Fable

[Imran Siddiqui]

Not really. The Dig and Full Throttle weren't that high on atmosphere, at least graphically. It was largely music, voice acting, and story.

Graphics only have a little do with the 'atmosphere'.

Except there wasn't much. People rarely talk about it.

Go talk to some Starcraft nuts. They still discuss the heros in the game. It's almost like a freaking religion.

Fallout isn't as immersive as Morrowind in this respect since it is third compared to first, so it relied on other things. Fable just doesn't seem to have these other things.

How do you know? Because you don't see what you want in the previews? That proves.... what exactly?

You're the only person I'm hearing say Fable isn't cartoony.

Look right above you at Felch's post:

Yeah, I don't see any cartoony-ness about Fable's graphics. I mean, they're not photorealistic, but they don't look like the Gamecube Zelda graphics either.

Think about why it didn't feel like medieval countryside. Sound? No, Story? No, Dialog? No. All of those were generally praised. What's left? Graphics.

Actually it was the Story and Dialog. Cheesy BS. Really took away from the atmosphere. And the story wasn't 'praised'. It was lackluster at best. It was a cookie cutter story.

If it was supposed to have a good story, they'd mention that more. And say that it's good. They aren't saying that. They at least said it with KOTOR.

Where? In hardly any previews did they speak of the 'good' story in KOTOR. They spoke of the graphics and how it felt like Star Wars. Story wasn't even discussed, because the previewers didn't get to play around with it, just like with Fable!

[Felch]

Originally posted by Apocalypse
No no no. If it was supposed to have a good story, they'd mention that more. And say that it's good. They aren't saying that. They at least said it with KOTOR.

Not true, they concentrate on the selling points of a game, or whatever the developers are most proud of. Every RPG has a story of some sort, but not every RPG has this level of influence over the game world. That's why they don't mention the story much.

[Asher]

http://www3.cjad.com/content/cp_article.asp?id=/global_feeds/canadianpress/entertainmentnews/e081129A.htm

Xbox's Fable offers unique video game choice of good versus evil
Updated at 15:33 on August 11, 2004, EST.

TORONTO (CP) - Creator Peter Molyneux looks a bit sheepish when asked how long it took to make his game Fable.

Nineteen babies were born to members of his Lionhead Studio during the three-plus years of development. There were 3,905 Indian and 2,786 Chinese takeout meals ordered. "There's a finance department that's constantly reminding me how much we're spending on takeaway food," the British game designer said with a laugh.

The result is a unique role-playing game for the Xbox, due out Sept. 14, where the gamer chooses either the path of righteousness or evil.

It's a wide-open world full of possibilities.

You start out as a child and even then decisions you make carry consequences. Spotting a villager kissing a woman on the sly, you face a predicament minutes later when the man's wife asks whether you have seen her husband.

As the game goes on, the decisions you make determine how you look and how others treat you. Fall into evil, and villagers shrink in fear. Your physique changes, there may even be flies buzzing around your head.

A hero, meanwhile, will be feted by the locals. Women will develop crushes on you.

There is a resolution to the game. Of course, it's the ultimate moral choice. But it doesn't signify the game experience is over.

"Why close everything down, just because you've finished the story?" Molyneux asks. "One of the joys is to go through this game, get to the end of this story, and then walk out into the world . . . you can just carry on playing the game in this world."

Molyneux is a well-dressed 45-year-old who looks like he might once have played in the rock band Dire Straits. But his forte has been making PC games, from Black & White, and Populous to Dungeon Keeper - titles that have earned the elegant Briton favoured status among game designers.

Fable is his first foray into the console world. And his first role-playing game.

He admits the genre has always been a passion of his, recalling how he lost a girlfriend because of a game called Wizardry some 20 years ago when she spent three hours at a pub waiting for him while he played on.

"I was totally obsessed with this role-playing game," he said.

When he finally got the opportunity to make one of his own, he decided to focus on what he enjoyed as a player - developing a character, making the gamer feel like a hero and choosing one's own path.

Rather than start out as a traditional good guy, he opted to have the gamer start as essentially a blank character.

"I think the results are much more interesting," he said.

While Fable is designed to entertain, its game play can also speak volumes about people, according to Molyneux.

"If you play the game for four or five hours, if I look at the stats, I can really have an insight into what sort of person you are," he said. "You know real insight into whether you're someone who is more attracted to the fast buck approach or whether someone has taken the time and been good and been nice.

"It's quite an interesting insight."

The Fable designers allow the gamer to make his own choices, but they were not above tweaking the game "to tempt the player into the darker side."

"The interesting thing about all of this is you may think that every full-blooded teenager is going to go straight to that evil side," Molyneux said. "It's just not true."

"Over seventy per cent who play Fable will go for the good side. It may be even higher than that."

That's what testing the game has shown, anyway.

In the U.S., when he demos the game, the vast majority of people want to see the good side, Molyneux said. In Germany, it's the other way.

"There's one lone hand coming up," he said. "There is this cultural difference. It's very strange."

Psychologists have told him perhaps Americans really want to see the evil side but feel embarrassed to say so.

The sliding moral scale of the game has proved to be a rating conundrum. In North America, Fable has been given a mature rating. Germany, despite the fact it has tough rating guidelines, OK'd it for 12-year-olds to play, deciding it was a morally enriching story.

Molyneux and his helpers - the credits to the game roll like a movie and include well-known Hollywood composer Danny Elfman who came up with the game's theme - had some real design wrinkles to work out along the way. Disliking reams of text in games - something he attributes to his dyslexia - he needed to find other ways to tell the story.

He also wanted the character development to change, subtly.

"It's not a sudden thing, it's a slow progression. If you're being evil your hero's jaw will start offsetting, to get that evil grimace, and his eyes will be a bit more deep-set."

Given the freedom of Fable, the designers also found during testing that gamers were getting lost in the world. "They didn't know what to do."

They got around it with the simple device of an indicator in the small on-screen map showing you where to go for your next challenge.

Testing the game was also a challenge, because it is so open-ended. Molyneux says he has been "really surprised and sometimes quite shocked" by what people read into Fable.

The lack of moral guidance and sophisticated game play make for all sorts of possibilities. One tester, deciding to push Fable's economic model to the limit, took over a village by slaughtering its occupants and then buying up all the property at a bargain-basement price. He then waited for people to repopulate the village and waited for money to pour in.

"There's lots of examples of bizarre behaviour that's happened in the game."

And Molyneux, whose studio is based just outside of London in Guilford, expects to hear a lot more when Fable hits stores.

[Imran Siddiqui]

The lack of moral guidance and sophisticated game play make for all sorts of possibilities. One tester, deciding to push Fable's economic model to the limit, took over a village by slaughtering its occupants and then buying up all the property at a bargain-basement price. He then waited for people to repopulate the village and waited for money to pour in.

That's ****ing awesome!

Thanks for the link, Asher. Sept 14? That only a month away .

[Apocalypse]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui

Not really. The Dig and Full Throttle weren't that high on atmosphere, at least graphically. It was largely music, voice acting, and story.

Graphics only have a little do with the 'atmosphere'.

That statement is retarded.

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui

Except there wasn't much. People rarely talk about it.

Go talk to some Starcraft nuts. They still discuss the heros in the game. It's almost like a freaking religion.

I do. They've forgotten about single player.

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui

Fallout isn't as immersive as Morrowind in this respect since it is third compared to first, so it relied on other things. Fable just doesn't seem to have these other things.

How do you know? Because you don't see what you want in the previews? That proves.... what exactly?

Why wouldn't any preview or article have even a mention of a decent story? Especially with all the hype around it.

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui

You're the only person I'm hearing say Fable isn't cartoony.

Look right above you at Felch's post:

Yeah, I don't see any cartoony-ness about Fable's graphics. I mean, they're not photorealistic, but they don't look like the Gamecube Zelda graphics either.

Hey's just being your lapdog for this thread though.

UOTE] Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui

Think about why it didn't feel like medieval countryside. Sound? No, Story? No, Dialog? No. All of those were generally praised. What's left? Graphics.

Actually it was the Story and Dialog. Cheesy BS. Really took away from the atmosphere. And the story wasn't 'praised'. It was lackluster at best. It was a cookie cutter story.[/QUOTE]
Again, retarded. You're going against vast popular and professional opinion. It was fairly cookie cutter, but there were twists and it was fairly well written, at least in terms of language, tone, etc.

UOTE] Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui

If it was supposed to have a good story, they'd mention that more. And say that it's good. They aren't saying that. They at least said it with KOTOR.

Where? In hardly any previews did they speak of the 'good' story in KOTOR. They spoke of the graphics and how it felt like Star Wars. Story wasn't even discussed, because the previewers didn't get to play around with it, just like with Fable! [/QUOTE]
Oh my...it's not like writers don't talk to the developers about the game. They don't have to play it to write about the story.

The rather vague amount of information on that era has allowed BioWare a great deal of freedom to play to its strengths as a developer and craft a game that features a rich story and deep gameplay.

From Gamespot's first preview. You don't know what you're talking about. I'm not asking to hear a lot about the story, just something positive about it. It doesn't even necessarily mean it's true if they say it's good. It just means that they at least seem to have it as more than an afterthought.

Not true, they concentrate on the selling points of a game, or whatever the developers are most proud of. Every RPG has a story of some sort, but not every RPG has this level of influence over the game world. That's why they don't mention the story much.

You can still say it's positive for the people who care.

[BustaMike]

At this point I can't even tell if you guys are arguing or just posting whatever anymore.

I think everyone agrees that the game has potential and we hope it turns out ok.

[Apocalypse]

I'm trying to make a point at least.

[Felch]

"Over seventy per cent who play Fable will go for the good side. It may be even higher than that."

That's what testing the game has shown, anyway.

In the U.S., when he demos the game, the vast majority of people want to see the good side, Molyneux said. In Germany, it's the other way.

So the movies are right. Germans are evil

[Apocalypse]

They probably just have a lot of built up angst. Or maybe they don't like being so close to Finland.

[Felch]

Angst = fear?

[Apocalypse]

Ummm....no.

[Felch]

Point is, Germans have a penchant for evil.

[Apocalypse]

I'm part German and I'm a nice guy.

[Felch]

Evil people always seem nice. That's how they get you. Offering you a free train ride and hot shower, and BAM, spring the Zyklon B on you when you least expect it.

[Apocalypse]

That was a little uncalled for.