.. the utter sprew of the co-op feature (which is the only way to open some of the demon doors). Surprised this took so long to come out… it’s what Fable 2 should have been (Fable 2 is what Fable 1 should have been).
Lazy, unforgiving, and completely short.. you have no real need to go exploring (unless you want more crappy stuff like you’re 9th “ruby” or some shitty costume/tattoo part).
You don’t need to upgrade everything, lets face it just hold down the magic button, rinse and repeat.. a 2 year old could complete the game just on combat.
disapointing, overall. But still worth playing… just for the voice acting and mad jokes (the dungeon master guys in “the game” for example)
I am not the best player of games in general so when I can beat a game in a weekend you know it was way to easy.. They made the game play so simple it was not even fun for me to say I finished the game
And really as a king I got tired of being nothing more then an errand boy. I would have like to have more skill based quests then just running packages and letter to everyone.
Dear lionhead… ARGGGGHHHH!!!! WTF. I was evil and the ending gave me praise…praise. I have no wings unless I flourish. And as usual…no last boss fight. That wasnt a boss. That was a 10 sec spam. I miss jack of blades and everythig fable 1 did. Vegas was also terrible…fallout 3.1. I just given up on xbox ever having a breakthrough, might go and play on a ds or a wii. Play some retro games for awhile. Until the world wakes up and stops ass fucking improvements, and creates originality.
wow your stupid the game is relly worng i dont think you actully beat it and there is probly gonna be more dlc and you dont choose to be a good or evil she tells you that you can be good or evil also fable 2 was the worst fable1 and 3 are the two best
Boo Hooo who cares everyone buys my game!
I completely agree with this. Another thing that pissed me off was the fact that everyone was saying this game takes 30-40 hours to beat, yet I did it in about 11 while doing a ton of side quests, getting married 5 times, having 4 or so children, and buying every shop I possibly could in the game…
I also figured I would gather some gold to fill the treasury near the day of the attack, but since the game jumps 120 days randomly at the end, I failed, killing over 5 million people. Now all the shops are empty and the towns are deserted with nothing really left to do.
Multiplayer still sucks BTW, EVERY time I try to join a random game, I get the message “The Co-Op game is already full.” I want my 60 bucks and my 11 hours back.
P.S.
I hated the new “menu” system… It took me 10 times longer to do anything because you always have to run, bring back the menus please.
ha, so youre basically POd because you lost the game… even though you beat it, you failed. you tried to be good and lost because you didnt have enough money to be good. i was good and had no problem whatsoever getting the money, infact i had about 5 million personal cash when i became king, and 20 million when i fought the darkness.
did you find all 30 rare books, all 55 keys, all the gnomes, all the flowers, get chesty’s house, find the big blue box studios easter egg, the worshipping hobbe easter egg,and open all the demon doors? i highly doubt it. It took me 32 hours to do all of this without a guide and i am very pleased with the collectors edition i purchased and highly reccommend the game.
you do in fact travel directly where you want with the magnifying glass, you have to hover over the building you want, the building gets a bit bigger, hit X, then bam youre right infront of it. fail for not figuring that out.
you complain about combat being too easy, and yet you come right out and say that melee is useless because it takes more effort.
i dont know why you complained about the plot, the whole marketing of the game was to become king, and after you become king there is still the main enemy of the entire game which was never mentioned in any ad or preview. it was very interesting to find out why your brother was evil, and it turned out he wasnt so evil after all.
now you are mad because youre wife gave you an std? it happens in real life too. i dont know if you caught it or not (assuming you married elise) but she was engaged before you rescued her. people have sex before marriage, thats what they do. elise thought you dissapeared so she tried to move on, what better way than to have sex with someone else?
i hate to break it to you but this isnt a dating simulator or fighting game, this game is well rounded in many genres and it does a really good job of it.
while i agree there are some minor annoyances like having to hold down A, but it gets you more involved and makes it feel like an rpg. for me the dog was annoying while barking so much, but thats what dogs do. the slow motion scenes do get annoying, but only if you are trying to rush through everything by just spamming y or b, if you are actually fighting with melee it is quite fun.
TLDR; i think your experience was soiled by failing to complete the game being good. peter molyneux said in an interview completing the game by keeping all wishes and getting 6.5 million would be hard. you really should replay the game as evil or try again to be good, do what i did and stop questing as soon as you become king and go find all the hidden goodies like i did before you start your 1 year countdown. nobody is stopping you form doing what you want when you are supposed to walk to the throne to give a decision 😛 you are the king, of course they will wait for you.
take your time and enjoy it, there are some really cool quests, the quests you get on the way to getting all 30 rare books were my favorite. i am replaying the game as evil right now, then as good. i always do my first playthough as me, making the decisions i would make if in that situation. ill play through evil using only magic, and good as only guns. i used all three my first run through.
ps: you know the in game quest being the nerds game piece was epic, and the note from arthur upstairs that says they are all nerds without girlfriends
I agree with you on many of the game’s issues, you make several valid(if hyperbolic) points. But dude, please proof read. Or have someone else do it for you. Just sayin’.
I’m only a few hours into F3 so far but – I’m shocked. They’ve improved – the voice acting (obviously), the graphics (a bit) and the size (bigger sandbox – mostly empty though).
Other than that they seem to have spent most of the intervening time between F2 and F3 breaking things that worked – the combat system is worse, personal interaction is worse, the ‘sanctuary’ is the most tedious menu system I’ve ever used. The lags and blackouts when using the touch system mean that I now avoid interacting with people as best I can.
What’s worse, given the way the game was promoted, is that (like Fable 2) there are very few choices. “Press A to Accept” is not a choice. After F2 I wanted to kill Theresa – not an option, in fact she’s your ‘friend’ and mentor again, like it or not. So it’s not even an RPG really – I guess you are playing a role, but in the way an actor in a play does. The only really significant choices you get to make, in the first half anyway, are which weapons to use.
I wen to the store and decided to rent Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2 instead of Fable 3 because Fable 2 was barely descirnable from Fable 1 and anything that had changed had simply gotten worse so I thought the same thing would happen to 3. Sadly the same could be said for TFU2. In fact The Force Unleashed 2 is even worse than the first game. Don’t even rent it, it’s not worth it.
Dude this game is amazing. Yes combat could be more difficult. But other than that you are just being way too analytical of the game. Take a chill pill go have a in game orgy and enjoy it for what it is.
Wow.. And to think that I spent $174 getting the LE, Collector’s guide, and Collector’s wireless controller… Then having to deal with the problems caused by downloading the DLC’s and trying to play with them offline. I completely agree that the end of Fable 3 was horrible!!! All of this time, the previews for this game said that we’d be making the decisions as king whether to rule as good or evil, and it literally takes less than an hour to complete the game after you become king. What a waste of money! I feel ashamed of myself now!
Console gaming needs a hero
I seem to have had very similar problems. As always, good playthrough first and yet the first thing I had to do was make an immoral choice to keep a main character in the game. At the end of the game, I’m left with an empty Albion and an area on my map which I can’t get to?
In Fable 2, I raced through the main questline and when I went back to the side quests at the end, I was in awe of how in depth they were. Fable 3, on the other hand, has two unique side quests and the rest are all pretty much the same.
As for the mysterious magical island that I cannot yet go to, I have done the main quests and all of the sides quests (despite the immoral ones) and yet I have this area of the map that I cannot access? I asked a friend about this who told me I should be “exploring more”. Firstly, why shove a new fast travel system in my face at the start of the game and then punish me for using it? Don’t question my reasons for not running around with my brain dead dog looking for treasure and money when you give me the best items in the game at the very start and my choices are either “I don’t need any money” or “Holy Shit, I need 8.5 million gold if I want to save my people and keep my promises”, and that sum isn’t to be found under a bit of dirt in the woods believe me.
Secondly, Fable 2 gave you a reason to explore… the quest descriptions were left mysterious and when you went to do them, you felt that mystery. I thought “The Game” in Fable 3 and the quest with the play were brilliant. But remember Fable 2? With the ghost pirate town, and the glow-guy’s tower and that strange book quest? They were awesome. But it seems side quests now are either “Sure, I’ll deliver this package for you my new friend” or “Yes, you can run behind my flailing arm for a bit if you fancy it.”
A very bad, inaccurate review in all parts. Good job!
I would have to agree with everything you said, except perhaps the bit about the writing. If there’s one thing that has kept me mesmerised through out the Fable games, it’s the writing and voice acting (especially in the quest, ‘The Game’ which had me crying with laughter).
I was looking forward to F3 for a long time and I played it for a day straight (by the end of it I was bleeding from the eyes – does anyone else’s game seem to be blurry?). I was mildly happy with it too until I got to the Queen part. I started to feel like I was being punished for being morally good, with the choice of either turning a building into a orphanage (that’ll be $4000000000 please.) or a brothel – what’s with that? Why do I have to be a complete dick to save everyone’s life?
Also, why are all the NPC’s more individual and better looking than my character? That’s just unfair.
I loved fable it was a great game and when i got fable 2 i thought it was going to be great and i was disappointed, and forget about fable 3. I agree with most of the points you make. I only bought the game because of the love I had for the first one. I would have to believe that there are other people that feel the same. After the real reviews fable 3 has gotten and the real lack of game play I strongly feel there will not be a fable 4. I am not a die hard gamer but i do love my games. After playing fable 3 i think i will stick to the games Im good at and like the most my racing and call of duty like games.
and to add to my last post. im not to sure that i like the fact that all the old towns are gone. Fairfax is no more what about oakvale at least in the second one it was there not completely gone. 2 somewhat tied into one and i dont see that in the third one at all.
I agree with a lot of your points. However, if you couldn’t have the foresight to save money near the beginning of your reign until you had 6.5 million in the treasury that’s your problem, mate. In my first playthrough I made sure I had at least 7.5 million in the treasury before I went past 336 days left. Then when I lost money to declaring edicts I would put more money in the treasury.
Do you always wait until the last minute to do things?
Hard to know which opinion is correct, then again, I guess it’s a matter of taste.
On one hand, the author of the original hate piece seemed to have some valid gripes, on the other hand, most of the comments supporting this opinion seem to be from somewhat mentally challenged people.
Then you have the comments of people who say it was a good game and the author didn’t really go into it with the right attitude (more or less), and their arguments seem to be intelligent enough.
Very tough call without playing the game, I guess.
Personally, I never saw what all the fuss was about in the Fable series. I couldn’t finish Fable 2 because it just bored me. The first Fable was decent enough, but I didn’t own an original Xbox and only got to play it over my friend’s house. This Fable I won’t even give a shot, but I bought it for my wife since she absolutely loves these games, for some reason.
However, I noticed you said that you “died” once. Something you didn’t bring up about “dieing” is that you don’t die. There aren’t even any consequences do “dieing.” When you “die” you simply get knocked out, but then get right back up. What the hell kind of game is this? Fable 2 showed at least showed scars and made you “ugly” in the game and to its characters, but this game doesn’t even do that. What gives? Why are Nintendo games like Zelda becoming “too easy and casual” to gamers yet Fable is fine with what it’s doing??? I’ll never understand the Nintendo hatred.
I don’t really understand how any of these complaints are different than Fable II other than the disappointing ending. I’d like to know what wasn’t disappointing about the final boss of Fable II being defeated by holding down the A Button. Oh, and then you got to make a meaningless choice of a million dollars (if you were evil, and if you were evil you had fuckloads of dollars), restoring the lives of everyone who died (which does nothing, but they build you a statue, but you don’t get your dog back which means you can’t actually do the remaining sidequests), or getting your dog and family back and no one is upset that you’ve done this.
Fable II was as much of a disappointment as Fable III, and you still claimed that you played through III twice. If the game is so horrible, why would you ever play it twice? Wouldn’t you just trade it back in for something you prefer? There’s got to be something that makes you turn the game back on.
I’ll confess, I’m not far through Fable III. The game seems to want me to get to the King business at breakneck speed. I’m taking my sweet time. But everything you’ve complained about, other than the King phase, is something I thought was dumb about Fable II. And you loved Fable II.
Maybe you’re just another victim of Peter Molyneaux’s unwavering optimism about his games? He tends to say things that make you think you’re going to play the greatest thing ever. Who knows?
This is my first ever response thing so bare with me.
I agree and disagree with you.
I personally am a huge rpg fan, and after the first Fable experience, i like obviously you, got hooked. Fable 2 was a huge step up from 1, agreed, but this was years later and at another level of game design. If fable 1 were done during modern days it would be far more explosive. I, like you rushed through, as i usually do, the first time so i can see the plot. But i always encourage any others who ask to do otherwise, because like you said there isnt much to do afterwards. This is the same for any game. (please correct me if you can think of one). Oblivion has the guilds true.. but fallout had shite. Im yet to play vegas but fallout was kind of a big step down from oblivion in regards to graphics, customisation and storyline.
anyways back to fable3. Once again molyneux over-hyped his game, which if you’re a creative director wanting to make the money he makes, you generally do. however ithink fable three was less talked up than its former. In regards to f2 he said “if it looks like you can go there you can” obviously that was verbal turd, considering its a sandbox layout game. fable 3 the only think i can think he talked up was the weapon morphing and the kingship role.
with the morphing, if you havent worked out, its kind of random. the first chest will always give yoru blade runes and the second will change depending on your allignment. but gradually as you get though the game you will be able to save before you open the chest and re-load to get the stuff you like. which kind of annoyed me. but before knowing this i was impressed. i was hoping for more of a gradual change the more i killed hollow men or peasants etc.
the kingly or queenly role was , agreed shite. however dont tell me you were sitting there stresssing over the decisions you had to make, which molyneux (the cock) promised.
but what ive come to realise from rpg games is that its really not about rushing the the questline, cos you’ll always be dissapointed. take time to go through each cave and crevass to see what you find. the land in fable three was much bigger than 2 and incomparable to one.
it seems to me like you treated combat like you did with the storyline, just wanted to get to the end. you said yourself you just used magic and got angry cos it was too easy, then you said you didnt like melee cos it was too hard. you could have challenged yourself with melee a bit more or you could have comprimised and used a variety. the slow motion was awesome with melee and ranged, and the random finish-move type things were epic (kicking a hobbe in the air then hand-cannoning him).
i also made enough money being good with no civilian casualties.
the sanctuary, i think was a great touch. I have never seen it done before and i think it worked well. john cleese as your butler was rad too.
but yes some things were shit. like i said my rush through was a let down, as i expected, with the main quest line being quite simple and very ‘runner’ typed. and with my first play through i didnt continue with the finished game cos i couldnt think of what to do. probs get all the hidden goodies etc. but did you expect your 365 days to go… be like.. 365 times you sleep.. or return home… a years a long time to fill in for a game designer, which is why fable always has time gaps, as its a time based game. fable 2’s time thing was ROOTED. for some bloody reason it would take me 24 hours to get the the other part of bowestone… which i was blatantly staring at right in front of me.. did i stop between houses cos i was tired?… thinking “holy shit im unfit, i think i’ll stop here make camp and continue on tomorrow”
WHERE THE DAMN HELL ARSE PISS DID MY ARENA GO?!?!
your little encounter at reavers ball was what i took for the attempt at an arena, where i being a gunner just stood at each door firing at waves of rabble with my gun that looks like somethign out of van helsing. (the types of weapons you can make if you figure out how it works can be so damn cool.)
the clothing and dyes were limited true,(anyone found black dye??) but the way you could customise it was done well, and they looked a lot better than f2’s. i also like the fact that you dont need armor, that way you can look like a slut or rogue or whatever and still be great.. and not everyone has the same “bright plate armor” with master greatsword.
the npc value of fable games has always been terrible, but how can you pillage a village while having to carefuly single out which characters you cant kill because of crucial quest involvement..
in regards to the family issue… yes all the women are ugly because its a british game and the guys who designed it probs dont get any so they’ll take what they can get. f2 had lady grey who was sex on legs. elise is possibly most attractive in f3.. but i killed her for speaking out of turn. haha .. but really what more can they include with the family? quests i spose.. kidnapping in f2 was the only one there.. but what else? stamina exp for visiting in-laws?
SPEAKING OF EXP… i personally didnt like the levelling change. theresa is going to wind up dead by my hand if she keeps kidnapping me. i preferred the spending of xp on skills etc, the seals didnt do it for me.. wher’es this guy going to keep 400 seals…? see how big it is when he shows it off? and the road to rule just kept informing me how fast i was going through the game.. good and bad i spose.
its really all down to a matter of opinion. if you’re into a game where you like a strong long quest line then try the mass effects. they were excellent. if you like being able to influence and change things then the fables are the way to go. if you dont want a chronological storyline the the elder scrolls are for you.
morrowind is still by far my choice for any rpg, though the graphics look worse then the self-done tattoo on my back, the customisation and vastness of the world itself where huge, not to mention almost everyone had something to do with something.
whew well i guess i will call it quits, im proud if you read this.
that was enjoyable
p.s Yeah you had a black kid cos elise was nailing some other guy cos she was sick of you rushing through sex, trying to finish so you can review her about how lazy her efforts were… HAHAHA
You’re absolutely right about everything. I was so pissed I let the entire kingdom die. I had no warning on the day of the battle and even after you beat the poor excuse for a boss battle, everyone in the world is dead even when you had enough money to donate to the treasury. Fable 3 sucks my ass. Biggest let down of the year.
After reading this entire post i’m starting to wonder if the person that wrote this is some kind of game Nazi that finds some games repulsive and just has to spit it out. Now i also think Fable 3 could use some Major improvements on A LOT of things but is still playable.
I totally agree, peter molyneux has fucked me off so much with this game, especially with this whole thing that the weapon changes as your character does, my sword looks exactly the same as the one in the second picture within this review, which is just bull shit, also i thought saving ellise or whatever her name is would have an effect, and even after saving her nothing happened, what made it worse was the fact after i married her i made her live in old bowerstone and then instantly went to aurora to become king…. only to then find out that old bowerstone got destroyed in the revolution and that she no longer existed….. yea what a great thing to do. Finally as is stated in the review i also played as a good character, and found it near enough inpossible to get 6.5 million together, i was expecting to be able to actually walk around and do stuff but it appears as though the creators brilliantly thought to only allow you to do this once within the whole decission making process.. seeming as in the end i only managed to save 790,000 people i still expected to see at least the ususal npc’s walking around but no. there are mayb 1 or 2 within each location that i travel too, and what makes it worse is that near enough every store is closed down so i can longer buy anything or do anything except hunt for those fucking gnomes (really orriginal lionhead) and just stand about with my characters thumb shoved firmly up his arse doing nothing, the only thing left to do is start again. but tbh im just gunna sell this piece of shit
As far as I now, the money you give to your family each day as pocket money determines what your kids turn out to be.
e.g. not much money -> Beggar Style Kid
tons of money -> Richie Rich Spoiled Kid
It may be that the poor, beggar orphankids in this game happened to be black, so try sticking some money up your slut’s arse next time.
The whole point of being evil to save everyone is trying to emphasise the fact that sometimes evil has to be done for the greater good. Fable 3 has a hidden moral message that also holds true to today, for example in the UK our government is making many cuts to public funding, but this is to help us out of the debt crisis. Pretty good game, although Molyneux lied about what some of the content would be.
I loved Fable II and couldn’t wait for Fable III. You are dead on about Fable III, I HATE it. This is the worst game I’ve ever played. It’s boring, limited, nonsensical and basically ruins everything good about the Fable games. It was a total waste of my money.
I hate this game! They ruined the Fable experience. I hate that I can’t choose the expressions I do! I hate that now that I beat he game I can’t buy 90% of the stuff I want cause most of my merchants are dead. I hate that expressions only affect one person at a time! I hate that the minor boss characters are completely unaffected by damage until the killing blow. I hate that monster spells can’t be interrupted by my attacks! I hate that I can no longer do head shots. I hate That I can’t turn off my safety whenever I want! I hate that instead of expanding on all the things I loved about this game have been down-sized, I.E: less clothes, less expressions. you would think with the updated multi-player that there would be more clothes so as to be more uniquely different than your guests. I normally play through an entire game as a good character and play a new game as an evil one the second time around, But I’m already so F-ing bored that I couldn’t bare to go through all this BS again to be evil. I have just started being evil with my good character because I hate this game so much. What a waste of money and anticipation. Shame on you and your phoned in game, Lionhead!
i totally agree, its like when you have a paper do and you just turn in your rough draft with a different font and title. this game feels so incomplete, glitchy, and lazy. i loved fable, fabe 2 i played for hours even though it was button mashing and you could be a billionaire overnight. but after playing this i wish i just started a new fable 2 character instead. i think they did a great job leading up to your first quest, and then they stopped programming.
even your friend in the castle, if you chose to save her, you never see again in the game. who are you trying to kid lionhead, if the game isnt even half done, move the release date.
fml
I agree with the comments that this guy has made but you forgetting the changes and thing they have improved for example the weapons evolve with you and i have 3 characters and ever weapon is different, your right the main storyline is short but to enjoy the game you need to play it slowly otherwise you do just get through the storyline within 1-3 days this game needs to be carefully planned and enjoyed
wow, for all of you people who get so upset with a game you have to go online and complain about it all i have to say is…just wow…suck it up already and be glad you have a game to play. there is no such thing of a perfect game, but alot of people will act like its the end of the world when theres a game with just a few problems. and yes i have played a few games in my time that i hated so much, but i didnt go online and cried about it (final fantasy 13). instead i took the game and threw it at my wall like it was a ninja star. im sure i will get alot of negative feed back due to this comment but im saying this from my experience with people who cry alot, reason im here in the first place was looking for the gold keys in fable 3 and saw this post and i had to see how many people were having a fit over this game. so feel free to send me alot of hate speeches of my opinion.
Wow, excellent rant. Lol! I loved it. You did totally nail every problem with Fable 3.. and nearly all the same things happened to me. I have a black daughter, WITH elise, i got screwed by the 120 day jump to 0, and im tired of the whole Fable interaction. Honestly, this game was a let down to me. It was like they made several steps forward which i liked, (the sanctuary, where you could IDEALY physicially view your posessions achievements etc. The cool finishing moves, though they cut many weapon types and the ranged slow-mo kills are annoying.. and most of all, the king element. Sadly they failed on this too.) but then they lost a lot of ground as well. Fable 2 seemed like more of an improvement than Fable 1, despite the multiplayer additions that fell flat on their face.
Several of my friends have had the same thing happen to them as well, too.
The game is buggy to a point where i simply lose the patience to play, and shut it off. When i discovered i had a black daughter, she was standing in a crowd of other children, and after i waded through and uncovered which was mine, i remember the hysterical laughter that echoed my room and was apparently mine, lol.
Basically, i think im done with Peter and his uninterested take on the Fable games. If they were picked up by a new developer and redone, i would gladly forgive them.
However, i unfortunately dont see that happening for the time being.
While Fable 3 was half of a disappointment to me, I couldn’t even finish half your rant or a third of the comments, because the majority of complaints were just ridiculous.
I’ll give you a few examples of ultimate bitchiness that you didn’t think through:
1) Complaining about a battle system that is far too easy and completely unbalanced, then saying that in order to use your melee weapon effectively you have to block, parry, and use flourish attacks. I’d say that’s a win on the melee front.
2) Saying there are no new improvements to weapons or spells? For one, the spellweaving is an entirely new concept to Fable. I don’t care if it isn’t a groundbreaking idea to RPG-gamers. Also, they took the vast amount of weapons down to 2 different types of melee weapons (which I hated) but achievement-based upgrades to weapons is an idea I have yet to see.
3) I noticed after my FIRST DAY of Kingdom that the days were skipping by DOZENS. I was furious, because I knew that the only thing it could mean was vastly shortened gameplay… but waht did I do? I racked up a metric assload of gold and finished all my sidequests before progressing in the game. This, alone, added 5+ hours of gameplay.
I’m not disagreeing with your disappointment in the game, I’m just saying that some of your arguments are kind of absurd.
…but the retarded dog has to die!
@Sky and others
1) If all styles of combat were as nuanced as the sword fighting, the combat would NOT be easy and unbalanced. I was saying that there is no point in using that style, when the others are right there and are far more effective against enemies. Why fight a pile of Hollow Men one by one with a sword when i can make them all explode with one button press?
I could play through Halo Reach using only my pistol, which would make it harder and force me to strategize more, but why would I do that when there are more effective weapons available? Gamers shouldn’t have to cripple themselves to adapt to a broken game.
2) They took spells away, that’s a fact. Combining the spells is visually interesting, but it only serves to make magic more powerful than it was already. Instead of merely shocking opponents to death, I can now shock and burn, freeze or stab them at the same time.
3) You admit you were furious when you realized how fast it was moving, so at least you see my point there. On day 122, I made the conscious decision that after this day was over (that day has no quests on the docket, by the way, only court appointments), that on day 50 or whatever, I would going to wander around and mass up cash and do shitty sidequests.
But to skip from day 122 to 0, right after ruling on Mistpeak was absurd, and the game’s retarded saving system doesn’t even let you go back and correct that mistake. Clearly from the comments, it took many off guard, and was one of the worst aspects of the plot.
And yes, I hated my dog more than anything this game.
Fable 3 is really not meant to be rushed though. I did so knowingly to get a feel for the game, since I do not use game guides or cheats.
I too did not have enough money and yes most everyone was dead…
However now when I take my time playing I will know what to expect out of the main game and saving money is easy enough if you not rushing though the first part of the game.
I agree the fighting is a little too easy and can remember the old days where it could take days for me just to clear a boss lvl. It may have been helpful if the game offer setting for easy medium and hard play like some games do.
Though you do have some valid points about the game, I do not think that Fable 3 was a complete let down that you are making it out to be.
That said I have never met a true gamer that did not find faults about ever single game they played even for the ones they say they like. Since gaming comes easy for them it hard to impress.
Ok first of all I have to agree that Fable 3 was a huge mistake….It’s like they were in such a hurry to put it out they just glued it together with elmers and said “ok its ready”. I do disagree with all the negatives about fallout 3. If any of you actually played the game you would see that it involves the player way more by creating weapons, ammo, and food. If you play hardcore the game is deffinately a challenge. Now it is glitchy as hell and the loading screens take years, and sometimes your partners just disapear or stop following you all together, but its a great game.
You forgot one aspect of the game(and i’m not sure if anyone mentioned it), that was definitive in I and II, that makes III horrible, and that’s the character physical appearance changes when dealing with evil or good deeds. I played through choosing absolutely every single evil deed you could possibly do, and i think my character got slightly pale and had a look on his face like his wife didn’t make him breakfast that morning. No darkened skin, no horns, no scars, no ripped clothing, no horns, no flames protruding from the body, no demon wings, oh, and no fucking horns. When you actually come to the point where it shows you as a demon or angel-like creature, i thought, oh finally.. maybe i get to finish this game with at least a little grace, that didn’t happen, it was only a glimpse… which i found pretty pathetic.
You’re so right I don’t even have words! I would have written a review exactly the same! I waited so long for this game and went to Meijer on Monday night at midnight to get it. I am beyond disappointed.
You nailed it. Thank-you, I laughed all the way through your article, helps take the pain out of the fact that I bought the collectors edition. Is there a menu for your potions? I can’t find one. I would like to see how many potions of health, etc I have and to to be able to set them where I want, and use them when I want, not when the game decides I need them. The graphics in this game are stunning tho.
I am having a lot of issues with Fable III as well. I’ve got a very annoying glitch where the “back” button has disappeared from my sanctuary and no longer functions. Same goes for the map table. The biggest problem with that is, if I press start during a storyline mission, I’m not allowed to fast travel and I can’t leave the sanctuary. Hence, I become stuck and have to re-load.
I know there is supposed to be a back button because my friend played his save and it was there plain as day. Also, I had to install the game to my hard drive to reduce the random lag I was getting.
All in all, I’m quite disappointed with Fable III, of which I had high expectations.
Hey Velovan, New Vegas is IMO better then fallout 2, it is a great game, why dont you go and play some MMA games or something or go back to playing sega you ass
TW GAMES I like ur points in fable three is was way to easy to earn the 6.5 mil I ended up with over 10 mil. The biggest problem I had with the game was the “leveling” system in past fables the experence was split 3 ways which added a little more depth to the combat. Now all exp goes into the same pot. I don’t understant why they would throw away one of the few things that made fable different from other rpgs. Also the chest and dig spots were almost the samething every time. At this point in the gaame I don’t even stop and dig stuff up knowing it only going to be a dimond, gold, or a peice of colthing I already own.
I really enjoyed playing this game and forgave many of its downfalls, probably because I’ve been looking forward to this game for a long time and spent a lot of money on the collectors edition. I’ve spent a long time on the game, playing it as the devs would hope people would by doing the side quests etc and I’ve had a good time.
I figured I would be able to play the game how I wanted to which is the whole point of a good RPG and a big selling point of fable. So, as the paying customer I decided to make good decisions as king while spending the time earning the extra cash to save the citizens. A year until the attack, a whole other half to the game – plenty of time – SO WRONG.
I was absolutely gutted when after the “121 days to go” level which I think was the 4th actual “day” you play, I was forced into the end of the main story line with absolutely no warning what-so-ever. Normally you would get a “make sure you finish everything you want to do before you continue”. They were even so kind as to autosave so you couldn’t go back (believe me I tried). So I just thought, fine fuck it I might as well finish it now. It took all of about 5 minutes to plough through all of the enemies and crush the end boss. Everyone in albion died, I missed out on the achievement for saving everyone and im pretty pissed about it.
No doubt “DLC” will be released to add more content to the main story that will probably just be an unlock code to content already on the disk… wow i’ve never played through what I believe to be a good game and have the ending depress me so much.
This seems to be the trend of the fall releases so far. Sub par game, with bugs and glitches up the waazoo. I have a feeling we are entering a new generation of releasing 25% of the game at a time, and if you want to shovel even more money to the developers they will make sub par DLC. I make decent money, but I am still put off every time I spend $60 on ( what I think is ) an unfinished game. Developers should start standing up to these publishers and tell them no to DLC, it’s a damn shame really.
This was my first Fable experience, and unfortunately it will be my last. I had not played the others, but for some reason this one really sparked a lot of interest in me. So I picked it up and gave it a go. Much like a lot of fellow readers… to put it bluntly… I was completely pissed when the end of the game just kind of fell on my lap without warning. I love RPGs, and I have an extremely hard time saying this is a true RPG. Want to walk through the game easily? Save your Guild Seals and only upgrade your Ranged & Magic abilities…such a shame.
Maybe Fable 3 is a learning lesson about life. Think about it we do not always get the chance to do things necessary unless we plan ahead.
If I recall in the past Fables you always had ways of earning tons of money but no real reason to do so. Maybe they are trying to get people to slow down when playing the game.
So when they said the ending is a surprise…. Well it is when you really think about it. Sure it may pissed you off and like many other people I to ran though the game thinking had had plenty of time to make up the money.
Take it from someone in person debt you hardly ever have the time to make money back up once you are in the hole.
There is also a good premise to this story. Which is sometimes the moral decisions we need to make are not always clear and can seem evil even though in the long run it is to save the many and not the few.
Then you have the STD issues. It seems as if you can get STD from anyone even your spouse. So maybe they are really trying to get the word out about safe sex to the younger people playing the game…. lol that may be pushing it a little but try and see the bright side of things once in a while.
This is not the best game in the world but really not as bad as many here will make you think. See beyond the box of just playing the game and experience the world in which it is in. Just another point of view. =D
Actually, don’t play New Vegas, especially if you’re on 360. It’s so riddled with bugs, it’s almost unplayable.
Funny, of course this will happen. The myriad of people that ignored the vast majority of shortcomings you discussed in Fable II, and ignored the the the host of things that were “lost” from the Original Fable will now jump up and scream. Complete with a histrionic title and a personal laundry list.
Whatever merit your complaints may have, much like any meandering complaint they fail to address the pro’s and con’s in a objective fashion.
The writing, combat and interactions have most of the same quirks and faults as they always have. It’s also a much larger game in land size, applies a deal more gravitas to your moral decisions is more slickly animated and has a far better plot then Fable II (subjective I know, but I encourage you to if you disagree really think about the 2 plots concerned).
The Waaaaambulance is that way dude ->
-Game isn’t over till you turn off the console-just cause you sped through it like a hobbe on steroids and crack there called achievements look them up
-pick your weapon and deal with it
-no more relying on cullis gates and your bitching?
-can’t get STD’s if you wear a condom (its true!)
-Want a kid? go to the orphanage
Finally you don’t play madden and expect it to be the same as final fantasy. IE- don’t cry and whine when a game experience isn’t all you had it hyped up to be. That being said i believe in the philosophy of to each his own – you don’t like it ? cool. but stay away from blogs and postings boohooing about what you don’t like. Me? ill put down my two cents then ima head back to Albion use my knees to kill a few mercenaries, shoot some bad mouthed gnomes, bet on a chicken race or two then finish off the day soaking in the cheers of my adoring public with my John Cleese voiced butler. its called slowing down and enjoying the digital roses. next time play mass effect or Fallout or whatever else it is you DO enjoy and let me enjoy my A button holding B button mashing no minimap having revolution.
Oh hey you better hold A and run after the waaaambulance its already 4 blocks that-a-way>>>>>>>>>>>
PS. No talky bout Co-Op?
Paul Tassi all i can say is your a complete twat!
You completely rushed through the game which is why you lost most of your citizens! i had 10 mil left in my treasury and made all the good decisions too!
Fable two was total crap! I cant believe you named it game of the year??? It was over before it even begun! and shall i remind you about Fable 2’s ending?? Fable 1 was a much better game then both Fable 2 and Fable 3 until you take the thrown where the game takes a completely new change which is a refreshing change!
And of course magic is more powerful then swords or guns! ITS MAGIC!!! and i much preferred to use my sword then gun in combat! its even better if you mix it up!
You cant figure out the navigation and because of that your giving lionhead the blame? try taking your head out your arse and work things out for yourself! its not that complicated!
There is so much thats new and different about fable 3 i cant believe you say its just fable 2 with mistakes! the whole king concept is different! The road to rule thing is Totally unlike anything seen before! No health bar is very different! weapons changing according to how you use them is different! The multiplayer on fable 3 is totally different where you need to trade or play online just to get all the weapons or even to make business partnerships! I could go on for ages!!
It seems that you have not explored this game enough to be making such a harsh criticism! play it again and explore a little! do all the quests! try and get all the achievements! then you will see its a very good and different game!!!
You do know that two white people can have a black child right? Statistically speaking only one of them needs to come from a black background. It’s striahgt out genetics. Don’t be so stupid.
main thing i hated about fable 2 and 3 was lack of locations returning…. I MEAN COME ON!
seriously bowerstone is the only location in “ALL” the games!
the guild is now a lake (cumon in 300 years a lake covers an area that was on higher ground than bowerstone?!!)
theres a slight reference to oakvale in fable 2 but again you cant go there!
knothole glade (which was a island btw) is no longer there, but all the residents move to a different island call “knothole island”… how original!!! but westcliff now pops up being almost the same with its own balverines and its own rip off of the arena!.. i mean i actually thought it was a renamed knothole glade when i first went there!
And that snowey place with the abbey is also gone (another island btw) never mind the northern wastes!!
even worse not a single location apart fro, bowerstone even transfers from fable 2 to 3… which is only 50 years later….
also im annoyed none of the games storylines relate…. i mean ok all the heroes are from the same bloodline, theresa is in all 3 games and fable 3 references her as the seer of the spire and reaver returns…
but none of the blades (mainly jack as he was the only one actually in it) return from the original game and the spire plays no part in the plot of the third game….
im thinking that in fable 4 the great enemy could be based on anything, my fav theory is its gonna involve dinsaurs coming out of the centre of the earth!
its like if they made the enemy in halo 2 a completly new alien race while ignoring the covenant and flood for the whole game… then making the enemy in halo 3 human rebels and then in halo reach the new enemy is a mythic dragon!
pleaseeee link all the threats together in fable 4… return most the previous locations (that you havnt destroyed or abandoned) and pleaaase brin back the blades 🙂 (queen of blades most likely)
rant finished 🙂
I have to say that this article encumpasses nearly everything I found disappointing with fable three.
Save one…
You left out how generally unhelpful the “omniscient tutor” and quest map are—I was mystified several times during the course of my adventure, simply because I wasn’t paying close enough attention to an NPC’s quest instructions. For instance, I got a key from a character in Aurora, after the final battle, as part of a new quest. But (stupid me) I raced through the dialogue so quickly (as most gamers do), that I missed the part about what to DO with the bleeding key. Oh, but there’s no way to find out what that key is even called, nor where it denotes unlocking, so I just wandered around the desert—to my peril—looking for random doors to open. Stupid. A waste of Goddamn time. Not to mention the game’s gigantic dropped ball, after your entire kingdom is wiped out (“Um. O–kkay? So, like, what am I supposed to do now that everyone’s dead? I can’t even buy potions, so this pretty much sucks,”I thought to myself). Shameful to alter the player’s world so profoundly, and give no notice or guidance regarding how one might fix the situation.
PS. Lionshead, how do I continue to make profit from real estate/ rent and vendor purchases, when there are apparently no products to sell, nor people left to buy them? (I suppose this hiccup falls under this article’s “lazy” category).
OMG…I nearly forgot the worst thing (so I will now bug everyone with my double post…sorry).
Why? Why don’t I have a bloody health meter??!!
Seriously. Was that omission supposed to add innovation and depth to my Fable 3 experience? And if so, then (pray tell) how, exactly? I mean, WTF, guys?! Leaving out this standard (and vital) aspect of a character/ battle driven game, is in no way ingenious. It’s just flat-out disorienting. I often found myself using several health potions during battle, never really knowing if I was wasting them, or even using them at all (I used magic, primarily, so all the glowing and glittering on-screen eventually became completely indiscernible).
F-A-I-L.
Ok. The End.
Absolutely hated this game. everything was way too simple. I waited a long ass time for this game and this is what Lionhead came out with? Shitty shitty shitty, The First Fable was amazing but thats it. I didnt even finish Fable 3, and i dont intend on finishing it, im taking it back to gamestop and trading it in…….
such an awful game. just finished it in less than a day. so many things to rant about. my biggest dissapointment was the big skip from 122 days left til attack to 1 day left. theres no turning back from that point at all. i didnt have enough money, everyone died, then thats it. “the battle for albion” lasted about 5 minutes and its only in bowerstone market. so shit giving game back to the store.
Well, after reading most of the comments and your post, I have to say that I’m disapointed. Not by the game really (though just a bit) but by the ones who were so quick to judge and throw shit on the game. Did you guys actually take the time to play? I mean, really play? Guess not cause it seems to me you guys missed a lot of things in the game. Like who said theie was no weapons to buy? There are like two or three weapons shops in the game with interesting augments if you complet the objectives (like earning guild seals faster in combat or having extra damage done) most being more powerful than you hero weapons. Sure the game is short and I was quit disapointed of the time spent as king of Albion and Aurora (that was my only real disapointement, this and the fact that Theresa does nothing at all).
You guys were just to hasty in finishing the game and haste makes waste.
100% agree with everything you said. this game is full of shit, everything that was good about the other 2 they dumbed down on this one. less clothes, dyes, spells, weapon types, dreadful emotion system, fuck they even took shit out of the combat, no counters or headshots anyone? lionhead even said in an interview they were taking rpg elements out in favour of a more action/adventure orientated game to appeal to a wider audience. FUCK YOU LIONHEAD SELLOUTS!
Even Peter’s kid wants Half Life 3 instead of his father’s creation.
it was jolly interesting to read unrealitymag.com
I call for to bring in your fill someone in on in my blog. It can?
And you et an account on Twitter?
You hit the nail on the head. As a fan of Lionhead, I waited desperately for Fable 3. Hell, I played Black & White (GREAT GAME) and everything else by them to tease myself. The original Fable is the only reason why I dust off my xbox: yes, the 10 pound, indestructible one.
You and I shared the same disappointment. Since I’m a die-hard fan, I shall play this game again and again, to see what’s different. I will kill all the gnomes and find every last key. I’ll collect every last weapon and complete every last achievement.
Seeing characters evolve is also too fun to see.
Like Reaver, starting out with nothing but bones and armour, to become a major character in the proceeding games.
After having read approximately 500 words of this mammoth rant, you had already made my night!
Thank you for the thoroughly entertaining read!
You’re just a frustrated idiot who thinks he is a hardcore gamer. Fable III is nothing like Fable II and only thing I can agree with is the one about the map. If you can’t see the progress stop playing video games cuz you suck. Everything is one or more steps improved graphics are 10 times better and regions are 200% bigger. Stop acting hardcore you’re a pussy
Man that was funny,
the std and affair with a black man… brilliant!
I can honestly say I enjoyed your review more then I enjoyed Fable 3.
I agree completely, what is the target audience?
All the outfits look like they were inspired by a beatles album cover, you can’t layer as many looks since jackets are nolonger another category. I beat it in 12 hours and I was taking my time.
One second I’m seducing a women by playing patty cake, then the next reaver’s doorman is talking about orgies… it’s like Disney is trying to introduce childen to the sex trade. who again I ask is the target market?
I also married Elise for the same reason as you, I used condoms since i didn;t want to be bothered with Fables kid crap, glad I did as my character doesn’t yet need to search for the hammer of wart removal.
Speaking of weapons, my weapon morphed into something giving explainations such as, its exotic due to your love of diving??? I had dove about twice in the game at that point.. which leads me to believe that is as randomly generated as your black child.
That was funny to read. Btw, thank you very much. I was looking around to see how the 365 day thing went and here it is. So I love how I spent majority of the game being nice…and now I have to be a jerk in order to win…just wow. Oh I’m also glad I didn’t get married. If the wife is the girl from the beginning, I wouldn’t know I had her killed, then I think she is black…or at least dark skinned. That might be where ur black kid comes from. Again, I wouldn’t know I had her killed and I haven’t gotten married yet.
After playing fable 3 the first time and being good only to get a huge fck you after I fixed everything my brother effed up it was most enjoyable to be a total a-hole to save those stupid people.
Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood is not just an expansion to Assassin’s Creed II. It’s got the most content of any Assassin’s Creed game to date. ACII was amazing but AC:B is going to take it to the next level. Not only is the singleplayer better giving you more things to do, the biggest world to do it in, and better storytelling and action combat system but I’ve played the Multiplayer Beta and it is fun as hell and unique, nothing like it out there and I really think it’s going to catch but if it doesn’t and people still play the same old Call of Duty i dont care I’m still going to be enjoying the true game of the year. Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood.
Varely rarely do I purchase a game after a few hours start about what i’ll trade it in for. I like to think I have no agenda in liking or disliking the game because whilst being midly excited but also wary I didn’t feel far enough into either of the ‘like or dislike’ camps to be emotionally invested any further than the £40 of actual money I had invested would allow.
I dont know though, I feel like I just dont like the game, because of most of the reasons detailed in the original article.
I’ve read the mostly ‘you’re doing it wrong’ posts but if I play the game according to how someone else says then surely that’s just as bad?
Although I do want to make something clear, I’m am not stating that the game is bad, just that even though I really quite enjoyed Fable 1 and to a slightly lesser extent Fable 2 (i’m looking at you game length and ending!), Fable 3 probably just isn’t for me, because in my opinion many of the aspects of the previous games that I enjoyed have either been removed or reduced, the things I liked less about the previous games seem more noticeable. Shame really (mostly because im out £40…)
That’s my entirely worthless 2 cents… I dont think it’s the worst game ever, but on a personal level I feel it’s up there with the worst £40 game purchases i’ve made (Madden 11 being the worst).
Anyone who defends the second half of this game clearly didn’t watch any of Molyneux’s interviews. All the hyperbole was about how “most games end when you get to be king, we wanted that to be where our game really started” – well if that was your aim, Peter, Epic Fail.
A handful of “kingly” choices, even padded out with doing a bunch of stuff you can do before you become king, is hardly “the start” of a gaming experience.
To me, the whole game feels like it was stripped down to the bare essentials because they couldn’t get it to work with Kinect without doing so (hence all the mini games are pretty much the same, fighting is still the one button attack affair, interacting with people is much more basic, changing the menus to a sims like affair where you have to hunt around to do anything instead of one or two button clicks, completely breaking shops so now you can buy one or two items and trading for money, one of the fun hidden aspects of the last game, is completely out the window, no ability to aim the gun, the broken inventory system that doesn’t let me decide what and where to use things, the missing health bar so I have to “guess” how close to death I am during a fight, and linking not dying to an achievement and making me guess how much health I have at any time is NOT my idea of fun… need I go on?). Then they realised it still doesn’t work with Kinect (because Kinect is a waste of time) but they released the game anyway without adding any of the interesting features back in.
Oh, and since about a million people have said about the fast travel thing, I can confirm I actually tried this last night, I assumed it would work how people are saying, but instead of placing me by the house I clicked on in the town, it dumped me half a mile down the road outside of town and I hade to wade through wolves to get where I wanted to go, for that reason I assumed fast travel only took you to the edge of the region, but perhaps it’s just horribly glitchy like so much else in this game.
On the subject of glitches – my favourite so far, jumping off a little ledge in Mistpeak, literally about two foot off the ground, falling through the ground beneath and into a void where I just fell forever – the best part is when I started randomly mashing buttons to try and escape, I hit “Y” and my gun and sword just slowly floated off my back and up into the ether. I’ve never come across a game breaking glitch that was so bad, especially due to the lack of a proper multiple save game system, that meant I was probably going to lose the last three hours of gameplay but which made me literally burst out laughing it was so absurd – it was either that or cry.
This was my “one last chance” game for Lionhead – they’ve disappointed me ever since the days of Black and White (original Fable was alright but failed to live up to its promises, I reasonably enjoyed Fable II but only because I bought it two years after release for £4 and I was expecting it to be trash so was mildly surprised, but even there I got burned by the online game feature no longer working with the game and missing items meaning I couldn’t get the achievements).
From now on the only way I’ll EVER buy another game from these clowns is if I get an extensive demo first, and even then I’ll give it a couple of months after release so I can read some real reviews and make sure there are no game breaking glitches waiting for me. In any other line of business we’d be taking them to court for false advertising, it’s sickening that they can fail to deliver on so many of their promises for a game that cost £65 (LE) and I have absolutely zero recourse against them other than to complain online/stop buying their crap. I think PM should be personally reimbusing everyone he screwed out of money with his lies.
Fable 3 was a big downer. Minimaps are kind of vital if you are not
(A) – valkyrie profile style left/right to travel press up to enter
(B) Constant over head view
^ Neither of which really exists too much in modern games.
Rotating + no markers of any kind (and the one you have for main quest moves with you) = dizzy, frustated refund.
Expression system became uber gay. Like you said it has devolved. This entry has basically killed any chance of me ever buying this series again.
At least when other games are lazy and stupid they do things like copy paste the interiors of sidequest areas (mass effect). But hey they are still good games and player friendly.
The only challenge this game offers is if you decide you don’t want to follow the yellow brick road and go explore – you will be double backing over and over and hugging walls thinking oh this terrain can be moved on – goodie now where the hell am I?.
pretty much everything you said here is spot on. It especially pisses me off how no locations on like Mistpeak are marked or anythings? How the hell am I supposed to find different entrances to Chillbreath or the Monorail station entrance or anything if I can’t sprinkle the friggen golden trail to help me??? AT LEAST – AT THE VERY, VERY, VERY LEAST, there should have been a character indicator. AT THE VERY LEAST. that’s like playstation 1, nintendo 64 basic. seriously. I payed way too much for this.
I loved the first part of the game! even though the fighting is as imbalanced as it could possibly get.
But what reaaaally bothered me was all the bugs. I think that I have suffered from more than 6 different major bugs.
1: Jasper is silent
2: I cant use the D-pad in the sanctuary to travel between the rooms
3: sometimes after interacting with objects or character, i hav enot been able to move my hero
4: Sometimes I have not been able to use any of my attacks, and when that has occured, the enemies doesnt attack me.
5. during the quest where you are supposed to save some villagers from a bar robbery or something, I cant save them, since there is only one enemy who spawns in the bar, when it is supposed to be several.
6. After bug number 5, I tried to enter a new area during the quest (since I couldnt fast travel during an active quest). A message popped up saying that if I was to travel to another area, the game would revert to an earlier save point, and data would be lost. “Whatever”, I though, “Im stuck anyways”. So the game reverted to an earlier save point, and I lost about 2 hrs of gameplay. But now I could not at anytime enter the sanctuary. AND when i followed the golden trail, it led to the rebel HQ entrance. But there was noone in the HQ! I also couldnt pick up any side quest. in short, I was fucked. I cant do shit now (besides from startin a new game).
I just cant understand how they could have made it so that if you revert to an earlier point in the game, it is as if you have completed some of the quests or something, so that you cant do them again or something reaaaally weird like that. I mean, how could they have made it so that you could destroy your entire save by returning to an earlier point in the game!?
My initial impression of the game was that it was at least a 9/10, now because of the massive amount of bugs ive suffered I wouldnt give this game any rating at all, since the game doesnt seem finished.
I agree with your review.
Please replace “GODDAMNIT!” with “This… is my BOOMSTICK!”. Speaking of firearms removing aimed shots also removed my enjoyment of using the weapon class.
Why is my dog a purebred inbred moron? Treasure, Quest, or Dig? Really, where? Oh, I’ve got to wait minutes for you to figure it out? Maybe walk around a bit to jog your ability? Oh, I walked too far away and you forgot? I want my smart fast mutt from Fable II back please. I’d even settle for a chicken.
Overpowered Spells; I found the best combo was Vortex Lightning, as not even balverines could attack you.
The “Final Days” were poorly implemented. As I owned everything I could purchase and did most of the side quests I dropped 8m gold in the treasury and called it a day.
The gold trail feature was buggy; kept disappearing and was slower than in Fable II.
Just wondering if anyone know what the red gate is and how you get though it ?? Could not figure that one out yet.
Oh and Del you can aim the gun… I do it all the time.
For those that have not figured it out it is true there is no life bar….
However you are not left guessing at your health. There are two ways to know you are getting low and may want to use a health potion and when you really need to use one ASAP.
One assuming you have health potions they will only show up to use them during a battle when you are starting to get low on health. Just look at your icons
Second when you are in really bad shape and need to get more health ASAP you will note that the color leave your screen and it turns gray with red around the edges. Pretty straight forward. Not having to always look for a health bar during batter should be easier for the player.
Man you are so right on EVERYTHING. I thought I was the only one that was mad about the 120 days left then it just ends without warning!!!
You actually CAN set waypoints to buildings via your map.
can you play on once you have completed the game after the 120 days
You have honestly just taken the words right out of my mouth. :/
Fable 3 was terrible.
It makes me sad because it had such great potential to be a good game, but Lionhead got lazy.
Frankly I don’t even know why they bothered to include the whole final quest tidbit anyway. My guess it was probably filler because the original story was shorter than they thought it was going to be.
And while on the subject of stories, why doesn’t Lionhead think up a new story altogether?
The whole “save the world from a tyrant” thing is getting old… Considering we’ve only had to do it the last three games.
At least Jack of Blades was a true villain. AND A DRAGON.
Lucien? DIED WITH ONE SHOT!? WHAT IS THIS I DON’T EVEN…
The Crawler thing was cool but like everything in Fable 3 it was still too easy to kill.
DLC sucked.
Weapons sucked.
Clothes sucked.
People sucked.
Main story sucked.
Pretty much this entire game sucked.
Sorry guys, I don’t think we’ll be seeing a Fable 4.
All in all, Fable 3 was alright at the very best. It was just ok. I will try my best to list the things I really enjoyed about the game and the stuff that I found annoying and uselss.
The games graphics, though quite similar to fable 2, were not a disappointment. They didn’t seem rushed, or badly done at all to me. The only real fault the graphics had were the models, being that the whole of Albion comes in four or five people with different clothing, with an amazing three to four voices. But, as a whole, the graphics were far from a negative factor.
The menu I found to be quite enjoyable. I liked having my own little room with all my stuff in it. It adds more interesting atmosphere to the game. The only issue I really had with it was the save game. The lack of a real ability to save and load in an easy to use and understand way led to a severe lack of reload. Because the game randomly saves when you load a different area, you don’t know if it will load you four transitions ago or five minutes ago. But, on the whole, I think the menu was an interesting touch, whether you liked it or not.
The combat is just as Fable combat has always been, except even easier in this game. One could argue that you could use any of the methods to kill someone, be it melee, range, or spells. However, they should be nicely balanced, and this case, they are not. Melee can do more damage than range, but you’ll also get hit, which can be completely avoided with spells and guns. Guns go a pretty damn good amount of damage while giving you the advantage of range. Spells dominate the battlefield, period. They are the single best and most effective way of destroying enemies, including bosses. The ability to also combine spells was a cool and interesting touch, but also left some overpowered combination. For most of the game, I used fire and vortex, fire for the damage and vortex for making everyone completely useless. When bosses rolled around, I’d use straight fire for it’s damage, or lighting to stun then if I was really lazy.
The one thing I always liked about Fable was the amount of things you could do, like establish relationships, rob stores, kill citizens, whatever you wanted. But the one thing I always felt Fable lacked was quests. Sure, you get a decent amount, but most are not long at all, and not rewarding. And, of all the fables, this game had the least amount of replay value, being that the only reason to replay was to play as a saint or a dick, depending on your choice on the first run.
Finally, this brings me to the King part of the game. I feel that this is the biggest disappointment of the game by far. It was unbearably short, and had no freedom to it at all. You were presented with the typical “Be a saint and be loved/Keep your promise” or “Be a dick and get money/break your promise”. On top of that, there is no possible way to see any count down of the year. The system of “300 days left” is a complete failure in that reguard, as once you decide to make a choice on building the military fort for Aurora, you are no longer able to make any choices. You are forced to make the choice on the Dweller camp right afterward, and then you have to fight to save Albion. There’s no pause. You’d think with 120 days you could, at least, sell all the property you bought just to have the money in the treasury to save your people. I understand the idea that you’d have to make money of your own accord, but with no time table, and the fact that you HAVE to buy everything in the world and let the game sit idle for a time to make it work, it hardly makes being good feel good, or fun. The idea that being a King isn’t fun isn’t, well, a fun way to play.
On the whole, a lot of possibility was missed on the ruling a nation aspect, and that is a massive fault in Fable 3, as it was a big selling point. With the short length, lack of freedom, and severe gold farming, it was not at all fun. I desperately want to see a Fable succeed where the other failed. I like the idea they have, they just cannot seem to grasp how to share it.
I would give Fable 3 a 5 out of 10. Playable, enjoyable, but annoying, painful, no re-playability, and a severe let down from what was promised.
Totally agree with the review. Anyone who defends Fable 3 never played the original. Remember the days when all you had was a crossbow, could steal anything from the store (after getting the shopkeeper drunk and luring him in the alley), and you HAD to stock up on potions to survive? Fable 2 added guns, beefed up the story line a bit. Fable 2 also cut down some of the control flexibility, (e.g. dpad for stealing), went over the top on the pro-Gay rhetoric and reduced your ability to run amok in a town GTA style. At least it moved forward a little though.
Fable 3 added — what? Nothing – it is complete crap. After the first 3 hours I could not believe how slow the story was, and how hard it was to find a fight. Pet peve of mine that you missed – the default “good” interaction with any villager is to dance. What the hell? How do I just shake hands again? I just quit talking to anyone after about 5 of these interactions.
I am apparently about 3/4 of the way through the game (king, repairing my rentals to save up 6.5mil, etc), but I’m done with this piece of junk. I’m not burning another minute on it. I googled for a board with the title “Fable 3 sucks” so I can get this off my chest before going to bed. What a waste of my time this POS game was.
If I’m lucky I can still get a few bucks at gamestop for it, well, maybe it would be more fun to take it out back and shoot it.
I’m going to put Fable 1 into the 360 and give that a try again.
I find it odd that you feel qualified to bitch so greatly about a game that you hadn’t even played thorougly. I also find it odd that right at the begining of your rant (I can’t even consider it to be a review) you professed to liking Fable II and yet go on to slag it off almost as much as Fable III.
I get the distinct impression from the “article” that you are American or have watched far too many American TV shows since you bitch about the humour in the game which is quintessentialy British and clever. Americans seem incapable of finding anything other than farting or falling over funny so of course you don’t appreciate the comedic elements.
I suggest you take the time to learn the meaning of the word ‘review’ and consider how it differes from the word ‘rant’ since your ‘review’ was in fact nothing but a rant. That way, perhaps, you might spare people the boredome of reading your hypocitical, unstructured, adolescent sounding bitching session.
i agree with everything u said, bought the game 3 days ago and ive done it all, all keys obtained all gnomes slain and 20 million gold im pure evil and not a quest to do i have 12 hours of gameplay and nothing else in the world to do ( also beat game twice once on good side in 4 hours) wtf were they thinking and i would very much like to thankyou for a review that put all my frustrations to text DAMMIT LIONHEAD =D happy gaming.
For the person that is going to write and say they did everything in the game possible great !! Then please answer my question about the red like gate.
It is about the only thing so far I came across and can not figure out how to get though. Do you need to be King first?? Or is it part of a quest you need to pick up?
Anyone kind enough to read and answer my question thanks ahead of time.
Jack =D
I agree with some of the points you made in this piece, but disagree with others. The main thing is that I do enjoy this game, despite all of it’s flaws and problems, but there is no doubt in my mind that Fable 2 is better on so many fronts.
One thing anybody who’s played Fable 2 and 3 should notice is that a lot of things that were in F2, such as weapon augments, are completely gone from F3. I can’t even begin to theorize why Lionhead did this. Maybe they removed it to factor in the weapon evolution, which I really haven’t noticed except from the hero weapons which I don’t use. Clothing is extremely limited in F3. All I ever seem to find are pyjamas which are both useless and worth squat. I bought the warrior suit from a shop, and that’s all I wear as there is no incentive to wear anything else. The end result is that when you play co-op, which I’ll come to later, it’s extremely difficult to look more unique than anyone else. Again, for what purpose did Lionhead remove this? Utterly stupid.
Shops are extremely crap in Fable 3. Each shop has one to three stands in it with, mostly, inane items on that you neither need or require. Potions and food are useless as your character can never die. The only way you need them is if you’re going for the achievement of completing the game without being knocked out. Jewellery, toys, perfume etc. are useless as you could give your family a house made out of platinum and they’d still not appreciate a damn scrap of it. The shops in Fable 2 were massively better than in F3, with more items on offer that you could use and that were USEFUL.
The removal of the traditional inventory was something I couldn’t decide whether or not was good, but as time went by (not much time, more on that later), I grew to prefer the sanctuary over the inventory. Seeing a mountain of gold which represented my money, or a wall of achievements and a cabinet full of gifts was definitely more involving and more enjoyable than a plain old menu of statistics and options. However, as great as it was hearing John Cleese at the beginning of the game, telling me of new items and that stuff, as he began to repeat the same old phrases over and over again, it became tiresome. Not that I have to bother about it, seeing as I’ve hit a bug whereby Jasper no longer speaks whatsoever in the sanctuary.
The map system in Fable 3 is, for me at least, in the middle between ‘alright’ and ‘awful’. For example, I was trying to locate the golden key located in mistpeak valley (I think) and the guide I was reading from said to stay right when ‘entering from brightwall’. Easy, I thought, I’ll just go to the entrance to brightwall, turn around and head right as though I was just coming from there. WRONG. There is no way at all to understand where you are on the map. When you’re looking at the map, you cannot see where you are and it makes things incredibly difficult, especially when you’re looking for a specific location within that area. It took me at least 15 minutes of fighting respawing waves of balverines before I got to where I wanted to be and promptly found the key I was looking for. On the other hand, I like how you can purchase buildings from within the map as it saves a lot of time wandering around and buying them as you go.
Co-op. Oh dear, Lionhead. Oh dear. They have improved the co-op from Fable 2, adding things like business partnerships and allowing players to move around where they like without having to be in each others view, but the system of getting into a co-op session with another player is horrendous. Let me run you through the process. First you have to enter the sanctuary, then head to the room with the shop and the various windows where you can view stats. Then you press A on the green glowing stand to enter a random co-op session. You then see a loading screen , before heading to the start menu whilst the game attempts to put you in a game. Now, it’s as this point where things can either fail or succeed. If you succeed, you’ll be looking at another loading screen before entering co-op, where you will either be able to play or the moron you’re with will boot you out for no obvious reason, at which point you see another loading screen, then the start menu, then another loading screen before being placed back into your own world again. If you fail at the start menu, either because the game attempts to put you in a game that’s already full or because you apparently have network problems (yeah, whatever), then you will face another loading screen and then your own world. In short, TOO MANY LOADING SCREENS! I have given up on co-op altogether, because I can’t face being told the session is already full time and time again. Lionhead could have put an option at the start menu to instantly search for a co-op game, thus eliminating the need to go into your own world to do it, but obviously Peter Molyneux thought his load screens were so amazing that we wouldn’t have a problem seeing them all the time.
Then we get onto the main story. SHORT SHORT SHORT. The first time I saw the road to rule, I thought that it couldn’t possibly be that short and that there had to be another section in the castle. Don’t be fooled, what you see is all there is. The main quest is far too short, and far too unimaginative. The first half (more like 80%) of the game tasks you with building a rebellion against Logan and eventually overthrowing his reign, and the second ‘half’ with becoming King/Queen and building a big enough fortune to withstand the incoming invasion of the darkness, a, enemy neither threatening or interesting. On paper, it sounds crap. In game, it plays crap. When you become King/Queen, and you see that you have 365 days remaining until the invasion, you immediately think that you still have a couple of hours left on the game, even with the inevitable time gaps. WRONG. After you become king/queen, if you go through the duties without having a break you’ll be done in less than an hour. Yes, an HOUR. Performing the duties themselves are tedious, where you can either please everybody and therefore sentencing them to death, or piss everyone off but keeping them alive in the long run. That’s basically the last hour of the game in a single sentence. The final boss fight is awful – a simple ten minute job and then it’s done. One year of building a fortune and an army, and all you see is a few baddies and a terrible boss before it’s all over and done with.
So you’ve done the main quest. So I bet you’re thinking you’ve got loads left to do, right? You’re wrong. There are loads of side quests, don’t get me wrong, but the only interesting ones are the quests with achievements attached, such as the game, or the one with you acting out a play. The rest involve either delivering packages/letters or escorting people somewhere. Oh, and there’s the quests of collecting gnomes, books, flowers etc. Wow, what fun that will be!… So you think, ‘Oh, I’ll just play co-op and collect those legendary weapons I’m missing’, but getting into a co-op game is a quest in itself.
Character interactions are stupid beyond belief. I have to get a prisoner back to his cell. Do I knock him out and carry him, cuff him and carry him? No, I hold his hand and gently walk along. WTF?! There are only a few expressions available when interacting with people, all of which make no sense at all (pat a cake???) and look stupid when you’re doing them. No incentives at all to use them.
It’s been a long post, I know, but it’s a miracle I do find some enjoyment in the game. I did like the first half of the main quest before you become king/queen, I do like the swathes of legendary weapons available (the only items I can actually be bothered to look for and collect), the voice cast is excellent on all accounts and the graphics look better. If it weren’t for these, I wouldn’t be interested at all.
After playing it through a second time, I would like to go back on my previous post, i don’t absolutely hate the game anymore, there’s actually one aspect of the game, which is probably the only aspect of the game that i actually enjoy, and that is getting different mutations on weapons to make the most bad-ass looking weapons, i’ve probably spent more time restarting to get a different random mutation than actual game play.
Other than this game being very silly. I wonder why they took out the aging effect for your hero? Like in fable 2 if your hero is evil he’ll grow horns or when u get knocked out you’ll have scars..I like seeing my character age and eventually look like a real hero
Just a couple of things:
I know you think Vortex is useless, but I have found it to be incredibly useful when woven with fireball. It turns fireball into a DoT spell while keeping enemies suspended in place – this is less against your “magic is overpowered” point (which I wholeheartedly agree with) than your “Vortex is useless” point.
I found out recently that you -can- set custom waypoints, of sorts, when fast travelling: hover the cursor over the shop/house you want to go to before you press x, the golden trail will lead you straight to it and you’ll travel in much closer to it. Usually.
I agree with this review 100%. I am so disappointed in this game…I was expecting something great..and got something shit instead. For shame 🙁
You really made me LOL at the whole Black Kid paragraph I was literally Laughing my Head off!
dude if u didnt like the game dont play it. i for one am a fable fan and even if the game wasnt that great i still played it over for the hell of it. in my opinion u need to be both a lover of history, and a die hard fan of fable to understand how good the game is. (notice i didn’t say great) and im sorry if this offends u but if you think the fighting is too hard, and the navigation is hard, then your IQ must be single digit because not once has a fable game EVER given me a challenge, and thats why i like it. a game in which u can kick back, get comfortable and NOT be competitive because theres no possible way to lose in Fable
Oh Elise gave you presents? Guess what my husband Elliot gave me. Nothing. He disappeared. Seriously. I came home from saving the world and he, along with our kid, was gone. They still exist in the menu and map but not in the game. Priceless.
The map is the worst. I can’t find anything. And my breadcrumb trail keeps disappearing too. And when it’s gone you can’t do the quest.
Everything is so damn complicated, I can’t understand why. So, yeah, you are 100% right (except Vortex is fun).
Peter M. always said there would be consequences to every decision. He actual does that and you guys get pissed because you bought the game. Ok.
You complained about the combat being too easy and being too difficult in the same paragraph. Make up your mind.
I think you need an imagination to play a game where you can be whatever you want and actually enjoy it. I sped through the game as a combat magic swordsman and the battles were so much fun. I like that it takes effort to fight guys with a sword, and the cutscenes made it feel like a movie to me.
I don’t know. Sounds like a lot of you guys failed yourselves by having expectations. You should NEVER play a game or watch a movie with expectations the first time. You’ll never get what you thought you were going to get.
P.M. didn’t raise the bar for you, you did.
Take time and look through all the detail and immerse yourself and you might actually enjoy this type of game.
“””””TW-Gameson 30 Oct 2010 at 2:30 am
P.S. Fable 3 is a bloody long game I am currently around 20+ hours in and yes you can save up the 6.5 mil. if you actually take your time and not speed run through the game 🙂 “”””
TW-Games( this is directed to u )
Ill name u a perfect game…. DRAGON AGE ORIGINS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Man it was the best game ever if u rush it as hell its a 70hour gameplay other then that it took me 90hours+ to finish the damn game !!! with add on quests about 110hours or 120hours, and if u try different races and classes itll be longer to plus the expansion adds a 40hours gameplay to it bro 😉 it totaly owned fable in any way.
ever since fable 1 , it had the same problem a 10hour gameplay 😛 wich made the game suck
Assasins Creed 2
Great read. Just started playing fable 3 and already seeing the problems you talk about. No black kid to a white woman yet.
Was a bit shocked once i became king to see the time going down so quickly. Soon realised that you dont have to do the missions as king and you can just go do side missions while your money builds up. Hopefully this plan will work through the whole game so I can keep all my promises and still have enough money to build an army. If not ill play through again and make Logan look like a saint as king
30 minutes in – stopped interacting with NPC’s. Got sick of dancing, whistling, chatting and then shaking hands, in that order, every single friggin time with everyone.
1 hour in – gave up on combat, mashing whichever button flat out regardless of the attack type to win. Can’t die, don’t even get scars. I just started running past all the wolves, mercs etc one side of the map to the other, and if it wouldn’t let me pass through to next area while they lived, just mashed random buttons until everything was dead. Usually just turned the TV on and mashed away for 5 mins then turned it back to xbox to see if everything was dead.
Challenge? = 0% what is the point if you can beat everything in the game without even having to watch the screen!!!!! might as well just had an option at the start screen – “do you want all enemies to just explode when you enter an area?” at least you wouldn’t have to wade your way through a heap of uninspiring ememies that a 2 year old with a whifflebat could smash up.
after 4-5 hours I just turned it off. I could see where it was going and couldn’t be bothered button mashing and dancing with everyone for another 4-5 hours. holding hands? WTF??? dragging some dickhead around the map oh joy.
P.M actually talked this up as unique and a step forward in emotional gaming. BULLSHIT! just plain stupid. The minority of people are saying you didn’t play it through right blah blah, well if I have to play a game how someone else says so it can be enjoyed FAIL! That’s the idea of RPG’s role play how you want, not how the designers want. And as for sandbox, well 5 minutes in and I’d been stopped by a line of impassible mushrooms. Lionheads version of a sandbox, walking up and down a fence line trying to find the one little spot that they decided you could jump over. You’ve been able to climb fences in GTA games for 10 years! ALso bit dissapointed that no one has mentioned Red Dead Redemption as a contender for GofTY????? It kicks arse on anything else so far this year IMO – agree with the vast majority of posters here, review spot on mate, this game is a dud. BTW was a massive Fable fan, Fable 2 – fail – Fable 3 EPIC Fail!
This has to be the greatest review, not only of fable, but ever. I am not one of those guys that just says “I am fable’s biggest fan” Cause im not… i am its only true fan XD, or at least was, until this monstrosity came out. Everything you wrote was spot on! Anyone who thinks otherwise is insane, and unable to process their own thoughts. I re activated my facebook account just to post it there and give it a thumbs up telling everyone how amazing this review truly is. Now, WHOEVER wrote this please send me and email to griffin94n@gmail.com. Id really just like to talk to the genius behind the writing.
p.s. any hate reply to this can save it for something that actually matters.
I completely agree, fable three is merely a clone of fable 2 with many features taken out. Sure a lot of their promises were fulfilled, but in a half assed way. They could have done so much more with it, and with amazing games out like dragon age and mass effect, there really aren’t any excuses for this game to be as it is. I have a small hope that the PC version may be improved, but I certainly wont be spending money to get it.
As the girlfriend of a programmer and someone who has dabbled in computer animation I actually know what goes on behind the scenes, and saw so many simple fixes and improvements, that would have taken no time at all and it boggles my mind that they wouldn’t just take the extra time to do it!
All this feels like is something slapped together quickly to make a quick buck on the fable name. Fortunately I had lowered my expectations considerably so it was only a bit of a disappointment, it really is a shame because of all the potential for the game to have been great. I’d rather they move the release date back and polish the game and make it better then release a game that feels unfinished.
Just a heads up to Paul Tassi and anyone who reads:
The whole jumping ahead ridiculous amounts of days after being king gave me trouble at first two decisions, but I realized pretty quick that all you have to do is not start the missions assigned by the butler, and go off and do other side quests for a while and what not. I did other things and by time I went back, I filled up the treasury so that I could make whatever decisions I wanted and be financially secure anyways, because the number of days till invasion doesn’t change until after you do the kingly missions, which I suppose is taking advantage of a flaw in the game and could definitely be criticized itself ha
@Shony Heartwood Hate reply Hate reply Hate reply. Don’t understand why you can call yourself the only “true fan” if you liked fable 2 but not this one. This one improves the ideas of Fable 2 more than Fable 2 did the first one. Can’t deny that, can you? Seriously?
Sorry if you don’t like gameplay getting more challenging, or paying for your decisions.
WOW THIS GAME IS HORRIBLE
Could it not have looked better??? The FRAMERATE IS TERRIBLE most of the time for no reason at all. Peter molyneux should retire out of the gaming bussiness. Everytime he shows new gameplay elements , and talking about how great it is and all, but its really nothing special.
Yeah the golden trail is terrible, the dog is a bitch, the quests menu…what menu… is really the wors navigation menu ever,
i also miss mini games, i havent seen any, u cant choose a experession, no followers, talking to someone makes the screen go black first for a second.
Its like they took everyting good out of fable, and just gave us some quests n shit.
Even though of all the things that suck, i still like to play it, but we all know it could have been sosooooooooooosoooo much better.
It could have looked like Banjo Kazooie, insted it looks like fable 1 on xbox.
Fable 2 was technically horrible too
I hope this was the last fable game
booyah! WTF! are you serious? game play getting more challenging???? Fable 2 was a romp, enemies were useless but at least they gave you a scar (if you let them) in this they might as well not be there. There was no challenge, can you not see that?? None, zero, zip. Either with sword, spells or guns. If you can go to the dunny and leave your character standing in a bunch of baddies and come back and he’s still alive – EPIC FAIL! They might as well made the whole game a bunch of dialogue and cut scenes to avoid the senseless button mashing. An action/adventure game where the action is so easy a monkey could do it, how exciting! This is either a game aimed at kids who’s parents don’t mind them dealing with adult content, or adults with the gaming skills and expectations of children. Any semi-serious gamer that desires even the slightest challenge has canned it. Evidenced by the 20+ to 1 ratio of people bitching vs defending it here. 10/10 for review – 1/10 for Fable3
I will be honest though i disagree with your decision that fable 2 was worth being a top game of the year, as it was a major disappointment in comparison to the first; you have some very good points i had not considered and thought that the game was seriously better than fable 2, as i still do because at least there is some depth to the story unlike the second where it was just like a bunch of side quests with no real need to pay attention, you raise a very good argument that honestly makes me realize that the game is somewhat disappointing.
I’m not up for a full length reply. So short and sweet, I loved Fable 3 and I really don’t get your rant on the second part of the story, after you become king. The decisions you make leave you thinking about what you’ve just done and immersed you even more into the game. Oh and just a tip if you see the dates going down by great numbers, always assume the current one is the last one, the primary reason being it’s a game and you have noticed dates don’t go own one by one, if they decrease so quickly anyone should have the mentality whatever day it is will be the last. Lastly Fable 3 was a beautiful game, I don’t get how you can’t like the graphics and not be able to tell peoples ages. Either way you touched some nice points, some I agree with, others not so much. In the end I believe Fable 3 was amazing and I hope you change your mind about it or find some other game to fill your gaming needs. Black Ops is out tomorrow =]
I actually like the game, but other than the fact that I enjoy it, I can’t disagree with a single other thing that was said… all of it was true, and all of it I thought at one time or another… I guess I am a pretty lazy gamer myself which is why I find the mind numbing repetition bearable and admittedly, fun… 🙂
I, like you, had anticipated this to be the game of the year for 2010. I had it pre-ordered three months in advance, I was literally counting down the days. I have been a huge fan of the Fable series since the first game released. Also, I, like you, beat it far faster than I had actually anticipated. The whole feel of the game, and now watching my girlfriend as she finally approaches the end, makes me feel like they rushed the release instead of putting in the time to release quality work deserving of the anticipation this game got. Personally, you couldn’t have said it better. This game was in a nutshell, lazy.
I read through your entire post and i have to say i agree with 99.99 percent of everything you said! The game was horribly put together, I noticed every single half ass excuse for programming you mentioned above and many many more. I actually had to restart the game twice, completely restart after playing for 13 and then another 8 hours in the second game because at some point my character would get stuck in an area (the board game quest where the 3 guys shrink you down to play some dumbass save the princess game and again in the cave in Aurora) because of bad programming and there was literally no way to escape the quest or reload an older save or fast travel out of the area. It took me 4 tries to finally complete the game all the way through and all i did was end up missing the treasury deadline completely because i too was lead to believe i had more time and ultimately killed everyone in Albion because i kept my promises… This game owes me about 16 hours of my life back for the shitty way it was put together!!!!! Honestly its been a long time since i have seen a game with this many problems actually be on the shelves being sold to the public. They overlook so many vital points that could have made fable 3 and epic game and just pieced together a poorly made, mindless piece of shit.
My thoughts exactly. The whole game was a disappointment. I was looking forward to this game because I kept hearing about all the “new additions” that would be made but there was nothing new except for the absolutely brilliant gauntlet idea. “Hey let’s limit the options to only six spells total and only one spell at a time.” Completely fucking retarded. It was by far the worst of the three fable games. As far as the ending, yeah it screwed me over too. I had like 15 million of my personal gold but, considering I still had one- third of a year left, I was sure I had plenty of time left to donate, but no it skipped the remaining time without warning. Wow this game is just full of genius ideas. The second fable was lacking in the ending as well. Jack of blades kicked ass and was a good final boss, but lucian gets defeated with one strike. I was really hoping fable 3 would be an improvement, but like I said, it was a disappointment.
@Stealth Womble Like I said. Imagination required lol. Thanks for proving my point.
Don’t know what I’m talking about? You’re missing out.
@Stealth Womble By the way moron, who the hell leaves their game for 30 minutes in a fight as a determining factor of whether the game is good? Just because there’s no consequence to dying doesn’t mean it’s fine to be knocked out, unless you’re ok with losing.
Seems like most of the people here are just looking for a way to reaffirm their feelings toward the game. Why? The review left out the entire “customize your dude” part of the experience and just said shock makes it too easy and melee is too hard for him.
Glitches? Don’t know about you, but I didn’t have any problems. Oh, the kid became black. That ruins the whole game.
Seriously, assaults aside, play the game again. Open your eyes to all the beauty and detail put into it.
Reviews like this make me think the writer grew up with Nintendo64 on up. It’s like you guys never had to use your imagination before. Spoiled gamers is what I call ’em. Go to Fallout New Vegas. I hear that game makes everyone happy.
lol you just stated everything I was thinking about this game. At least someone is telling it like it is.
I’m new to the Fable series and just played Fable 3. It was awful. I hate when developers try to put some kind of morality on your actions that doesn’t even make sense. Let’s look at some facts:
1. The people are unhappy about a 400k gold tax. But they are perfectly happy with the king going around buying *every single business and house* and taking 100% of the profits. Hmm. I’m making 400k/hour now, but apparently 400k/year was too much in tax. And this is a “good” action, as decided by the developers. It’s “good” to lower taxes but completely take over the entire economy. Okay, if you’re communist.
2. Speaking of that, how high could the tax rate have possibly been to begin with? I make something like 50k every 5 minutes. A 400k tax amounts to less than 1 hour. How high was this super burdensome tax, like 1%? Less?
3. Oh the poor children, the poor children have to work, in a developing industrialized economy. It’s “good” to ban that. Never mind the fact that nothing is done to replace the income of the child laborers. Apparently the parents who used to force their kids to work are perfectly happy that you’ve shut them down and reduced their income. Here’s a clue, developers, the parents could have done the same thing on their own! And as for the morality, looking at developing economies like China and India, guess what – in the long run, economic prosperity helps more people than artificial mamby pamby crap. Child labor ends on its own, as soon as economic productivity reaches a point where families can afford it. Until then, real prosperity can’t be dictated by the ruler. “Oh, I decree that you’re all rich now! Nobody work anymore! Yay aren’t we all rich now!?”
4. The people of the kingdom are utterly stupid. Apparently, it’s too complicated and abstract to tell them that there’s an army of shadow assassins who are coming to kill them all. Literally kill every single person. And to stop it.. all we need is 1 gold piece per person.
5. The eeeeevil capitalist pigs, of course they wouldn’t want to rebuild towns or rebuild foreign lands. Why, nobody has ever heard of capitalists wanting to expand the economy or influence foreign lands. WTF? A more realistic dialog would have been the Reaver guy arguing for the rebuilding, and the lesbian “eco warriors” coming up and saying “No, it’s evil to redevelop the old quarter, it should be returned to nature.”
all i can really say is yeah fable 3 wasnt all it was made up to be. but still, i loved it as much as fable 2 if not more. they did indeed take out alot of good aspects that were in two but they also made so many things better such as combat and weapon customization…
if you actually put the time into developing your hero weapons you will be amazed at how many different results you can get upon leveling them up. the same goes to legendary weapons.
if you dont have the ability to appreciate the game, go sell it back to gamestop and buy some FPS that everyone gets overly hyped about only to realize, oh its the exact same game in a different time period….thats cool?
fable 3 is unique as was 1 and 2. if you dont like thewm, then STFU about them and move on with your life. no one said you had to play it again…
Thanks for the review – it helped me to put my finger on why this game was petty unsatisfying. I’m a huge Fable 2 fan, and while I was excited to play Fable 3, I was just as disappointed as you by the 120 days to 1 day leap. Luckily, I already had a ridiculously over-full treasury (as you did, I had a real estate fortune and just chose all the morally good options and donated $7mill of my own money). Okay, I said, maybe now that I’ve finished the story line there will be a bunch of quests that include me making decisions as a monarch, that’ll be cool. But no, nothing. You no longer get to rule.
I seem to remember when Lionhead was promoting Fable 3 in early 2010, they were saying how you could choose to actually be a responsible monarch and rule or run off on quests. I was able to do both, without ever choosing, so wtf was that about?
And don’t get me started on the bloody courier/fetch relationship quests. I like getting Xbox achievements, but those things are bloody annoying, thanks in part to the poor travel/map system. Also, those rare books are bloody impossible to see, and why can’t I carry more than one food item at a time??? 😐
why o why did they bother making all the side quests and no time to do it in i wanted to be good so i kept all the promises wating to finish and start again now i just will trade it in.
Actually you can run the entire game using nothing but sword… takes a little longer and a little more skill, cause they block damn near everything, you just gotta use charge attacks…. and as for all the stupid people around towns that you don’t want to talk to…. well i’m on my 2nd playing of the game… and i find it amusing to slaughter them all…. although the 5 hour wait after clearing out a town is a bit idiotic
@booyah – getting knocked down isn’t losing, don’t you get it? There is no losing in this game. I get knocked down, and I get up again, no body gonna keep me down! Unless you count the punishment they give you at the end if you don’t complete it like they want. Mostly everyone dead, hardly any shops left open, can’t finish side quests etc No imagination required, unless you want me to role play the enemies actualy being difficult? Suppose I could have pretended it was a challenge? What’s the point if it’s mash, mash, mash. I play a MA15+ game with the expectation it’s going to challenge me. This is only rated MA15+ cause of some blood effects and a bit of rude adult content. If I want to play a simple button masher that you can’t possibly lose in, I’ll go rent a G or PG game. At least the ones aimed at kids come out polished and you know what you are getting. The Lego series beats it for difficulty and challenge for fucks sake!Have you noticed how many negative posts there are inbetween your fanboy ones? I’m guessing you’re the type of gamer that still feels satisfied completing a game with all options set to easy and all cheats turned on. But I suppose someone has to fill that niche just below NOOB and slightly above pokie machine addict in the skills department. Good on you mate.
BTW – weapon customisation??? They gave me a trippy hilt for my pistol because of “your use of the fire spell” I’d actually used the spell twice. A customisation system that seems totally random??? No freedom in using potions/food either – here, you drink/eat what we the programmers decide and I won’t even give you an option. Not that you even need them, unless you’re a muppet with no skills or enjoy getting knocked down, or like me tried it just to see if you get a scar, a bruise, a pimple, anything to actually make it a penalty to die.
Fable 2 was crappy but at least they gave you weapon augments, more variety in weapons, clothing and spells. WTF is with CHARGING you for the black dye DLC? First they bend you over with this garbage, then expect you to take it without lube. Nice Lionhead, nice. Can’t fault P.M and their PR dept though. If they can still get shit like this to sell they are pure genius.
I want to know why the eff I can’t see where my health is unless I am about to die!
Im thinking of just totally getting rid of all my 3 fable games.
Fable 3 is so fucking bad, im so sick of it, after completing it the first time, i didnt have enough money to save everyone. It would have been nice if they actually let you know your at the point of no return.
The glitches in this game are driving me nuts, I started a new game, everything fine saved everyone and all, just doing some extra quests….
I get to this cave in the desert, with the platforms, roads of crossing or whatever. one of the plates has risen, but i cant get on it, all other ones dont work anymore, its like the plate rose, but the game thinks it didnt.
The whole game can sink in shit for all i care, I dont pay for games that screw themselves up.
Its not the only glitch in the game
1 the dog takes a long time to position for a dig spot
2 CHARACTER MOVEMENT IS STILL CRAP IN BUILDINGS AND ALL
3 THE SUBERB HORRIBLE FRAMERATE IT SLOWS DOWN FOR NO REASON IN BATTLES WITH 15 ENEMIES, IT RUNS FINE, BUT SWIMMING, OR WALKING THROUGH TOWN, CAUSES THE GAME TO RUN AT 10 FPS
4 SOMETIMES IT WONT LET ME EVEN HEAL MYSELF THE POTION IS SHOWING, AND I CAN PRESS RIGHT AS OFTEN AS I LIKE, BUT IT AINT WORKING, SO I NEARLY DIE AND HAVE TO RUN
5 THE GOLDEN TRAIL IS WORSE THEN SOMEONE PEEING IN YOUR FACE ITS EIGHTER THERE, NOT THERE, POINTING THE WRONG DIRECTION
6 THE DOG POINTS AT TREASURES THAT CANT BE REACHED OR EVEN SEEN
7 no followers
8 NO FREE USE OF EXPRESSIONS
9 SCREEN GOES BLACK FOR A SEC WHEN SPEAKING TO SOMEONE , WHICH TAKES YOU OUT OF THE GAME
10 repairing buildings is boring
11 the map is a joke
12 the game is to short and uninteresting
13 where are the minigames
14 the graphics are not good enough for this day and age
15 the treasure chest contain CRAP silver chest contains a healthpotion…. what is the point….
16 you earn so much money u can buy anything and it keeps building up…
17 the mission system is a mission on its own as u got to go to the map all the time and basicly point n click to get where you got to be
18 making friends is horrible, as u got to act like a dog and fetch stuff for em every time
19 the bars are dead there is nothing in there to do
20 WHERE ARE THE BARDS I ACTUALLY LIKED THOSE
21 sex scenes??? sounds..?? havent heard any of it
all this, and especially the bug that wont let me continue with the game, really turned me from a Fable lover, into a fable hater.
PETER Screw You
Way to blow everything out of proportion. Sword combat is great in this game, especially when you get some of the great slow motion killing shots of your character snapping necks and throwing people with swords.
Hell, me and my wife have been playing this game constantly.
Stop being such a whinebag.
hey chris, i bet your wife is full of glitches and bugs as well and horrible…”gameplay”” hhahaha
LMAO. I accidently drained the lake too and realised there was no going back! I never comment on these sites, but had to on this review. Very funny, and very true. I played Fable 2 over and over (admitedly sometimes I had no choice due to game breaking glitches!) and was totally excited about no. 3.
My major gripe though is about glitches left unfixed from 2.
– Me or dog getting stuck on/in scenery. Within my first 5 mins of play my dog got stuck through a tree and stayed there for much of the game.
– Cut scenes freezing: Walter didn’t get kidnapped from the top of the cliff in the auroran cave. He just stood there with scary music playing for 15 mins until I hit the power button.
– Sparkly trail, I know lots of people have mentioned this, but whenever I have a quest in Brightwall it leads into the Academy. Every single fecking time. I have to go in the Academy and back out and sometimes this fixes it, but sometimes it just points me back into the Academy… repeat.
– I get the framerate prob. too, it’s like wading through treacle, horrible.
– Dog walks in circles for up to 5 mins (I timed it) before finding digspot/treasure. In Silverpines and the desert he barks at invisible treasure!
Other things that annoyed me have already been mentioned. I too got screwed by not realising that time had run out and ended up with an empty world. Everywhere pretty much repopulated over time except Bowerstone market where I still have no shopkeepers. And to all those people who keep saying – ‘you rushed through the game’. That is not the case – the fact is that there is no warning that the game is about to end, 129 days seems like plenty of time to do everything you want to. The final day should be, well the FINAL day not the 129th day. How random is that? It felt really rushed and tacked-on.
Oh and the story made little sense. Why did the darkness come to Albion? Where did it come from in the first place? Why would you wait for a year for it to come instead of going to Aurora and scragging it? At least the plot of Fable 2 made some sense.
Other than that I liked the humour (mostly), liked how it looked (mostly) but am very suspicious that we will again be leeched by Lionhead for more DLC. Black dye, anyone? That has to be a new low. I’m beginning to think the whole DLC thing is a bad idea, allowing developers to release ‘unfinished’ sub-standard games in the knowledge that gamers will stump up even more cash for things that should have been included in the game in the first place. Despite all that I’m still playing it again so I guess I’m just a sad-sack. 😀
@booyah.. HAHAHAHA you thought it was a challenge! Then you my friend are the biggest loser ever to play video games, thanks womble for the back up. I played fable1 3 times, i played fable 1 lost chapters 2 more times, i beat fable 2 seven times! Fable one was by far the best game and most challenging, BECAUSE YOU COULD ACTUALLY LOSE! duh! fable 3 is not an improvment over fable 1 or even 2 it is a HUGE LET DOWN… in case you didnt read the above review.
Shony playing fable 3: i rented it from my local blockbuster at 10:00 PM, went home and started gaming, by 4:00 AM the game was beat, many side quests done, and one unhappy disappointed fable fan remained. All i had to do to win (btw i never got knocked down) was to mash the B button and snuff out every enemy with out touching em. If you call that a challenge then you are sorely mistaken. Oh, and dont even bother responding to this, just take my advice and learn to play video games.
While there’s some good moments to fable 3, there’s just not enough substance even still to redeem the game. IMHO, Fable 3 is the modern ET for the 360.=| True gamers, you know EXACTLY what I mean, rofl.
E.T! YES! LMFAO start digging the big hole out in the desert!!
@Stealth Womble – nice flame! Skills between Noob and pokie addict LMFHO that is a winner! Kids game dressed up as an adult one. This is crap – cheap, rushed, unfinished, basic, vanilla flavoured crap. Nice review/rant. Main selling point – rule your kingdom, what for like half an hour??? Save the people?? Why? They were grey uninteresting morons. Played evil as, didn’t want to save them so kept my money and did all the bad shit to piss them off but still didn’t worry bout having enough cash. Why bother? Even if all bar 10 people in the whole game died you’d still be left with 2 of every type! They didn’t inspire any sort of emotional attachment, hell by the time it got round to the shit ending I’d already been doing my best to kill off all Albions inhabitants by myself! Ripped off, now they’re trying to rip me off more by making me buy black dye! What sad pathetic little people you are Lionhead >:(
@ ChallengeRequired – do my best to please. I’m guessing booyah and the rest of the muppets that thought this was a challenge are the actual target audience. In this age of political correctness the unskilled/easily impressed need games to play too I suppose. Vanilla flavoured crap sounds pretty good too btw! Mmmm tasty Lionhead.
I just think that the IDEA or CONCEPT behind fable is so much more than people give it credit for sometimes. Yes fable 3 was a blow out. but if you’ve played fable 1 you know it can be so much more. Just imagine fable 1 with the graphics of 3 and the same idea/time frame that was the original, what you get is an amazing if not the most amazing rpg ever to be invented! ( of course it couldn’t hurt to throw in some emotional attachments to the characters, like dragon age or mass affect.) And finally please fix all the bugs and glitches before releasing the game to the public! if not for out sake than for your own!
– Fable Fan For Life… because of Fable 1
@Shony Heartwood – no probs mate, always back fellow members of the “I like to be challenged by a game” brigade. Couldn’t agree more with your above post, if they had actually improved on the first Fable (fanboy of that myself) instead of removing a lot of the good stuff and dumbing down the rest in #2 and then just fucking 3 up totally this franchise could have been one of the best in the RPG genre, 100% hands down. Why dumb down everything? It’s not aimed at kids so why make it easier than most kids games? Expressions – pointless, combat – so easy it’s pointess, rinse and repeat. I think the Fable series will, unfortunately, die a quiet death after this one. Although if 4 followed the trend of 2 & 3 it’ll be just like the dude who posted way above said, a field of chickens!
Fable III isn’t that bad. Your just saying that the whole game is terrible and completely disagreeing with the people who write in game magazines. They do it for their jobs! If they weren’t right they would go out of buisness. Also, you rant on about how terrible everything is. If you actually wrote about something good ( Hero swords, bigger regions, improved co-op etc) I might actually take it on board. You sound like you just hate Fable III. If you like Fable II more Shut up and play it again. you just bitch about it. I dare you to bitch about cod black ops.
I totally agree with your tirades. The game was fair until the aurora map where I dove next to the boat and I am forever stuck in the belly of the boat with no way out. What a joke this game is.
I happen to think your problem with the humor happens to be that’s it’s British humor which is typical for an American audience. British humor tends to go over the heads of us Americans which is why most British comedies don’t make it unless they are dumbed down (take The Office for example).
I happen to think the ability to have a weapon change to fit your character was a great idea. I think it needs a little work, but it would be exciting to see similar feature like that in future games (not just the Fable series).
I was someone who was a little put off by the lack of menus at first. However, most of the menus really are unnecessary. I think the whole Sanctuary idea is a good start but I think it would be nice to be able to access things such as your wardrobe from any house that you own in the game as well as your “bat cave”.
I think the current design of the item shop is great but lacks the ability to sift through items. Example: when visiting a pawn broker, you are able to sift through your items by tapping RT/LT to see a different set of items. This would have been a great feature to add to the item shops instead of having to face the item being purchased. Similarly, you should be able to bring up item choice by tapping RB/LB so you can choose the item you want to use whenever you want to use it (this would still allow for minimal HUD use but also give the user a little more control over item use).
A health bar (even one that is only on screen during battle) would be nice also and perhaps hitting “Back” or some other button to view it whenever you weren’t in battle. Not that I’ve died very many times, but it seems to me that I shouldn’t care (besides the occasional scarring). In a real RPG, dying forces you back to your last save point which makes you think a little more so that you don’t have to do something over. In this case, you just lose you progress to the next Guild seal. Big deal. I’ll make it up on the next battle.
The dynamic touch feature is the biggest step backward of the whole game. Fable 2’s expression wheel was excellent. A fine tuning of that would be all Fable 3 needed for Expressions. Not every feature has to be new and innovated. The Expression wheel was fine. They should have left it alone. The new “Dynamic touch” feature is so utterly ridiculous, it almost makes friending someone a chore.
And speaking of making friends, the Relationship Quests were fine when I had to friend important people of the story line but get kind of tedious when you have to do it for everyone you want to love you and unlock achievements (or weapon upgrades). The old way of getting people to like you with, again, some fine tuning, was just fine. Besides, I miss being able to impress a crowd with a sock puppet show.
I happen to agree they could have done a little better work on character models, but I don’t think it takes that much away from game play. I haven’t experienced the glitch with the children yet as all my children have come out the same race. You could skip the whole marriage thing and just adopt a child (and unlock an achievement). However, it seems impossible to me to get an adoptive child to love you whereas your biological child will love you after receiving only one gift. I haven’t be able to trigger “love” from my adopted child. And the children in general get rather demanding. “Please daddy, I really want it”. It almost makes you want to divorce your wife (or fire the nanny–whose name is Dave in my game btw) just so the kids will be sent to the orphanage and you won’t have to deal with it anymore.
As far as map locations are concerned, a mini map that you can choose to have on screen or not would be most helpful. The fast travel is a little quirky but I do like the concept of being able to see the map in real time (and I agree that a “You are Here” dot would be most useful). My criticism has to do with the locations. Has Albion really changed so much in 50 years that place like Oakfield have disappeared completely? What happened to Bloodstone and Westcliff? Did they cease to exist? The only reference we get to the whereabouts of a missing location is when you decide to help settle Driftwood whose people are descendants of the gypsy’s that raised the late Hero. It would be nice to return to some other places and see how they changed rather than just Bowerstone all the time (wish I could go back to Knothole island and mess with their weather some more).
I have yet to become ruler of Albion so I can not comment on that part of the game yet. Please note that I will write a full review on my own site when I do complete the game.
You childish rant was largely unfair. You are whining about the things you don’t like and don’t give any real explanations as to why. The game is flawed and did not live up to expectations. But it’s not the worse game I’ve ever seen (Unlimited Saga was probably the worst game I’ve ever played). Nobody like a crazed child throwing a temper-tantrum. They want to see an intelligent, well thought out argument as to why something is good, bad, or just lacking in a few things.
BTW: Best Fable quote ever comes from Fable: The Lost Chapters:
“If I had my lips, I’d kiss you. The worms ate them though”. -Ghost Woman.
Seems like you guys have completely missed the point of this game. Again, imagination required. That’s what the game is based on (all three of them). I read both you clueless dudes’ posts and yeah (yes I read the stupid revue, moron). Not all games have to be about live or die, helloooooooo!? Sometimes it’s about playing a story and that’s it. You want game over? Play the hundreds of other games that give you that and quit crying. Sorry that one or two of them didn’t include that stupid screenie. Are you telling me that when you hit game over, you quit playing the game? Probably not, so you play from your last save, right? Well then what difference does it really make? In the end, none. This game just saves you time – that’s it.
On the glitches – I don’t know what you guys are doing, but I’m half way through my second playthrough and the only glitch I’ve come across is one time where an enemy just stood still. I killed him and moved on, big whoop. Maybe I’m just lucky.
Thanks for nerdraging me. You have no idea what kind of person I am, much less how I play games. Assuming isn’t winning, but thanks for trying.
You may now continue hating this game. Too bad for you.
Booyah: I never said I didn’t like the game. I simply said I wasn’t finished with it. Just because someone likes a game doesn’t mean they can’t point out the obvious flaws in it. The story seems to me to be rather short. I’m someone who is hopeful though that there will be some more quests and story elements added in DLC.
Like it or hate it, there are obvious problems. In Silverpines for example, there is a place where my dog insists that there is a treasure that simply isn’t there. A quick Google search showed me I wasn’t the only one. In Bowerstone Market yesterday, I actually got stuck in my house where I couldn’t move from the spot I was standing without using the fast travel from the sanctuary. The game is not glitch-free. The glowing trail is also a pain sometimes. There are times I followed it through three different areas only to have it suddenly change directions for no apparent reason and take me back through the same three areas again.
I am enjoying the game (however short the story is). I’m someone who likes to explore though and also, I am using the weapon customization to it fullest (which requires, for some weapons, lots of extra time). Unlocking achievements is also a challenge that I enjoy trying to accomplish.
Someone on here commented that this game should be “carefully planned and executed” or something along those lines and a few others agreed (some of which declared it obvious). Maybe after playing it the first time you know to plan but honestly who expected from the beginning that you would need that kind of money (unless you spoiled it for yourself before). Suggesting people are stupid for not expecting that is idiotic. Anyways it’s just a game! No need to get so vicious and defensive! To each his own right?
I do have a couple of problems with this Fable 3 but they aren’t that big of a deal. The first being personal really. Even though the world is much larger the whole time playing I felt it was much smaller. In fable two there seems to be more places on the map and everything felt much more epic. I could be (and probably am) wrong but the new Albion just feels small to me even including Aurora. Secondly, I’m sort of disappointed in how little side-quests there were. Sure there were a few fun ones like The Game but the rest were more annoying then fun. Leading people by the hand is a pain in the but.
The rest of the problems I had fall under the arguments presented in this article. However I still immensely enjoyed the game. The storyline was great despite some predictable aspects and I was happy to actually fight something at the end even if it was too easy. Better than have someone else shoot the villain for you! 😉
@booyah – use your imagination, use your imagination, use your imagination……man you are about as repetative and boring as the game! If I want to just walk through a fantasy story looking at the scenery, laughing at the classic humor and enjoying the plot I’d go rent one of my favourite movies : Monty Pythons Quest for the Holy Grail. Aussies get Pom humour too you know! If I want to actually feel like part of the story and get right into the world I expect more than this. Uninspiring inhabitants with no variation or personality, expression system – tedious and no choices at all & actually makes you not want to use it, action/adventure combat game with a broken combat system, sandbox game thats not. Bigger areas sure but if half of it you can only look at – big deal. I WANT to go climb on that rock, (which I wouldn’t be able to anyway as I can only jump when they want me to, no jump in a sandbox WTF) cause I WANT TO! Not have it block off by impassable mushrooms cause the developers decide I don’t really need to go over there. Not about living or dying it’s about giving a shit if you or anyone else does. IT was just a lazy half arsed attempt at what could have been the best of the series. It’s not hate for Fable, it is massive, massive dissapointment. Instead of just saying “use your imagination” and “I didn’t have glitches” (look around the net you are the only person in the world who hasn’t) how about trying to refute any of the actual game play gripes people are having. Can anyone honestly say they didn’t dumb this down to the point it should be a G release????
i agree with everything you said i loved fable 2 and never got the chance to play fable 1 and does everyone have a black child or something? because i did, i wouldnt mind if i married a black woman but two white patents having a black child just takes the fun out of it. and whenever i worked the game would lag and i lost my gold multiplyer did anyone else have this problem? also my 2 favorite places from number 2 were gone! hero hill and oakfield! what the hell? gooey system doesnt work i ended up dancing with men when i wanted to shake their hands then when i become king i couldnt shake their hand! thats all our Queen ever does so why can we not do that in a game lol it was a good game if you never played a fable game before and the story wassnt bad but it could of been improved but the worst thing was the item thing whats up with that? i couldnt give someone an item, i couldnt even use an item and diddnt even know where they were lol and you cant rename your spouse anymore which is annoying and you still cant change their clothes! or your kids! the biggest piss take of all is when i found all the limited collectors edition content in the in game shop a week later so basicly i payed about £25 extra for a box a coin and playing cards
I know this post is kind of late but read it anyways if you are a Fable fan.
It sounds like you just went through the story mission and did not try to thoroughly explore the game or accomplish all of the achievements. For instance, trying to find all the gnomes or the rare books, this requires side line missions which take you off the main story and off its timeline, thus allowing you to make more money, buy, invest, and save everyone in the kingdom.
I agree with some of the things you commented on like how you interact with the villagers, getting people to follow you by holding their hand, how the women look the same dispite their age, how when your character marries someone (that is not a prostitute) and sleeps with them they still contract an STD, and the ability to choose particular expressions is gone amongst other things. (I really miss that.) I can agree with all of this, it is disappointing. Although, I do have to say it was humorous how you stated the the way you make a pie is the same as forging a sword. Plus the dancing the same way with people regardless of gender.
You mentioned that the “sword is more or less useless.” All games have seemingly “useless” weapons. It is more challenging using the sword in the last battle and throughout the game than using magic, rifles, and pistols. Relating it to Halo Reach with just using the pistol on legendary knowing there are better items you can use is a good example, but the real question and challenge is: can you accomplish the goal just using that useless weapon? Each player has a different skill set, what they are comfortable with, and fighting style. Personally, I like the up close and personal melee attacks. Try Assassin’s Creed just using the assassination blade…alone. See the ‘Bleeding Effect’ on YouTube.
Another thing I found out is that YOU CAN save up 6.5m gold when you start your reign as king in the 365 day time frame, even if you haven’t bought shops and/or rent out houses. This is for everyone else as well.
When the “royal schedule” begins, there is a point within the game where you can go out and work to earn gold to buy shops and rent out houses to earn more gold. Here’s the fun part, there are two time frames in the game. There’s the storyline mission time and your run-around-do-whatever-you-want time. When you run around and do whatever you want to earn money, the 365 days will not pass (or at least it didn’t for me) unless you continue the storyline mission. You can even watch the it change from night to day, it will still 365 days left before the “great attack.” I actually earned up to 8 mil gold in the royal treasury and I still had 200+ days left.
Another thing, if you look at the time between Fable 1 and 2, Lionhead had three years to make Fable 2 and polish up what needed to be fixed, and to top it off they add in the Knothole Island missions and Murgo the Trader cursed items and special items. With Fable 3 Lionhead only had two years, AND fans were screaming for the game to be released sooner than Lionhead may have really wanted to.
But from what I noticed yesterday, Lionhead had put out the last of the dye colors, the industrial armor and some other little items in the recent released add ons. The other thing I noticed is that when I pressed the left and right bumpers there was a section that said “Quest Offers” that was empty, but probably indicates that they’re going to put in new quests. So Lionhead is not leaving us in the dark with a “bad game”. They’re still working on it, but it’s just going to be a while. Don’t be an impatient fan and complain that you want your bottle now. Go out and accomplish the achievements and set some personal goals in the game for yourself while waiting for the add-ons.
I did not hate Fable 3 though there were things I did not like about it. Not being a “gamer” I thought in the end it was not so bad as people here was making it sound.
I played Fable 2 all the way though but I only play part of the first Fable since it was a rental I never got really far and did not really remember much of it.
With everyone talking about how much better the first Fable was when I was able to get a used copy for $10 I figured why not. The first fable really does seem more thought out.
All fable games seem easy to play but the first one seem a little harder then the rest. (Maybe it just me getting use to the controls.) Anyway I do agree that the first one is by far the best.
Had I played Fable 1 all the way though before playing Fable 3 I may really be a hater of Fable 3 like many other here are. Because I too would have expected much more from the game.
I see clearly many of the valid points made about Fable 3 and even 2 for that matter. Not that it matters much but I no longer think the writer of this review for Fable 3 is just a hater that wants to run the game down. =)
@shaun – yeah I have the lag thing which screws up trying to make pies or play the lute or whatever.
Several new glitches today: I can’t haggle anymore, everytime I try the screen goes black and then I can’t examine or buy the item in question.
I can no longer interact with any of the children in Bowerstone Industrial – they keep getting annoyed because I won’t give them an autograph for Christ’s sake.
I can’t hold hands with one of my husbands and so can’t bump uglies with him and so he is very upset…
Another husband has the ‘receive’ option but no gift so when I press A i just go to the interaction screen, again ruling out taking him home for a quickie.
A child standing in a doorway trapped me in a house in Bowerstone market – I am a hulking adventurer but it seems I cannot push a child out of the way. I had to warp away before the owner called the guards… (Another holdover from 2)
These are just TODAYs glitches, not to mention everyone calling me a murderer when the person I was delivering a package to was killed by bandits. I was like ‘huh?’ how’s that work then?
I could go on, so to the guy who has had no glitches, why not? Seriously, I’m getting worried this could be my xbox.
Oh and the controller keeps disconnecting – has this happened to anyone else? It’s happened with three controllers so I know it’s not them, but maybe my xbox is about to go tits up…
I mean forget game play, graphics, story line, this game shouldn’t be in shops with such bad glitches. 1 and 2 had problems sure, but nothing like this. It’s just not funny any more.
Oh yeah, by the way…………….VULGAR PELVIC THRUST!!!!
@Zane – got the bottle, just nothing in it! All babies cry if you give them an empty bottle. DLC is a lazy developers cop out. They can now release games full of glitches and game breaking bugs and expect people to buy it cause “we’ll fix it all later with a patch, so it’s cool” or leave half the things out that should have been in there to start with cause they want to rape some more cash out of you. Black dye anyone? Could have been the best, easily the worst. BTW – to the “you just rushed it” crowd -done ALL gnomes, books, keys, ALL side quests, wandered through EVERY map like 20 times and other shit and still smashed it in a few days. If they tell you that you have 1/5 keys etc for a map it’s really no mission to find them. Had more money than Bill Gates but didn’t save the retards as they were retards. As I said previously I was already trying to kill them all anyway, why would I give a flying fuck if they were all killed by someone else? Apart from my punishment, “cause you didn’t go through it like we wanted, and cause we are a bunch of unimaginative turds @ Lionhead who couldn’t design an alternate ending, this is your penalty” Like Womble says, no hate just dissapointment on a grand scale. If others enjoy it fine, but I’m still yet to see a concise, intelligent argument as to why the original reviews game play issues are incorrect? Unless you count “use your imagination” x 100 as an argument?????
@ChallengeRequired- That’s great that you went through and did all that. The thing is that you have people that just want to go through the story line as fast as possible with the overpowered weapon of mass distruction. Then they start wamping on the game for particular things on blogs and ruin the gaming experience for other fans and players. Plus you have those gamers that stay up day’s on end drinking Redbull, Monster, etc. and suck all the hours of gameplay in one sitting, then they say, “Yeah, I beat the game. Too short.” Then you ask, “How long did you stay up and did you sleep at all?”
I agree with you on the point of how games come out with glitches and now-a-days they’re about to fix it with some patches later on and pump some more money out of your pocket. These new game system developers do the same thing. RED RING OF DEATH ANYONE?
Lionhead probably said “Ok, they’re wanting Fable 3 now so lets give them something to chew on and if they want the add-ons they’ll be there once we’re done with them.” But it’s better they do something about the problems now than never.
@Zane – pelvic thrust lmao. ‘Get a load of this’ in all my moaning I’d forgotten how funny that was, and the kiss ‘marks out of ten?’. Hilarious… for the first ten times. I just miss being able to take off all my clothes and do the pelvic thrust in the middle of the town centre. But back to the game…
tbf I do tend to sit up into the wee small hours with some games and so complete them faster than more sensible people, but this does not forgive the tacked on ending or lack of interesting side quests. I seriously don’t want to deliver any more packages, I’m the Queen for feck’s sake, not some common lackey!
And just because LH can release extra content and patches at a later date, doesn’t mean they should. I wouldn’t expect to pay £40 for a shirt and then have to pay an extra £20 for the sleeves later.
There are genuinely original and funny things in this game, but the positives in my opinion are overshadowed by the fact that glitches from 2 have been carried over, why weren’t they fixed?
As to the combat, I have no problem with it being too easy, I don’t play a game like Fable for high adrenaline, grasping for a check-point, repeating boss battles over and over type battle. I’ll play Left 4 Dead or GTA if I’m feeling the urge for that kinda thing. That’s not to say that the combat isn’t flawed. In 2 I favoured my trusty legendary katana, smeck! In this one I find that instead of targeting on enemies, I charge up a flourish and smash wildly at a tree. So I have had to rely on the area magic attacks, because the targeting system seems to be broken. Before you hardcore lot say anything, it’s not me, I had no problems in 1 or 2. Probably the best thing would be a difficulty select so all you hard lads could do it on super punishing and those of us who can’t be arsed could go for lame and lazy battling.
Oh I have to add (spoiler) the ending of the gnome quest was superb – YOU’RE A TWAT! Do you think he was referring to Peter M.? I forgive the whole game just for that line. 😀
Allow me to preface by saying absolutely fantastic review. I had a great time reading and agree with everything said. In response to people who are upset that it was a bitchfest I’m slightly confused because within the first three paragraphs prefacing the review I believe I read:
“It’s a rant of epic proportions clocking in at 2,800 words and counting. I detail each aspect of the game that infuriates me, and if you’re a fan of the series, or just come here because you like hearing me bitch about stuff, then boy, this is the post for you.”
which as far as I can tell admits that it is a rant and admits it’s bitching. So clearly you all must have missed that portion of the article.
The only thing I will rant about is the “you must make sacrifices even if you’re good to insure everyone survives” bullshit. Congratulations to the developers for trying to take gaming to a higher and more philosophical level but …. it’s gaming. I came here to beat the shit out of hobbes and watch balverines fry and get some ballin looking wings that all the commercials seemed to emphasize as the new morality indicator. To those of you who find this a novel idea try actually opening up a book and taking your eyes of the screen for awhile. When I want to consider the meaning of my choices in life I’m more than willing to go back and read War and Peace again or pick through different authors from the transcendental period … I just want my wings! (…. oh wait I’m not charging an attack -_- ) and for the record I was one of the guys who made all the good choices and donated a good 10mil to the treasury so that I saved everyone and made all good choices, yet I still recognize the faults here.
On to the bulk of my complaints which I will not put emotion behind but rather approach analytically.
1. I was trying to use my mini-map to find out where I should be running, only to find that (a) I wasn’t on the mini-map and (b) the mini-map did not accurately display the layout. Roads were missing and scale completely distorted.
2. One of the more unique (I won’t say novel because I’m not sure it is) characteristics of the Fable series was the broad range of interaction options. TLC started great and was only improved upon in Fable II by the wheel.
3. I was so happy when I first ran through Mistpeak and saw how large the game play area was. I killed a few wolves and was excited to see how the challenges evolved. In TLC and F2 I ran everywhere, excited to fight constantly. In F3 I got sick of running without having to pull out my sword, I guess the balverines decided to take a break this game.
4. Faulty dog mechanics and the lack of the staple Fable morality-based physical feature change (the sometimes-there-wings don’t count) have been bashed enough. However, definitely a fault.
5. I love Fable swordplay. However I noticed that whenever fighting more than one enemy the system became hindered and in some cases downright useless. A particular fight against some mercenaries comes to mind. I believe it was a group of four, I get a few strikes in on one and he begins to block. The other three are standing too far back to switch to so I start to charge a flourish when the other three bumrush me. I roll away, block a shot or two, and find myself in the exact same situation. This is not an example of good combat mechanics. I got sick of the need to use magic. Whatever happened to my choice to be a hero of strength, skill, will, or whatever hybrid I choose?
6. I married several women (who all looked and sounded the same by the end), had an unknown amount of kids (white,black, red, yellow, green, i stopped paying attention), became a master at the lute (which the fact that every profession was the same greatly saddened me, and would not have been fun if my girlfriend and I hadn’t made a huge competition of it) finished every side quest. Nothing popped. I recognize this is opinion but TLC and Fable II had me mesmerized the entire time. I can’t help but feel utterly disappointed. I eventually came to realize that indeed my wives were ugly as shit and they all had me wanting to recite “The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain.” over and over again. The social dynamic of the game should just be removed if they don’t intend on making improvements.
7. F2 saw a decrease in the diversity of equipment. F3 fell further down this spiral. I miss the days of equipping a sword for a while, then feeling particularly destructive and gouging out a few eyes with a sick obsidian pickaxe. I remember when I actually had to have physique to carry around a hammer as big as I am (let alone throw it up in the air). Hooray to the evolving weapons F3 brought about. Too bad base damage is all but universal and I only get to choose between a hammer and a sword.
8. Even a structured countdown of my kingship would have been appreciated. Rather than sporadic and random shifting of days.
***** POTENTIAL SPOILERS *****
I’m going to fall back to ranting to address my greatest issue with the game. WTF was that final boss fight? There might have been 2 stages? For anyone willing to defend this part of the game do you even know who Jack of Blades is? The Fable franchise set up epic proportions, fell a little when I fought a I giant spire that aoe’d the shit out of my useful dog and made me sad, and then hit rock bottom when I fought the darkness that looked like he might have put up a fight until he manifested in Walter (who is the most badass character since JoB) and ended up just being 5 minutes of me dodging a line he shot out while I just sat there and played a game of Simon to determine which sequence of colors I should push on the controller.
***** END SPOILERS *****
For those of you who are just going to say “oMfG-eesus ur so dumb i<3 f3 go kill urs3lf" please don't bother posting. I am actually interested in hearing intelligent replies and other's opinions if they have reasons. I'm not saying I hated everything about the game but in this case the bad outweighed the good. Maybe someone can sway me to find more positives or maybe something I missed. I'm not looking for the perfect game but when I buy a new game, I the consumer do feel the right to expect the developers who want me to buy their game to make improvements, and not throw out other aspects that worked extremely well (inventory and expression choice). When I buy an RPG it means I should be able to play the way I want, and have a freedom to make choices. Fable devolved, even from aspects of TLC.
To the guy who's about to post "if you don't like it don't play" I don't intend to anymore. As a matter of fact my die-hard preorder LD days of the Fable franchise are over. If/when Fable 4 comes out I will wait to rent it and we'll go from there. I hope beyond belief they learn to improve.
(Personal note: Assassin's Creed to Assassin's Creed 2 was an example of learning to improve everything. So it can be done, not doing so is laziness. Here's to developers learning from their mistakes! Cheers!)
@Zane – No Redbull mashfest, 3-4 hours a night for 3 nights but I know what u mean. I try to do opposite, all other stuff b4 main storyline cause as others have said they are pretty short these days in RPG’s. That’s why I was so unhappy with it, I did try to take my time, I did try to enjoy it, I did try to use my imagination (@ u booyah you easily impressed tool “use your imagination” repeat till you believe it buddy) but you can’t pretend a game is good or a challenge. So many elements were broken to the point of not wanting to do them, again with the dance? Patty cake AGAIN! Shops??? Items??? I CAN”T EAT MY PIES! Used to love kicking back in the pubs, munching a bit of meat/fish/vegies, followed with a pie or two all washed down with so much grog I’d chuck all over the place. Then I’d get everyone else in the pub smashed too! Might even get lucky with one of the town sluts, Party time oh yeah! Now everyone is one of 4-5 character types, can’t give them anything, they all talk the same and you can interact with only one person at a time. As for no followers and holding hands…well fuck me, awesome. Never posted about a game before but this one has made me so sad I had too, my expectations were so much more, but they barely even improved on 2 in anything but graphics. Shouldn’t a sequel get better? Am I really expecting too much?
@challenge required:
NO, you are completely right, a game should get better, and it didn’t. id say if you cant improve upon what you have previously created, than why bother? They could have easily improved on that game with less than a a week of tweaking, and maybe if they would have spent less time trying to sell what they knew wasn’t worth selling yet, and more time working with what they had, we just maybe could have been playing a fable 1 with suped up graphics, interactive cpus, and a butt kickin story line that takes more than 3 hours to beat. By the way i don’t drink energy drinks, i have an incredible imagination (enough to write fantasy novels), and i have played video games since i was a tot. It took me 4 hours to beat the game and do additional side quests.
I did not appreciate the character interaction in fable 3, i do not like the fact that gamers that like a challenge can not get it with fable anymore, i hate the way that they somehow just made an “rpg” without any attachment to the role in which i was supposed to play, and i don’t give Lion Head Studios any slack because of the self same reason that i appreciate them to begin with… THEY CAN DO SO MUCH MORE! We have all witnessed that by simply looking at the concept of FABLE… or at least, what was Fable.
true all of it but i wonder how bad will the updates be add WTG1 gamer tag
Stealth Womble … Wow. Just wow. You remind me of a kid who asks his mom to make him a pie, even though it’s her first time making it, then complain about it being watery.
Name one other platform RPG that let’s you morph your looks, morph your weapon and your abilities according to how you’ve decided to play. Hmm, not much out there, huh?
Listen, you have to acknowledge that Lionhead has attempted to make a game unlike any other out there by letting you be who you want.
You would do yourself a great service and save yourself a lot of frustration if you learned to be a little forgiving. Have you ever worked in computer programming? Let’s say that you’ve worked in programming all your life. Since the beginning, there have been glitches.
When you try to fix glitches, sometimes fixing small bugs create big bugs. Sometimes fixing big bugs creates small ones. It’s like trying to recreate Earth and all the life on it. You can fix a lot of things, but you will never fix everything and it will never come out completely perfect, and this is common knowledge of course, because you’ve always worked in programming, Stealth Womble.
Look, be thankful for the gaming experiences you get. There are people out there, like the ones in Lionhead, who are trying something different, nomatter where they are on the pioneer scale.
Whining about their mistakes does nothing. Educated, constructive criticism may help, if you know what you’re talking about.
Thanks to whiny reviews like this, Lionhead may be financially obligated to start over. Maybe that’s a good thing, maybe bad. We’ll see. In the meantime, I say let Lionhead keep experimenting in these new game features unseen until now.
The Fable 3 world I played, it was very richly detailed. Seems like you couldn’t see any of that because you were upset about development choices you didn’t agree with.
I’m sorry you didn’t enjoy it, but you can’t always have games exactly the way you want, unless you make your own. Even then, good luck.
And again, any actual response to the many faults listed by myself & 95% other posters? Do u like lack of expresions,shop items,choice of food,potions,followers,scars,decent treasure,variety in npcs,no more head-weapon-groinshots? Yes?No? Just more its good cause booyah says so, ok…..at least u didnt tell me to use my imagination again.
And again, any actual response to the many faults listed by myself & 95% other posters? Do u like lack of expresions,shop items,choice of food,potions,followers,scars,decent treasure,variety in npcs,no more head-weapon-groinshots? Yes?No? Just more its good cause booyah says so, ok…..
Whoops
yeah id have to agree this game is pretty horrible, and its sad i was able to beat what was said to be a long story line in just two days, the game was so poorly put together, shopping was a complete nightmare, my son had asked for a toy sword so i go out to to the gift shop to get it but i cant shop! i got to buy whats on the shelf, i am so disappointed with the game, i never really got into it, i didnt feel the emotion and whats the point and being good when the only way to save the people is be evil or save a ridiculous amount of gold before you even start ruling the kingdom? i have to give this game a F for effort and a F in quality, worst game i have ever played and i loved the Fable series
Lolz. Ok dude. Call yourself part of the 95 percent and ignore my intellectual challenge.
Gave up on the imagination thing because … well, you play for mechanics – got that figured out now.
Those who need advice desire it the least and those who don’t need it desire it the most, as it’s said.
Go back to Fable 1 TLC if you love it so much.
@booyah. And again nothing substantial just more cause booyah says so. Can u not answer a question? No wonder u like it, repetative and boring suits u.
What booyah doesn’t understand is that not all of us hate the game. We are just frustrated that we spent $50+ for a game that took a step backwards on so many things. For everything it took 1 step forward in, it took 2 steps backwards in other areas (the biggest thing being the removal of the expression wheel). Booyah must enjoy dancing with Dave the shop keeper the same way he dances with Julia the beggar. Imagination or not, the fact that “Dance” is one of the most common choices creates a lot of awkward moments. I still wonder what happened to the handshake expression. Haven’t seen it since the beginning of the game. I think it is more appropriate to give me handshake for Dave rather than dance. And did anyone else find it rather awkward when the Hero tickled some perfect stranger?
Booyah said: “you cannot fix everything and nothing is going to come out perfect”. Agreed but that’s no excuse for laziness. And granted, you might not be able to fix everything, but why on earth would you take out the features that DID work? Seems rather counterproductive to me. And leaving out obvious things such as a “You are Here” marker and the ability to use items whenever you want is also baffling. I don’t understand in my wildest “imagination” why they would take that away from us.
You may now return to your imagination.
One more note: For those of you who think Fable 3 is the worst game ever, go and play Unlimited Saga (Square-Enix, PS2) for 20 minutes. It’ll make you want to hang yourself, seriously. Brownie points if you actually finish it.
Paul, you made me laugh my ass off, and sadly, I have to agree with your assessment. Fable 3 has really disappointed, and at first, while I was eager to go back and work on achievements, even that now seems like a chore. I’m thinking of selling back the game.
Even a Knothole Island quest chain couldn’t save this game.
I must say I’m glad you can post here without logging in. I hate googling a site that involves a commenting option only to find I need to go through a long sign up process on a site I may never re-visit. Nothing against this or any other site but I search for the reviews I like, regardless of site, and when they’re all scattered I’d like to not have to join every last one of them.
Anyways, I just got FO3 not long ago, thinking to give it a try for low $$ before new vegas. Can’t say I’m impressed. Gameplay = slow, mechanics = outdated, storyline = 90% of the time I couldn’t give a shit. Thats the easiest way to put it, the combat and slowness probably pissed me off the most, like really I would rather just shoot moving targets, but sometimes the bees and shit can move way too fast, so then I’ve got that freeze frame deal, which is cool at first but then becomes apparent that I’m not playing a game, just telling something to do something. I do get the whole you have nothing you just came out of a hole things will take you forever to do idea, but I mean seriously don’t we play games to get a “simulated” version of what it would be like, jam packed with entertainment, not life as you know it, which is slightly less boring than real life.
Okay okay, more on topic. I liked your review, I hope its not a drastic exaggeration. I find it funny you enjoyed fable 2, I burned through that shit somewhere within 2days to a week, I can’t remember it was so fast. Fable 1 actually oddly enough took me time, and seemed very fun and interesting. I think alot of the additive things in fable 2 that I couldn’t be bothered with that weren’t involved in fable 1 probably explain why I liked the simplicity of what went on in fable 1. I did beat both very quickly though, but was glad when I beat fable 1 so fast I didn’t just spend a ton of money. And again, I enjoyed fable 1 whereas fable 2 felt more like a chore, I knew my goal, just needed to blacksmith forever to get it kindof an idea.
I haven’t heard much good on Medal of Honor, so I’m not too interested in sinking my teeth into that. I just got Halo Reach, and I’m pretty pleased, mostly with the online play. I feel its just got something that feels completely different from your standard fps. Sticky grenades, non-realistic army like fighting, crazy melee and assassinations, etc. I may look into Black ops just to gain a more standard fps style game, and my next stop is to research on AC brotherhood. I didn’t get AC2, maybe I’ll look into testing that, but I know I loved AC1. The only thing I wished I got more in fable 2 and the reason I didnt get AC2 was lack of online gameplay. I hear its coming to brotherhood so maybe my wishes will be granted. There just seems to be a dying day to non-online games, as much as I know there will always be people who don’t want the carnage and speed of a fps, nor do they enjoy it, and there will always be people who find MMO’s mind numbing, non-requiring of skill, wastes of time.
I must say if you have to judge MMO’s I loved Everquest in comparison to WoW – WoW just seemed like it was too interested in pleasing the mainstream gamers and forgot about the hardcore origin, which in my mind, is the core of people who play those games in the first place. And yet it is so successful, because all things glow and are pretty, and it seems it was much more well broadcasted by media so anyone who has friends who play that genre found that everyone and their dog had it, and how could they not. – Its also very difficult to startup in Everquest now, this late into the game’s creation, so you may find it easier to just grab WoW – but if I were an MMO veteran, knew what I wanted and what I was getting into, I would so shell out the cash for a pre-played maxed out character and go from there. I know to people unaware it sounds like skipping a vast portion of the game, and it is, but it allows you to jump into a great raiding guild and actually do what you came to do.. Get l33t stuffs 🙂
I will always respect though a person who has played their char. from the start, as I did that with my Iksar Necro, and wow the skills I learned at low level and became fluent with put me well ahead of any unskilled pre-bought player in my #1 guild on the server.
Thats my bit, I hope the AC brotherhood online gameplay lives up to its potential, this review has turned me away from getting F3, as I was also displeased with F2, and I’ll probably grab black ops aswell while I’m at it, seems promising.
Oh, don’t cry about spending 50 bucks on this game. It’s called a rental. You know Fable has been going off the beaten path since the 2nd one – with plenty of glitches to boot, by the way. Complaining about buying it just makes you look stupid.
Yeah, the expressions are repetitive, but honestly, were the expressions in any of the games really that interesting?
Bah – this is getting old. At least Josh had a reply. Stealth Womble – I referred to everything you were talking about in that lengthy reply I put in. Read it for cryin out loud.
Well I’ll agree that this game ain’t perfect, but I still appreciate all the stuff that did work and am enjoying the hell out of this game. Adios.
Geeze I was looking forward to buying Fable III, but from what i read i seriously doubt im even going to. Urgh >___< Oh well call of duty black ops is calling my name!!!!
Thank god, fan boy booyah has left the building
I totally agreed with everything in your post. I thought the first Fable was one of the best games I had ever played, the second one paled in comparison story wise but was still a good game. Fable 3 however is just Fable 2 rewrapped with a even less intriguing interaction system, horrible nav and map functions, and even worst player upgrade system. I came across the same problems with the black baby from white parents (Lionhead’s failed attempt to add multi-racial culture to the game, in addition to having much more black ppl in 3), I divorced her for cheating on me with a black guy with the clap. Fable 4 should include a Maury show if this continues. Do me a favor Lionhead, you want to add ethnicity to your game? How about allowing players to customize their character to something besides a white guy/girl….. And where did the dreadlocks hairstyle go to????
I beat Fable 2 and 3. I agree that the plot lacks depth and yes, the ending is sucky. But, I still LOVED it. So, yeah.
this rant is great. you pointed out all of the things that i didnt enjoy about the game too. holding A is a real pain in the ass, i have walked to the door, have i not???? esp the portal things. wtf? THERE IS NO OTHER WAY TO GO.
too many glitches, what were they thinking?
the other characters are lame too. put more effort into it.
esp when there is epic games like AC2 and RDR – which is the best game ive ever played.
I truthfully liked this Game. Sure there were several things better in Fable 2 and it was WAY shorter then I would of liked but i completed ever Non-Repeatable Quest, Maxed Skills out, and Enjoyed my time playing. It was an Ok Game…… I probably wont play it through again for awhile but i probably will pull it out again…….
by the way I’ve not had any glitches………… unless u call the person I’m suppose to be holding hands with running a mile behind me……. Even if I’m Suppose to be Dragging them to the Guards!
I had no problems being a good queen to my people as well as raising the 6.5 mil (and more!) in order to save everyone. I had 5 mil extra in the treasury after I beat ‘the boss’ and I had 5 mil in my own pocket as well. The trick is real estate. Buy as soon as you can, using all of your money to do it (its also cheaper to buy places that are at 0% repair and then repair them after buying instead of buying a place at 90%).
This was the first time i have played fable. I agree with everything that u have posted. When you have played an amazing game, such as Red Dead Redemption, this game was a MAJOR let down. The ending was poor and the 6.5M goal was impossible to achieve. And what was with all the UGLY people!!!! WHERE WAS THE FIT MEN??!! lol. Plus I HATED holding down that damned A button to do anything!! In my opinion buy Red Dead Redemption!! WAAAYY better x
Fable 2 was your game of the year … a game where the final boss was killed via a menu choice. Clearly you have no taste in games.
First fable game I ever played was Fable 3. I’ve gone back and played Fable 2 since then. Fable 3 was a MAJOR step up in terms of a lot of gameplay changes.
simplifying weapons was a great approach, so was refining the XP system (Seriously, you have to vaccuum up XP?)
I dont understand how anyone could not raise enough money to beat the Crawler and take no casualties as a good player, even doing all the good quests. I managed to pull it off in my first ever play through with a good character, I had no properties prior to going to Aurora and rebelling and i still pulled it off. All i had to start me was the sunset house 1 million gold for a Monarch.
The “agenda” was designed so you can go complete side quests between the treasury moments and the throne room or offsite protests or whatever. You weren’t meant to just breeze through all the days agenda in one go, that’s just insane.
As for the plot… well, it’s a little thin, but Fable 2 is not much better (remember, I first played Fable 2 AFTER Fable 3).
I’ll definitely agree that the relationship system is a step backwards, and i’ve suffered “black child to white parents” syndrome with ALL my children as an evil character (Could this be related to the moral standing thing? PMol did say that children would be affected by parent’s moral standing).
I Agree I mean wtf the clothes you see in the videos e.g the captains outfit you barely even fucking get it during the game.
When i first bought the guy no scratches still lags. I complete the game withing 2 days in 4 hours and fable 2 was longer. also the guild seal no were looked the same as fable2. Also it says i was good in fable 2 infact i was bad wtf. and u cant even change your name the only names you get are prince then hero and finally King cant you be called King Blade Or Sumfink. Fable 3 fucked up and i waited for ages for it big fucking dissapointment
oh yh and one more thing wtf was the crawler how was it made and how does he know theresa and was he relate to fable 2 and one more thing theres not that much clothing except buying from the opposite Gender wich is fucked up oh yeah also where the fuck is oakfield and the temple light wheres rookridge wheres bloodstone wheres westcliff all the cool places oh yeh also the temple of shadows is shit you and some guy are the only “evil” people worshipping the shadows the fable 2 wheel of misfortune is better.
Theres also nothing wich is like the crucible except from reaver when he makes you kill a whole bunch of shit i have beaten the game you never see logan again so thats fucked up and also u never see Logans elite gaurds agaian i was dissapointed the devil gorns wernt on your head except from doing the expression and fighting and also the halo for pures now thats fucked
the achievments are fucked 🙂
yeh soz for posting loads of shit buy one more thing wheres the turren guns weres the katanas the cutlasses the maces the axes the clockwork guns also the crossbows cmon man
FYI: If you married Elise it no surprise if you have a Black child. She is at least half black herself. Hello look at her hair and skin tone.
I do not even know why it is such an issue for a few people that have made a comment on it but I thought maybe they think she is all white.
Fable 3 will not be my best pick either but some of the things people are complaining about just seem small and mute.
The days passing by when you are King you should have notice that right start of the first agenda. You were losing days every time you complete a day list. If you did not see that well how that the games fault?
You did not have to keep doing them all at once, you could have done side quest to build up your money. Why do you think the one guy keeps telling how you can fund more money out of your personal account. Sure he was joking about it cause I think he was a little evil but it should have clued some people in.
Oh and for the people that say they done the game in Four hours I think you are Full of S**t. Unless you ran top speed did not fight anyone unless you had to and never did any side quest. Even then I do not believe you did it in such a short time. If you did no wonder you did not like the game. RPG are really not made to just run though.
I do feel that Fable 3 really push a person to be good since there is no point in being evil in the end. But that only if you care about continue play since most people here seems to be about rushing to the end I do not see to much after play.
Agree on all points. I did like that they brought back Reaver, but he looks so different from the character introduced in Fable II. I don’t know why the game developers were so lazy for this one. I’m really disappointed…
yo unreality guy i agree wid u but wheres the temple of light and the maces plusi said some other shit wich peter moleynux fucked up i waited for ages seeing so much cool stuff and seeing it end up to shit
yh fable does have it let down but i do have to say that u can’t complete the side qests because the more people u talk to the more side qest u get and u can make the money for the main qest only because it is showing the main qest to be done dont mean it has to be done this is a game where u have to take ur time NOT rush thow it or u miss all the good bit and as for the elise she is NOT white she is brown a light brown and i have to say the only kids i have had with her have been brown a light brown oh an i had no STD off her
yh i dont like the shop buying stuff it is crap but i have found no glitches thow out the game i have to say maby the slow down time when u do a combo thing that is a bugger i have played fable3 about 12 time now picking at the game only staying in one town for about a week doing the side qests oh an i would like to know how u can not have to use one helf potion and not die ones i like the idea off the new bad guys in the game but i do have to say it is a shame that some off the citye or towns on fable 2 have gone 🙁
i hate tragedy!!!
can you only be a dude in fable 3?
jw
the first 2 seconds of the damn game give u the option to be a boy or girl… lmfao
Alright, read through the whole comment section here (took me a few nights). Just finished the game myself now, and thankfully as I read about 121 days being the end-all I managed just fine to pool all the money in an evening (though in no way do I consider that fun).
Simply put, I agree. This game was a huge letdown. Not because of what P.M. promised (wouldn’t trust him as far as I could throw the bugger) but rather because of the transitions from the previous games. I’ve been hooked since the original fable. I bougt my xbox for that game. I found Fable2 to be an improvement on many fronts but we saw freedom on the decline and the story was most definitely going to hell. I can’t understand how they could come from the second to this though. In so many ways it was a step backwards. I had a sinking feeling when I read P.M. created it as more of an ‘action-adventure’ game.
I’m the player that would read every description, I’m the player that would own AND USE every weapon and piece of clothing. I hated the collection quests in F2 (keys, gargoyles) and wanted to smash things when I saw that not only were they brought back, but now there were 4 different collection quests. It’s a lazy way to add gameplay hours and claim for there to be post-credit quests.
I never used magic in any of the 3 games, always preferred ranged. Sadly the ranged was massively flawed in this game with the kill-cam zooming in for a slow-mo of the bandit 60ft away dying as 6 others slashed at my essentially blind character. In the end I stuck with melee so I wont whine about the combat as it was interesting enough.
I wholeheartedly agree with summing up the game as ‘Lazy’. Everytime I get annoyed I wonder how the helled it passed beta in that state. Did the game testors REALLY not realize that swinging Joe the Blacksmith around like your fiance on your wedding night was just a little off?
Ive pre ordered the Limited Edition for both 2 and 3. If there is by anychance a 4, I too am letting it go to rentals first so I don’t feel as blatantly ripped off.
I’m disappointed. Lionhead will not be getting my money in DLC. I feel that ever since GTA4, DLC has been abused. Only difference is GTA4 was a complete, polished game, in which the DLC was used to subdue the fans that cried for more. In Fable2, it was used as a way of fixing gameplay quirks such as being a behemoth of a lady or to solve the whole weight gain issue. Fable3 – it just feels like they have ‘DLC’ locked away on the disk somewhere and know people will pay for it.
As a closing note, if you wish to refute that this game was ‘lazy’ or ‘rushed’, check the end credits. Compare it to Fable2. When you go from charicatures and world overviews to text on a black screen, it says something.
I cant agree with you more
This is the most true and hilarious review I have ever seen.
You are completely right with all your statements, I hate the expression ‘upgrade’ and the sanctuary the most.
Thank you for making me laugh for 10 minutes!
Fable: I am a big fan of the Fable series. Fable one was the shit when it first came out although now it’s outdated, it has so far been the biggest innovation in the series. Fable 2 was a major let down. It became a cheesy cartoon, but I still must admit the gameplay was fun and quite addicting so it made up for the cartoon it was. Fable 3 this is where I agree with everything you said, however rushing a game always makes it worse than it seems. for example your dog acts like tard until you upgrade its stats, your children are black when your wife hates you for being evil, the people are ugly when your not looking at castle maids, the weapon system doesnt suck when you actually arent lazy, the game isnt a let down. what did you expect after Fable II?
fallout New vegas sucks, it is a system from Fallout 3 with a story from the worse part of the series
game cd are only so big can can only hold so much data fallout3 had 2 cd with it there is only so much they can do till xbox gives them a cd reader that can read higher capacity cd similar to blue ray. dont blame the game hate the game console.
gaming is at a point where if they dont create a better system all that will change is the story.
to every one saying the only reason he is bashing the game is because he got the shit ending.
i finished the game with the good ending and a full treasury, a decent amount of fully upgraded weapons, which don’t change to your playstyle but force you to change your playstyle until you meet the criteria to upgrade them (unless you use your hero weapon and even the customization for that is shit), i got most of the clothes, tattoos etc, found a lot of keys, opened demon doors, beat chesty and all that stuff because i really wanted this game to start being good, i wanted it to validate itself and i really wanted peter molyneux to do something to improve a game for once. and the game still fell flat on it’s face in my opinion. i’ve tried to love this series and i always buy the games and all it does is kick me in the bollocks. i won’t be buying fable 4 when it comes out in 3 years using the same engine with the same 4 quests that involve joining the Albion postal service. fable and fable 2 where ok but even they never delivered, it’s a shame that what is in my opinion one of the worst studios around got hold of such a great idea for a game. fable you could have been great.
Sigh, sadly I do agree with the review. I am a big Fable fan. In the originals I loved the artwork, the costuming and the whole “feel” of the Fable world.
This game it defiantly felt like lazy work to me. Since Fable 2 I have always kept my hopes to a minimum after the multiple times where Peter’s would promise something but never delivered. Yet again, this was so.
The game was too short and too easy. I never felt in danger. or did I ever care for the people. Moral choices? I never had any emotional attachment to any of them.
Luckily I read spoilers about the jumping from 121 days to 0 days, so I saved up enough money.
The Economy system was a super let down. Buying/selling didn’t feel like it had any difference between cities. Individually having to repair each house? Ridiculous. I owned every building in Albion (super quickly might I add), but never did I feel “powerful” or made a difference to my people.
Yes, the characters looked hideous in game, I never cared to marry anyone. They all looked old or were children. I hated how there were so few potions, spells, weapons and costumes.
Every foe was killed way too easily. You were also right about the combat system. It was so random the flourishes and the slow mo finishing moves. There was no skill involved. Keep mashing the buttons and opponents are bound to die.
I really hoped for a character customization part. Not just dying clothes but ability to change faces. Make the character your own. But nope…
Peter’s said it wasn’t going to be like any RPG, yeah but what is it then? Fable 3 feels like a washed out. The game doesn’t know what it is suppose to be.
its one big (intended) tragic comedy. Look back to two earlier quests. One was where you acted out a play to obtain a script for a tragic comedy. The next, you got shrunk into an EASY boardgame directed by nerds with interesting commentary that are directly related to Fable 3 as a whole. If you don’t like the game, you either don’t understand the point, or you don’t like this genre being introduced to video games. Everyone died in my town in the end because I was good, but it gave me something to do.
I agree with you completely, it was disgusting and as for peter molyneux… he just never stops chatting shit.
Agreeing with what most people have said on this, although alot to read so if i repeat some things then sorry.
Clothes – Less on fable 3 now – wtf? Same with dyes
Weapons – Other than the Hero weapons, the criteria is ridiculous as you have to have the wepon equipped when you do the task so some are impossible if you get it later on.
Shops – I like the manakin idea but theres little choice and with sylists they never have different stuff in stock.
Combat – Magic is retardedly overpowered, guns are too due to roll and swords everyone dodges but the counters i Do love now.
NPC’s – Fable 1 and 2 had lady grey, who you could marry LATER in the game, whereas on 3, both moderately attractive women (Elsie and the marriage quest one) are so early i wasnt ready and expected something better.
Quests – Same retarded Fable notion of ‘i know where every quest is located without explanation’ and they are mostly repetetive as the world is too small.
Enemies – Most enemies are badly balanced like Human enemies who dont die in a reasonable amount of bullets (seeing as these are muskets, its about 2) and the general low variety in enemies, only new ones were Sand furies who are just fable 2’s highwaymen and the wierd robots.
Property – Better than Fable 2 as you dont have to run round interacting and can just use the map, but it desperately needs a master menu to buy/sell/repair/change rate of all properties in a region or on the map.
Interacting – Worse now than Fable 2, you now have to individually speak with each citizen and use a pre-chosen emote which is usually dance (even with males)
Dog – As Paul said, it is like when Thag kicked your dog in the head in fable 2, it’s genes have passed down to fable 3’s dog with the damage, the dog runs around madly sometimes and usually you’re standing on the spot but cant dig until the dog starts scratching. Relationship with your dog is once again pointless and its attacks are also as it tends to maul people who are already dead or you want to do the cool finishing moves on, why cant they be more like wolves and attack standing foes?
Spells – Charge times are stupid and the area ring is usually larger than the amount of enemies the game generates at any given time but if you get it to your desired size, it does too little damage and you have to charge again, whilst getting mauled.
Main Quest – ok story, bit jerky with you jumping all over to different followers and then doing the side quests to gain trust – exactly like Fable 2. Walter was dieng all over the place then you dont get the choice to save him somehow. The King part is pathetic, too short and not enough warning as to the invasion (although in the endfight if you try exit through a bowerstone market footgate then you can hold A to quit the quest and revert to the previous choice) Finally, i managed to both be good and put all 6,500,000 gold in the vault and i got the ‘Tough Love’ Achievement when i should have gotten both? or rather the civillian one instead.
d00d seriously everything about fable 2 and fable 3 sucks its all a bust, its lazy the quests are the same example. fable 2 you go to the “cruicible” (arena) win get put in jail for a number of years, seems alot like fable 1. the graphics suck, the weapons suck, fact theres no armour sucks, unlimited magic sucks, you cant die sucks, only one type of experience sucks and the obsession with chickens sucks. The fact that theres only like 4 enemies pisses me off big time, the fact you can stand back and just shoot enemies with your pistol all the time pisses me off, the fact that in fable 2 you have to wear powderd wigs and gentalman suits pisses me off, that demon doors arent even riddles anymore pisses me off, the fact that in both games the boss fights take you about 1 shot pisses me off, everything about the game pisses me off and has since fable 2. fact is lionhead butcherd a game with heaps of potential, I loved fable 1 so good for its time but from then on its a bust and is going to continue to be a bust
p.s in fable 2 your character shows no emotion at all and always looks like a retard.
you’re going to hate me but…
PP.s when you have to go on a quest you have to hold some ones hand, what fairy tale bullshit is this, I want to go fight monsters can you escort me sure young boy take my hand and we will go on a magical adventure, what retard thought that up?! I HAVE A GOOD IDEA LETS MAKE THEM HOLD HANDS EVERY QUEST! ah der.
last post I swear.
totally agree with wat everyone has sed.
Weapons – only thing i liked was the weapon changes, other than that = GAY
Spells – as if reduce the number of spells. incredibly overpowered, a lvl 3 spell will pretty much kill everything, why even have up to 5 lvls. spell weaving is pretty kool tho. otherwise = GAY
Health – the first time i died, i just stood there getting attacked. i didnt know how much health to leave b4 i healed = GAY
Dog – STILL no collision on the dog, can run through him. got no new attacks. stupid pointless digging led to nothing useful = GAY
Attacking – worst than F2, why get rid of ability to aim at their heads or arms, and no parries either. random sure-kill hits. pointless random slow-mo.
wtf is with holding hands with an escaped prisoner, and he goes willingly with you??
HOLDING HANDS = UBER GAY
i cant stand to name anymore, i might end up cutting myself
above ^^
agree with everything nojjy09 says
HOLDING HANDS IS FOR FAGGOTS! super gay so annoying.
You sound like a git. Wow, you didn’t like the way things were done in the game. You acknowledge that things haven’t changed such as the customization in the second game, which everyone liked. So the good things hadn’t changed, which seems like a reasonable thing. Then the map tracking fast travel seemed to be a bitch for you. Wow, I’m sorry, they didn’t fast transport you to every quest? My sincerest apologies you couldn’t finish the game in 1 hour rather than actually having to adventure in an adventure game.
I have sat and played the game for quite a while and it only seems to be short if you ram your head through the main quests like you are racing to the end. There are tons of sidequests you can do.
More or less what your whole argument comes down to is that you don’t like the fact that you expected the game to be even better than the previous games, and you didn’t know how to strategically make it so you got the good ending, mostly because you sped through the whole game without doing any extras.
Sequels are never as good as the first. And they are even less appealing if all you do is try to funnel straight through the story like an arrow. If this is an embarrassment, then I would say that more than 70 percent of all games fall below this game’s level. Apparently, only a handful of games for the Xbox 360 are not a complete shame to this writer. This game was good. Not great, but I felt the money spent was worth the time playing, if you did try to get all the side quests.
P.S.- nojjy09- are you sure you know what gay is? Your reasoning does not describe why it is gay other than that you just say it is. The comments that you said were gay were mostly because you didn’t know how to run the game. Perhaps you yourself are the gay one rather than the game?
poor map interface- present in fable 1 + 2
choppy fast travel- present in 2 at least…
semi retarded p2p interaction, not very mature sex scenes, silly little glitches, and unbalanced simple game play- all in the previous installments.
somehow they were all still fun (for me anyway)
so seeing as how its more or less “the same game” why the hell did you even buy it? sounds like your just some hater with nothing better to nerd rage about. god, i shouldnt even be feeding you by responding….
just nearly finished the game, thought id save lots of money before the last day so i could get that key on the top of my treasure room. but after 120 days to go i was thrown into the battle. with no money for town. that was utter sh=t! oblivion came out 5 years ago and no rpg has beat it yet.
no saves, no skip when dog is digging/ opening chest, no white baby, no compass, no interaction with people, no map, no health bar, . i started the game with a great weapon and magic that killed everyone. i died once!!! and then i got up same place!!!
such a shame cos fable 2 was okay, just okay. all the monsters were similar, the bosses easy, my weapon changed shape a bit. wuhoooo. shoot, magic, role, shoot, magic, role. that was my combat strategy all game.
im a hero that can fire lighting bolts/ flames out my hands but i cant jump. i spent over 100 hours on elder scrolls back in 2006 and didnt come close to completing it. 20 hours and im done fable 3, and i complete a lot of the side quests.
im so disappointed with this game and the makers of it should be ashamed. the potential was there to create a great in-depth game but thet made a complete load of toss.
ps, paul that was a great post…
dont forget how easy the “boss” battles are.. this game reminded me of god of war except with out epic battles.. i was very disapointed how fast i beat this game and how easy everything is the only way to make any enemy in this gmae harder is to not upgrade at all and never use potions..”not that you need them” especially once u figure out the boundaries where enemys cant walk passed so they end up staying on the other side of a bridge while you gun them down and mann im so glad someone else said about the black kids like i had 4 black kids 4 different wives wtf the sad thing is there making a fable 4 already when really i dont think i wanna chance spending another 80 bucks on a fable game..
Ugh I agree with all of this.. I am a HUGE fan of fable 1 and 2 and WTF happend to this one?! Where is the damn story? Where is any kind of romance? Where is any kind of tragedy? Where is the feel of fable in this? this was a fucking bridge to the 4th one.. and i don’t know about all of you but I think I’ll rent te 4th one. I didn’t mind the menu’s that much… but my dog was pointless in this one.. I actually felt horrible in the 2nd one when something happend to him.. HA! not in this one. I could care less, he was a furry idiot. He took like 20 mins past from where i walked NEAR the treasure to bark and TRY to lead me to it. I pretty much found everything on my own.
I could care less about being queen, There was NOTHING to do… and what happend to being able to pick between being bad and good.. you basically HAD to be bad to save your people, and even then, when you chose to be good it had no real consequences to it. & when did Fable just become about how much money you had? I want to escape when I play video games not think about how much money I need or don’t have lol
It’s not about not being able to use your sword either idiots. It’s the fact that even if you wanted to you CANT use it.. everytime i would try to use my sword 12 enimies would surround me and i couldnt even see where I was sooo I would have to use my magic to get them the hell away from me.
The stores got more idiotic then ever.. i dont wanna walk up to a STORE and buy ONE item? and I’m a girly girl so i change my outfit with almost every quest, I like to play around with the dyes and what not… WELL not in this one… i think i changed my look ONCE and stil was NOT happy with it.
I didn’t marry anyone… EVERYONE was completely hideous.. I wanted to win over Ben Finn but come to find out you can’t even talk to him? So I didn’t even bother with that part of the game.. all sounds too magical anyways… STD’s.
I don’t mind the trail it helps to have it.. here and there.. BUT when it has me turning around 4 times to figure out if it was behind me or in front of me yeahh i have a problem now.The time in the game is just STUPID.. since when is 365 days turn into FIVE days? & what did i really do as Queen other then make a few decsions that I already promised I’d do? I didn’t even have a choice on if I even wanted to decline the promise or not? I’m sorry I thought fable was based around forming your chracter and making your own CHOICES?
There was NO meaningful quests except the main story line? NOTHING in this one had to do with the 2nd game except the last hero was your mother.. even lady grey made an appearance in the 2nd and had much to do with bridging fable 1 and 2 together… not this one. No chracters came back from the last one to even make you feel like you were playing the same game
Fable 1 and 2 took me at LEAST 3 months and that was me sitting for at least 4 hours everyday playing and I think i still have like 4 quests left unfinished on fable 2.. that’ll just piss me off if everything else is in DLC like i already spent 60 bucks on your game and wasted like 10 hours of my life… i waited almost THREE years.. and this is what lionhead gives me? laziness.
I agree with most of the stuff on here.
But the games still pretty fun, and I still adore the whole series, I’m hoping they make more games, because the way it’s set up, they just have too. lol, supposedly there going to make two more after this one, can’t wait.
Haha totally agreed. What a let down!!! I pre ordered 4 months before it came out, i then picked it up the day it came out, played it that weekend and was so disappointed. I was really looking forward to it and thought “well they can only get better”. Boy was i mistaken.
In fable 2, i missed the fact you couldn’t buy a house, stick Jacks mask in it, sell it for practically double, then break in and steal it back. But i learnt that traveling merchants (shame they are gone too) would sell at a discount price and the merchants in the gardens would have mark ups. However in fable3, even the economics are shit!! less clothes and less options… Wow i was wrong i payed $120(NZ) and it really did get worse
You can give presents to your family? My kid keeps asking me… “mummy, have you got a present for me?” and of course I DON’T. Instead of giving a present with the right trigger button, it’s a divorce button (in which I almost divorced my husband).
Oh yeah… I got an STD from using a CONDOM with my HUSBAND??? I mean, really. wtf. haha!
I have to agree with this post.
This game is just an add on to the last game. I finished the game under 8 hours and thats doing all the quests except the find the 50 knomes and collect the 50 blah blah and so on and so on.
That was twice as well and now they want us , the fans , to pay more money to play more of there broken fucken game. What a fucken crock of shit……..Go fuck your selves Lion head ( Giving head more like it )
I’m playing AC2 BH and loving it. No glitches, No lag when your playing campain and best of all no annoying hand holds. I mean seiously guys WTF!! have you ever herd of a king let alone a Hero holding some ones hand to leed them through a forest or out of a cave. The family thing is crap the dog needs to die and the emotes need to be buried alive so it learns never to come back.
LION HEAD SHOULD BE ASHAMED !!!!!!!
it was bullshit. i hated how there was so much rep for a game that sucked so bad. it had its ups and down and i like it for the good things it had in it. but i think it would be better if they went back to just using swords. thats all the first one really was that and magic. they need more into the characters like more stuff to make them more custom. every “custom” character looks close to the same… what if i want a really badass angle?? or maybe a really fat devil guy. they should let u make the clothing and the weapons instead of “create you own weapon” through out the game. the weapons were cool but it would have been better if i picked what i wanted. also whats up with get ur wings and “horns” at the end of the game?? shouldn’t they have made that proses like one and two… i think thats one of the first reasons why i eve played the damn games. also… when are they ever going to put any more story line from the first games into the rest?? the next one better be so much better with story line along with everything else they messed up on. if not i’ll bet you’ll be hear so many more complaints if not a totally shut down of the whole project.
I feel so passionately about how iv been let down with this game that i feel i need to share my views, something of which i’ve never done before. I cant agree more with all the posts on here but i never really realised what a travesty this game was until i got to the end. I’ve never felt such unhappyness towards a game from seeing the credits roll up the screen, i felt like i needed to watch all the credits incase i had missed something but i knew pressing start would just drop me back in the game just like the last 2 games, but atleast in the last 2 games you had a choice and even tho the choice was blatently obvious that one of them would result in your death it still gave me wierd satisfaction that i had saved a shit load of people in chosing my own death. That said, the choice also made me want to play it all over again. In Fable (the first game) you can either destroy the evil sword and save Albion and your mother and theresa, or you can kill your mother and thereas and keep the sword and also carry on playing from this, 2 choices! In Fable 2 you have 3 choices at the end, one bad choice which makes you rich and you carry on playing, one medium choice which brings your dog back to life (which actually gutted me by the way so the first time round playing i saved the dog cuz i had too!!) and one good choice where you bring everyone back to life at the expense of your own…. this game you kill your best mate who gets possesed by a bad ass looking demon guy who in actual fact is a coward and thick as pig shit cuz he cant fight you himself so chooses to posses a fat old bloke whos scared of caves and begs you to let him die at every available second. So after killing him, there is nothing! whats the point of carrying on?? apart from maybe doing some more quests and trying to achieve gamer points for your xbox profile. Your money starts piling up but theres no point cuz you’v got nothing to save money for? the thought for the game is there, the story plot is the best thing about it, when i read the pre-release reviews i thought i would never see daylight again, book 3 weeks off work and divorse my wife and play fable 3 for the rest of my life, glad i didnt, thankyou for giving me that telescope for a present darling but il go and get the money off the pornbroker for it i think, so why dont you get a job instead of wondering round or perhaps get kinky and suggest so group sex sessions? The only realistic thing about the game is the sex, lights off and lasts 30 seconds…. but who wants realism?
i have been so let down by this game i feel like hiring my own butler and telling him to say “welcome to the sanctury” EACH TIME i turn up at home and then smashing his face in cuz its so annoying!!! Yeah thanks for cleaning up the sanctuary that my mom left behind for me (of whom i never show any kind of sadness about dying by the way) but id rather you be the butler in my castle now instead of that annoying new butler cuz i know the way around my sanctuary now after playing it for 5 hours for nothing.
PHEW! rant over! iv decided im going to attempt to play the game again now, infact i might do the “game” quest again with my current game to see if the glitch appears again where you cant get into the castle to save the princess cuz you cant open the door, cuz i played it the first time round and stumbled across this glitch and couldnt carry on as your stuck in a dream land outside a castle with annoying men talking in your head! AAAAHHHH, im just going to murder everyone thats left in bowerstone and see what happens i think, its the only thing left for me to do cuz i divorsed my wife to free up some time to play this game LOL
I think you along with a few other people failed to realise one thing – when you complete the daily list as king, you then move on by a few months (i.e you think they’re going to rebuild the whole of bowerstone old town in 1 day?). If you didn’t think after the first 100 days shot by after about 30 minutes of gameplay that ‘erm, i need to slow this all down to prepare 6 mil’ then you can’t blame lion head – surely if you were a king and the year was ticking past you you’d either rinse the people for all they have to make money or you’d just get screwed over when all out war happens. Just don’t do the king quests and you don’t move forward any days!
People who don’t like the game just got stung by being stupid. Its not hard, There is plenty to do other than the king quests.
So yeah. Pretty much wasnt too crazy about Fable 2, but I liked it ya’ know? I was like “Hey this was fun, but Fable 3 will probably explain this and this and this, and make it all okay” but then…bleh. Big disappointment. Im pretty sure I killed all my people trying to be nice. Its fine, all the women cheat on all the men and have black children….they cheer me on and die 😀
As odd as it is to say, I liked Fable 2 better. Fable 3 seemed like it was going to be good, but it told me nothing, tied in nothing, and the ending FAILED. I totally agree with you :]
Have a nice day o.o
Fable 1 and Fable 2 had emotion. It actually made you feel sad or happy accomplishing quests. I still remember the quest from the F2 where the a little girl asks you to get her doll back from a bully. Just the way the she’s asks you to help her was sad. Then once you found the bully you had the choice to beat the crap out of the him or tell him off. That’s what I missed. The side quests on F3 were few and uninteresting. I also missed trading, I enjoyed making money by trading in F2. There was no need in F3, you make too much money too fast by buying homes and businesses. It also made dog digs, sword making, pie making, and the flute playing useless. There were too many find every last item quests. I don’t know which moron from lionhead suggested constantly insulting the player was funny needs to get laid and then fired. Why would anybody want to find 50 ugly gnomes by listening to them insult you?. Must be british humor. I agree this game needed another year of development or a complete overhaul. It’s definitely not the $65 US that I paid for it, more like $25.
I beat the game a few days ago but I am still playing it in hopes that some fantastic quest will appear. Today, it took me AGES to transfer money to my kingdom’s treasury. For real, I must have sat there holding down the right button for almost five minutes. And then when I went on a quest to find Brian, the gnome lover, I could not find my way because the glowing trail’s light went out. I had it on “very high”. So many things need fixing with this game, it’s unreal.
I miss Knothole Island and the ability to make yourself slim, fat, tall, short… I have these ugly scars across my boobs now. I look like a freaking zombie.
Oh and what’s up with the stupid guard shouting “You’re not supposed to be in here! You can leave now!!” when I’m in the store that I personally purchased? I mean, it’s MY store and the dude is telling me to get out. wtf??
Ok you people have bitched about stupid ass things that does not even effect gameplay. STDs and kids that arent the right color. seriously?! when does having an STD hinder ur ability to cast a spell.. Fable 3 is a pretty good game i enjoyed it. it just sounds like you got bored and started bashing it for something to do. picking out every little thing that was wrong. glitches are in every game if u can tell me one game that doesnt glitch i will be surprised.. Whenever you become ruler of albion did u honestly think that it would go through all 365 days. yeah rebuilding Bowerstone Old Quarter should only take a few hours right? i had plenty of money to save everybody and kept all my promises the first time i played.
cheers for pointing that out to me ‘clem’ – So as you have indicated its going to take more than a few days to rebuild bowerstone or turn a factory into a school but why not tell you on the game that its going to take a while? or why not rebuild it overtime kinda like your infant growing up? why just jump forward in time and ruin your chances of saving the world and if it jumps forward in time you should pick up the money for your rent for all the missed days surely?? the game is seriously flawed! Just to put it in context, if someone has purchased this game and has never played one of the previous Fable games they will not have a clue whats going on! atleast there was some intro in fable 2 where you grow up and learn your trade!! you can play fable 2 and not have played the first game. This game is a massive let down and i can blame lion head! its like the producers of the game were in a massive rush to get home so finished work early every night.
K. heres the real problem with the game(besides all the other smaller things that still seem to piss everyone off). Its not the fact that You can in fact beat it in 4 hours, its the fact that you have no motive to do otherwise. So what if i do a bazilion other quests… Its still gana be just as easy to beat the game! I am not going to become some huge giant of a man casting fireballs that light up the world or have speed that would make me impossble to hitt; i am going to be the same loser rollin around shootin the hell outa everything and casting a spell from now and again. It seems pointless to spend more time playing fable 3 just to say “Yeah thats right i did all that pointless stuff.” All of you die hard fable fans who dont care for good quality games can keep wasting your time, but i am jumping on the first train to a real good time…
Dude you must’ve been on crack when you wrote this because while i agree with some of the stuff u said everything else was gibberish and poorly laid out
I managed to make the 6.5 mil on the first try but it was a huge pain in the ass. The game play seemed a bit young. If they were going for a mature audience I would have liked more mature content. It seemed to me like the game was put together to teach pre-teens about making good choices and responsibility. I played the Princesss and I gave my guy up the first time I played. I’m trying it again now to see if its any different. I’m cheesed they won’t let me seduce Reaver or any of the other reasonably attractive males (or hell, even females!) in the game. Why every villager has to be bald, pot bellied and dunce is beyond me. And that dog… I found the vast majority of stuff before his bark went off. In some cases I had already collected the item before he barked. 😛
I’m disappointed. Definitely. But it was a reasonable way to pass the time.
Dude, you must suck at the game if you only had 2.2 million at the end, my wife just picked up the game, isn’t even halfway through and she has over 7 million. Plus while it does transport you in the future, if you don’t do all your tasks days literally go by before the “day” is finished.
You liked Fable 2 better? Fable 2 didn’t even have a boss fight, and the combat was even worse/easier
@fable fan numero uno
No, when i wrote what i did i was not on crack. My point came across just how i wanted it to; and just by the way if you want to maintain an image of unbiased guy whose just giving advice…. change your name on the post. over 90% of the posts on here are not about fable 3 being a good game, if you want to try and defend it, drop the act, stop attacking the writers, and start giving me some reasons why this game is soooo good.
I have never played fable before, but I always beat the games I rent to get my moneys worth. This was not the case this time. I have beaten it twice in the 4 days I have had it. Once I beat it on !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!ACCIDENT!!!!!!!!!!!!! because I had no idea they would skip from 20-30 days being skipped to 120, meh I thought, this game still kinda blows and is super boring, but lets see what happens when I actually play it and get everything( well most ). Oh nothing…the same shitty ending…with a statue. I literally laughed all the way back to blockbuster after I scratched the fuck out of the disc out of pure anger. Its not that its a bad game, it has true potential, but all I see when playing is a lazy excuse for a child’s game, that people have been telling me about for years. seriously though, I have never beat a game on accident, that fact alone is ridiculous. I dont care what you have to say..I will never read the responses, and i dont spell or grammer check anything on the interwebs because it doesnt matter, you can fucking read.
Ya Fable III has issues…its my first time playing playing Fable at all and im pretty happy but dissapointed to with all the hiccups. I read your review and everything you mentioned is true. Since i’ve never played Fable II, would it be worth buying and playing over Fable III? ANYWAYS fallout new vegas just bought but havent played because ive been putting all my time into Fable III. Is it really worth the $40 i payed for it?
You just bitched about the whole game, even though you only beat it once to find out what one ending sequence is. and you just fucked this whole game up for people who read reviews on games. and they did add spells because you have combos, which gives you a chance to make cooler spells yourself. why dont you stop bitching and whining and stop looking at every BAD aspect of a game and look at the GOOD aspects of a game. Fable 3 had some good aspects that were superior to fable 2 and fable 1.
PS: why dont you stop doing reviews from now on and thus…making yourself look like an ass
Well, first off, stop talking about other games on a Fable 3 post, thats tard-ish.
I rather thought that Fable 3 was an expensive DLC for Fable 2, and could have easily been an expantion pack. The visuals I thought were rather amazing, and I really am sad the same is so short. wish I could fight 5 or 6 wars instead of just 2.
COMBAT.
they made the melee combat a lot more realistic by your opponents being able to block and when surrounded irl by people with swords your either smart and don’t let that happen or yur f****d. for the love of god if you don’t like the uber kill magic and think its cheap and the only way to fight
then please don’t use it and learn how to fight or die a lot and be a nub
STDS
i have had 10 kids and their all white like their parents,the stds are totally random though, 9 maridges and 2 stds.
not to mention at least they fixed the menu’s
GAMEPLAY
i am on my second time around and plan on another but the only thing i think could be improved on is the length of
the actual story line
THE MONEY
and why is everyone complaining about not being able to raise the money anyone with half a brain can do good and make
the money its like fable two, simply don’t go on with the main story line. and yes it shows u when ever you deposit gold into the treasury that its out of 6.5m
THE MAP SYSTEM
the map system is simple, vary simple but apparently your even more simple than that.
“I am sorry, but I don’t see your point…you sound like a fan boy who got over hyped and let down. Every game has its downsides, especially games the size of Fable.”
Everywhere I read about Fable 3 I keep finding this comments, So what do they mean. It is a very lame excuse for mediocrity. Fable III is by far the glitches game I have ever play. I play Oblivion, Fables 1 & 2, Fallout, Mass effect, Red Dead Redemption, Assassin Creed and others. And I haven’t had game killers glitches like I did every two hours of play with Fable III. I spend more time on the internet trying to find a way to fix the glitch so I can keep playing. So no excuse, If they are looking for mediocre games to compare themselves with, oh my…. shame on them. And don’t take me wrong, I really like Fable, I love their environment scenes and the music, but what a disappointment Fable 3 is. I just couldn’t wait for this game and this is what we get. Accept responsibility for the mediocrity of the game and stop trying to be understood cause the game is to big.
And Last: Fable 3 is not a really that big game of a game, pretty short storyline, and very repetitive. It took me longer to finish Lara Craft and the guardian of light a short down-loadable than this game.
I agree with many of the individual points in this critique, but I still think fable 3 is a general improvement on fable 2.
I cannot disagree with your criticisms of the expression system, particularly the lack of choice when it comes to individual expressions. I REALLY miss the expression wheel as its pretty annoying to dance, hug then whistle repeatedly when trying to make a new friend.
I also miss the basic weapons & augments of the previous two titles. Its limiting to be stuck with the 4 hero weapons until you get a decent legendary weapon. Once I got my first good legendary weapon, it took so long to level up I didn’t have a god like sword or gun until long after I had finished the main story line. Seeing mercenaries with the rusty cleaver or other weapons from fable 2 only annoys me further.
The mini maps are a bit annoying, but i managed to figure out how to fast travel to more specific locations about half way through the game, as (i think) did most people.
However, that said, i still think plot & voice acting was a massive improvement on fable 2. I was a little let down by the ending (lots of court decisions, a few short quests then the final battle), but overall i would say the length of the main quest was no shorter than fable 2.
Finally, i think the rest of your objections are pretty minor. Milkman babies are a small glitch & only marginally detract from the atmosphere of the game. STDs are probably randomly generated. Humor is relative, if you don’t find it funny its because that’s not your taste. Loading previous saves isn’t that important of you think carefully about your decisions. You should have realised that time passes very quickly during the “weight of the world” quest. Holding A to open doors is a bitch, but not as annoying as accidentally entering an area because you were holding A to sprint & finally, hands not touching is a smart move, otherwise you be complaining even more fervently about getting stuck on fence posts while escorting people.
You clearly don’t understand this game at all. Your points:
The Plot
I must say that I adore the plot in this game. The emotional attachment with this series that I share with so many other people keep it beautiful and worth playing throughout. I love Albion, the characters, the magic – everything – in this game. Obviously, this is just preference, though.
The Combat
So you complain about the overwhelming challenge of using melee weapons, yet you also complain about how easy it is to win using just magic. The most logical solution: USE THEM BOTH. I mean, seriously, mindless people, rather than complain about something you don’t like until someone fixes it for you, why not try playing the game how it was actually made to be played? Sheesh.
Navigation
Agreed. There are a few bugs in the trail system, to say the list. Big deal. And the real problem which lies in the lack of ability to get places really fast? You might as well have called that section of your post “I’m too lazy and rely on fast travel to get anywhere in my games, hence removing one of the most essential parts of quests and missions and games, a.k.a getting there in the first place”.
Relationships
So the above arguments are pretty much a load of rubbish. This much is clear. So we’re down to complaining that the graphics aren’t very good, and that the characters aren’t very complex. While this could be a possible improvement, it surely doesn’t make this game an embarrassment to video games, as you so kindly called it. Besides, if npcs were essential to the gameplay like it is in KoToR or the likes, they would be more complex, but the fact of the matter is that they aren’t. The npcs are only there to sell you things and add a more immersive feel. So tell me why, after the years of work that Lionhead have put into this brilliant game, they should also redesign their whole relationships system to cater for someone that wants to marry interesting virtual people, and why, after the all the work, money, emotion and excitement over those years, they deserve a disgraceful statement like ‘an embarrassment to video games’?
Because there will always be pathetic, critical complainers out there that don’t even take the time to acquire a basic understanding of what they’re complaining about.
Damn I wish I woulda read this before I made the purchase. Waste of 50 bucks and about 10 hours.
Oh dear Benjamin, are you a friend of booyah?
If you honestly think that Lionhead have made a brilliant game here, well you got some problems. They couldn’t even get something as simple as eye contact between the NPC’s and the player character right. I kept wondering why everyone was talking to a point somewhere slightly above and behind my left ear? That’s just lazy programming, like most of the rest of the problems and glitches. All could have been sorted by holding off release until the game was actually finished rather than releasing it half cooked and relying on DLC and patches to make it work. Never mind the fact they left anything that actually worked from 1 & 2 out and replaced it with a dumbed down, simpified version of everything.
so i thought fable 3 was a quite new experience. i disliked the shortness of it however i liked the game overall more than fable 2. i feel fable the lost chapters was the greatest in the series i have seen so far. i agree magic is a major wipe to guns and swords as most of my game was using magic. there were areas of the interaction i liked, finally the “follow” expression was gone and you could drag people anywhere, except for groups i have yet to discover if you can lead groups. i enjoyed being able to play co-op with another hero. overall i say a decent game but disappointing for a mature rated game. if i could tell the designers some key things to improve i’d say this in an instructional orderly fashion:
1. go back to square 1 at fable.
2 improve the NPCs.
3. broaden the expressions and skills. i like having to build the skill of guile and strength in fable. keep that!
4. co-op you have created for fable 3 keep.
5. expand the story and add depth to the plot!! a broader spectrum of of side quests doesn’t excuse short, predictable plot.
6. augments… where did they go!?!?
7. really?! every weapon is legendary?!?! f*** that. unlocking special powers of weapons by game-play? yes i like but limit it to make it more unique to the player.
8. MINI MAP!!! as we have learned now, blind navigation BLOWs!!!! these are just a few KEY things i would recommend to the makers of this game.
on a new note AC brotherhood is amazing, AC has progressively gotten better with the graphics that they used on the first of the franchise. way to go Ubisoft you have made one of the best games this year.
and now to mellow and end Black Ops was a Bomb it disappointed me just like all other COD made in the last 4 years has. the story progressed like any other COD the multiplayer was just a blow off of CoD MW2. looks like 2010 is a fail for video games, hopefully 2011 shows us some originality.
Everything you said about this game is right, man. I played fable 2 until i literally could do nothing else in the game and i loved it. played about 3 hours of fable 3 and cant stand it. but to the people talking shit about New Vegas, FUCK YOU! that game is fucking amazing. the soundtrack is killer, the skills were improved, and the storyline is kick ass, although not as epic as Fallout 3. New Vegas was definitely the only good game to come out this fall.
Jon, I am with you, I feel the same Fable the Lost Chapters was great. I really agree that they should go to square one, and got the things they have right in Fable 2 & 3 and create something new. I also agree that Fable 3 Coop was better than Fable 2, at least for me. Beside that, game was so short, incredibly short and full of glitches. The one when you fight the werewolf and get to be floating for hours ahh disastrous. Then Jasper doesn’t speak, after that I couldn’t interact with anybody.. oahh.. and I just play for a day and have them all. I actually think that they were kind of lazy in some areas. They do have incredible landscapes, but inside the some cemetery rooms they didn’t assign texture to some of the floor surfaces, it is minor, but it just may me think that they didn’t have time to pay attention to many things. And well I like Monty Piton, but ahh.. after a while I was tired of them but to stupid. I like the citizens to be funny. But to many quest were to idiotic that they were not boring to do after a while anymore. I like the magic and the mystery, the darkness and the silliness of the first one.
Why they make it to short, and the nice quest all happen to be after I have no goal anymore to fulfill. Is not that they will be releasing another Fable tomorrow.
Ok honestly if u have such a big problem with fable 3 u should get off your lazy but and take it back to where u got it also get a Bloody Life U Jerk and stop bitching about game go out get a woman and get a life
hey muramasa stop assuming that gamers dont have lives. if you dont like games then what are you doing here?
Also if everyone who got their butt handed to them for not having enough money at the end is a big dumb whiner then why is it that ninety five percent of people who have played it have had the same problems? the author is right about everything because these are very obvious problems. the only time i was knocked out was by a hundred hollowmen that the game decided to spam. seriously it was a literal two hundred feet of solid hollowmen.
my third point and questiopn is the king part was stupid because no good choices gave you money. if you were seriously evil reaver would suggest you build giant obey me statues or something along that line. and paige would suggest a temple people could donate too so for once being good earned you money other that the retarted “fetch this rare item king” quests
Can someone please tell me how to give gifts to my family????
PLEAAASSSEEE!!!!!
thank.
= ()
Alright, another reason why Fable 3 blows, I’m currently on the Weight of the World quest and when Jasper ports me to Barrowstone or w/e the fuck this stupid town is called THERE’S NO AUDIENCE. THERE’S NOOO REAVER WAITING FOR ME INFRONT OF THE FACTORY. Can someone tell me why the balls this happened..? It has me quite pissed. I better now have done ALL that like 7 hours of playing because I’m a nerd for nothing..
The only good part of this game is turning the safety off and killing all the hippies in Mourningwood.
In the other games, you could transport to your spouses. In this one, I can transport, but then I have to look all over town to for him to get laid. Nice. lol
Really, though. I do like the game. Still playing it, it’s kind of addictive. I just wish all the little things would have been given some thought. Little things that mean a lot… like giving presents to your family!
Must say for me the biggest let down in fabel 3 was the time magic being relegated as a potion.. seriously?? What the fuck..
Granted in fabel 2 it made battles piss easy but it was the funest spell 2 use. I am hoping that we get some new gauntlets in some DLC else quiet simply What the fuck.
i agree what bothers me the most is the fucking glitches and auto saving 24/7. I think the developer rushed the game too fast which is why were all getting these gay glicthes
Well, I spent more time, and got more enjoyment from reading these comments than playing Fable 3. What a crock of shit!
I tried REALLY HARD to like this game. My boyfriend has stood over my shoulder and mocked it from the moment I started playing, and I felt obligated to make him see that this is fun! See? I AM HAVING FUN.
But I am not. It is bullshit that in Millifield or whatever there are constant attacks by Balverines that wipe out any opportunity of wooing someone where. It is bullshit that it is 2010 and there is only one save file, so I can’t even apparently switch between two heroes. It is absolutely moronic that the game expects me to wander through a giant open ended desert in the hopes I am going to find a single flower so that I can get some damn guild seals to master my combat to fight in a painfully easy combat system. Why is it rated Mature? Because every once in awhile, after spending five hours on fetch quests, you can drag someone to bed and the screen goes black and people giggle about having sex with a monarch? REALLY?
The game lags constantly, John Cleese is becoming my least favorite person due to the fact that every time I go to the Sanctuary to fast travel to finish YET ANOTHER fetch quest, he begs me to go to the sanctuary shop so that I can spend five dollars to get black dye, which is moronic.
This will be the first game I’ve ever traded in. May Zeus have mercy on the soul of whatever moron decides to buy it. Even used, it is a waste.
This rant was far too short, you didnt even mention the DLC, how the tried to cash in on Black Dye as its already programmed in teh game yet you have to buy it etc.
Nah really enjoyed reading it, its exactly how I feel. Be greatful for a black kid. When I got married, she never turned up to my wedding (was that meant to happen?!) and afterwards she wasnt in my game ever again. Awful glitch.
I couldnt talk about FableIII for too long or my rant will be longer than this.
As for the Fallout:NV discussions…
Its far worse then the previous FO:3, and just as bad in its own way like FableIII.
what i would love is an online vs mode where you vs each other and rank up on the way like in the arena or a survival mode and when you rank up you get to increase your meele, skill or will and get better weapons in your way to the rank and added leaderboards because im getting bored helping others when they need to be crushed.
Hahaha, i liked your points in this, the holding of mans hands, the lack of weapons, the mini-map flaws…ect.. But what I thought was interesting was the changing design of the HERO weapons. And now as i too have beat the game and am wandering around trying to find something to do, apparently i ended up killing all my citizens from the attack. So now i cant buy/sell anything cuz no one operates the shops. That part made me abit upset with the game, especially since i was enjoying it for the most part. So does anyone else have this same problem of not having a single citizen to talk to or buy from? All i have are soldiers walking around doing absolutely nothing except shooting at bandits and not even killing them! so if anyone can help please leave a comment, ty.
I found this review pathetic, you seem like a terrible gamer if you cant use a sword but have to constantly use a gun and magic.
If anyone is a true fable fan, you would also believe fable 1 is the superior out of the series, not fable 2.
Bad review is bad.
Had great fun playing fable 3 because i enjoy the cocky english humor and the great killing blows from a counter attack.
Though i would not rate this as a game of the year (Red Dead Redemption/Halo Reach would win that title), i still thoroughly enjoyed this part of the series and will hope fable 4 will bring back the systems and great story line used in fable 1.
Cheers, now feel free to flame if you are that ignorant.
Sincerely
Anonymous HCG
I enjoyed the story personally. My biggest complaint about Fable 3 would probably be the ridiculously dumbed down expression system. I’m getting really tired of dancing, farting in people’s faces, and acting like a chicken.
Oh, and the dog acts like its been lobotomized. I don’t think I’ve ever seen such bad pathing and AI.
Who cares about graphics? Its the game that makes it. Fallout new vegas was amazing if you ask me. sure the graphics werent amazing but who cares? worthless whinny bitches!
well id have to say that considering i didnt play fable 2 to the fulll extent since i found fable 2completely stupid and to be honest i thought fable 3 was just gonna be another stupid game .however i tryed it once it was pretty good since i was comparing it to fable the lost chapters i was like this game has gotten better graphics better battle functions and what not it had a all the more creative feeling to it. but now i thinking hey were the eff is my spells they do ef all they do next to nothing unweaved and it takes to long to charge up and kill stuff even thoughrge there maxed out not to mention lack of variety for spells. and even the variety of clothes theres like what 25 different sets were as in fable 1 there were like almost 4 dozen.
even charge atks are bullshity as u go to charge up all the enimies stay away from you or as u charge they swarm you and u come close to dieing or maybe you’ll get shot at from all of them so melee is done and out now which realy love useing swordplay its one of my fav hobbies in rl so yeah the only thing u can use is the effin gun which is way to powerfull the last boss i shot him like 15 times got hit none and it was over like wtf is that my pistol i used was called the fking reavers industry thing. so so far the game pretty cool up until i fought the final boss as for the hole castle run a bout u should be able to change things back to the way they were or atleast do some more rulings on stuff like if u cant what is the point in even being king or queen like cmon this game was just fking made for the 1k achievements then its done cause once you got all the weapons and achievements since more of the weapons look the same despite they all look differentey sorta when there upgraded ( they dont realy) it makes the game pointless to play also for character customization the hair they got stinks im still using the first one and i got em all like wtf why does it look like king wax for hair like fable 1 ur hair looked realistic but now its like fking wax not to mention the fkin stat glitch i wanted to make my person pure gunslinger and what happens ive maxed my magic aura and str but not my gun yet im using a gun and only a gun like wtf if i wanted to use a sword i shoulda maxed my str then but u know like wtf overall this game rated out of 5 gets 3 1/2 for gameplay as for every thing else it doesnt even get rated so add em to gether and divide so thats 2 star cap so if any one else wanna ad there rate to it lets see how low it can go
I think you summed it up well with a single word – laziness. The last time I felt so let down by a gaming experience was after playing Assassin’s Creed. The original absolutely oozed potential, but ended up being monotonous and boring for what felt like sheer laziness on the developer’s part. Lots of pointless activities were inserted to take up time and give the illusion of content. The world was huge and beautiful but was basically a whole lot of nothing. The latest Fable installment left me with exactly the same feeling of disappointment. Even more disappointing was that at least with AC it was the first in the series rather than the 3rd. I felt that Fable 2 really added to what the original had started. It took a really cool idea and improved upon it in countless ways. Sure there were still issues, but it was a genuinely fun game that kept me entertained for hours. Fable 3 tried to take things in a slightly different direction which I support. However the result was a game that felt really half assed. The quests were repetitive and boring. Lots of ‘run here, kill this, now go back’ type stuff. The side quests required to befriend each citizen were awful and got old very quickly. The changes to the shopping and navigation mechanics were good ideas but very unpolished. My characters ability to speak added nothing to the game as he never had anything interesting to say. Side jobs also could have been a lot better. I happened to try “lute hero” first which I thought was a cool idea, but having that same mechanic for sword and pie making didn’t make any sense at all. More laziness. And don’t even get me started on the last “half” of the game. I too fell victim to the idea that 365 days would equate to more than an hour of play time. What a bunch of crap. No doubt the success of Fable 2 added pressure to quickly produce another sequel, but obviously 2 years wasn’t enough time to do it right. This game could have been A LOT better. Hopefully it was just bad enough for the studio to get the message and try harder next time but not so bad as to make future installments unprofitable.
The “great killing blows from a counter attack” as someone mentioned earlier sucks, in my opinion. I think it’s totally unfair that you do some awesome move, see it in slo-mo and still getting your ass kicked when you can’t move at all. Heck, I’ve only pointed a gun and shot one bullet and it was in slow motion. How is that a great killing blow exactly? Sounds computerized/random programming to me. Anyhoo…
I like the fact that all the men in Aurora look exactly alike. Amusing. = ) Still playing… it’s like caffeine. You know it’s bad but you have to have it. lol
Ok, i agree with some of the stuff on here (like the fact that all jobs are EXACTLY the same) but fables III’s not all bad… there are some good things about it.. As for assassins creed however BEST GAME IN THE WORLD!!!!!!!
You have to admit though… aren’t the characters at least a smidgen better looking than they were in fable 2????
I don’t know why people feel the need to defend this attrocity. They say, o no game is perfect, and o with a game this size and blah blah blah. Bottom line is the game is not that big, and some of these problems are glaring. Personal interaction such as holding hands was one of the big things they said they were excited about with Fable 3, so you’d think that it would look more normal and they wouldn’t end up 20 feet behind you still pretending that you’re holding hands every time you come to some stairs or even just a hill. I’ve played many an rpg in my day and it’s not that the game is entirely horrible, I just feel like I’m playing a beta version. Do they not have anyone test the game? I’ve had families disappear on me for no reason (and no they weren’t in bowerstone old town) yet I can’t sell the house or even “divorce” them. I’ve had my level 5 treasure hunting dog all but humping a chest without so much as a yelp. I think back to even Knights of the Old Republic on the original X box and as many years ago as that was, the game world had at least as many areas, personal dialogue and relationships developed with multiple people, and I never ran into a single glitch and the game was about 2x as long running on a machine that was exponentially less capable than the 360. Now I know just because they are rpgs doesn’t mean they are directly comparable, all I’m saying is that KotR was released 7 years ago and they managed to release a highly detailed, yet very polished game. How far have we come since then?
I don’t know if I laugh or get pissed at the fanboys. This game is, simply put, not good enough. It didn’t live to the expectations and promises (as expected from Molineaux or whatever his name is).
Now don’t get me wrong… You can make its life be longer by exploring, taking your time, blah blah blah… Nothing changes. I did explore the game world from one extreme to the other, I did everything there was to do, I took my time to have the money for the final battle (THANKFULLY I searched Google before doing my duties as King or else I also would have been screwed by the calendar), I tried not to be cheap with the combat, etc, etc…
The game’s still not good enough. It’s not long enough, it’s not hard enough, it’s not memorable enough, … it’s not enough! EVEN if you do everything that the fanboys claim that you should do to get the most out of the game, it’s still an easy, short, forgettable game which didn’t live up to the promises. Seriously, whine all you want, but I actually was one of you guys waiting for this game and hoping that it would be as good as it could be. I played the first two Fable’s and thought they were OK – a good base for expanding to a great, memorable game. When I heard about being a king in F3 and all the Molineaux bullsh*t I was excited as hell. And to be fair, I actually was enjoying being a king – until I saw that it was an hour or two portion and that after the game ends there’s nothing much to do.
And to the guy who wrote the review: you forgot to mention the huge failure that is the save system. I almost lost my save game thanks to a HUGE glitch in this game and was pissed off. A friendly advice: beware of the cool quest with the nerds playing RPG. There’s a MAJOR f*ck up where you can screw your save game by just doing the quest – kill some wolves, try to enter the tower and suddenly there’s no option to open the door. You’re stuck. And surprise – you can’t get out of the quest. If you saved for some reason (like trying to do the quest again because you were naive enough to think that reloading would help)… Good luck getting out of it, since there’s no way to have separate save files. I had to reload the friggin’ think about 20 times until the option to open the door suddenly appeared. THANK GOD.
Also, people just don’t get the point about a player shouldn’t be screwing him/herself in order to make the combat harder… It IS easy and lacks depth, really. There’s no point to evolving weapons and the like… You’ll end up like a one-man-army by the end of the game one way or another, so who cares?
But anyway, all in all I’m not saying that the game is unplayable – it is enjoyable for what it is. But IMO it isn’t worth the money. If you have fun with a short, easy game… Hey, go for it. It’s a pretty good short, easy game.
And Peter Molineaux… You know what I think of the guy? He’s like a teenager having his first sexual experiences and wanting to gain self-confidence. He claims and has the intention of being able to last the longer on bed and make a girl have multiple-orgasms easily… But in the end of the day he lasts about a minute before blowing his load and lefts the girl just about to have an orgasm, but never reaching it.
Now don’t get me wrong, I actually believe that he really has the intention to make the girl have multiple orgasms and pleasing her. But after failing the first time, instead of shutting up with his claims and train his technique, he continues with his claims and end up sounding like a jackass in the process, after failing time after time. You know, if he would just shut up about what he can or can’t do, maybe people wouldn’t be so critical of his games and by the time that we have a “perfect” Fable, they would be “OMG this game is awesome!!! Thanks, Peter!!”. Instead, you can bet that when we get a “perfect” Fable, people will be more like: “OK, that was good, but in how many tries claiming that you could do it earlier, Peter?”. The ones with wet panties over it will probably be the same ones that have excuse after excuse right now to protect their game while we expose what this game is about and how it could be so much better…
7/10’d. My 2 cents.
PS.: Would like to add the following points:
*The game is NOT good enough as a “full game”. For its price, it lacks a lot. As I said, it’s a good short, easy game… And that’s it. If you want something to do in a weekend, it’s great. But nothing much besides that. My 7/10 reflects the fact that it is NOT bad, but isn’t worth the money… Maybe 6,5 would be better?;
*The claims of “DLC ZOMG” are ridiculous. That’s a huge problem with the gaming industry nowadays: people screwing customers with games by delivering a half-assed experience intentionally so they’ll make more money with DLC. We pay for a full game – we should receive a full game. DLC should be ADDITIONAL material, not essential. And you know there ARE people without ‘net connection in their consoles and this kind of thing, right? Take my example: I can’t connect my console for some reason (it just don’t work)… And even if I did, what use would be of it? I don’t play online, I couldn’t care less and no, I’m not interested in paying for occasional online gaming (aka Xbox Live Gold). Also, I’m paying for a full game, as I mentioned before… So screw DLC – I should be receiving a full experience with the disc I actually paid for and should be paying for ADDITIONAL content, not essential parts of the full experience.
I’d have to agree, that LAZY would be an excellent word on the craftmanship of this game.
I agree with all of the disapointments you mentioned, and I too am on my second run with this game, already just about “half-way” through. I’m buying up all the properties this time, so I don’t have so I’m not a complete a**hole when it comes time to make my royal decisions.
Really I just wanted to comment here about the ridiculous way your child is randomly generated. Like you, during my first time playing my white baby boy turned into a black 5 year old. My second time playing- are you ready for this?- my white baby GIRL turned into a black 5 year old BOY with the voice of a 5 year old GIRL. The game continued to recognize her as a girl as well: a child referencing “her” as my daughter, and the Demon Door referencing “her” as a she. The character generated is definitely one of the same children that runs around Bowerstone Industrial. I have a second child in this game who is currently a white baby boy. We’ll see who he grows up to be!
At least there a plenty of useless side quests… right?
Update:
My son turned out “normal”, not a white Balverine as I had guessed.
Also, on the 3rd mini-map my family looks quite nice.
I agree with pretty much what you and most have said, this game could be much much better. Personally I’m glad I bought it on Black Friday for less then $30 since that’s about what it’s worth. However about the one year to gather the 6.5 mil thing. I found that you really don’t have to rush through it. Myself once I saw that they were skipping past days like an idiot (from 365 to 339 in the course of seconds). I just left my console on walked away and came back the next day with a much more sizable treasury. Still haven’t gotten to the big day yet since I have been doing a bunch of side quests and such but probably by the end of the weekend I’ll have it done.
Side note, I also agree that the combat is ridiculously easy. Haven’t die/KO’ed yet.
I gotta say, Fable: The Lost Chapters was the best game of the 3 (not counting the two versions of game 1). The character size is much bigger in the first game and its like controlling an actual person. In the two sequels it was like moving a ragdoll – such a small character, camera was way too far away. The first fable was like looking at a painting while the others were like legos. The buildings in the sequels sucked and looked plastic. Music was also best in the first game. The battle music for Fable 3 reminded me of battle music in FPS games.
I have a habit of murdering townsfolk in Fable 2 and 3 because the game gets so boring so fast. A big annoyance is seeing a person go flying 6 feet when you shoot them. It’s not like I fired a cannon at them.
Fable 1 never bored me.
This review was fucking hilarious
There’s a lot of text here, but yeah, you’re right on with this. I’m surprised that this game is getting anything short of atrocious reviews on gaming sites.
Actually i would use a term instead of one word to describe this game “randomly generated laziness” I don’t understand where they were going with this game. Rated M but all the scenes seem like they were pulled outta a 12 year old wet dream. Sex scenes are a joke, stupid retarded noises…why are they the only scenes i CAN’T skip.
The only interesting sub character that you can marry becomes as generic and as exciting as toothpaste. You become king, why doesn’t she BECOME QUEEN and have a very interesting rule TOGETHER with you?!?!? Lots of potential for a counter part during your rule…or even to travel with. But she is thrown into the “hit it and forget it” category. Yeah, and what’s with her giving me a STD?!?!
Why does everyone sound exactly the same??
why does the voice acting sound like low Quality??
Why do i have to dance with every nobleman,beggar, blacksmith and vendor??
why do i have to go to a room in a sub-world just to change my spell???
this game is rated M, then why do i have to burp in everyone’s face…something my punk-ass 8 year old nephew does???
the answer to these questions is easy…they are catering to the general extremely “casual” gamer. They stripped (dumbed) down everything so EVERYONE can play this game in an ONLINE setting. Game was geared to online and it is because retarded “casual” gamers demanded it. so, to focus on your precious online experience they neglected everything else, congrat-freaking-lations.
yes, the answer is, they DUMBED it down to appeal to more kids and “female gamers” and attract a more GENERAL demographic to online play.
Online play is great for some games but if you are gonna withhold content (DLC) and shit on my single-player experience so you can give a bunch of whiny casual onliners a repetitive pathetic world to drone out their pathetic lives with others then please, all i ask, is LABEL your game appropriately so i won’t buy your POS.
overall this game is great and all but it does miss alot details like
gaining guld seals after beating the entire plot of the game theres only few quests that give 10 or more but its mostly 5 and you get married and beat the crawler your wife automatically leavs you thats ridiculous it they do make another
the should get more of the players ideas.
I’m a 35 yr old woman and I really would NOT call myself a “gamer” but I just love the Fable series. I think that’s actually a skill; reaching someone who is otherwise not interested in buying a $70 game, but can’t stop herself from rushing out to buy anything with the word Fable on it.
People have told me to try Pblivion, so I did and it is not as good as Fable. I kind of like Bioshock, but not as much as Fable. Basically I’ve given up on everything EXCEPT Fable.
There is something about this game that is totally relaxing and fun for me. If you want adventure, you can go blow up some bad guys, if you just feel like shopping you can do that too. I guess I’m just not very good at pressing all the buttons because I’ve been knocked out a ton and drink health potions like they’re going out of style…But it doesn’t matter. I guess I’ll get better as I keep playing!
I love the dog, but for Fable 4 I’d adore the option of being able to pick a different pet…Maybe get the choice between a dog, or an owl or a cat…That’d be awesome! I did like the option of being able to choose my expressions in Fable 2. I don’t like having to dance with everybody; I wish I could tell a joke or do something of my choice. I love the option of being able to dye everything, and play around with your clothes and makeup. It’s so much fun.
The orphans are so cute! I’m trying to adopt them all, but that may prove to be impossible.
I love all the Fables. I’m having a ball playing Fable 3 and I don’t want bad reviews to ruin my chances of getting a Fable 4! I don’t want the game to be drastically changed, just tweaked here and there, with a new story.
I think the writing is really fun! The humor is monty-pythonesque and the main story is always interesting. I adore the moral dilemmas…
Basically, I’m just looking forward to Fable 4. Can’t wait. I wish all the Fables were available on DS or ipod touch as well.
Don’t mess with my game, guys! It’s the only one I like.
The only X-box 360 game is play is fable, after enjoying fable 2 quite alot i thought getting fable 3 a good idea. to be honest this game is just alrite, everyone one of the characters look the same:Ugly! I couldn’t believe how short the game was, and in the second half i did a cheat so i could get the 6.5 million you needed it seemed impossible to get the amount of money with a cheat! I hate the new expression thing, what is the point in that?! And There is a lot more things i could say!
Also the game is awfully repetitive every few seconds it would seem i am being attacked by an enemy! No simple job can be done! i hate playing it now as i cant be bothered to keep fighting bandits and hollow men all the time!
Personally, i enjoyed this game, it was fun staging a rebellion and the voice actors in the game were really good. Sadly however it did fall short of the mark with all these points above. Even though i did very much enjoy the game, it was a let down, and simply felt as though it could be a 1200 Microsoft points add on for Fable 2. I enjoyed being king, but it went too quick and was practically thought through in five minutes and made in another five. Overall i would give this game a 6/10. Cant wait for the Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. That game is going to obliterate all other fantasy RPG’s out there.
I just would like to add another point to my previous comments: you can see when your health is ending. Not sure if someone mentioned it before. Just look at the potion icon in the left corner… It’ll glow red when you received “enough” damage. Forgot to say it the last time I was around here…
And I’m starting to think that the child turning from white to black is some sort of “inner joke”… It seems like it happens for everyone (yup, happened to me too).
I was playing it again last night and, frankly, it had so much potential… Still, it’s just a forgettable short and easy game.
What about the world map, for example? It’s a major disappointment. You don’t have total freedom over where you want to go or even how to get to places you see, there are a lot of invisible walls around the map. And before you ask: “but what would be the point of reaching a place where there’s nothing to see or do?”, that’s exactly part of my point – they wasted a lot of space in the map with nothing. You can’t jump every fence, you can’t jump down from one place above to another under it, even if you could land on it perfectly fine, heck, there are times when a certain item (key, flower, whatever) is behind some fence or another thing and you just can’t jump over it – you have to make your way to the item around the “obstacle” even if the item is right in front of you and you could just reach it.
Another example would be a quest where you have to find some statue which is buried in the sands of the desert… The place where it is buried is like a giant sandbox. As in a box full of sand. There are barriers all around it and you don’t have any freedom over certain places, even if you could just f*ckin’ walk to one of them. You can see some little sand hills that you could perfectly reach but for some reason they are blocked by invisible walls. All around this portion of the map there are invisible walls and there’s simply no reason for exploring. There are lots of other places like that, that’s the reality of this game. It’s like some sort of Molineaux pervert humour, seeing players trying to reach something in front of them but aren’t able to because there are invisible walls LOLOLOLOL.
Some of the things I mentioned would be small issues (jumping over fences, etc) if it was not for the fact that once you actually explore the map, as some fanboys suggested that you should do, you’ll notice it all around you. There’s no friggin’ way to explore all the map without those issues becoming more and more noticeable. You’ll see places that you could reach with no effort – but you just can’t. You’ll see items behind obstacles that you could just jump over – but you just can’t. You’ll see a lot of wasted space in the map that could be used for so many other things – but they were lazy or they didn’t care (or both) and just said: “f*ck you!” to the players and left it as it was.
And did I mention that the expressions system is a failure? This is what pisses me off – before the game was released, there was much talk about the new expression/touch system or whatever and how it would make people get more “into” the game and things like that, like it would be some sort of state of art and revolutionary or whatever BS that Molineaux always says… Instead we get a system that is, simply put, WAY WORSE than Fable II’s was. At least in the previous game you could choose how to interact with people – now there’s absolutely no freedom over it. Well, if dancing like two lovers with the blacksmith just to become his friend is your thing, you’ll be happy. Because there’s nothing else to do.
And that’s it. I’m officially finished with the game as of today. I tried to give it another chance, but it’s a wasted effort… Which is sad, you know, because it could be a great game, a really sort of revolutionary game.
Wow. I was going to get this game, but after all the flaws were presented to me I don’t think I will. Thanks for the warning.
I didn’t really notice all the follies in Fable III until I wanted to explore a town I hadn’t gone to yet. There’s no map, or waypoint system. That REALLY bothers me. I do agree that Fable III is more like Fable II and that Fallout: New Vegas is just like Fallout 3, however Fallout 3 was vastly superior to Fable II… If you disagree, lord help you. I liked all 4 games, I just liked Fallout better.
don’t get me wrong, im a total fable fan, but i just sort of ignored all the stuff you just talked about. i’m not the type of person to actually READ these long-ass reviews about video games, but i was impressed that you noticed all this shit. now that i read what you put, im not that much of a fan of Fable anymore…
All bullshit aside, We all knew that when Fable II came out (the so called “Sequel” to the amazing game of Fable: TLC) and it was set 500 MOTHER F**KING YEARS AFTER THE ORIGINAL EVENTS of Fable.
We all knew that the game was going to turn out bad. Job seamed like a good was of making the game realistic and that would be fine is the game wasn’t called FABLE!
The reason is in the name, i thought that a game called Fable would be all about the story. I mean how a blacksmith pie maker who works for 12 years to afford a house for his c*nt wife, oh yer that really a story your going to tell your kids and will go down in history. But the worst part abut all this is that WE WANT TO KNOW ABOUT THE ORIGINAL FABLE What happens to the Guild? What Happens to Jack of Blades? What happens to the fu*king hero that saved all of Albion or destroyed it? But Lion head was to Lazy to continue the original story so they set it 500 years after the events so everyone is dead. But in all… Guns, Swords and magic? No, it dosent work. AND a dog does not help anyone! If you want to go to realism in a game Peter, MAKE A GAME CALLED “LIFE OF A ESSEX ICE-CREAM MAKER”. JESUS CRIST ON A STICK FABLE IV BETTER BE SET IN A TIME WITH NO DOGS OR GUNS! SET IN THE OLD KINGDOM!!!
“# TW-Gameson 30 Oct 2010 at 2:30 am
I am sorry, but I don’t see your point…you sound like a fan boy who got over hyped and let down. Every game has its downsides, especially games the size of Fable. Name a perfect game, I can write a 3000 word essay on whats wrong with it… Point being Fable 3 brings so much to the table and you’re worried with holding A to open doors, instead of noticing all the innovation; the Aurora level is enough proof of that. It is probably the best RPG this year… clearly you don’t play enough video games to know what an actual embarrassment looks like
P.S. Fable 3 is a bloody long game I am currently around 20+ hours in and yes you can save up the 6.5 mil. if you actually take your time and not speed run through the game”
I have to agree with everything in the above post. I just beat this game and I absolutely loved it. You obviously have no taste in video games and have such a small I.Q. you cannot comprehend a completely awesome game like Fable 3.
This is bullshit love this game and see no problem with it.. the fucking combat is amazing….. the fast travel system is amazing and the magic is not overpowered……..the only problem i had was not enough customization.
basically agree with this. game looks amazing and you look badass smashing through stuff but yeah, main quest is too short (and the end bit being king is over way too fast. i was really looking forward to the steampunk esqueness of the industrial setting as well.
glad i didnt pay full price for this game, mate got it as a present for xmas. i basically came away from the experience wanting to play fable 2 instead where you have an inventory and dont have to dance with guys like a battyman
i felt it was a step back, and using famous voices and stupid changing weapons wasnt enough to make it worth the hype or cash. if youve never played any fable games before, you’d be better buying the first 2 (which will b cheaper)
as long as bethesda keeps knocking out games like oblivion and fallout,fable will never beat em cos they offer the player so much more in terms of how u play the game and the options available!
you idiot, that game is perfect!
The game itself has drawbacks but some of the limitations make sense in the context of the story. Remember that your player character has only limited hero powers and as such the effects of morality may be diminished on his appearance. This could also explain the overpowered magic. Afterall, it is being artifically brought out with gauntlets. Perhaps the gauntlets are amplifying the powers? Maybe the lack of weapon varieties was brought on by the advent of guns. Maybe the loss in variety of monsters happened because humans drive their natural predators to extinction. As far as the invisible walls complaint goes, how well did that work out for Red Dead Redemption? Vast expanses of nothing and it took you 15 minutes to get from A to B. Sure, it was ‘immersive’ but there was never any reason to do anything except fast travel.
The storytelling aspect of this game is a direction that the industry needs to be exploring more. The Crawler taunting you and making you hallucinate monsters spewing out of weird goo as you run through a desert? Everything about the ‘The Game’ quest? The quest where you act in a play for all those dead people? Making a decision that could result in all of your citizens being drunk and throwing up in the streets 24/7? Making a decision to dump industrial waste on a bunch of peaceniks? Making a decision to have everyone in a small town mauled by balverines? The Sunset House? If you can’t appreciate any of this, then you might look forward to Call of Honor 8: Battlefield Killzone.
LOL this is such a pathetic rant.
Most sites I have seen actually state that the plot was good.
The combat is pretty simple I agree but it only does slow mo when you use charged attacks. You exaggerated the combat faults greatly.
You can’t even navigate properly. You probably sucked at mazes as a kid judging on what you have said.
Also you say that you liked fable 2 more and complain that you get to literally be a devil or angel… hhmmm, if I recall correctly on fable 2 freaking ugly horns sprouted out of your head if you were evil and when you did good deeds a halo popped up over your head. Your argument is rather hypocritical at this and other points when you complain about features of the game which were introduced from fable 2. You also complain about the sword fighting which is better than that of it’s predecessor. you actually complain about the opposition blocking… I would like to see someone who doesn’t defend themselves in a sword fight to the death. You also complain of the relationships this is another hypocritical aspect of your post. The relationships on the fable 3 predecessors are worse than that in fable 3. In fable 2 the one which is apparently better from your point of view you couldn’t even kiss your bloody wife… Hows that for a ridiculous relationship. The relationships in fable 3 are clearly better than those of it’s predecessors. Also the dog in fable 2 dog has the same if not more faults than that of the fable 3 dog.
IN CONCLUSION
Some I have to agree with but the majority I have to disagree with.
Most of this post is nonsense and hypocrisy.
I agree with most of the article. It seems a lot of people disagree with the review just due to loyalty from the older games being better. I really enjoyed the story though.
I hate that everyone always looks like a steam roller ran over their faces. I just wish they knew how to make a decent face. You’d think such a large company with enough money being pumped into it could at least manage that.
I disagree, you were angry when it ended so quickly, but yet you rushed it. There definatly could have been improvements but I liked it. Atleast I wasnt ugly, unlike fable 2.
I really enjoyed Fable 3 –
I think it is awesome and much better than Fable 2.
But, you sound like me when I played GTA IV
Now that was bad.
I was hoping for a lot more in this game. Fable 2 left you wanting more, but Fable 3 was a cop-out. It is much to easy to make money in this game… You don’t even have to do anything but buy property and sit and wait. And if you actually feel like doing a job, you are stuck with the same kind of commands. Being dislexic sucks(haha). Blue green yellow blue blue.. Fail. Even Fable 2 differenciated the difference between the various oddjobs. You had to split the logs of wood by hitting the dial right in the middle, had to stop pouring Ale before it got too full, and hit the blade you are forging in the right spots.
Then, your canine companion points to invisible teasure? Or treasure that is ridiculously impossible to reach? What is the point in taunting your player? The dog takes his sweet time finding dig spots too. At first i thought the game had glitched, and made my dog tweak. But nope. That’s just the ‘majestic’ quality of this game.
The people’s faces and voices, well, i give them credit for trying a little harder, keyword being ‘little’, on making the voices a tad bit different, but please. Every other man sounds either very dainty, or frighteningly gruff. And every other woman sounds drunk, or like she had been working in a steel mill for the whole part of her life(but then again, that is what had been going on in Albion hasn’t it? hmmm) And their faces… vaired a bit, maybe, but they are not the best looking. It does take a lot of money to make different characters, but maybe a little more effort would have sufficed and there wouldn’t have been this site, eh?
Hopefully there will be a new Fable, and hopefully, we won’t have this problem again.
I’m wondering whether they even tested this game before they released it. I mean didn’t they notce that it takes about 4 minutes to repair all of your property. I mean come on. 4 MINUTES! Its called a repair all button or at least it should be.
“I’d try for another kid to see what would happen this time, but I don’t want any more STDs. I also suspect my wife has cheated on me with a black guy.”
hilarious
good article, I’ve played the game for 2 days completed it and agree.
serisouly ‘___’ how do people not have the 6.5 mil for the invasion~ im mean dayum i had 6 mil going into aurora~ and im the type that ran to the furniture shop everymorning to buy everything~ as well as owning every possible outfit i could find.
I really don’t understand the people who didn’t have the money or had to cheat for it~ you just buy all the properties~ and infact, I didn’t own the industrial estate and i had sold of the the shitty caravans that gave you like nothing and just cost time with repairs 8D oh, i didn’t own milfields either.
One of my few problems with this game is that its TOO easy to make money. As well as that i couldn’t go all duck tales on my bootiful mountain of gold in treasurey or my private amount.
though i agree, the time coming up to the invasion was stupid, I was expecting a lot more at that point. overall i love the story of fable games over anything though, and i loved fable 3 just as much as the last.
Hey, I’m probably a little late dropping in on this but I just wanted to say I am probably not going to buy Fable 3 hearing how it was exactly the same if not worse than Fable 2. I remember playing the original Fable and thinking it was the best game ever but I think Fable 2 kind of ruined that feeling. Fable 2 was just to easy they basicly threw what you needed at you so that you could complete the story line without actually thinking. As for the attacks on Oblivion and Fallout 3. In my eyes they are the best games I have ever played. I loved them because of the open world gameplay and I love the system they use for them. The fact that you can do pretty much whatever you want and decide how you are going to act is great. I do however wish they would add some new things to them, because from Oblivion to Fallout 3 the only differance I found was Magic and No-Magic. Don’t get me wrong both games are awesome, but I wish you could do more like create a family, maybe start your own shop, get an actual occupation, create your own towns/kingdoms, and customize more. I know this is probably all a dream and I understand programming this kind of stuff isn’t easy. Well I hope one day we do have a game like this and I hope I haven’t offended anyone with my post ;).
Also wanted to add that Fable 2 had a horrible online and maultiplayer mode. Staying in the same screen like that reminds me of GTA. Can we move on to split screen free-roam please? Thanks. I guess I kinda got lucky in Fable 2 though I was running and another players online orb thing ran past me. All the sudden (transfer sound) I just got 875M WTF!?!?! That’s not even funny -_- altough it did help me buy every property in the game. Let us not put maultiplayer in a game if it doesn’t even make since to have it. Thanks again.
I just finished fable 3 and it is the shi**est game I have bought this year it took me an amazingly 15hr to win with one hour just doing the kings choices what seemed like little more then a mini game, every thing that you wrote is exactly what is wrong with this game! OK so I was all ready to beat my brother take the throne and become king but the only thing you can do once you are king is make the most point blank choices that have no depth or inner meaning just like any choice throughout the whole game. example when you beat your brother and your sitting in his big shiny chair you can A kill him and most likely get most people to like you or spare him taking him and his loyal guard under your command and keeping in mind he tells you he knows about the “darkness” and offers to help you stop it i mean its not the hardest choice to make is it. the lack of items weapons and good clothes in this game makes it fall short even lower then the first fable. You cant customize your weapons or your clothes to any degree let alone the lowest and the choices they give you are some of the most obvious i have ever seen this game is lacking everything that makes an RPG good let alone great.
You’re retarded. How about we stop bitching and enjoy the best RPG this year.
Obviously we can all agree this game needed to be longer. Fable 3 lacked the necessary plot evolution that could have made it a fantastic RPG.
I didn’t play the first Fable, but I did play the second. RELIGIOUSLY. I put more hours into that game than anything else I’ve ever played. I bought Fable 3 hoping it would surpass everything I had enjoyed from the second.
Infact, the truth is that everything I had enjoyed was gone!
The Road to Rule drove me crazy. No, I don’t want to spend damn seals as I can easily destroy everything in the game already. No, I don’t want to only be able to store one food item at a time. No, I don’t want a “women’s matching pyjama suit”.
The sanctuary also made me want to chuck my wireless at the wall. Why am I being advertised to buy things by “Walter” everytime I need to travel somewhere that I probably won’t get to anyway because the map is a piece of shit.
I was pretty excited about the Red Setter mod for the dog, and hoped it would make him stronger or faster in someway.
Nope.
Still just a frustrating companion who woofs for treasure when you are mid-way through opening a chest.
Oh, the online gameplay is also a massive waste of time.
I was so let down by this game, time to replay Fable 2.
Does anyone notice that todays games aren’t what they used to be, like 007 Golden eye was an amazing game in my opinion and was a very long game and kept me interested through the whole thing. I like Fable 3 when I am bored and just want to relax and play a game just for the fun of it, but he is right it isn’t challenging at all and is no different than Fable 2. I guess it is something we have to deal with now, maybe one day a company will make a game worth buying.
That made me and my brother laugh our asses off. For example, the dog getting kicked in the head. My brother asked me to see how much the game was, so I went to look, and stumbled onto this goldmine of humor. Bravo good sir.
Frankly I’m confused. Many of the problems you complained about were present in Fable II, yet that was apparently your favorite game last year? I can’t even believe this is the same person. And would people quit complaining about how much they spend on the games? I’ll tell you a secret: when I want an expensive, new game (like Fable III or Brotherhood) I ask for it as a Christmas present so I don’t spend my own money. If that doesn’t work for you, then WAIT for god’s sake!! Don’t cry to us about how you wasted $60. You could have waited for a sale or bought it used for $30, like I did for AC2 (gamestop’s one-day sale).
Anyway back to Fable: the big problem I had was the ending. I was in a deficit of $400,000 and all the sudden 120 days went by and everyone died. But instead of going online and bitching, I replayed it to see if I could do any better. And I did! I saved everyone! OMG! Nevermind how much I loved the story: “Lieutenant Simmons! I thought I told you to remain dead!” did no one else think that was funny?
This article makes you seem like one of those guys who just wants a gory game where you get to blow everything up. Really, complaining about holding A? Are you so low on lime that 10 seconds kills you? Personally I’d rather hold A every time I went to a new place so I wouldn’t have to wait for a loading screen when I was trying to shoot a gnome, because that process takes a lot longer than holding A. But considering how much you loved Fable II I would think that you do enjoy a good story, so I would advise you for the future not to rush through games and instead to relax and enjoy having John Cleese as a butler and having large stone doors that want to write books. The same goes for all the commentors who need remedial English or perhaps a new computer with spell check. Take advantage of the exploring aspect and don’t insult Molyneux for making a ton of money from good marketing.
Imma let you have your own opinion. Yes, it is a lot faster than 2, and less of an RPG, but i still think it’s amazing. And you have to admit the outfits are bitching compared to the second one.
So disappointed in this game! Like everyone else, I was greatly anticipating F3 because I loved F2. The scenery is ugly, the jobs are loathsome, the actions are stupid and silly and my dog looks kind of wimpy. These are just a few of many. I’m still playing the game, as I just opened it up a few days ago, and I’m still hanging in there for some hope that this game is going to get better. After reading a lot forums, I don’t think that is going to happen. Very frustrated, because I’ve been waiting for this game for 2 years to be released. This game should be called ‘Monty Python meets Call of Duty’. I just hope the Fable franchise listens to it’s gamers and corrects these issues. Yeah, this game is lazy and down right silly!
Ok you just sound like somebody who just rushed through the game and really didn’t bother to pay much attention to anything.
1) Combat may have been so damn easy because you raped the damn rifle and spell buttons to death because you sucked at melee attacks. Enemies don’t block ALL the time, just mainly bosses block a lot because they’re SUPPOSED to. Boss fights aren’t supposed to be like cutting through butter.
2) Navigation is very simple for this game, and this crudely drawn map is supposed to be that way, not very many maps really do look like the damn surroundings, also you can fast travel right to the buildings nor do you have to zoom into the down, just press fast travel, not that difficult.
3) The plot in this one was way better than the last Fables, plus you actually had more interactions with Fable 3 than the others.
4) The expressions you can do, more than just freakin 2 pops up on the screen at once when you’ve learned the expression packs to do so. People may look like they’re from a god damn horror film in this, but what do you expect for this time period? Nobody looks pretty working in a factory or living in the slums.
All the problems you’ve complained about are PRESENT in Fable 2, which is your favorite, so how’s THAT for a loophole? All you sound like is a kid who got overly excited then got disappointed because the game wasn’t the way YOU wanted it, nobody gets exactly what they want from a game, so get over it, every game has flaws. Also, games don’t hold your hand every step of the way and they don’t tell you HOW to do EVERYTHING, its called “figuring it out yourself” doesn’t that sound like a neat thing? The only thing required is a brain. 🙂
plus the “swimming” aspect is annoying. you cant swim underwater, he/she flies through like a speed boat, and when you “dive” for treasure, it looks completely ridiculous. i’m sorry, but if games are resorting to a more “do whatever you want” kind of consept, why cant swimming realistically be part of it???
I have to agree with basically everything here. I didn’t mind the Simish interaction they had in the last one, at least the people kind of had personalities. They should have kept that, added a chat option that could get you to hear rumors maybe or spark quests, instead of, “Hey, we danced, now deliver this for me so I’ll be your friend…WHAT?” And the STD thing is just silly, I don’t get why they add that in there.
I disagree, though, I feel like the plot was signifigantly different, and, it COULD have been good. I liked the money idea, but they handled it wrong. I also was screwed over by the last day. Why didn’t they warn you, at least bring you to the day before it so then you can put the money in? I had 2 million I could have used to save them. Also, it’s really lame that the only ways you can get the money is from real estate or lots and lots of pie making. Had they added more optional money making quests to raise money, even jobs like silly RPG “defeat 15 balverines” or something like that, it would have been better, or at least not make the mini games so similar.
And personally, I don’t see how banning drinking should be considered “evil” or setting taxes on children. Instead, they should probably change it to public appeal. The good/bad thing should still exist, because it wouldn’t be Fable, but they should clean it up.
Family-I remember in the last one a quest where you save your child from hobbes. They need quests so that it makes a family more than, as said, a chore. And if they’re going to make the blackouts, they can make it quicker with less ridiculous moaning. It just makes it more uncomfortable.
Comedy-I enjoy the bad puns. It seemed that the comedy or attempt was lost as the end drew nearer. And they could have the darkness
Weapons-I bought one special weapon in the game and used it once. Why use weapons when you can use magic and it cost less to buy from the skill points?
Food-I think they should do away with potions and make it so you need to use food to heal. Pie and alcohol should have some added benefits in addition to healing so there’s a reason to use them. Because I don’t want a fat character, and most people don’t…
I could keep going, but I won’t.
I’m pretty sure it was 123 days left…
As much as I have been enjoying Fable III, there is no denying that many points you brought up are true. I was severely pissed about how they took AWAY spells, instead of adding new ones.
The graphics… really, improved SLIGHTLY, due to having a few CGI cutscenes which actually looked REALLY good.
As for that last half of the game, I really didn’t rush to the ending, and already had a rough $10m by the time I fought the final boss, so no idea what it was like, though I was surprised how fast time went while I was king.
But, in my own opinion, it was an improvement on Fable II. And the relationships were… Well, at least I could have a relationship (I’m talking to you Fallout).
I haven’t played fable III but its starting to sound like it’s going on a downward slope.
Peter needs to get back to basics and look at what made fable 1 successful. Perhaps quit going forward in time with the story and go backwards to a time before the first one. The feeling of being an awesome hero was what i loved about the first one. I dont want to be a king… it’s stupid.
They need to bring back the melee combat along with awesome weapons. Also they need to get rid of the jobs, super dumb.
Thank you for writing this.. Having just bought Fable 3 a week ago, and what i would guess about half way through it; it’s almost more of a chore to continue playing than a good experience. Fable 1 was great, Fable 2 had all the additions from the first that it needed, with mild confusion; but fable 3? Damn son. I don’t even know if I am up to finish it at this point. But I just wanted to say I love your review and absolutely agree with it!
Peter is obsessed with making people popular. Collecting guild seals through support of the villagers is directly ripped out of his Black and White games. Focus on better writing and engagement with your gamers and less on gimmick.
I had almost all of these complaints. The auto-saving no-checkpointing fucked me over hard, too. I played the game straight (good guy). I decided to have some fun and kill a few nobles. And once I kill 3 or 5 of them the game autosaves. I was at FULL LIGHT morality. So now I’m spending all of my time waiting for my income properties to accrue capital to put in to the treasury (which is almost full now!)
Even though the coiffers are at 5.4 million dollars the butler they saddled me with when I became king keeps crying about how poor we are.
And holding hands is such a stupid gimmick. Nobody wants to hold a criminal by the hand while dragging him back to jail. That’s noodle armed British pussbag thinking. I want to lasso them and drag them back along the ground from my steed. Red Dead Revolver is everything this game should be in all but setting.
This game is a complete let down in every manner possible.
While much of this is true, I still find Fable III playable. Though a bit disappointed that it was over in the first few hours of gameplay, it was fun while it lasted.
I felt that the ending was pretty pathetic and very cliche. The first half of the game was pretty much non-stop combat (another thing: I think Fable II’s combat was much better) and was almost a chore to get through.
The thing that pissed me off was that the game FORCED you to make promises to people, ones that would drain your treasury and lead to everyone’s death. Well, unless you actually work to get the money, which isn’t so bad if you have a huge real-estate empire.
I found that the female character’s interactions (dancing, hugging, kissing, etc) were more…guyish. I’m pretty sure it’s not the man that is supposed to be lifted in the air after a dance. The lack of interactions was also a bit of a downer.
Another disappointment was how all the townspeople and servants look alike. I hate walking through my castle, seeing five of the same person in one room. This also made marriage boring, I didn’t feel any connection to anyone I married. So of course I end up marrying Elliot, who then gives me a black child (not being racist) and 3 STD’s. A child that looked like they had been plucked from the Industrial, despite the fact that I now have millions rotting in my treasury and I live in a castle.
Yet another thing I noticed was that the NPC’s lacked expressions. Sure, their faces twitched here and there, but overall they seemed emotionless. Walter, most noticeably, had this issue.
While the townspeople seemed very uninteresting, I loved the NPCs. I actually felt connected to them (I do that with games, ha.) They all had personalities and stories, but the fact that (once again) you couldn’t interact with them in any way was disappointing.
I expected quite a bit from Fable III to be honest, but I don’t feel as though it evolved enough from Fable II. It’s not the best game ever, but I’ve always found myself lost in the little world they created. Pretty landscapes and good plots had me in my room for weeks on end, lost in the game. The same still applies to Fable III, though I wish just a little more effort was put in. It had its faults, but it was still worth buying!
Also, I absolutely loved the Companion Crate easter egg.
Oh, and about Fallout: New Vegas. It sucks. It’s glitchy and is practically an expansion of Fallout 3.
First of all I love this review, I laughed really hard because I can relate to some things I have experienced in the game as well.
But I do have to say that Fable III (+ II) is a fantastic game and (together with Zelda) it’s the best adventure game there is
Alright, I think this is one of the best reviews I’ve ever read. I agree with you on everything, except it not being a good game. I enjoyed it a lot, although the part when you become king is complete bullshit. Of course, I am a casual gamer, so you might not even consider my opinion, but I thought that although it does have flaws, they did not impact the game heavily. Yes, I wish the combat system would have been improved. Yes, I wish a brick hadn’t been dropped on my dog’s head. As for the relationships, they were a bit broken, but I don’t think many people get married seriously. They are just messing around with women. As for the format as a whole, however, I think Lionhead was experimenting with this game. They did make many changes with the decisions and storylines. And, assuming there will be another Fable, I think they will use the resulting reception from this Fable to build a better sequel. Look for Fable 4 to be a hit.
Yeah, I made the mistake of putting this game on my Christmas list, and I just finished it about a half hour ago. Overall the game was garbage, and I am pretty pissed off with the ending. So pissed in fact, I started searching google to see if there were others that are as pissed off as me lol. And this article was on the first page on the search.
I agree with everything you said in the article, especially with how on earth this could be a mature game when all the humor, insulting simplicity and other crap seems to be geared more for children. What really ruined the game was the treasury donation thing at the end. I was doing an evil playthrough, became a king with max evil standing due to my slaughtering of many villagers and guards, and made all the evil choices. Then, right at the end, I decided I wanted that chest in the sanctuary treasury room, the one that says you have to fill the room with gold then spend it all to be able to open the chest. So, I dumped all my cash into the kingdom’s treasury, grabbed the chest, then continued on.
Little did I realize, I jumped my morality to the good end with the donation, and I did this donation right before the final invasion(even though it said 120 days or something left). All of a sudden the invasion was starting and I couldn’t go back to become evil again. I got stuck with the good wings, and a good ending, with that Theresa bitch telling me the people loved me and I saved Albion without becoming a tyrant. What a bunch of bullshit, as if the large amount of annoying glitches, bugs, and piss poor gameplay wasn’t enough, this bs completely ruined the experience for me.
You didn’t really manage to explain why it’s an embarrassment to video games though, did you? You only really explained what you didn’t like about Fable 3 – a divisive game if ever there was one, much like its predecessors. I was genuinely intrigued to read an argument about Fable 3 being in some way a regressive step for the medium; I thought it might lay the groundwork for some kind of rudimentary game theory. How bloody wrong I was!
^^^^
I think he means its an embarrassing to video games in general the bad plot generic characters and poor combat create a game which probably should not of been released for $69.99… Biggest waste of money ever
people saying this is a perfect game, what other games do you actually play?
after completing fable 3 i went back and played fable 2 instead which amused me for about a week, but i cant help feel that the fable series falls so short when you compare it to the stuff bethesta has been churning out. elder scrolls actually give you freedom to go do what the hell you want. lionheart needs to step up their game and quit cocking it all up for the sake of being different.
fable 3 does look really nice though, ill give them that and the intro movie is really well rendered (perhaps they spent all their time and money on making that instead of the actual gameplay)
@CrazedGinger
Maybe he should have had the forethought to realise his tirade is an embarrassment against anybody who has ever put pen to paper to write about videogames? I’m serious. I’m probably going to give up gaming now that I know 90% of my fellow gamers are idiots.
Seriously, why buy Fable 3 if you want everything it does not have? And why write about it in such tiresome detail when you subsequently realise this? Fable 1 and 2 did nothing to suggest your experience would be otherwise.
@Dave
No, this guy wrote the pan of this game because he was let down. He was let down because aspects of this game SUCK. His pan (with the Edit) was bang on and put into words the same way I felt after playing for 2 hrs. The quests felt as pointless as they did in Red Dead Redemption. I would say F3 is far superior to Damnation, though. Now that game was an embarrassment to video games. FYI I didn’t buy F3, it was a Christmas gift.
While playing New Vegas, however, it did feel like I was playing FO3 again. And let me tell you what a wonderful feeling that was. Any game that has you thinking about it from the moment you wake up, till you’re lying in bed thinking contemplating how you’re going to tackle it the following day has to be considered top-notch. Regardless of how this game stacks up to its predecessors, it pulls you into its world for a solid week anyways.
I actually thought Fable 3 was a pretty good game. Albeit I didn’t take it very seriously, and all your complaints I know I was thinking at one point or another. Especially the hold down A shit. The devs make you jump through these hoops like Hold A to make a promise, but it’s not like you could be like fuck it, I’m not promising, but they force you to hold A. wtf.
perfect article. i was excited about the game, spent money, now i can’t touch it because of all the stupid frustrating things you have listed. the second time i played the game through i thought maybe things would be different, only to find none of my choices really mattered. weapon evolution ended up just being annoying instead of having more choice of weapon. i HATE the road to rule system. instead of getting better at the things i do by the end of the game i’m just good at everything and am a melee/ranged/spell user guy… it’s terribly terribly restrictive – not something i want from fable.. and now i’m left bored and wish i would have bought something else :'(.
personally i think fable iii would have been more fun on the SNES. it certainly had nothing that a good new rpg has or should have. they need to use technology, their giant gaming staff, to make something worthy of all these graphics. maybe something “FUN” and not hyped.
I’m with Ig. I just finished the game, but really, I only did it because I’m one of those obsessive-compulsive completionist types when it comes to video games. It’s now well into January of 2011, and Lionshead STILL hasn’t implemented a title update to fix some of the most glaring and aggravating bugs in the game. I’ve even had to restart my game now due to a critical plot quest glitching out in Bowerstone.
Also, for a game where the word “choice” is passed around like a two dollar whore, I’m stunned that there are absolutely zero consequences to said choices. Nothing you do matters, all that this game cares about is how much money you have in the end. Hmm. Rather pessimistic microcosm for modern society, eh Lionshead?
I loved reading this. It had me laughing constantly. I completely agree with the things you said. My husband and I both played this game. He is a more “hardcore” gamer than me but looking and me play through some of it he could tell that it would be easy combat wise. I was hopeful about this game in the beginning but now… well…I have moved on to my next hopeful and my Husband eagerly awaits Bioshock Infinite….
Pretty much have to agree with this. The ending especially, if I hadn’t read another review which happened to mention it drops from 121 to end game I would’ve missed my chance to pull Albion out of the debt it got into through my “decision making” as a king. But even then I could only do mundane tasks to watch my wealth fill up for so long, and eventually only saved roughly half, meaning if I get round to finishing my evil character I’ll just get them to save everyone, because that’s what tyrants do best.
And I don’t know if it was mentioned already but among the many faults of the Sanctuary the worst was them advertising the DLC. 90% of the time I “paused” to go there I’d have John Cleese saying “Oh hey, why don’t you buy some stuff for your game”, and I hate him just a little for that. I don’t want to hate John Cleese, it’s practically custom to love John Cleese! Why did they do that?
I have now come across 3 different games stores that have signs on/near their till saying “Copies of Fable 3 will not be accepted as trade-ins” I wonder how many copies have to be returned before gameshops start doing this? I’m guessing A SHIT LOAD! And why would so many copies have been returned I wonder? Perhaps because despite it now being January 2011 Lion Head haven’t bothered to fix all the dodgy crap wrong that it came out with? FAILble 3!
I played Fable to death. Fable II got at least a few play throughs. Fable III I beat in a day and haven’t touched since.
I am disappoint. The sanctuary can lick my sack.
I dont agree with you about most points.first of all the new map system is more creative, interactive and fun although inacurate.The weapons ara better as for they evolve around you!please reply
I agree with every point you make. This game is a lazy disgrace to the Fable genre. I enjoyed bits and pieces of it and the co-op is about the only thing “improved” between II and III (along with improved water reflection and minor improvements in re-texturing). One thing you didn’t mention however is the CONSTANT and ridiculous glitches throughout the entire game, especially when you are playing co-op. Glitches that crash the game, get you stuck in certain areas, and a huge amount of subtitle glitches are among the many defects that plague this game. I don’t even think they play tested at all! You also didn’t mention the fact that they ported most of the music from Fable II and Fable II Pub Games into this game. PORTED! Not remastered, not a new version. They copied and pasted exact music from a 4 year old arcade game. How ridiculously lazy can you get. I think that a large portion of the studio’s energy that should have been put into making this a better game, was put into trying to make this for the Kinect (fucking Peter Molyneux and he retarded fake milo project). Who asked for Fable III on the Kinect anyway?? They just left the A button crap in the game (hold down A to open/do anything). It really is like the developers just gave up and shit this thing out to reach a time quota or something.
This game frustrated me to no end. I’m glad there are others who feel the same. Maybe if Lionhead actually read some of the user feedback they would either not release another game, or else create a game worth playing.
I completely agree with everything you said. I just finished the game last night and literally just stared at my screen for a few minutes trying to wrap my head around the stupidity….I WAS A GOOD RULER AND EVERY SINGLE PERSON IN THE KINGDOM HATED ME AND MY WIFE DIVORCED ME. WTF!!?? I really expected this to be better than fable 2, and now really regret spending any money on this piece of shit game. It was so boring and lacked any sense of complexity that should really be expected now.
In case no mention’s been made here yet, was anyone else annoyed that Jasper essentially became a salesman for downloadable content, reminding every time I pressed the start button of some “new items available in the Sanctuary shop”? New items that, by the sound of it, aren’t worth the trouble.
I’m still playing through it and have just started the second “half” of the game – my treasury is nearly a million in debt, having chosen every single expensive “good” option, figuring if worse comes to worse, I can use the Xbox clock forward/backward trick to fill coffers.
If they’re too lazy to work on all the things mentioned in this post, why shouldn’t I meet them halfway?
Cool story bro.
Fable III’s magic system was an improvement. And if you want a “perfect” game why don’t you try and make your own? Then you can have intensly realistic combat and have a humourless dialogue system where if you were to do something funny you would be decapitated.
PS. MOTHER JOKES! XD
Trollololololololololo!
^
Stupid argument. So, people who don’t know how to make video games ought not share valid, negative opinions of games they’ve played?
I know Fable 3 isn’t the best game ever, but come on you make it sound like it’d be better to kill yourself then to even play the game. Sure games like Mass Effect and Fallout are better but this is decent. Getting the money is really easy, I am doing every good thing on the second half and will still have enough money, all you have to do is buy every building (especially houses and rent them out even though people say that’s bad cause you need to repair, the rent generates more than the cost of repair an sometimes I get an offer to buy the house from me for more than I bought it which could also make money) and to just do nonmain quest stuff, you know like side quests and achievements while you wait. You can leave at any time during ur decision making to play so it’s not like you have to hey get all the money before you get to the second part, although that would help as it would make the second part seem less rushed if you are doing good. If you’re doing bad then you can have 0 and still get 6.5 mil in the second half alone. The story isn’t that bad even if short and coop play with friends is interesting. Sure the game is short but so what? The length of a game doesn’t tell you how good it is. Playing is enjoyable and it’s an okay game. Honestly from some of the complaints you have it seemed like you tried to finish this game during your lunch break because many of those issues wouldn’t matter if you took your time. The game is worth it’s cost although if you can pick up Fallout 3 GOTY Edition or wait for Mass Effect 3 you will be making a better investment.
Nearly all of the anticipated titles that have been released recently seem to show evidence of lazy / rushed development processes to meet tight deadlines. “No more shall we take the time to make sure something works correctly and is a good product before releasing it!!”.
Back in the day of some of the console classics we never had the old, “Oh wait, you gotta like download this patch and shit to actually make the game that we sold to you for $40 work properly k?”
Every game I’ve bought this year has been a let down and none have lived up to the real hype and anticipation that is created.
I share this sentiment, Fable 3 is a very bad game. The graphics are beautiful, the music is good, there are some laughs to be had, but there just isn’t enough variation. Fable 1 did much better than 2/3. I wish they would return to their roots, because I feel bad about spending 60 euro’s on this game, which I finished in 6 hours. I’m gonna sell it for 20 euro’s and buy Fallout: New Vegas, probably. I had a bad feeling about Fable 3 since I read the very first preview, but I decided to just give it a try. Wrong decision.
I was kind of enjoying this game until I read this article, and now i hate it. I thought I was the only one having trouble with navigating.
Also, the navigation system isn’t consistent. Tried to fast travel to one person with the quest “exclamation point” above there head and appeared right next to them. Tried to do it with another ended up on the edge of town with nothing to tell me where I was on the map and the golden trail missing. Thats a bug that should have been fixed before the release. Game sucks….
I love this review! I just finished Fable 3 and was thinking to myself I must have done something wrong to have such a crap ending so fast but nope, your review was 100% head on! I played the whole game too waiting until I found a shover to DIG where the dog told me to. Then I just happened to step over him with about 200 whatever days left and found that you just press A and pull out a magic shovel from your pocket! I missed so many treasures because of this!
You godless couch#%&$! How dare you say Fable 2 was an improvement on Fable! That game was a steaming crapball!
I liked playing fable 2 and started playing fable 3 but got bored… played on to see if it got more interesting until my save game glitched to the point that it would not load. Now I am so disinterested that I am thinking that I do not want to sit through all that again. I see absolutely no reason to buy any weapons or outfits or anything except property and that whole process is retarded. I just can’t say much for this installment of the game. Fallout NV I will have to say the same… I have not finished that either due to a glitch that has made things less interesting and I am far enough along that I do not want to restart. I like the idea of hardcore mode but got bored with that too. Too much detail in one area and absolute none in another.
Lets face it people Fable 3 was not the best game, not worst either Pokemon’s going through a mid-life crisis: they’re all fat and ugly it’s crushed my childhood happiness :(. I think what it is, is that Peter Monlyeux (sp?) is being selfish, if he doesn’t want a HUD nobody gets one; if he wants to keep the game simple nobody gets anything challenging.
I think Lionhead needs to consult it’s audience on what they want rather than what it wants (a lot of companies need to do this quite frankly).
But I don’t think this review has been fair, to me Fable will always be a good laugh the gnomes for example killed me with laughter. It’s not trying to be serious all the time and I like that. Too many games are going for the life-like-end-of-the-world-apocaylpse theme to a point where its depressing (with stunning graphics and realism mind you).
But I think I’ll always like older games better they had ridiculous plots and ridiculously difficult gameplay, cause fuck me Crash Bandicoot was hard!!
Oh man, I’m just glad this article was made. Someone had to say it. It’s not that I hate Fable 3 – I did enjoy it and I’ll probably play it again, making the ‘evil’ (save your kingdom from doom without cheating) choices this time. But ugh! There are humongous flaws with the game that keep it from being something great. I agree on letting it slide for the first and second games, since they introduced enough new, unique elements, helping to negate the bad. It was like they were feeling things out, and only after release did we all see which things were keepers and which were not. But by the third installment, you expect the flaws to be dealt with – and instead they made things worse. The glitches (especially with the brain-damaged dog), the lack of choice in character interactions, the load of BS that was the entire post-revolution segment of the game (just skipping the third half of the final year!?) – they totally screwed up some crucial shit here.
okay you people all need to go get lives. Paul i agree with you.
I agree with some parts but every game has its good and bad bits and it seems all your doing is moaning about the bad bits
It has better social features than fable 2 you can talk to just the one person instead of everyone, in fable 2 I had half the of bowerstone fall in love with me and wouldn’t leave me alone because I had to talk to everyone not just the person I wanted too T_T and if you take your time any game can go on forever just dont rush it and the customization is way better
I haven’t had the problem of the glitched kids or anything.
I killed nearly everyone too all you need to do is finish some quests and they’ll come back
have any of you played rpgs before? at all
I agree with some of the points that are made in this article but honestly saying that Fable 2 was any better is absurd. The only good Fable was the first, not only was the game play fun (although a bit clunky) but the story in my opinion was one of the best of any Western RPG. I actually felt a sense of going through an epic adventure, and a sense of growth for my character (something i had never experienced in an RPG). I think what went horribly wrong with this franchise was the completely moronic idea to take fable’s fantasy setting out of the Fable world and replace it with guns and boring un-interesting plots. With that said i think Fable 2 as a whole, was a hell of a lot better than 3, yes it was full of bugs and it was completely dumbed down for the “casual player” which is funny because the original was not hard just required you to at least use a fraction of brain power when going up against bosses, since it wasn’t a cake walk like 2&3. But Fable 3 has officially killed the franchise for me, it has showed me that Peter Molyneux rather focus on hiring actors for the voice work than making the game, i dunno, GOOD!! Honestly i could give three shits if my butler was voiced by John Cleese or Lil’ Wayne (although the latter would be hilarious). The combat was more laughable than the first game, not only were there only 2 melee weapon types (mace/sword) to chose from, which is pathetic honestly, but it was even more streamlined than the previous title. My hopes of seeing another great fable game themed in the “medieval fantasy” period have been utterly crushed by Molyneux ambition to destroy every franchise he creates.
First of all your people do come back secondly i agree with the whole map thing i cant find my way around half the time and i completely agree with the whole race thing they should give you an option if they’ll give you a random black kid
The way to do this was to fill the kingdom’s treasure with gold. I needed $6.5M to save them all, and making $100,000 every five minutes of gameplay (as I owned almost every store and piece of property in the country) I thought I had a pretty reasonable shot with 365 days on the clock.
WRONG.
My first play through fable 3 was a bit like yours at this point…..the dam golden trail made me follow it until the end credits were rolling…however….
ive just played through it again pwning everything (as you do) but… i said bye bye golden trail and went off finding my own way leaving the main quest to……well wait there…..i spent the next 2 days (actual days in RL) doing side quests and finding treasures and such to return to the main quest with still 365 days……you DONT HAVE TO COMPLETE IT in 1 hit. this for me made me feel like i was getting a bit more like what i expected for my money….i agree fable3 does still have its faults (big faults) and yes im a lil gutted that its basicly fable2 with a new story but all in all i rather enjoyed the 2nd play…if they do another fable they are going to avta pull there fingers out and give the gamers what they want…a solid, polished rpg with much greater depth and dont make the gamer just follow that sodding crappy trail so much so that they complete the game just as it all seemed to be getting good…..nice rant btw matey 🙂
kevbo
I beat Fable 3 and I got the 6.5mil made every good descision too, and then got the exact same ending as my roomate who rushed, through it, making some good some bad descisions for 2.5 mil. I just had more useless non quest giving idiots running around, after the credits rolled. The only actuall way to get the gold is to afk with all your properties bought, why afk? because unless you want to lead criminals by the hand to the police guy, over and over, theres no quests beyond the main story barely. So you need all these Millions but no means to get it without buying all the properties, afk thumb tapping the screen and every hour or so repair all your buildings. Only to get the same exact ending as everyone else, the single difference is you have more useless npc models. Every good king game i joined on xbox live, the person was afking tapping there controller every so often to get gold.
I ordered this game believing that everything up to the point of being king was just half of the story and that being a sequel to fable 2 which i loved, it must be better and cant possibly have less features and story line then the previous 2… i was wrong
Well, all u’ve said is true, but i thought that this game was pretty good. I played the first fable and many thing has changed. The game got easier, cause in fable 1, 5 monsters come to kill u and u only have a sword and need 40 attacks or so to kill 1 monster.
If u’re not satisfied with the game, just dont write non-senses like this one. If u want a bad game, play “Quantum Theory”. Fable 3 will seem to be better, much better.
I kinda agree to a point. I was really looking forword to being king and was expecting to do a bit more, I was a little upset with how the weapon evloution worked out was hopeing that your hero weapons states would change as it evolved basied on your style of playing for example say that with your sword if your favor useing florishes your sword would start looking bigger and your attacks are slower but dose more damage. The visual effects of weapon evloution are nice a all but wish they had a acual pupose,(I know that the weapons you buy or find when you fuffill their chalanges will vissualy change anf acualy have effects so why not for your stater weapons?). I didnt really care for the dog it was even more usless then the one in 2 and could have used that time spent on improving something else, also i really miss not being able to interact with a crowed of people like the previous fables and while it dose make it a bit more of a challage to make people like you it can also be a bit boring. also would really like it if they had a repair all option for the houses becouse it tediouse to have to select each one. and it would be alot easyer if i could just hot key the food and potions i want to use and health bar would have been nice.
However, i still think Fable 3 was a hell of alot better then 2. After 2 i lost all respect for Lionhead and Peter and i had low expecations for the most part, for me 2 was a insult to the first Fable, Lucian was a poor antagonist compared to Jack of Blades who was a good final boss . while 3’s boss still didnt come close at lest it was an acual fight. I will still say that fable 1 was the best over all but 3 has redeamed the franchise a little bit.
Also with the gold the trick is as much as you mught not want to hear it but if you want to be completly be good and still have enough your going to have to slow down on the frist part, you got to work a lot at the vary start as soon possiable and start investing at least a little, it is acualy worth buying improved furnishing from the stores and have Jasper or if your confidant your self redecorate and then sell furninishings that your never going to use to make a little more. befor you get to the second part have at lest 10 million and work some more to rack in more gold dont rush. This dose not take as much time as you might think it is all bout spending that extra 15 minutes here and a half hour there.
The goal of this game is to save the people and in order to do that you must have 6.5 million gold in the treasury. I think playing the game without using any gold cheats and trying to reach your goal is pretty fun.
Everyone needs to slow down and enjoy the experience. I see alot of people say “I beat the game”, if your citizens died in the end because you didn’t have the gold in your treasury, you didn’t beat it, you simply complete it. Anyone can run through and follow the yellow brick road to glory, but to reach the goal of this game is a challenge in itself and it quite rewarding if you slow down and take your time
Yes, there are glitches, as there will be and have been with any game, this is a massive game and not everything is going to be perfect.
Lionhead should have held a contest giving the first person to BEAT the game, not finish the game, a monetary prize. That would have been epic.
How many of you have Beaten the game without using gold cheats?
Vortex + Blades. End of story, kills nearly everything once fully charged. It even delays a bit so it negates how enemies jump just out of range of the spell, because as soon as you cast the spell they run forward and get caught in the vortex. Yes. Magic is overpowered. Yes. Guns are overpowered. Smash through enemies with a hammer. Combat isn’t that good. But it’s not outright bad.
I, too, didn’t earn enough money the first time around. But don’t pull the “I didn’t know it was going to end!” shit, I distinctly remember being told it was the last day you could do anything, or at least knowing, upon the end of the day, the battle would start. Plus, considering that day was the day you fulfilled your last promise, it’s kind of a give away that there won’t be anything after that. That isn’t a problem at all, though. In fact, the only problems I had were the shop keepers all being dead. That, and all the female prositutes in my brothel were killed, leaving me only with male ones.
The story, however, was not good. It lacked, greatly. It’s not only that it was short, but most of the time it didn’t explain anything. Crash land on desert. Walk into cave that happens to hold a mysterious creature that controls shadow. SUDDENLY OUT OF NO WHERE THE BIG BAD BOSS IS INTRODUCED, with no reason as to why he’s so pissed off or deadly, no reason as to why he wants to take over Albion. He’s just .. There. Thanks for saving us, Auroran lady. And informing that your city is being terrorized. Now would you kindly tell us what the fuck’s going on? No? Okay.
But inform us that our brother was here before and he made all these promises. Oh great. A twist! But I feel no sense of wonder or surprise what so ever.
The story failed to interest me, it failed to surprise me, it failed to get me into the game.
Weapons. We’re limited to two types of each, melee and ranged. Hammer and sword. Pistol and rifle. Ranged weapons I can understand there being few, they was never many ranged weapons in the other games. But melee weapons? Where are the axes, the maces, the large selection of tools of incredible destruction?
They had some great ideas with it, though. The whole changing-as-you-progress thing is a good idea. But it’s completely random and so under-exaggerated, the only time you actually notice a change is when you go to the armory in the sanctuary and see them up-close.
But again: An axe, an axe, a kingdom for my axe!
The dog, I have the same problem in Fable 2, is just stupid. It’s not the glitches, or the fact it acts like a retard. It’s just a stupid form of finding treasures and dig spots. Bring back Fable 1 gameplay, please, Lionhead. Everyone knows it was the best one in the series.
Enemies are lacking greatly. There are so few of them, and it becomes repetitive. Not to mention it’s annoying to have them spawn in Millfields, but kinda funny to watch them kill everyone.
And, my biggest problem, the game felt incredibly small. Whether it’s true or not, it felt as if there was a lot less places to go in this one than previous games. That, however, might just be because the fast travel option removes the need to constantly travel.
Fable 3 is a major let-down, definitely. It’s a horrible game when compared to the rest of the Fable series, of course. It’s incredibly downgraded on many, many things. The only areas it really added to is the graphics (understandably) and the weapon progression.
But it’s still a playable and, somewhat, enjoyable game on its own. The voice-acting is great. The humour is great too, I felt it was a lot more prevalent in this game than the others.
Really. Who can deny the absurd greatness of parading around in a chicken suit while chickens followed you “bawking” marching tunes?
And fuck the gnome haters. Them and the gargoyles from the previous game added some funny insults to listen to; “Must be nice, being able to lick your own privates. But doesn’t that embarrass your dog?”
Even, simply, “Mourningwood”.
And let’s not forget the tombstones!
As a girl player, it’s hilarious to me to hear what the boys have to say. The article had me rolling a bit. My boyfriend said I was laughing a little too hard about the black baby thing. Anyway, you are right about a lot. The NPC gameplay graphics and weapons suck. I kind of liked the cutaways at first but then they got kind of long. I wish I could ffwd through, sentence by sentence, like in Oblivion. I was annoyed that I had to wait for spells that I already knew about (sword spell) from Fable 2. The tediousness of raising money for the final quest was annoying, but I did make enough. I though it was pretty obvious that they were going to leap forward in time when they went from 365 straight to 229 or whatever it was. Although a glitch in the game made donating funds to the treasury take forever b/c the increase amount wouldn’t speed up 75% of the time. I made dinner with one hand while I pressed the button down for 20 min. The map was annoying. The millions of steps that it took to get to things that should have been accessed in one button push was annoying. The fact that I spent all this time preparing money, etc for the final big boss fight, and then killing him in 2 seconds was annoying. And the fact that my husband randomly passes away without explanation and the game gives me a message that my daughter went to the orphanage even though I’m not dead and now I can’t find her is REALLY annoying. And there weren’t ANY sexy clothes for girl fighters. I played the whole game with no pants on so my nature tattoo would show. What’s the point of tattoos when there are no clothing options to show them off? Other than that, I loved the game.
Alright, I do have to agree that Fable is one of the most horrible games to come out thus far. But (To some comments on top) New Vegas was screwed up because of the development team Obsidian. Obsidian screws up games and kills them, That is what happened to KotOR 2, good game by detail but the story and dialog was horrible. The mechanics (As in the iron sights and what not) of New Vegas were a amazing upgrade but it lacked story and detail. Fable 3 thou, that game made Obsidian look like game designing gods. I bought it and was very disappointed in it, hopefully add-ons and updates can fix the bugs and screw ups in this game. I am mostly saying that the whole Two white people having a child and out comes a black baby type of thing, and pretty much what was reviewed up top. So yea, everything got f*cked in 2010 line of gaming.
ok seriously, how bad could this game have been if you played through the whole thing while doing little features like getting married and baking pie? If the features and story of this game were THAT bad, you should have been smart and tried to get a refund the first week you bought this. Reviews like this are soooooo freakin stupid.
Unfortunately, it’s reviews like this that are discouraging. I haven’t played any of the Fable or AC games yet, but was just waiting for the latest ones to come out, thinking they would be just as rich in story, but with all the bugs and other issues fixed. I guess it’s better to read about it first than it is to waste money. I will just be picking up ACII and Fable II instead and skipping Fable III. Still want to give Brotherhood a shot though.
So, until then, back to Dragon Age. :/
Hey man, i love fable III. When you have your little nose stuck in the air like you probably do, with your oh-so-clever little similes, you can rant and rave about anything. I think you guys should rent the game and see for yourself. Fable III was an incredibly vast and entertaining game with so many possibilities and endless things to do and try. Try having fun while playing games, it’s a whole different experience.
Now, I’m just shocked. I found this page with that “article” and after reading it I scrolled down hoping to see loads of comments that would humiliate this review for insulting such a brilliant game that successfully blends together multiple genres and does in seamless, entertaining and visually astonishing way. Instead, there’s hundreds of negative comments that support opinion of the author. Almost everyone is blaming this game which leads me to conclusion that either it’s some kind of artificially made-up “party of haters” or gamers these days are evil and tend to discourage others from gaining pure joy. Disgusting. The fact that overage official ratings are above 80% approves the first option. Anyway for me it was jaw-dropping and most excellent experience. Another possibility is that certain things were ment for each other like me and this game. Some kind of magic maybe… But screw you for your attitude! As an example, after trying “Dragon age” I simple hate it, maybe just as strong as you hate “Fable 3”, but at least I won’t discourage the others to try and judge for themselves.
I agree pretty crap game overall nice graphics though thats about it. Fable TLC by far is my favourite RPG of all time completed that game atleast 50-60 times.
However if you guys want to play a real game then Blizzard Entertainments World of Warcraft is for you. Not only is it the best MMORPG of all time, but for me simply the best game ever created. Try completing that in 4 hours lol! Simply cant be beaten on graphics, game play, storyline or anything. Saddly it cost monthly but is worth every penny! You will never run out of things to do thats whats so goddly and its 1000x the size of Oblivion, Fallout, and Fable sequels combined! Now thats a real RPG, just try running From one end to the other! complete genious of a game thats now six years old, it is the definition of an RPG and all others are just wanabees that cant and wont touch it not in one million years. So if your looking for somthing that will blow your mind away then make sure you got a PC, internet and alot of fucking spare time! :D. So if you like RPG’s that include everthing you could ever imagine or dream about then ive found the game for you! You will simply never get board of the tens of thousands of quests, hundred of thousands ofc items, hundred of thousands of weapons/armor, hundreds of dungeons/raids, and thousands of NPC,s including hundreds of bosses. The greatest aspect of it all, you have a team of skilled and dedicated people patching the game to perfection 24/7 you will never have one complaint. And to top it all off your continuosly live playing with thousands of others along side and against you! Joinning the 14million combined within hundreds of stable servers. Theres so much more but if your into that and are willing you will discover the millions, let me rephrase billions of other great factors involved in the beautiy of this magnificent creation, simply the most genious game to have ever and ever will be made. If you havent played it and you like games then you really dont understand what your missing and should slap yourself for not. Nothing can touch it, and nothing ever will… EVER!
I had the same experience, told my wife I wanted Fable 3 over black ops for christmas, I still have fable the lost chapters, and fable 2, thought i would like to continue the story, get fable 3 and then disapointment set in, and I was like wtf….. still angry, going to be an evil guy in there next because I hate it so……..
I read your entire post and I’m implored to say I TOTALLY AGREE with everything you said. Not one complaint in there did I disagree with. For 60 dollars I expected so much more and all I got was 6 days of walking up and seducing men. Most of my dislikes would of been quelled if only they would of made the game longer. I had just finished playing Star Wars force unleashed which i literally beat on hard in like 7 hours. So i thought hey i never played fable before its an ongoing rpg for the xbox i bet that will last me a long time….ya i thought wrong.
This game cost me £35 pre owned! and i managed to finish it without dying and without really trying..
You are completely right. I hate how difficult they made it to get to a house or a shop… I had to go buy a house in Brightwall and I had it picked out on the map, I went to go walk to it and decorate it but when I exited the Sanctuary, I was forever lost.
Oh, and I’m pretty sure every little kid in the game is black, not that there is anything wrong in showing different races in the game, but I have not seen one white child.. But mostly all older men and women are white. Does not make much sense.
Lionshead Studios, you have outdone yourself again. I thought Fable 2 was bad.. my, was I wrong.
Fable 1 was a solid game. It will always be a very good game, now matter how old it becomes. Stop making more Fable games. Please.
i couldnt agree any more with you. Fable has been my favorite game series of all time, I beat fable 1 literally 14 times, partly due to the fact that I only had 3 games for the xbox, but nonetheless I knew every detail about the game down to every blade of grass. Fable 2 was better and worse in just about every way, they did change and adapt for the new 360 game engine and the map was better than before making you want to explore everything which most people did. Fable three was one of the worst games I’ve ever played in my entire life, I didn’t explore or get sidetracked by anything in the game because I was rushing so I could finally beat it and never play it again, I beat it 3 days after it came out, its february 13, and I haven’t played it since. I don’t understand how it took 2 years to make a game that lacked and did not have so much of its predecessor. Its like having microsoft spend 2 years to make a new tetris, and the new tetris only goes up to 10 lines and there’s only one shape to use. An embarassment to your company, to any other 360 game, and is pathetic compared to the 2 previous games. If you make a fable 4, clean up your fucking act.
“If you make a fable 4, clean up your fucking act.”
This was shameful, my experiences are mirrored EXACTLY to what is above. I had more than enough cash… didn’t transfer it over in case I needed it for some stupid plot twist “your castle burned down, and your STD carrying wives wont produce more money sucking cranky midgets until you rebuild it… rebuild? -2000000000 or move into a gypsy wagon -200.”
Very unimpressed. I wish I could get money money back… even half of it.. I feel violated.
I’m just shocked it took 3 installments for people to realize this. And I thought I was going crazy with the rest of the word in total disagreement.
omg…. i completely agree with you. first of all Im a female gamer & Elliott [the love of my life] also gave me an STD & our kid was a little black boy. I actaully tried having the hobbs in the forests kill him & then tried to leave him, but he magically came back to the castle. SOOOO no offense to anyone, i’m really not racist; however, my family looks like i screwed the “chocolate” milk man. haha. therefore I adopted a white boy & i spoil him in front of the black kid.
& I was FURIOUS whenever i thought I had 365 days to save up 6.5 million & it was over in like 4 ish. I’ve now played & beat the game 3 times. once when everyone died. once with me being completely good & saving everyone. & once with me being evil and saving everyone. & i SWEAR Fable 2 was 20x better than this game. You had more options for communications, & at least you got gamer points for 3 different endings. you can have different ending with this game; however there’s no actual will to play it again because ultimately there’s no reward. Hell the only reason ive beat it 3 times is because I can start the game & beat it within 24 hours easy!
Soooo Lionhead studios please actually give us a challenge if you even attempt to make a another one. & no one cares about Theresa anymore. Just kill her off already. & one last thing. perhaps it would be a good thing to make the 2nd & 3rd story lines tie together a little better especially for us female gamers. i was a female in the 2nd fable & i was a female in this one, therefore why wasnt the Princess’s mother a hero? rather than her father?
Ultimately it just had too many screw ups to be considered a good game. & the demon doors were WAAAAAAAAAAAY too easy. please no hints on the damn map anymore. kthanks!
I do agree with somethings that you say, but even with that you could try to be alittle more creative. In the scene of using guns..Maybe instead of lets the game auto aim for you. You could MANUALLY aim (Adds a challenge) But as for magic… Its just to easy, but instead of spamming your AoE attack you could try and mix things up and move around. And for swords you’ll have to come up with your own. (Used my sword like 5 times in the whole game…)
But you have to remember that there is never a game that is perfect but still they really need to improve some aspects of this game. But over all I enjoyed my time playing the game because I add my own touch.
magic isnt always the best weapon in fable 3. in my experience against balvarines the rifle is simply amazing against them. theres no point in including those black darkness things cus they r like 1 hit kill but the hardder ones the hammer i think does very well there.tje skeletons i found that rifle and hammere where about same there.those desert fiend thingys are rubbish against magic ~(fire +lightning) the mercenaries can put up a fight against magic but the hammer was good against them. the guards are rubbish vs magic.those small gremlin like things are rubbish against everything.
and there all the ones that come to my mind.
dude… ive only played for 2 hour and so far its pretty cool, the wepons upgradeing themselves is odd and the graphics are a lil more touched up but everyone loved the 1st and 2nd fables, but how much more could they do with it? the 2nd was almost an industrialized society basicaly, and after industrialism comes rulers useing the industrialism to theyer advantage, then war, then any and all countries will fall shortly after this… they made it too real, all countries do this, even the US fell after it industrialized but they need to add the last step in the cycle for the game to be badass, either the fall of albion causes a state of panic and turns to anarchy or like a post end of albion alltogether into a free state of war and survive any way or the rebuild step for albion just so the games not so quick……. i have no problems with the game so far, just a lil realistic other then that, the only downer is all it is, is just fable industrialized… i say go back to haveing multiple heros in the guild with you or bring back some really old characters as spirits or ghost, like thunder i think his name was, or jack of blades, but fuck all this industrial bull shit
You are so right I agree 110%. So much could have been done and yes there was a realistic aspect to the culture but being forced to dance with everybody, not very fun. What happened to the old system flawed but not so bad. As king you have to do everything on your own? You cant bring your guards and order them around? Its a mature game you can’t sentence people to death or have them arrested you have to go hunt down criminals for money when its (your) the crowns money? Fable 2 was better, 3 really was a lazy had so much potential game. If you like 3 thats great. People like me maybe we ask to much or maybe we have more of an imagination then Lionhead. If you remember we were promised much much more out of Fable, Fable 1, 2 and 3 don’t even come close to what Fable 1 was said to be. And yes Fallout New Vegas is the same as 3 all new story, they just re did the map and with a little work they expected to make a bunch of money again which they did.
I love it more than pt 2. I’ve always been the oddball.
Not to mention the numerous shop glitches disallowing you to even “examine” the shop items. I’ve been trying to buy a men’s wizard suit for quite a few hours now.
I agree with some points, and disagree with plenty of others.
The game, overall, I thought was charming, funny, and definitely entertaining enough to be worth the money I spent on it. There were plenty of humorous side-quests, fantastic voice-acting, fantastic area settings, and plenty of aspects of the plot that made me excited to play.
The Sanctuary – I thought this was a big, BIG step up from the menu navigation in both prior games. Running into rooms is much less frustrating than waiting twenty seconds or more just to load menu pages (Fable II – it frustrated me enough that several times I just stopped playing). Everything was where it was supposed to be. I didn’t have to file through a multitude of slow-loading pages to get where I needed to go. I may have had to walk there, but it was extremely straight-forward, not to mention a heck of a lot more interesting than the same menus every other game uses.
Melee Combat – The first two times I played through the game I relied more on my magic and my ranged attacks, and during those playthroughs I found it more difficult to switch to melee. However, in my most recent playthrough I’ve been sticking primarily to melee and I’m not having nearly the difficulty as I was having before. I think it’s just a matter of adjusting early on and not being used to relying so much on other methods to win combat.
The Bugs – I did have issues with the dog taking forever to locate dig spots, and find treasure chests (many of which I could never find anyway). The “black baby to two white parents” thing happened several times but that’s actually not a huge deal. I also ended up having to deal with the Understone glitch, which was extremely annoying, but worked fine after I reloaded the game just once.
Variation – I did wish that there were more customization options for weapons, clothing, and NPCs, but I didn’t find this to be a huge issue either. At the same time, I loved the differences in settings from one area to another, and often stopped in certain places just to look around and check out how cool everything looked (The caves under the castle, pretty much every area of Aurora, the cliffs around Brightwall Village… I could keep going).
Navigation – It only took me an hour or two into my first playthrough to figure out that you could fast travel to the exact location that you wanted. Once I got that down I had almost no trouble navigating, minus the points where the glowing trail would fail to load quickly enough (something present in all three Fable games).
Shops – This I have to agree on. I found the shops to be almost entirely useless when it came to actual items (food and potions), but at the same time I actually liked what they did for clothing and weapons.
Weapons – I absolutely love the weapon evolutions for this game. I’ve played through three times and none of my weapons have looked the same.
NPC Interactions – I liked the interaction wheel from Fable 2 better than Fable 3, but overall I didn’t see a huge difference when it came to gameplay.
Money – It was almost TOO easy to make gold sometimes. Just buy property. On my first playthrough it was a little more difficult because I wasn’t aware of how much I would be setting aside to save everyone, but on my second I had 13m before I became queen.
Property – I could have used more, but at the same time I’m glad that there wasn’t a vast overabundance simply for the fact that repairing all of them every so often would have annoyed the crud out of me. I wasn’t a fan of that aspect, but at the same time it made sense.
The Humor – Loved it. The trash-talking gnomes (the minute I saw the gargoyle waiting to be picked up I literally went “Haha! Oh, crap…”) , the quest “The Game”, the banter between characters (particularly Ben and Page), even the stupid chicken suit. Yes, a lot of the jokes made me literally smack my forehead, but even the lameness was a bit charming.
So, yes, there were certainly things that needed to be fixed, but to call it an embarrassment is sliiiight overkill. There were definitely aspects of both the first and the second game that I liked better than this one, but the same can be said in the reverse.