In keeping with tradition, Fable 3 is offering fans a web-based experience to tide them over until the game's fall launch. While Fable 2's web-based promotion promised in-game prizes - like a three-piece chicken suit, for example - for completing the "Hero's Tale" puppet theater, Fable 3 is offering a different kind of in-game prize. "If you preorder Fable 3, you're going to get a special code," Microsoft's Larry Hryb revealed on last night's Major Nelson podcast. "You go to Xbox.com [...] you drop in this code, and then in your browser you're going to create a character that's going to be in your game." The so-called "Make a Villager" feature should be available "in the next day or two," Hryb said.
Eager to try your hand at making a non-playable villager but not interested in pre-ordering Fable 3? Even without a pre-order, you'll be able to play with the character creator; you just won't be able to actually import your creation into the retail game. But here's what you can do: You can select male or female, you "decide where you want to encounter them, in what town or in what region of the game," you can decide if your character is good or bad, and you can select from five different heads, 23 different hair styles, 23 different body outfits, "for over 2000 different combinations."
When you're all done, you can share just about everything (short of that "Frank Lee Disgusting" name you chose) with your e-buddies on Twitter and Facebook. At the moment, xbox.com/fable3 says to "Look for this and more next month!" We've asked Microsoft to clarify when we can get to work on our pitch-perfect Peter Molyneux doppelganger. "Oh, I'm afraid I've already said too much."
We're not sure who was responsible for controlling the Fable 3 Comic-Con show floor demo shown in the video below, but whoever it was should be ashamed. Not because of all the peasant murder, mind you -- we've all done that -- but for executing the most aggressive flatulence attack we've ever seen.
Despite "generally favorable reviews," there were quite a few people out there who had some serious problems with Fable 2. And to hear Lionhead's Peter Molyneux talk at the Develop Conference in Brighton today, he's one of them.
Molyneux's hour long on-stage presentation of Fable 3 included a veritable smorgasbord of self-deprecating remarks about the problems in the first two Fable games that would be fixed or mitigated in the threequel. For instance, Molyneux lambasted his studio for throwing way too many unnecessary features into Fable 2, even citing a study showing that most people didn't use more than 60% of the available features. Even when a feature was used, Molyneux said, it was often only used once and didn't factor into the larger game enough. For example, "most people did get married, but it didn't mean anything, it was just an excuse to have sex," he said. At one point Molyneux likened Fable 2 to "designing a car with 300 buttons on dashboard when you only need a steering wheel."
If you thought the amount and variety of spoken dialogue in Fable 2 was ridiculous, then the voice statistics Lionhead is targeting for Fable 3 will... um... also seem ridiculous to you.
Speaking at the Develop Conference in Brighton, Lionhead Audio Producer Georg Becker mentioned that the upcoming title would feature about 80 actors speaking over 460,000 recorded words, representing a full 47 hours of speech in the final game. For context, Becker estimated Fable 2 had a mere 50 voice actors speaking a paltry 370,000 words over a laughably short 36 or 37 hours of speech.
Lionhead's latest Fable 3 video depicts an epic fight against a pack of wolves who are endangering a young girl's life, in which the hero transitions effortlessly between the sword, gun, and magic combat styles. Although, given the sheer power at the hero's command, it comes off a lot more like a massacre of some helpless animals.
#fable
Fable II's episodic experiment seems to have been a success, because Lionhead and Microsoft will be doing the same thing with upcoming Xbox RPG Fable III, releasing the game in downloadable chapters over Xbox Live. More »
Peter Molyneux, the king around Lionhead Studios and Microsoft Games Studios' European creative director, told GI.biz that the company is "driving" for Fable 3 to sell more than 5 million copies and make profit "in excess" of $150 million. Molyneux expressed the reasoning behind the parameter: "We have to do that because if a franchise doesn't reach that level it will inevitably wither." Hmmm, "wither" sounds like a long process. Can we still get Fable 4 even if it doesn't hit that mark?
In response to the "massively successful" nature of Fable 2's episodic release, Fable 3 will also release in an episodic format "soon after the retail launch." The first chapter, which is approximately an hour of the game, will be entirely free. You can then purchase the next episode -- for "an extra 2-5 or whatever dollars" -- or the whole game. Molyneux claims the first episode of Fable 2, which released about a year after the game's launch, reached 1.6 million downloads and "$15 million in contribution margins."
One of the most impressive things about Fable 3 isn't the redesigned menu system (it's a room!), the path from revolutionary to royalty (it's like two games in one!), or even the "touch" mechanic (drag a hobo to his death!); instead, it's the release window: this year. For those of you keeping track, that's just two years and five days after the release of Joystiq's 2008 game of the year, which Peter Molyneux told us is a new experience for him.
"A very unique thing about Fable 3," Molyneux said, "is it's been developed in two years. At both Lionhead and Bullfrog, I've never done a game in two years before." And what that means is that Fable 3 looks a lot like Fable 2. But before you run off, screaming something about "sequelitis" and the "creative bankruptcy of the video game industry" we want to be clear: While I, and most of the Joystiq staff, loved Fable 2, we can all agree it would have benefitted from some refinement.
#microsoft
Microsoft asks itself hard questions in an internal Q&A document obtained by Kotaku, including whether the larger investment in PC gaming brought on by Fable III is different than the other times it promised the same and didn't deliver. More »
#fable
Even if Fable III ends up being just like Fable II - which is a distinct possibility - I'm still interested in it, thanks to the setting. More »
How many things can you spy in the Fable 3 E3 trailer? Spell combinations, new melee maneuvers and ... is that naval combat? Watch for the Fable-y goodness. Stay for the John Cleese.
#fable
The tagline reads "Fable III: It's A Revolution". Sounds a little pompous, sure, but then we wouldn't expect anything less from a Peter Molyneux game. More »
Ready to drag some slaves back into your dungeon, Fable-style? Well, you'd better be, 'cause Fable 3 is heading to Xbox 360 and PC on October 26. Peter Molyneux hit the stage at this morning's Microsoft press conference and let the release date slip. We'd love to tell you more, but frankly, there's not much else to say. We'll have a new trailer for you (featuring dog grabbing, no joke) just as soon as Microsoft hands it over.
#screengrab
The makers of Xbox 360 and PC role-playing game with an emphasis on "touch," Fable III, introduce us to The Captain, "a pretty angry man with a fierce smoking habit and wet boots." Why is his name a mystery? Will E3 reveal more? More »
#collectorsedition
Microsoft confirms a holiday release for Fable III on both Xbox 360 and PC, but if you want a royal amount of Collector's Edition swag, you're going to need to go the console route. More »
This morning, Microsoft officially announced that Fable 3 will be heading to the PC as well as the Xbox 360, confirming news derived from last week's accidental box art reveal. Standard and "Limited Collector's" editions were also detailed -- for $59.99 and $79.99, respectively -- with the latter coming with several in-game and physical items (seen in full after the break).
Since the Windows iteration will only be available in the standard version at retail (for just $50, might we add) and downloadable "exclusively" through Games for Windows Live Marketplace, all PC players will be able to access the extra quest, region, and dog breed that come with the Xbox 360's collector's edition. Between now and the game's fall release, why not take a look through these exciting retail mockups below in our gallery? Oooh!
This morning, Microsoft officially announced that Fable 3 will be heading to the PC as well as the Xbox 360, confirming last week's accidental box art reveal. Standard and "Limited Collector's" editions were also detailed -- for $59.99 and $79.99, respectively -- with the latter coming with several in-game and real life items (seen in full after the break).
Since the Windows iteration will only be available in the standard version at retail (for $10 less at $50, might we add) and downloadable "exclusively" through Games for Windows Live Marketplace, it's unclear whether PC players will be able to access the extra quest, region, and dog breed that come with the Xbox 360's collector's edition. Rather than worry yourself with that, though, why not take a look through these exciting retail mockups below in our gallery. Oooh!
#coverstory
In more good news for the PC gaming set, Lionhead's "touchy" action RPG Fable III may be coming to a computer running Windows near you. That's according to the game's Xbox 360 box art, which... hey look, Fable III box art! More »
