Fable 2

[The Dude]

Anyone picked this up yet?

Avoiding spoilers, i've played it for about 8-9 hours so far, currently wearing all the upper class noble gear, have a steel flintlock rifle, steel longsword and own most of barowstone market square with exception to the cow and corset pub, and 4 of houses on the side rows (I own/rent out the shops), own all the small market stalls and in Oakville, own all the houses and pub *thanks to massive whoring of the blacksmith sidegame and wood cutting*.
Also went back and bought up the gypsy camp you start out in, not played too much of the actual narrative missions.

Its been pretty awesome, but I miss the old guild layout of the missions in fable 1, as apposed to rummaging about in your menu screen to find missions etc.
Im not too hot on the breadcrumb trails too as most of the time to be honest you deviate from them, or your dog does as its found items or a better path etc.

[Chris_Redfield8]

is it worth getting in your oppinion? im choosing between silent hill homecoming fable 2 and infinite undiscovery

[Noobskillz]

I loved fable 1, so fable 2 should be the bomb,

im buyin it next weekend,

Should be good

[James]

I'll post up a picture of my character whenever I get the chance. He's starting to get a little too evil for my liking. He's starting to grow horns =( I don't like that look so I might go and have a quick look at the Temple of Light and perhaps donate a shitload to make my purity meter go up =D I guess befriending 7 monks from the Temple of Light and then luring them to the slaughter at the Shadow Temple will get that kinda stuff done to ya =P

Mine is mainly a marksman though. Once you get Dextrous Styles you can go into RE4 aiming mode, and if you upgrade speed + accuracy with the right rifle, Fable II is actually a REALLY good shooting game.

But yeah, to keep my experience balanced I am alternating between my sword, silver plated rifle and magic spells. I only use the Swords + Inferno spells though. The others suck balls (well, I haven't tried them but yeah). The game does a really good job in just making your spells feel powerful.

I must admit I need to go get me some new armour though. The Master Chief armour was cool but I've seen some other combinations on the net and in the game's Attract Mode and it's garnered my interest.

is it worth getting in your oppinion? im choosing between silent hill homecoming fable 2 and infinite undiscovery

Silent Hill: Go for it if you want a generic action/adventure game. It's not amazingly scary and for some reason I see it dropping price. It's definitely much more accessible than the previous games but at the same time I feel that it doesn't feel 100% Silent Hill.
Infinite Undiscovery: Veyr hit and miss. The beginning is the most boring part of the game but after that it does get very interesting. Battle system (actually, EVERYTHING) is done in real time and it's pretty nice to play around with. I had a lot of fun with Infinite Undiscovery but at the same time I was really having some frustratingly badly designed moments too.
Fable II: A very short main quest but there's shitloads to do in the side missions and such. The characters and atmosphere in this game are probably the strongest out of the three games you've mentioned. Combat system is extremely simple (Lionhead tried to map it to being one button per function) and works very well. It's a very competent action RPG, with a lot to do.

[The Dude]

is it worth getting in your oppinion? im choosing between silent hill homecoming fable 2 and infinite undiscovery

Fable 2's good if you enjoyed Fable 1, but i've a few criticisms with the game;

COMBAT

The game tried to overacchieve, especially via the combat system, ignore Peter Molenyeux's promises of one button combat, it doesn't exist, by one button he only means the X button is used for physical attacks, once you upgrade, you hold it to guard, and holding it while pressing the analogue in any direction for a flourish attack which is easily abused as it gifts you invincibility frames during the move and realistically will be how you fight every boss in the game.

Guns/Arrows and rifles are used in the same way, Y is to fire, once you upgrade Holding Y enters first person mode, further upgrades allow you to hold Y for long periods while focused on a target to zoom in for more damage, although once you get a decent flintlock rifle, doing this can pretty much guarantee a one hit kill with anything if you do it from long distance without being spotted.

Will is pretty underused in the game, tapping the B button allows a quick area of effect attack, whereas directing a charging attack towards an opponant casts a projectile in their particular area, unless im mistaken there is NO curative magic in this game, and you never really have to worry about running out of will either as I never did.

NAVIGATION

Despite being in a 3rd person perspective, fable 2 discards the fixed camera of the previous game in order to offer a more fluid style of movement, however this brings alot of problems as you can tell in videos, especially when sprinting where the animations are so fixed you're liable to really only run in a straight line and whack into something *especially in towns, mind running into people as it gets them angry unless you have the apologise function*.
The game has problems in small rooms and dungeons with the camera also.

HEALING

Never eat food, period, it heals you quick but 3-5 pies is all you need to suddenly become obese, to which theres pretty much no cure besides eating celery from Bowerstone's food markets, invest in potions, or better yet participate in sidegames and buy the alchemists shop in Bowerstone, or related stores in the Old Town Market or Oakfield to get major discounts.
REMEMBER: Getting KO'd in combat isn't a defeat, you get back up with full health but sporting horiffic scars and burns from your knockdown, to avoid this, use potions frequently during battle and upgrade your toughness attribute to increase your health as theres no armor attributes in the game besides the secret Master Chief outfit.

APPEARANCE

Contrary to the game's promise of appearance and opinions, the game is pretty basic, offering only around 10-13 styles of clothing which you can mix, match and dye to your pleasure, however the real effects of clothing come from full outfits, which rapidly influence how people percieve you in terms of love, attractiveness, fear, anger etc.

Dressing up like a bum won't get you anywhere quick, whereas forking out 1,200 gold *unless its on a sale, the economy fluxuates daily/weekly offering sales at stores or chances to sell goods for high prices*, can buy you the Upper Class Noble Gent/Ladies outfit which pretty much guarantees you love, respect and sexual prowess around any town or neighbourhood with exception to a town later on in the game. *Just remember to buy the Come Hither command book from Bowerstones bookstore if you want sex, its impossible to do without it unless its martial or you're propositioned*

INVESTMENT & PROPERTIES;

The meat of the game, despite promises otherwise, you can do the main story quest in about 5-7 hours tops if you're adequately upgraded, you'll be wanting to start buying property early on, especially as the game's economy can and will fluxuate, along with the best gear becoming more expensive as the game goes on, you'll need to earn money quick, and to be honest Quests is the worst way to do it *but the quickest way to earn renown*, the economy in the game gives you money for each property you own every 5 minutes if you have said property up for rent, shops and taverns/blacksmiths also give you decent rent, depending on how much you charge for rent, or overcharge.
This has a huge bearing on your corrupt and purity stats, giving people discounts is the way to go for love and purity, whereas overcharging will piss people off, but I don't see any real consequence of this.

Participating in part time jobs such as Blacksmithing in Bowerstone, or Woodcutting in Oakfield are decent ways to earn money, however whenever Bartending becomes available wherever it is, drop everything, and I MEAN everything and do it, a chain multiplyer of 40+ on bartending will net you 1,125 gold per each pint pulled and the game goes as long as you want it too *just makesure whenever you're promoted, to quit the game then redo it as your pay goes up, level 5 jobs are faster but reward more cash*.

There are ways to cheat the system once you own property to give you mass amounts of gold, pulling out your net connection from your xbox and fiddlign with the clock will guarantee you more money as the internal console clock keeps track of fable time, and will give you whatever money you would have got had you been playing the game when you switch on, I didn't do it on my playthrough but my brother did, and it brings enjoyment of the game to a screeching halt when you own everything in the first 40 minutes of gameplay as owning every property will net you around 10000+ gold per 5mins of gameplay, so don't cheat, it kills the game :p.

ALL IN ALL

Yeah, i'd reccomend the game, but only if you're a fan of the First game, it has quite a few references to Fable 1, ones a dead giveaway at the beginning of the game, and the plot itself is decent but not mindblowing, while the ending avoiding spoilers definitley is a prelude to another "lost chapters", or some kind of further downloadable content.

ENDING SPOILER
Spoiler:

show spoiler

I chose the "Love" ending btw, didn't want to play the game without the dog despite being a 100% good character, theres no evil points in chosing this choice either, its just not the sacrificial/heroic one, but whats increasing everytown with nameless fools who cheer you for savign their lives compared to living without your dog?

END ENDING SPOILER

All I can say for the game, being altruistic and noble doesn't always get you the best results, sometimes being a little selfish is more rewarding and even though it might cost you some good points, running about with the Lute item and using it in populated areas will quickly boost your lightside again, just as donating to the Temple of Light so its easy to break the games ethics system.

The game has alot of game breaking glitches so be careful, never run away from a conversation, especially with the Abbot, and if the wife disappearance glitch happens, chill out because by the time you hit this glitch if you've invested in property you needn't worry about finances anyway, and the glitch self rights itself *usually* by the time you reach the final time change in the game.

OVERALL

Graphics = 7.5, like the first game, good graphics, great lighting, but rain effects and snow look amateurish, a hell of a lot of motion blurring to disguise the frame lag, and swimming looks poorly designed, your hero Sprite looks reused from the first game if male, but touched up with the graphics upgrade.

Sound = 8.5 *good music and voices, but repeated soundbytes in towns gets tedious especially during a part time job grind*
Gameplay = 9.0 *if you're into Fable this is a treat, if not consider it a 7*
Longevity = If you have quests to do after the game, it pads the game out, so does trying to get the Lord of Albion acchievement by owning everything including the extremely expensive Fairfax Gardens, there are alot of quests you'll miss unless you wandered about Albion, and i've defintiley quests to finish *although some will definitley put a dent in your moral standing in albion*.

Overall = 8.5/9.0 *depending if you're a fan of the series or not*

[Noobskillz]

ive been playin fale TLC, and ive come across costum tattoos, ne 1 got ne ideas what i should put on em?

[The Dude]

Depends on if you're good or bad, like in Fable 2, certain tattoos raise your attractiveness, good rating, scariness/evil rating and whatnot, look at the stats before you add anyway, aesthetically they really do bugger all difference to your character however if you're trying to be a saint, don't put on an evil tattoo, granted the difference on your stats bar is negligible people will notice the change, just as if you played the game with Bright Armor in Fable 1 and then switched to Dark/Evil armor.

Its the same in Fable 2, spend the entire time in Noble Gents/Ladies gear and then switch clothes, people will remember what you were wearing originally and their opinions will differ, usually for the worse.

EDIT: I think its clear from fable 2's ending that there will be a TLC add on at some time for it.
Especially considering Spoiler:

show spoiler

Roses note you get after the credits, she's probably on another continent however, Samerkand possibly, or the Frozen North. And the fact that Hammer goes north to the mountains, and Reaver/Garth go to Samerkand, kind of seems like they're gearing up for downloadable content, not to mention Stephen Fry, a big actor had very little dialogue as reaver besides the few scenes he was in and his memo's, i'd imagine they probably recorded more dialogue in advance for the DLC but thats just speculation on my part. It might also be worth noting that the man Rose is with possibly Scythe from Fable 1, considering Teresa is alive and well in Fable 2, and the game elludes to many immortals existing in society but remaining hidden, and that Scythe disappeared from history and was confirmed to be immortal, it could be also possible that the Hero from Fable 1 is alive and well.

2nd EDIT: http://community.lionhead.com/blogs/...1/3221309.aspx

Bit announcement next week, hopefully its a decent patch or Downloadable Content which isn't going to cost an arm and a leg.

[Noobskillz]

with the tattoos, im not gettin ne good or bad points from em, there made by me, so i can put what eva i want on em, so far ive got a tat of THIA on his bac,YEA!!

but yea, ne idea what else?

[Project Omega]

I've been playing this game for the past week now and have been completely HOOKED. There are a few glitches I've had to deal with but hopefully that patch is released sooner than later to deal with those...

Spoiler:

show spoiler

The glitches I've dealt with:

* Furniture stores sell no furniture : Fail
---The developers state this is because the economy in Bowerstone/Bloodstone are 5 stars. The temp fix involves doing things which brings down the economy; unfortunately they effect your corruption level so blah. You can either kill a bunch of villagers or set the rent to +100% over the normal price. Takes a while but it fixes the problem.

* Ghosts live in one of my houses : Booooo!
--- In a murderous rampage to get the economy down to fix the above problem (*sigh*) I accidentally killed my wife and my daughter was taken by social services. It's sucks, but I have 5 other wives anyway and all the women have a thing for me (protected extramarital sex FTW). Anyway, the game wont allow me to rent out the house she used to live in as if she was still alive....

* Some of my stats aren't displayed when I check them.
---Meh, not much of a problem really, just odd.

I'm a sucker for side-quests which makes this game great for me... DLC can't come quick enough!

[The Dude]

Im hoping the DLC fixes the masses of glitches im coming across on my 3rd playthrough, been hit with the ghost glitch, the furniture glitch, along with the daughter not talking to you glitch after the Spoiler:

show spoiler

10 year skip between the spire/prison scene and freedom

, she's in fact stuck against a wall in my Bowerstone house, however this happened first time through and rectified itself after one or two missions.

This game could be great, but Lionhead are very slow in addressing major game breaking issues unfortunately, not to mention very poor at meeting deadlines with the DLC pushed back to late January 09.

[Project Omega]

I guess had the same problem with my daughter as well. I just assumed she was very lazy @_@

[The Dude]

Nope, usually if you return from the 10 year skip half way through the game, without a glitch returning to your family your daughter runs out and introduces herself, but you can always go and shaft someone else to reproduce sprog for the same thing.