Knight
07-14-2003, 07:56 PM
Fable is a wonderful journey into your own ego, and takes us a step further ahead of the classic role playing games.Jacob H. Nielsen (Herold) // Monday, July 14th, 2003
The magical portion is gigantic. You'll amongst other things be able to stop time.
By now Peter Molyneux is known by most gamers for being able to make water into wine, when it comes to creating good ideas out of nothing. He’s had a hand in the game, when we talk about games like Syndicate, Popoulous and Dungeon Keeper, and he understands how to create attention and hype around his titles.
Let it be said now. Fable is in fact not a creation of Peter Molyneux. Yes, he’s one of the driving forces behind the game, but the game itself is not his project. Instead Fable is being developed by Big Blue Box, which is the first of Lionhead’s actual satellites. The golden chair will instead become Simon and Dene Carter, the two brothers who run Big Blue Box.
However, this does not make Fable less exciting – the project seems to be one of the most ambitious role-playing projects in the last few years. Craig Davison, Fable’s product manager at Microsoft, gave us a run through the game.
I Play, therefore I Am
If you want to be a swordsmaster, you must practice a lot.
The essence in Fable lies in the development of your character. You start out with a blank slate, a person with no skills or experience, and as the story develops you shape and create your character as you see fit – no strings attached. Starting age is 15-16 years, and from that point Fable moves fast forward till you get out of puberty. Then you will start aging, but very slowly, and in time your appearance changes depending on your age.
In Fable you are the centre of the story. You can claim that other games have the same elements, but it is nothing compared to Fable. All your choices throughout the game colour your character and give some form of change, either physical or mentally.
If you use your sword a lot, your skills in swordsmanship will improve dramatically, and your muscles will start bulging. If you’re more the magic kind of guy your knowledge in the art of magic will increase, but at the same time you will be pale and thin, due to the large amount of time spend indoors. It’s possible to go both ways, but the challenge will be much tougher, since you will be forced to spend much more time concentrating on the two things, and won’t be able to specialise. There’s no visible system giving you experience points in the game – an interesting development in the right direction.
You can talk to the local prostitutes... and even marry one of them.
Other things in the game will have an effect on you – you can, for example, get scars, change haircut and become sunburned, all depending on what you do. Your experiences shape not only your skills, but your appearance as well – something entirely new in role-playing games.
Fable is somewhat open, but as the game evolves your final goal changes from one thing to other. If you’re a good-hearted warrior, you have to save the world from the evil. If you’re leaning towards the evil side, your purpose will be to take over the Throne of Power, and control it with your iron fist. The choice is entirely yours.
Besides the main story Fable has an abundance of sub-quests and small quirks, such as the ability to get married. All of this makes the game a lot more lifelike for you as a player and most certainly is an interesting dimension. Just exactly how it works Davison wasn’t ready to disclose, as they were still fine-tuning the features.
Brave Sir Robin Ran Away
Your appearance changes according to your choices
When you receive a task in Fable you can boast about how you plan on dealing with it. For example you can chose to tell the people that you plan on saving the damsel in distress with one hand tied behind your back, no weapon or even naked. The more risk and boasting, the greater the reward, both monetary and reputation wise. Your reputation is another thing you should have a large focus on when playing Fable. The local bards will sing and tell the tale of your accomplishments or lack thereof – so you have quite a bit to live up to. It’s not exactly satisfying if the top three songs on the bard chart are about how you fled from the unarmed orc women in the orc village.
Fablelous
The landscapes are breathtaking
You can spend between 25 and 40 hours playing through Fable, which is more than the standard game today. The game has lots of possibilities for going off track, adding more to its value. Fable has a concept that is quite interesting and Big Blue Box break with a lot of classic elements normally found in role-playing games. Nonetheless it looks like Fable will be able to mesmerize most people with its deep universe, since the possibilities are endless.
Davison confirms that Fable will never be available on anything but the Xbox, because of the large amount of time spent on the Xbox-version. The game will be tested thoroughly to get everything in place. If the same amount of thoroughness were to be applied to a PC version, it would take far too much time, because of the detail level of the game and the number of configurations available on the PC-market, Davison said. Fable does, however, look to be worth the anticipation. I know we’ll be waiting eagerly.
As with all great games Fable is taking its time, and Big Blue Box are keeping their lips tight when it comes to shipping dates.
Translated by Bo Kruse
http://boomtown.net/en_uk/articles/art.view.php?id=1290
The magical portion is gigantic. You'll amongst other things be able to stop time.
By now Peter Molyneux is known by most gamers for being able to make water into wine, when it comes to creating good ideas out of nothing. He’s had a hand in the game, when we talk about games like Syndicate, Popoulous and Dungeon Keeper, and he understands how to create attention and hype around his titles.
Let it be said now. Fable is in fact not a creation of Peter Molyneux. Yes, he’s one of the driving forces behind the game, but the game itself is not his project. Instead Fable is being developed by Big Blue Box, which is the first of Lionhead’s actual satellites. The golden chair will instead become Simon and Dene Carter, the two brothers who run Big Blue Box.
However, this does not make Fable less exciting – the project seems to be one of the most ambitious role-playing projects in the last few years. Craig Davison, Fable’s product manager at Microsoft, gave us a run through the game.
I Play, therefore I Am
If you want to be a swordsmaster, you must practice a lot.
The essence in Fable lies in the development of your character. You start out with a blank slate, a person with no skills or experience, and as the story develops you shape and create your character as you see fit – no strings attached. Starting age is 15-16 years, and from that point Fable moves fast forward till you get out of puberty. Then you will start aging, but very slowly, and in time your appearance changes depending on your age.
In Fable you are the centre of the story. You can claim that other games have the same elements, but it is nothing compared to Fable. All your choices throughout the game colour your character and give some form of change, either physical or mentally.
If you use your sword a lot, your skills in swordsmanship will improve dramatically, and your muscles will start bulging. If you’re more the magic kind of guy your knowledge in the art of magic will increase, but at the same time you will be pale and thin, due to the large amount of time spend indoors. It’s possible to go both ways, but the challenge will be much tougher, since you will be forced to spend much more time concentrating on the two things, and won’t be able to specialise. There’s no visible system giving you experience points in the game – an interesting development in the right direction.
You can talk to the local prostitutes... and even marry one of them.
Other things in the game will have an effect on you – you can, for example, get scars, change haircut and become sunburned, all depending on what you do. Your experiences shape not only your skills, but your appearance as well – something entirely new in role-playing games.
Fable is somewhat open, but as the game evolves your final goal changes from one thing to other. If you’re a good-hearted warrior, you have to save the world from the evil. If you’re leaning towards the evil side, your purpose will be to take over the Throne of Power, and control it with your iron fist. The choice is entirely yours.
Besides the main story Fable has an abundance of sub-quests and small quirks, such as the ability to get married. All of this makes the game a lot more lifelike for you as a player and most certainly is an interesting dimension. Just exactly how it works Davison wasn’t ready to disclose, as they were still fine-tuning the features.
Brave Sir Robin Ran Away
Your appearance changes according to your choices
When you receive a task in Fable you can boast about how you plan on dealing with it. For example you can chose to tell the people that you plan on saving the damsel in distress with one hand tied behind your back, no weapon or even naked. The more risk and boasting, the greater the reward, both monetary and reputation wise. Your reputation is another thing you should have a large focus on when playing Fable. The local bards will sing and tell the tale of your accomplishments or lack thereof – so you have quite a bit to live up to. It’s not exactly satisfying if the top three songs on the bard chart are about how you fled from the unarmed orc women in the orc village.
Fablelous
The landscapes are breathtaking
You can spend between 25 and 40 hours playing through Fable, which is more than the standard game today. The game has lots of possibilities for going off track, adding more to its value. Fable has a concept that is quite interesting and Big Blue Box break with a lot of classic elements normally found in role-playing games. Nonetheless it looks like Fable will be able to mesmerize most people with its deep universe, since the possibilities are endless.
Davison confirms that Fable will never be available on anything but the Xbox, because of the large amount of time spent on the Xbox-version. The game will be tested thoroughly to get everything in place. If the same amount of thoroughness were to be applied to a PC version, it would take far too much time, because of the detail level of the game and the number of configurations available on the PC-market, Davison said. Fable does, however, look to be worth the anticipation. I know we’ll be waiting eagerly.
As with all great games Fable is taking its time, and Big Blue Box are keeping their lips tight when it comes to shipping dates.
Translated by Bo Kruse
http://boomtown.net/en_uk/articles/art.view.php?id=1290