Game News Fable to be inflicted on PC gamers

[Vault Dweller]

Who won?

 

[EvilManagedCare]

Until I saw the reviews on this game I actually thought about buying a Xbox. Thank God I didn't. Maybe, just maybe the PC port will include all the stuff that should have been in it. This damn thing was in development for what seemed to be over 5 years, why did it still suck so badly?

 

[taks]

maybe theyll actually add some of the features that were gloated about during production that were eventually left out of the final xbox version.

some features? you must be talking about most of the features they gloated about.

by far and away the most disappointing game ive ever played.

we'll just say i didn't rush out and buy an xbox when i heard about fable. i had a colleague here touting fable as "the closest thing to true role-playing EVAR!" it came out, and he never mentioned it again. of course, i think he finished it in the first night.

taks

 

[Barghest]

Fable makes little baby Jesus cry...

 

[Jed]

Alignment is strictly cosmetic for the player avatar alone. You don't actually change anything meaninful in the game world. Regardless if your a nice guy or bad, you still follow the same plot path which only diverges in the last battle/cutscene. One's play style up to that point has no bearing upon the final choice either. You can play as an unscroupuous asshole and still make the "good" choice for the nice ending.

So...it's like KotOR?

 

[Volourn]

"So...it's like KotOR?"

No. Alignment does matter in KOTOR. It may not have as much ane ffect on the end game since it has the silly Choose Near The End thing; but your 'alignment' does matter. Idiot.

 

[errorcode]

Fuck big blue box
Fuck Peter Molynuex
Fuck Fable

Working on that game almost made me leave the game industry. The level of arrogance and hubris from the designers was simply fucking amazing. The Carter Brothers and Molyneux couldn't design there way out of a fucking mens room.

The only good thing i can say about that project is that i learn how not to handle design scheduling, how not to handle good and evil character development, and how not to design an interactive world.

so, to reiterate, Fuck Fable.

 

[AlanC9]

Hmm..Fable in a nutshell...
Alignment is strictly cosmetic for the player avatar alone. You don't actually change anything meaninful in the game world.

Do NPCs recognize that you look evil? That'd be actively bad design, as opposed to mere pointlessness. (The only thing that's worse than having "alginment" in a game is having it detectable)

 

[bryce777]

I really want to see this. I want to tell a lie and see horns grow from my head...hehehe.

It's very unrealistic. Everyone knows that it's the nose that should start growing

Haha...I was actually thinking the same thing.

 

[Jed]

No. Alignment does matter in KOTOR. It may not have as much ane ffect on the end game since it has the silly Choose Near The End thing; but your 'alignment' does matter. Idiot.

If you are evil throughout an entire game, and then can choose to be good right before the last bit, thus negating every evil act prior to this final choice, then your alignment doesn't matter. You could have been evil, neutral, or good, and obtained the exact same result. I can't imagine it's too difficult to blow your mind, so go slow with this one.

 

[Volourn]

And?

 

[AlanC9]

If you are evil throughout an entire game, and then can choose to be good right before the last bit, thus negating every evil act prior to this final choice, then your alignment doesn't matter. You could have been evil, neutral, or good, and obtained the exact same result.

So are you saying that evil acts should always have consequences -- that the player shouldn't be permitted to just "get away with it"? Gosh -- how moralistic. OK, I've left the Wookiees enslaved by Czerka Corp.; what difference should that make to my PC later in the game, besides making him feel guilty.

And not all evil acts in KotOR have no consequences. Juhani stays dead even if you turn good.

 

[Jed]

So are you saying that evil acts should always have consequences -- that the player shouldn't be permitted to just "get away with it"? Gosh -- how moralistic. OK, I've left the Wookiees enslaved by Czerka Corp.; what difference should that make to my PC later in the game, besides making him feel guilty.

Way to go over-the-top reductionist.

Consequences don't have to be punishments. There's no effect on the gameworld whatsoever if you enslave the Wookies or not. Czerka should at least send a rep to give you a formal thanks, and perhaps offer you other jobs.

 

[dunduks]

Do NPCs recognize that you look evil? That'd be actively bad design, as opposed to mere pointlessness. (The only thing that's worse than having "alginment" in a game is having it detectable)

Are you, sir, on crack? What is the point of having any customization (be it alignment, clothes, whatever), if the game does not recognise it? If you spent time building your charater evil and nobody even notices that you have grown horns, have red eyes, I'd say thats the worst design ever, thats what i didnt like about kotor too, I mean I am a freaking walking zombie and there was only one non party character that noticed it

 

[EvilManagedCare]

Fuck big blue box
Fuck Peter Molynuex
Fuck Fable

Working on that game almost made me leave the game industry. The level of arrogance and hubris from the designers was simply fucking amazing. The Carter Brothers and Molyneux couldn't design there way out of a fucking mens room.

The only good thing i can say about that project is that i learn how not to handle design scheduling, how not to handle good and evil character development, and how not to design an interactive world.

so, to reiterate, Fuck Fable.

I never understood why the gaming industry makes such a big deal when Molyneux hatches his latest "revolutionary" title. Forgive my ignorance, but what the hell did he ever develop that was considered ground breaking besides Populous? Black and White was evidently flawed (never played it, read the reviews and they were consistent on this). Th press makes a big deal, then there's no game for several years, and it winds up being a piece of shit. Why is this man still worshipped? Help me understand this, please!

Because I am inexplicably drawn to this game knowing what a piece of shit it was for Xbox, I visited the home page. For the PC they are calling it the Lost Chapters or some such nonsense. I wonder if that is a clever corporate way of saying that Fable for PC will include all the features it was supposed to for the Xbox. And don't forget, one of the features is "Intense Real Time Combat" Wheeee!!! More of an already great thing

 

[Sol Invictus]

Syndicate, Theme Park, Dungeon Keeper, Magic Carpet.

He invented the "God Game".

 

[Fez]

You forgot populous. I bet if we dig around enough we'll find that he didn't come up with the idea first, same as people claiming Dune 2 and then later Herzog Zwei wre the first RTS.

 

[Otaku_Hanzo]

I never claimed Herzog Zwei to be the first RTS. Just that it's a great game that's severely underrated and not well known. Especially today.

 

[Fez]

I didn't point fingers at you, I was thinking of Gamespy and it's kind, actually.

 

[Kuato]

Fable - for every choice there is a punishment

I thought it had some pretty levels but at the same time nothing felt very epic at all about this game I kept on waiting for it to get better and it didn't . The story and characters were way too over the top cheesey for my tastes.

ICO may not be an "rpg" but that game's environments felt way more epic than anything I saw in Fable and it was a PS2 title.

 

[Otaku_Hanzo]

I didn't point fingers at you, I was thinking of Gamespy and it's kind, actually.

YES YOU DID!!! EVERYONE DOES!! THEY'RE ALL OUT TO GET ME!!! :shock:

 

[Volourn]

"THEY'RE ALL OUT TO GET ME!!!"

Nah. Just me. :D

 

[AlanC9]

Do NPCs recognize that you look evil? That'd be actively bad design, as opposed to mere pointlessness. (The only thing that's worse than having "alginment" in a game is having it detectable)

Are you, sir, on crack? What is the point of having any customization (be it alignment, clothes, whatever), if the game does not recognise it? If you spent time building your charater evil and nobody even notices that you have grown horns, have red eyes, I'd say thats the worst design ever, thats what i didnt like about kotor too, I mean I am a freaking walking zombie and there was only one non party character that noticed it

Right, right...... it's a good thing that evil people all have these flashing neon signs over their heads that say "EVIL". Gives the police a big head start.

Detectable alignment is a terrible idea in an RPG; such a gameworld can have nothing to do with any kind of real world. Actually, alignment is a terrible idea, barring special cases like the Force, but at least the damage is minimized if it's undetectable.

Fair point about KotOR, though -- having people not notice the change is lame (corrected somewhat in KotOR 2; there are even a couple of funny lines about it). The change should have been voluntary to begin with. Palpatine and Dooku still look pretty normal at the end of Ep. 2.

 

[Visbhume]

Detectable alignment is a shortcut. With it, NPCs don't need to have separate (and possibly distinct) memories about your actions. The designers don't have to bother about tracking what NPC X knows about you. The possibility of feigning is lost (except for moments hardwired in the script).

I don't like detectable alignment (but I don't know if the full alternative is feasible).

 

[Vykromond]

Until I saw the reviews on this game I actually thought about buying a Xbox. Thank God I didn't. Maybe, just maybe the PC port will include all the stuff that should have been in it. This damn thing was in development for what seemed to be over 5 years, why did it still suck so badly?

There's a point in the development of a game (usually around the end of the third year) when someone gets into their head the bullshit notion that it's "too overstuffed" or some such nonsense (or they just want to, y'know, release the goddamn thing already), so the entire team starts scuttling features and completely forgets why they were making the thing in the first place. When you've been working on something for too long, it becomes an albatross, and you end up having to ditch whatever you were trying to do with it and settle for... whatever, really. See also: Daikatana, Freelancer, Prey, etc. etc. etc. etc. etc.