Free Play Friday: Fable 2 Webgames

You want free stuff for your Hero in Fable 2, you say? Well that's easy, just head on over to Fable2.com and you can enjoy a couple quick games that will be pretty rewarding in the long run.

The first one isn't so much a game as it is an interactive play. As you work your way through, the little puppet gets to make a few good/evil choices that affect which prizes you wind up getting. I went through and did all the good choices and got a doll and some tattoos waiting for me when I went to a specific treasure chest in-game (the one in the Guild Hall, for those wondering). Outside of the fact that you get free prizes for your Hero, the play is actually really cool and looks exactly like it belongs within the world of Fable.

The second game, Chicken Kickin', is a pain in the ass. Maybe its just my stupid computer, but every time I try to do the game, either the meter loads funkily or I can't aim the chicken right, so I haven't won anything yet. I do know that if you can complete it (or get the target score anyway), you win a nice chicken suit and you can get the title of Chicken Chaser from the town crier for free as well. I'm going to keep trying every once in a while to get the suit from this game, but I won't put too much effort into it, it just winds up being way too frustrating I think.

The total items you can get from the website are: a book with the Feign Attack expression, a vial of pink dye, a 3 piece chicken suit, 2 Lionhead tattoos (one for face and one for body), and one Hero Doll.

Finally, even though you don't have to play a webgame for this one, according to Joystiq you can get the free Halo armor for your Hero that was supposed to be exclusive to the Collector's Edition of the game. Joystiq has the information on how to pick yours up here. I signed up, but it says it could take up to 10 days for it to come through, so mine hasn't arrived yet. Although, I did see it on my brother's Hero and I must say it looks pretty cool. However, my Hero will never wear it, because she just looks so awesome in her hot pants and rich woman's shirt.

Retro Thursday: Fable: The Lost Chapters

The first Fable came onto the scene in 2004 and barely a year later was rereleased with extra content and an extra island/ending for the story portion of the game. When I picked it up and began my playthrough, I found an incredibly enjoyable (although sometimes flawed) action -RPG experience.

The thing that really pushed the game along for me was the fact that the story was completely engaging. I loved the fact that you got to start out as a child (albeit not for too long), and then got to trace the child's journey through training and then work your way up to become the Hero of Albion. The big draw of the good/evil choice scenario was cool enough, but when you get to the main point of the game, all you have to do is make one choice that really effects what road you walk down to the end. I (like usual) went through the first time being a goody-two-shoes, but once I had completed the storyline, I went back and had some fun at the brothels just long enough to get back to neutral territory. It also helped that I would beat my wife until she would divorce me, then remarry her.

The battle system worked well enough, although I don't think I ever used a ranged weapon during my travels. Magic was definitely a plus to keep around, but I would never use, because I didn't want the white glowy all over me. I know it made sense to put that in as a consequence for using all that power, but I always wished that I had been able to use it the whole game and not worry about how nasty I'd look.

I also really loved the customization of hair and clothes. Being able to dress my dude up and walk through Bowerstone and see all the ladies fall for his manly awesomeness.... priceless. Again, the only gripe with this is that certain clothes added to your good/evilness, and I kind of wish it hadn't because I would want to wear the badassy assassin clothes, but I didn't want it to take away from my goodness. It's a small complaint, but I definitely felt it while playing.

Although I never felt that the game ever had everything working perfectly (I would always run into a stupid combat glitch or get stuck on a wall), it was definitely a wonderful play and completely set up a nice framework for Fable 2, which takes everything to the next level extremely well.

Unplugged Wednesday - Fables

Hello and Welcome.



Our third entry in Fable week is actually not related to the Fable series of games.  Today we are going to talk about the Vertigo Comic: Fables.

I have always been a big fan of alternate interpretations of classic stories.  Gregory MacGuire's Wicked series, The Looking Glass Wars (Alice in Wonderland), and even Stephen King's Dark Tower series to an extent.

Fables is exactly that.  It is the story of all the people and creatures of legend living in New York city (for the Human Fables) and upstate New York on the "Farm" (for those less than human Fables).

The Fables are in NYC because they were exiled from their lands by the "Adversary" as he systematically took over their lands with his evil army.  The human fable community is run by the Deputy Mayor, Snow White and her trusty sheriff Bigby "The Big Bad Wolf" who thanks to a glamour, has a human form.  Snow White, and the whole community, deal with any number of situations over the course of the books:  Murders, Revolutions, etc.

As far as the art goes, it is very detailed and vibrant at times, but still has a somewhat dated look (though I think that is the DC/Image style).  The stories within each arch are very interesting and deal with "Real" problems in the "Mundy" (their name for normal "Mundane" humans) world.  For example,  Rose Red (Snow White's forgotten sister) slept with Prince Charming (SW's husband) and now they are divorced.

The stories are also often humorous.  One of my Favorites:
Goldilocks to Papa Bear: "Do you think I share your son's bed only because is happens to be 'Just Right'"?
Papa Bear: "No, it's because papa's l'il boo bear is hung like a --"

Anyway, I definitely recommend Fables, if you are in to the alternate version types of stories.

And if you are REALLY into Fables, you might check out the spin-offs (I haven't):  Jack of Fables (no good Jack of the BeanStalk story), and 1001 Nights of Snowfall: a prequel to Fables.

~K

New Release Tuesday: Fable 2

Hello and Welcome.

For our second entry in Fable week we are going to talk about the newly released Fable 2.

Before I get started I just want to give you a list of the things I have done so far:

• Worked as a Blacksmith, Woodcutter, And Bartender, and Bounty Hunter
  
  
• Courted and Married "Jen the Barmaid"  who is described as "Good, Straight, Raunchy, and Unchaste"
• Bought my first house and made it our Marital home.
• Attempted to consummate my marriage by having Protected Sex with Jen (come on, she is a "Raunchy, Unchaste" BARMAID),  She didn't like that.
• Tried again, no protection, she went for that.
• She immediately got pregnant, and I immediately got an STD.  My character is now a poster child for Safe sex.
• "Accidentally" lightninged the 5 random people that walked into my home while I was looking at my baby.  The baby and wife got lightninged too.  Oops.
• Kicked 6 chickens.
• dyed my clothes and hair with "Red Letter Dye"
• Posed for multiple statues.
• Purchased numerous Shops and a few houses, and rented them all out.
  
  

Anyway, I loved the original Fable.  It was one of the gateway games I used to get my wife to play WOW. So I was obviously excited about Fable 2.

So, what is new about Fable 2?  For one it is significantly larger than its predecessor.  Peter Molyneux has been quoted as saying it is about 10 times as large as the original.  You now have the ability to choose your gender, something that Molyneux desperately wanted in the original.  Within that, as a female character you can become pregnant (and impregnate as a male, obviously) and have children who grow throughout the game. 

Another new addition to your 'family' is the dog.  The dog can be taught a number of skills (mostly tricks and expressions like your character), but the most notable skills are treasure finding, and combat.

In the previous Fable, your character would take quests to earn renown and gold.  In Fable 2, quests only net you renown.  To get gold, you must take one of the various jobs: Bartender, Woodcutter, Blacksmith, Assassin, Slaver, Slave Liberator, or Bounty hunter.

You may also purchase and rent real estate and shops.  With each piece of property, you can change the rent (or rates in a shops case) by a certain percentage.  You can also decorate your houses, etc, with finer furniture to make the basic rate (and selling price) higher.  Higher rates make you more corrupt, where as lower rates make you more pure.  Each piece of property you own pays you the specified rate every 5 minutes of real world time, even when your game is turned off.  Subsequently, your family(ies) deduct a certain amount of your income for household upkeep.

In the previous Fable, your character's apperance morphed as he progressed in age as well as based on whether he performed Good or Evil deeds.  In Fable 2, these features and others contribute to your appearance:

• Good or Evil
• Pure or Corrupt
• Wealth & Poverty
• Slim or Fat
• Young or Old

The hero's Skill, Will, and Strength attributes play also affect your appearance.  Strength makes the character more muscular, skill affects height, and magic gives the hero glowing blue veins.  Also, any combination of  the above extremes can be combined,  you can have a Good, yet corrupt Fat Cat, or a Pure, evil pauper.

The main reason that I was excited for Fable 2 was the concept of Offline, and Online Co-op.  I was excited to play this game with my wife, and with my friends.

Lionhead was unable to complete the online portion before going to print, however, a patch was available on Day 1 of launch to enable this feature.

Unfortunately, the Multiplayer still sucks.  Both locally and online.  I was really excited to have my hero traipse around in my Wife's world, as well as my friends causing havo... I mean joy, to all of their inhabitants... But no, I have to be one of 6 preset "Henchmen" (good, neutral, evil/Male, female).  Sure, I can import my Hero's abilities and experience as well as take home a portion of the gold and experience I recieve in my friends game.  But that is not enough.  Fable is a game of virtually limitless customization, but I can't show that off.  Bad form Lionhead, bad form.

There have also been a number of game breaking bugs, but I won't go into detail here.

These things aren't enough to destroy, or even tarnish past a certain part, my love for this game.  It is still a great game, I just hope they get these bugs fixed (before I find them) and enhance the Multiplayer.

Well, I am off to adventure in Albion.

:: Rude Gesture::

~K

DLC Monday: Pub Games.

Hello and Welcome.

Our first entry in Fable week will focus on the XBLA game:  Fable: Pub Games.

 

Pub Games was essentially a way to rack up gold in Fable 2 before the game came out.  It also offered 15 items that could be one from the tournaments in the game.  

There are 3 different games if Pub Games:  Keystone, Fortune's Tower, and Spinner box.

Each of these games offers numerous variations on the games and stakes as well as 5 tournaments per game, corresponding to your players star level.  The difference in a tournament game is you are betting against other "Players" and not just the house.

Keystone

Keystone is essentially a combination of Roulette and Craps.  You place primary bets on the "Arch Stones" around the top of the game prior to the game starting.  Before each dice roll you place inside bets on the Board, similar to the way you would place bets in Craps.

And that is what this game is: Craps.   Just like real Roulette or Craps, your odds of winning are painfully low.  I hate this game....

Anyway, the Prizes you win from the 5 levels of tournaments are:

• Plaits Hairstyle Card
• Dog Book: Backflip
• High Rollers Coat
• Potion of Will
• Championship Pistol

Fortune's Tower

 Fortune's Tower is essentially a type of solitaire (and probably exists in one of those 300 solitaire games collections...). After you make your bets, cards are placed one row at a time, starting with the face down "Tower" card and incrementing one card at a time for each subsequent row. Once a row is placed by the dealer, you have the option of taking the sum of that rows cards as your winnings. Sounds easy right? Well, if a card lines up with any card of the same number on the previous line the game ends and you loose your money.  Each deck has 4 "Hero" cards that can negate this effect if they are dealt in a row.  Also, the Tower Card will automatically be used the first time this happens.  If you make it to the last row without using your Tower card (hero cards are fine) you win the jackpot, which is the sum of ALL cards on the Table.

This game is by far my favorite because you actually have a chance at winning if you play it smart.

Ok, the five tournament items for Fortune's Tower are:

• Deepest Dark Chocolate
• Sleepmaster 3000 (its a bed, duh)
  
• Potion of Strength
• A Face Tatoo
• Championship Cutlass.

 Spinnerbox

Spinner Box is slots.  'nuff said.

The five tourney items are:

• Apple Pie
• Hat, Headband, and Mustache (its a book.)
• Body Tatoo
• Potion of Skill
• Mysterious Ring

Other than achievement points (like the 0 gamer-score "Fabled Financier") and some items there is not really any point to pub games ( you can play all these games in Fable 2) at this point.  You ESPECIALLY should not get Pub Games if you are planning on paying the 800 Microsoft Points ($10).  It came as a preorder bonus for Fable 2 (the only reason I have it. ;) )  and is definitely not worth $10 bucks...  I recommend hitting up your local Gamestop to see if they have any of the preorder cards left over(mine had like 15).

Other than that,  the concept of pub games is an interesting one.  The fact that a publisher would allow you to amass wealth in a game (as well as items)  BEFORE it is released is a bold concept (especially considering it shipped with numerous bugs that allowed you to cheat your way to wealth).  I guess it is the wave of the DLC future.

~K

This Week: Fable Week.

Hello and Welcome.

Just wanted to give you a preview of the week to come.  We are dedicating this week to all things Fable.

We will keep the same format as always, but everything will be related to Fable in some way.  It will be fun, so stay tuned.

For now, I will leave you with a few of the hilarious quotes I have heard so far in Fable 2:

"If you ask me, it's a great time to be alive. There's not even that much disease considering we never wash!"

"I heard the Guildmaster had the ability to talk to any hero at any time! Sounds kind of annoying to me."

"There are many conflicting legends as to whether or not the Hero of Oakvale killed the Guildmaster. It's said that the words, 'Your health is low' were carved into his forehead. "

There is a description on a love potion that says "60% of the time, it works everytime"

~K