Right, I loved the original Fable, great game. Played Fable II and thought it was accomplished but far too easy. Nevertheless, I had a load of credit at CEX, so a few days ago I decided to spunk some of it on Fable III.

Now is it just me, or is Fable III genuine dog gooseberry fool, and got good reviews purely because it's trading on the series' past achievements?

It's so banal. Why would I want to interact with villagers and build relationships if all that means is pressing the shitting A button and watching the same stupid animation OVER AND OVER AGAIN. What the strawberry float?

And the combat seems even easier than Fable II. It's bullshit. I can get through every single battle by rolling backwards and forwards like a strawberry floating feral child while spamming the fireball button. It's just pointless, there's no challenge, it doesn't even feel like a videogame, it's just interactive whimsy. I don't want whimsy, I want a goddamn game, goddamn it.

Also, is it just me or are the graphics bollocks too? I mean the animations look clunky, the characer models are alright, but when you look at Red Dead, and the consider that Fable III has about half that game's draw distance, the world textures are pretty dismal. Not what you'd expect from a triple A title, out of a triple A studio, headed by a strawberry floating knight of the British Empire. Bullshit, I hate it.

Finally, I went online with Fable III, and seeing as I don't have any friends on XBL I just let some random guy join my game. I swear it was as if the essence - the very muse - of Fable III had been implanted into a human being. Now whenever I go on XBL this stupid man keeps inviting me back to Albion and keeps sending me strawberry floating voice messages asking how can he join whatever game it is I'm playing - JUST strawberry floating BUY IT YOU MORON, like you bought Fable III. I get the feeling that this guy is pretty much representative of the Fable III fanbase - happy, but a strawberry floating retard.

Any thoughts? Personally, I think it's total dogshit and I'm taking it back to CEX tomorrow.

Nice to see you calling those who happen to like Fable 3 so much "retards"

I like it. Not good as Fable 1 overall or Fable 2's side-stuff though, but I liked the story in Fable 3 and I enjoyed it enough to sink around thirty hours on it. But they do need to step up alot if they want fans to buy Fable 4 though, as I feel Fable is one of these series that genuinely gets worse by each series, not too bad as in I still enjoy all three Fable games - but I felt each was disappointment due to Fable 1 has delivered so much that I really enjoyed it.

I got feeling Fable 3 is rushed, sadly.

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I have never played any of the Fable games, but enjoyed your opening post very much. Well written with some neat concepts like INteractive Whimsy summarised in an accessible fashion.

I rate your post as better than Fable III. Probably.

Yeah, I got a bit carried away. I take that back



It's just failed to engage me on any level. The decline of the Fable franchise seems symbolic of the general decline of the British games industry if you ask me.

This is how I feel about Fable 2. Really, go back and play it again, and you'll see all the same flaws.

Thanks. I had more fun writing that then I did playing Fable III. Lionhead should go study message boards for a few years, they might learn something about designing things that are relatively interesting.

I thought Fable 2 was absolutely brilliant, seriously under-rated and one of the best games of the generation.

I've had 3 since launch but not even started it.

I really hope you are wrong.

I thought III to be a major step down from II. I loved Fable II, I loved the idea of your actions having an effect, and I thought that III would be able to further expand upon that and make it flow better. As it is, that failed to happen. Also, a lot of the choice was lost - you couldn't actually choose your expressions for a start.

Some of the minigames were good, though. Spent hours on Lute Hero.

Fable II was actually my favourite game in the series really. The first one was great don't get me wrong, but 2 just seemed to be a little more varied I suppose.

3 however.....meh. It was certainly a step backwards, but I certainly wouldn't call it utter dogshit by any means. For me, it was still an extremely enjoyable game. Well, except for the last part where, since I chose to be a nice guy and ended up with no money in the treasury, had to just go around and buy every property in the game, then wait for a very long time until I had built up enough cash to save everyone.
That.....was just a bit tedious.

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It's definitely a step back from II in most ways except for the story. I still enjoyed it; it's a funny and thoroughly British slice of whimsy, but not as good as it could and should have been.

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Either I hope they properly address the issues in Fable 3 and head back in the direction of Fable 2, or they take a break and do something else, maybe Black & White Kinect or something.

I adored fable 1 and played it non-stop until the end. I couldn't find any love for fable 2 though.

I seem to recall you raving about it when it came out.



And I basically took one look at it and came the same conclusion as Surfer Rosa did. It looks terrible. As far as I'm concerned Fable started off Very Good, 2 was very good (note the lack of caps) and 3 looks pretty damn poor.

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Played it for half an hour and couldn't play anymore. They took everything that worked in the second and borked it up for no reason at all. Luckily I didn't buy it, I got it off a friend who thought the game ended when you become king/queen.

I was burned big time by the Fable hyped back in 2004 I think it was. I had moved out the house and had no internet to warn me that all the Molyneux hype I had been reading in OXM months and months earlier was all horse gooseberry fool. I played through Fable 2 after all the positive buzz on here about it and found it a competent game, but it felt just like a last-gen RPG lite. I won't be touching 3 with a bargepole.

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Polished to a fine sheen, but curiously vapid. Fable 2 took criticism for its exceptional easiness, and Fable 3 simplified still further.

It looks, sounds and feels great, but theres no depth to it (and little width or height, come to that).

I thoroughly enjoyed it while playing it, but hindsight's a wonderful thing. Fable II I kept coming back to; Fable III I didn't. I still maintain that everything that happens before you become king is great fun. Thereafter, it wobbles a bit - I can see what Lionhead was trying to do, but it didn't quite pull it off. And it bottled one moment which would have been an incredibly brave and risky decision, likely denying it a truly memorable moment that I think a lot of people would have greatly admired.

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I liked the second one well enough. It had problems, but overall it was fairly enjoyable. Haven't played this one yet, looking forward to though.

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BE ATTITUDE FOR GAINS

That's very good.

"Someone tell me why the Yule Hat is 14 Megabytes!"

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instagram: @habiz