Fable III

[Soapy]

Eh...I don't know that I would even call Fable an RPG. I really don't know what kind of genre I would call it, and more importantly I don't think Lionhead knows what kind of game Fable is either. I think it's pretty apparent that they don't have a clear direction they want to go in.

 

[Wolvieboy17]

I think they do, I think it's quite clearly become more of an adventure game, with a sims type element. I'm fine with the game format. I don't play fable to get my deep rpg fill, there are plenty of other games for that.

 

[Crimson King]

Yeah, I always think of the Fable series as RPG-light. It's a fantasy action game with certain RPG elements. I dig it, but may not be your cup of tea.

 

[Havok83]

Comparable to Fable? No, I don't think or any.

Okay but what is the gameplay like? What kind of combat does it have?

 

[Crimson King]

Combat is assigned to three buttons. B is magic attack, X is melee, Y is ranged weapon. You can assign a spell (or combo spell) to B, a specific type of melee weapon to X, etc., but you don't have a list or wheel of choices like other RPGs. It's pretty basic combat, honestly. I guess the trick is to block and roll effectively, but you can get by with spamming certain attacks.

Fables main strengths are the writing, the interaction with NPCs, and the satisfaction of combat (even if it is too easy).

 

[iamlegend]

You know, I hated the original Fable. I bought The Lost Chapters for $5 at Best Buy, played it just past childhood, did the first one or two hero quests, and put it on the shelf.

But I've quite enjoyed this playthrough of Fable II, which I should actually have finished sometime tonight. Hey, I'll only be playing Fable III a week late, even though I had it release night.

Really? What didn't you like about it? Granted I haven't played it since it first came out way back when (2004), but I do recall thoroughly enjoying it.

 

[iamlegend]

Yeah, I always think of the Fable series as RPG-light. It's a fantasy action game with certain RPG elements. I dig it, but may not be your cup of tea.

It's tough to classify... but I look at Fable as an entry into a genre I consider "Modern RPGs."

Legitimate, old school role playing games are much more in the model of an Elder Scrolls entry - but in the current video game climate, all kinds of games are being called RPGs by their makers, and more and more people are associating RPG with games like the Fables. Mass Effect calls itself an RPG, but it's largely an shoot 'em up.

Furthermore... companies are getting away from the classic "RPG" model, almost entirely. MMORPG's have become so popular that there's almost no rhyme or reason behind releasing an RPG on the consoles.

 

[El Bastardo]

Really? What didn't you like about it? Granted I haven't played it since it first came out way back when (2004), but I do recall thoroughly enjoying it.

I don't remember. Boring, I know that. But it could've just been wherever I happened to be at the time when I started playing it. Games are like everything else artistic: you're always a different person when you play or read something again.

It's tough to classify... but I look at Fable as an entry into a genre I consider "Modern RPGs."

Legitimate, old school role playing games are much more in the model of an Elder Scrolls entry - but in the current video game climate, all kinds of games are being called RPGs by their makers, and more and more people are associating RPG with games like the Fables. Mass Effect calls itself an RPG, but it's largely an shoot 'em up.

Furthermore... companies are getting away from the classic "RPG" model, almost entirely. MMORPG's have become so popular that there's almost no rhyme or reason behind releasing an RPG on the consoles.

As someone who has primarily played RPGs since the Genesis, there's no way I'd call an Elder Scrolls game something akin to a "legitimate" old-school RPG.

Really, there's no such thing as an RPG. We all use the term to mean a certain genre of game, but no game is something as plain as a straight RPG. Everything, including old-school RPGs, fits a sub-genre. Old-school RPGs are largely J(apanese)RPGs, and for the most part those are now dying out.

Mass Effect might play as a third-person shooter, but everything about it fits the quintessential mold of a W(estern)RPG, and no surprise, since BioWare did the most work for that sub-genre. The differences exist more in the storytelling than any specific game mechanic.

Elder Scrolls games are more action-adventure-RPGs. I would fit the Fable series into that mixed sub-genre as well.

 

[iamlegend]

I don't remember. Boring, I know that. But it could've just been wherever I happened to be at the time when I started playing it. Games are like everything else artistic: you're always a different person when you play or read something again.

Fair. I've recently considered downloading Fable on XBox Live and playing through it again just to see how much everything has aged... but I don't think the one they offer is The Lost Chapters, and I don't see a point in downloading what's effectively an incomplete game.

 

[Soapy]

Old-school RPGs are largely J(apanese)RPGs, and for the most part those are now dying out.

Ultima, Wizardry, Bard's Tale, Bauldur's Gate, Exile/Avernum, The Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Planescape, Icewind Dale, Neverwinter Nights, and Diablo would like a word with you.

 

[Wolvieboy17]

Borderlands too...

Just because certain games have evolved doesn't mean they're no longer RPG's. Mario Galaxy and the original Super Mario Land are both still platformers, Doom and The Darkness and both FPS's. Games these days just tend to be alot more multilayered. Fallout and Borderlands are an FPS/RPG, Fable is like an Adventure/Sims/RPG. Personally, I think games like Fable 3 should be commended. My friend, who's a hardcore gamer and reviewer was *****ing about Fable saying "As an RPG, it sucks, there are loads better RPG games" and I was trying to explain that it wasn't TRYING to compete with other RPG's on those level. What it's trying to be is something different and unique. I see Fable basically as a big, beautiful interactive choose your own adventure book, and I think thats kinda cool.

 

[Crimson King]

I agree with you, Wolvie. It's in a unique category of RPGs.

My biggest complaint so far is that overabundance of fetch quests. Do I really need to do one every time I want to get a villager to like me? Sometimes I want to change the name of the game to Mail Delivery.

 

[Wolvieboy17]

I don't mind the fetch quests so much, mainly because I've never actually set out deliberately to do one. I just collect like 20 fetch quests at a time, and then when I bump into the intended people when i'm visiting a town, I finish it. Much easier that way.

 

[El Bastardo]

Ultima, Wizardry, Bard's Tale, Bauldur's Gate, Exile/Avernum, The Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Planescape, Icewind Dale, Neverwinter Nights, and Diablo would like a word with you.

Not really.

We can discount from that list Fallout, Planescape, Icewind Dale, Neverwinter Nights, and Diablo. All of the first games in these series were released post-1995 (with the exception of TES:Arena, 1994), and while we could term that era of gaming old-school in light of today being in the year 2010, they are not old-school per the other games mentioned in the same statement, nor per games' lines that began in the early 90s or late 80s. Furthermore, the mentioned games are examples of modernization and a move away from and in response to the prevalent line of JRPGs. So, basically, you helped to illustrate my point. See mention of WRPGs and BioWare's role in them. O lark, thar be Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights. And then we have the useful fellows from Black Isle who got scooped up into BioWare while the rejects went on to form Obsidian.

Per the other two, neither The Elder Scrolls nor Diablo series are worth much of my time, but they're examples of the A-A-RPG sub-genre and really the stepping stones of that sub-genre, so they deserve some mention. I don't care about game design or the subjective value of fun here - objectively they're horrid examples of RPGs, somehow, as while TES games allow you to do whatever and be whoever you want, both games series employ a ridiculous detachment of character that not even JRPGs with silent protagonists managed to attain. I'll leave it there.

I vaguely remember, I think, a point in time when The Bard's Tale was being re-released, or was going to be. All I know about Ultima is a short experience with Ultima Online. And I know nothing about the other two. A little bit of research shows they were all started in the 80s, so yes, old-school. Sophistication seems less than even the beginning console JRPGs (I'm looking at you, Final Fantasy I and Phantasy Star).

Regardless, I would be hard-pressed to state their legacy is the modernized WRPG. We don't see games released today "in the spirit of Ultima," whereas JRPGs, though they may be dwindling and no longer hold the majority of the market, still have a legacy that stretches from the 80s.

 

[El Bastardo]

Borderlands too...

Just because certain games have evolved doesn't mean they're no longer RPG's. Mario Galaxy and the original Super Mario Land are both still platformers, Doom and The Darkness and both FPS's. Games these days just tend to be alot more multilayered. Fallout and Borderlands are an FPS/RPG, Fable is like an Adventure/Sims/RPG. Personally, I think games like Fable 3 should be commended. My friend, who's a hardcore gamer and reviewer was *****ing about Fable saying "As an RPG, it sucks, there are loads better RPG games" and I was trying to explain that it wasn't TRYING to compete with other RPG's on those level. What it's trying to be is something different and unique. I see Fable basically as a big, beautiful interactive choose your own adventure book, and I think thats kinda cool.

No offense to you or your friend (not that it should offend you), but if that's what he said about Fable 3, then he's a ****ty reviewer.

I wouldn't call Fallout 3 (which I assume you meant, as Fallout, Fallout 2, and Fallout Tactics are from different perspectives) a FPS-RPG. It incorporates a first-person perspective, but plays nothing at all like a game of the FPS genre. Take away VATS (that's what it was called, right?) and you have a poor and clunky gaming engine for purposes of shooting. Borderlands, on the other hand, has a smooth control scheme similar to the FPS genre, so yes, that can be labeled an FPS-RPG.

Is the game Sims its own genre now? Yeesh. That's disgusting.

 

[El Bastardo]

I'm not all too keen on the male hero's voice actor.

 

[Wolvieboy17]

I agree with you El Bastardo, I think he is a sh***y reviewer. I've been trying to explain to him for a long time about the importance of being objective with his reviews, yet he seems to think he's some sort of maverick, Spider Jerusalem, gonzo games journo, who's just tellin' it like it is. Unfortunately, that seems to be the state of a lot of reviewers. They look at a game through their own, selfish frame reference and see how well it does against their own personal criteria. Sure he didn't like Fable, because it's not his type of game at all!

It's the same principle when you see someone review a childrens movie, and they say crap like "There were no interesting sub plots" etc.

 

[El Bastardo]

I agree with you El Bastardo, I think he is a sh***y reviewer. I've been trying to explain to him for a long time about the importance of being objective with his reviews, yet he seems to think he's some sort of maverick, Spider Jerusalem, gonzo games journo, who's just tellin' it like it is. Unfortunately, that seems to be the state of a lot of reviewers. They look at a game through their own, selfish frame reference and see how well it does against their own personal criteria. Sure he didn't like Fable, because it's not his type of game at all!

It's the same principle when you see someone review a childrens movie, and they say crap like "There were no interesting sub plots" etc.

Hahaha! t:

 

[El Bastardo]

I was playing my chick last night when the game slips into slo-mo, she vaults off the ground, goes into the air, lands on a bandit's shoulders, and breaks his neck with her shins.

This game has fatalities? Awesome.

 

[Crimson King]

It does. I was surprised to see it too and I have no idea how they're triggered. I haven't seen the animation you're talking about, but I did see my dude walk behind someone, grab both arms and pull backwards until their spine snapped.

 

[ProjectPat2280]

Yea theres some great finishing moves. One of my favs is done with the pistol. The character shoots the enemy in both elbows, both knees then finishes em off with a shot to the back of the head. Sweet.

 

[Benstamania]

I'd just like to point something out about the finale battle...

Spoiler

I've read many sites that said you HAD to have over 6 million to get the "good ending" or whatever... That's false. I had 5 million and some and I saved Albion. They said there were a "few"casualties but that it was expected. The land is still bright, vivid and everyone loves me. So... you do NOT have to have over 6 million to be victorious with the good ending.

....Also... is it possible to give my bloody peasant looking wife a new friggin outfit? I don't expect there to be but I'm tired of her looking like a bum.

 

[iamlegend]

Yea theres some great finishing moves. One of my favs is done with the pistol. The character shoots the enemy in both elbows, both knees then finishes em off with a shot to the back of the head. Sweet.

My personal favorite thus far has only happened when fighting Hobbes (and it probably makes sense, since they're not very smart).

The hero pauses, then pulls a Marty McFly and points off in the distance with a shocked/scared look on his face... and when the Hobbe spins around in fear, the hero runs him through with the sword. Awesome. t:

 

[iamlegend]

I was playing my chick last night when the game slips into slo-mo, she vaults off the ground, goes into the air, lands on a bandit's shoulders, and breaks his neck with her shins.

This game has fatalities? Awesome.

My hero did that to some ghosts later in the game, which kind of had me raising an eyebrow...

 

[Benstamania]

On of the demon doors wants me to get uber fat.... I don't want to get uber fat.