Fable II

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ChristianC
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Fable II

Unread postby ChristianC » Mon Oct 11, 2010 9:58 am

Can someone please explain to me what is new, amazing and wonderful about this game?

Because right now I'm chopping wood like a maniac, in between killing people who block my view or try to sexually harass me, and paying off the guard with pocket money.

And that is not even fun.
"That's not interactive, there's no back-and-forth with the other player and how much fun is it to watch someone incredibly good at moving their eyes? And then whichever Seeker gets lucky swoops in and grabs the Snitch and makes everyone else's work moot. It's like someone took a real game and grafted on this pointless extra position just so that you could be the Most Important Player without needing to really get involved or learn the rest of it. Who was the first Seeker, the King's idiot son who wanted to play Quidditch but couldn't understand the rules?" Actually, now that Harry thought about it, that seemed like a surprisingly good hypothesis. Put him on a broomstick and tell him to catch the shiny thing...

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ChristianC
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Re: Fable II

Unread postby ChristianC » Mon Oct 11, 2010 10:00 am

Double post, :B

And by new, amazing and wonderful, I'm more or less asking, why are people loving this game all across the net?
"That's not interactive, there's no back-and-forth with the other player and how much fun is it to watch someone incredibly good at moving their eyes? And then whichever Seeker gets lucky swoops in and grabs the Snitch and makes everyone else's work moot. It's like someone took a real game and grafted on this pointless extra position just so that you could be the Most Important Player without needing to really get involved or learn the rest of it. Who was the first Seeker, the King's idiot son who wanted to play Quidditch but couldn't understand the rules?" Actually, now that Harry thought about it, that seemed like a surprisingly good hypothesis. Put him on a broomstick and tell him to catch the shiny thing...

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Jak Snide
 
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Re: Fable II

Unread postby Jak Snide » Mon Oct 11, 2010 11:23 am

Sandbox fantasy world with a decent art style and the ability to acquire stuff in significant amounts. Decent voice acting for some characters helps too.

That said, some people take issue with the mechanics of the game. Others are unhappy with how the plot shamelessly railroads you through multiple idiotic non-choices and is full of holes.

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BrainWalker
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Re: Fable II

Unread postby BrainWalker » Mon Oct 11, 2010 2:05 pm

I have seen people play games like Fable II and Oblivion, and I have even tried playing them a little myself, and they have failed to interest me on even the most basic of levels. And yet I couldn't get enough of Mass Effect 2, and I currently cannot get enough of Minecraft. I'm not sure how to explain this discrepancy.

I think my problem is that human (or, perhaps, sentient being) interaction has to be done really well to not look retarded, and... well, let's just say it looks pretty freakin' retarded in Fable and Oblivion. And combat always felt more intense and dynamic in Mass Effect 2 than it did in Oblivion or Fallout 3. I'm not sure if that's really true, but it certainly felt like it.

Then there's the open world aspect. I look out on the landscape of Oblivion and Fallout 3 and I'm like "Wow, look at this beautiful expanse of stuff that I can't really actually do much with." But I look out on my Minecraft maps and I see a vast expanse of stuff that I can do anything and everything with.

I dunno, as a guy who grew up on RPGs it feels a little weird that I have next to no interest in some of the best western RPGs on offer, and no interest whatsoever in just about any of the JRPGs on offer.
Anime is kind of like fish in that it is better the less "fishy" it is.

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ChristianC
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Re: Fable II

Unread postby ChristianC » Mon Oct 11, 2010 3:52 pm

BW, I agree wholeheartedly.

I have never, EVER liked any of the games in the Daggerfall setting, simply because it's too big, it's too easy to get lost, it's too generic and the NPCs are too shallow to be interesting at all. Fallout 1 & 2 survived because the "Free World Exploration" was still limited to a few key locations, which made the red plot-thread visible and easily interacted with, in opposition to Oblivion where I just plain forgot what I was doing after half an hour of randomly threatening, flirting with, joking at and bragging for random shopkeeps for no particular reason.

Fallout III had exactly the same problem. A super-weak main plot (they even went and retconned the SHITTY ENDING. All I'm saying is, "No friend, I may be completely immune to radiation and what have yous, but this is your quest so get in there and die) and too much of NOTHING.

Mass Effect, and Dragon Age, manage to give you just the amount of autonomy you need, while still keeping you on a well-designed rail-road. I believe it is, more than anything, a good ability to compromise. You can't communicate with nearly 90% of every human being you meet in the game. But you don't need to, since frankly they aren't important. Likewise, they also focus much more on the main-plot, creating a solid one before even considering all the side-quests you can do. This is a big failing in the Daggerfall series and Fallout III, in my opinion.

Then, games like Minecraft, or Dwarf Fortress, give you limitless do-whatever-you-want, at the sacrifice of a complex story.

BUT

They never try to pretend they're anything like that anyway. Fable, especially, grinds my angry bones because it's OVER-HYPED, it's OVER-RATED (just look at Gamespot and wiki for the average review score from the 'professionals') and exploiting the DLC to it's fullest with expensive bits of useless clothing clogging your Gold account.
"That's not interactive, there's no back-and-forth with the other player and how much fun is it to watch someone incredibly good at moving their eyes? And then whichever Seeker gets lucky swoops in and grabs the Snitch and makes everyone else's work moot. It's like someone took a real game and grafted on this pointless extra position just so that you could be the Most Important Player without needing to really get involved or learn the rest of it. Who was the first Seeker, the King's idiot son who wanted to play Quidditch but couldn't understand the rules?" Actually, now that Harry thought about it, that seemed like a surprisingly good hypothesis. Put him on a broomstick and tell him to catch the shiny thing...

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Jak Snide
 
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Re: Fable II

Unread postby Jak Snide » Mon Oct 11, 2010 5:10 pm

The trouble with Oblivion and Fallout 3 is that they failed to have engaging NPCs. Dragon Age grows massively in length if you start doing non-plot related quests. It's not fully open world, but there's loads of room to go off the beaten track. The difference is that it's never too far off the beaten track and that the world is populated by unique NPCs, some of whom are very entertaining, and a few of those quests present interesting choices. It's been a while since I played Oblivion, but Fallout 3 suffered far too much from black and white morality. I have high hopes for New Vegas, however. Obsidian might be terrible at making actual games but they're more or less unparalleled when it comes to dialogue and plot. KotOR 2 would have been a legendary game if it hadn't been rushed out the door before completion.

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Re: Fable II

Unread postby PriamNevhausten » Tue Oct 12, 2010 12:36 pm

I liked playing Fable 2 because there was magic that was neat, and there was much stuff to be done just to see what was there. Also, shooting people in the head at 5000 paces.
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"Anything that might be of interest to Slitscan. Which is to say, anything that might be of interest to Slitscan's audience. Which is best visualized as a vicious, lazy, profoundly ignorant, perpetually hungry organism craving the warm god-flesh of the anointed. Personally I like to imagine something the size of a baby hippo, the color of a week-old boiled potato, that lives by itself, in the dark, in a double-wide on the outskirts of Topeka. It's covered with eyes and it sweats constantly. The sweat runs into those eyes and makes them sting. It has no mouth, Laney, no genitals, and can only express its mute extremes of murderous rage and infantile desire by changing the channels on a universal remote. Or by voting in presidential elections."
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