On Tuesday, Fable II finally is released. A game that I was once very much looking forward to. But the more and more of this game I expose myself to, the more and more I cannot bring myself to hand over $60 or $70 dollars to purchase.
Fable was one of my favorite original Xbox games. I have that thought in my head. I really liked Fable. But, why did I like Fable? Oh right. Because the game was completely ridiculous. Because the English accents made me laugh every time dialogue was spoken. Because I ate a bunch of pies and ran around as a huge fat guy.
I loved it for it's B-movie qualities. There were plenty of them. But that's really the extent of Fable's quality. The game is shallow and tedious, quite frankly. It made me laugh because it was so moronic.
Would I pay $60 or $70 to be amused again by the same train wreck? Hell no. The memories are fond, but only because the price of entry was trivial. I think I paid $20 for Fable and It was absolutely worth it. Another Fable-like experience is not worth the high price of HD gaming. It's worth $30 at best.
But times change, right? Peter Moyneux (creator of Fable) has apologized for the mistakes made in Fable and says that he's learned from them. Fable II is fable done right. Honestly, there are tons of problems with what I played at The Penny Arcade Expo, if that was representative of the final product: http://www.theschlock.com/blog/?p=476
The graphics were horrible. The speed was slow. The fighting felt a tad unresponsive. It also felt more like a hack 'n slash loot fest than an Action RPG. And that'd be fine if I found it fun to play. But what I played was boring and derivative. It took resolve to make it to the end of the demo. And I'm not going to pay $60 - $70 to play more of that shit.
Kotaku posted an article today with a video of the first 10 minutes of Fable 2. Some polish website has a copy of the game committed it to the internet: http://kotaku.com/5065434/the-first-10-minutes-of-fable-2-albeit-in-polish
That certainly brings back memories from Fable. The goofy English accents and dim-witted humor. But after playing Dead Space all weekend long, this feels cheap. It feels like a joke. And I'd feel like I'm at the butt of that joke for paying full price. Dead Space is a fine polished work of atmospheric art. Fable II looks bargin bin.
One thing Fable II does have going for it is Online Co-op. All my friends are interested in this game and have pre-ordered it. So it gives me the chance to play games with friends! I'm just going to clear out my gamefly list and have Fable II as the only entry. That should guarantee that my next game will be Fable II and hopefully my friends haven't beaten the game by the time I get it.
Hell, If Fable II turns out to be alright. I can choose the "keep it" option from Gamefly, and it'll only cost me $30, most likely.
As inferred, I bought Dead Space this week and Love it. This week is Fable II. Also this week is the new Castlevania on DS. Next week is Fallout 3. November 11th is Mirror's Edge!
I can't wait for Mirror's Edge ^_^. I wrote about it back on July 17th during E3 week and then played it on September 1st at PAX. On November 6th, they will be a demo on both consoles.