Saturday 24 July 2010

Gamespot Comic-Con Fable III Awesomeness

So now Gamespot has got their hands on the newest stuff from Fable III. And so below I have for you their fantastic article, AND some new screenshots. It's a good Fable-ness Saturday!
Scary things and combat woop!

And here are the awesome screenshots that they have from the team.










Enjoy them! I certainly am.

Friday 23 July 2010

Eurogamer: Interview with the Master


We all love Fable III, well I would hope my readers do! But yes, Eurogamer grabbed a few minutes with him at the latest Brighton Developers Conference where he showed off the game once more and talked about everything Fable including the reception he expects from the new game, and the trouble of getting it out there to a new and very RPG-Lite generation of gamers.

Emotional stuff...

One thing that's coming to my attention however, is that with all this RPG-Lite happening in the gaming industry, are we losing the traditional RPG? Are the days of Dungeons & Dragons and Baldur's Gate style RP's going out of the cultural window in favour of more wide scoping games?

Your comments as always below.

Tuesday 13 July 2010

Reshaping Albion


Another long haul since we heard much from Lionhead about Fable, but its sure shaping up to be a good Christmas period with the release of the Third game in the series. IGN have got another good report on the game with a conversation from Peter Molyneux too boot.

IGN - Reshaping Albion

Also don't forget 'Save the girls, Kill the Wolves' a little demonstration of the power and compassion of all you good heroes out there.

Slay those wolves...rawr

All sounds very good doesn't it? Can't wait to get my Bard's Sword, Bard's Flintlock and Bard's Gauntlets on the go and super powerful!

Hopefully we still get a lute to play *strum*

Saturday 3 July 2010

Episodic Content coolness?


Been a while since we have had some good news from the Fable universe, but stumbled upon this information on the episodic content of the next Fable game. It seems to be following the format of Fable II with the first episode free followed by you paying for the next installment/chapter, just like good ol' Dickens Peter likes so much.

"Fable III is altering the franchise’s intricate RPG formula, hoping to reach a wider audience–including women and action-adventure gamers–and to attain a profit margin of $150 million, according to Lionhead’s Peter Molyneux.
Molyneux needs Fable III to push 5 million units, otherwise he thinks the series “will inevitably wither.” Fable III’s moneymaking strategy lies in streamlining the game, as Molyneux cited over half of Fable II’s features weren’t understood or used by 60 percent of players. Fable III will also cater to casual and female gamers, considering “about 30 percent of people that played Fable II were women,” Molyneux explained.
“The reason we’re doing this is really trying to bring a wider audience into the Fable franchise, because my suspicion is there are a lot of people who are the partners of core games who probably want to get involved as well,” he said.
Fable III will also be distributed episodically through downloadable chapters, since this strategy generated 1.6 million downloads and an extra $15 million for Fable II. The first chapter will be completely free, with the option to pay for the following chapter or the entire package at its end. Molyneux supports offering a free chapter over a simple demo.
“It supports this freemium idea,” he said. “It gets around this horrible concept of demos. Anyone out there who thinks a demo is a good idea is crazy. It’s never a good idea, because demos are usually done at the end of a game and they require an enormous amount of design talent to make a demo. The other thing is you’re more likely to satisfying the curiosity of a user rather than entice them to play more.”
Fable III is set for release October 26 for Xbox 360 and PC.
What do you think of Molyneux’s strategy? Less RPG, more action-adventure and a less complicated interface definitely has me interested, but then again, part of his plan is to get us girls interested in this whole gaming thing. Is it working, or is it just annoying? (I can always make you a sandwich if that will help you feel better.) Sound off below!

Via gamesindustry.biz"

Good idea, or bad idea? How about the game becoming more and more focused towards the casual gamer? Is this alienating the hardcore players?

The casual market & Episodic play - Epic Battle Axe