BlueSpawn

Amazing. Innovative.

Yes, it's no worse than most game's stories. But considering that this was an RPG (which tend to have more emphasis on stories than other action titles) and that this was a popular one at that (like KOTOR), I was expecting a bit more. A lot more, actually.

Yes, I remember Bethesda saying how Radiant AI was going to be revolutionary. It was nice, yes, but not very impressive. And there's a good reason for it. Creating an artificial intelligence that's highly believable and reacts appropriately to a number of events and permutation of those events, is going to take a huge group of people to code for many, many years. A good example is Facade, which took 2 years to program, and still had a lot of issues with the AI. For the time being, the process of coding AI is not very revolutionary to begin with. It's all about events and scripting a response to the events. That's how Oblivion was. All the NPC action/reactions were pre-scripted. Seems like a logical way to go about coding the AI, doesn't it? And yet, we'll need something more revolutionary to create believable NPCs. That, or billions and billions of dollars. Having that said, I think Fable's doggy has potential. Even if the final version performs no more than what we've seen of the 5 minute demo, it's already a lot. I simply like the gameplay that the dog provides for the player. Never did like the fact that I had to go about on a lot of the Fable missions alone. Which is why I always picked up as many random NPCs to come with me Even if all they could do is punch, it's just a nice feeling to have someone there, especially when they cheer for me

Yes, and fable also means "a story about supernatural heroes and extraordinary events," which I suppose is a criteria that the game would fulfill. However, my complaint was not so much that the game's title doesn't fullfill the content, but that there's a lack of plot, not just an intricate plot. As for the " a traditional short story that teaches a moral lesson, especially a story about animals" I can say that it definitely didn't fullfill this part. Morality in the game is largely absent. You're given choices to do bad and good deeds but they're mostly there to change the appearance of your character (ex. so he can grow horns).

The problem with moral choices is the problem with the story. Morality in real world is partily governed by punishment. Games like Fable don't have much punishment as they pretty much let you become godlike. So the only factor morality depends upon is how well the characters are crafted. Additionally, any given choice given through plot must in turn change the plot. Okay, so not killing the hero's sister in Fable made you go through an additional quest. Not a very deep change as far as plot goes, though, and doesn't really play on the idea of morality.

Excuse me while I post this thread on a website that has just posted a review for Otogi.

Let me begin with this entry from dictionary.com: "Fable: the plot of an epic, a dramatic poem, or a play." Did you catch that? Anybody? Anybody? It said a "plot." A plot! When we hear the word fable we usually picture an emphasis on storytelling and characters. I saw no such emphasis in this game. The story was a clear afterthought and main characters seldom appeared. Newsflash for game developers: You don't need to be Tim Schafer to create an interesting story! Fable doesn't even attempt. (Spoiler's ahead) The first bit of Fable is actually very nice. We get a great storybook cutscene and neat interaction throughout Oakvale. The sacking of the town is engaging and the story seems to progress nicely until you're spirited away to the Heroes Guild. That's where the plot kicks the bucket. First we are introduced with the pathetic excuse for an NPC known as Whisper. From the first moment she opens her mouth we realize that Whisper's overall purpose in the game is to tutor the player in combat. And that's fine in the case of the Guildmaster who spends the entire game standing in one spot. But Whisper actually poses off as someone who's established a relationship with the main character. How? All she ever does is join a few quests where she attempts (in very futile ways) to beat you. And when the peak of their interaction reaches a decision that involves life and death, why should I care?? Either way, why should I give a crap about what happens to her? In Planescape: Torment, there's a point when the Nameless One can make the decision of rescuing Morte or leaving him behind in the Piller of Skulls. Either decision the player makes seems valid because both characters have established a relationship of love and hate. They've argued, they've betrayed one another and they've relied on each other. Whisper tells you that she's gonna kick yo white bony ass in a few quests and the game makes it seem like letting her live/die is a big deal. Any further story development is destroyed when Whisper never shows up again if you LET her live, making the entire kill or let live event the more pointless. And what about the main character's family? When does he ever express sadness or worry about losing them? Then again, a character whose expressions mainly consist of "wait," "follow," and farting, probably has about as much emotion as a potato. But let's say that the main character is the player's avatar and thus is capable of developing too many unique character traits for game developers to cover with dialogue. How's this an excuse for big NPCs like the guy's sister and his mom, who take up about 10 seconds of screentime and express minimum character development? So we have this tale where our hero has spent god knows how long presuming that his family is dead. Then, finally, he reunites with his long lost sister and-- nothing happens!!! Nothing. We get a tiny cutscene and an explanation via panning of a mural. How fucking engaging! Towards the end, she conviently appears for the player to make a good or bad decision. IF it just so magically happens that anyone of us somehow cares about this "character," the result of letting her live is about as empty as it was with Whisper. She leaves, never to appear again. Other moments include you returning to the home village and seeing the girl that had lost her teddy bear from the begging of the game. She waves to the main character and says, "oh hi, it's me Emily from way back when," and leaves. Just leaves, never to be seen, and I'm once more faced with the question of why the hell she appears in the first place?? What's the bloody point? Peter Molyneux expressed how "cutscenes are last generation." No wonder! The cutscenes in Fable were an utter waste of production time and costs, unbelievably dull and awfully writen. The mural cutscenes with the narrative voice-over (ala Beauty and the Best) are nice, but they also beg the question: If the overall plot was an afterthought, an excuse for the gameplay, then why were those mural cutscenes attempting for the player to feel involved in an epic story? They kept posing off as something grand and epic, but there's no plot! My biggest disappointment with Fable was not that it didn't let me grow trees or give me some stupid singing sword of expensiveness, but that it reeked of a plot that had been pulled out of someone's ass. It seems these days we either get story driven games with crappy gameplay (Dreamfall) or games with descent gameplay but shitty story (Fable).

I'm perplexed. The bloak wants to push emotions into video games other than adrenaline rush of violence and half the people are flamming him. Just the fact that he's trying, just the fact that he's a major game developer who wants to put emotions in video games should be applauded. Isn't it about time that the industry as a whole moved away from creating mindless games? So, judging by Black&White and Fable, he could very well not provide the stuff he's proposing. But just trying is a huge deal. Considering the fact that many developers are spitting at the idea of emotion in video games (*cough* David Jaffe *cough*) I think it's a bold move for him to say you'll get lovey dovey with dogs.

CryEngine2 looks impressive, but I'm wondering as to its flexibility with texturing. Doom3 only allows 1 texture per model, which isn't very nice.

Relatively new here. Love many reviews that've been posted on the site. I particularly like how they don't all focus on "teh graphix" and various bells and whistles of today's AAA titles (physics engines, etc). I'm also impressed by the amount of people on the site who respect games like Monkey Island series, Beyond Good and Evil, and Psychonauts. I only wish there were more reviews on the site. One of the latest ones about Otogi is nice. There should be one about Otogi 2, which is actually quite story driven compared to its predecessor. Because of the way the smiley curves the smile at the tip of its lips, which usually gives the expression more of a devious nature.

Newsflash: "Funcom, the developer behind the adventure game classics The Longest Journey and Dreamfall: The Longest Journey, have announced their decision to stop producing traditional, offline PC games, reports the Norwegian newspaper E24. Funcom, who previously have mentioned MMOs and adventure games as their primary focus, blames piracy as the reason for the decision." -- Adventure Gamers Arrr mateys, ever-body be blamin piracy!

The page by Wieslaw Skupniewicz is my favorite as it reminds me so much of the game.