RPS goes back to look at the original Fable:

Which is a theme that runs all through it. It’s a game that shouts about choice, primarily in the option to become a living legend through kindness or through viciousness, but forbids you from ever straying from its very real paths. No doubt Lionhead’s decision to restrict roaming to key quest hubs linked by narrow, enemy-littered roads is deliberate, rather than the simple cop-out it’s been labelled as: it wants to point you at fun stuff, not endless empty fells.

In truth, it doesn’t matter that much – it’s pretty enough and populous enough to distract from its geographical slightness. It’s how it depicts the restrictions that sours the deal: all flimsy wooden fences and tiny stone walls. In asking to accept that those, of all things, are impenetrable barriers in a world of might and magic, it’s insulting. If a game absolutely must tie its players to a beaten path, there are better ways to do it than visibly breaking its own rules.

After reading the premise on the box for Fable: The Lost Chapters, I knew that I absolutely HAD to get this game and play it. It's rare that I am truly excited enough about a game to come up with the cash to buy it at full price -- I prefer to wait for it to drop by 20-30% at least. But for Fable: TLC, I oiled the hinges on my pennybox and forked over the full price. Many things about the game description on the box influenced my decision - the fact that your countenance changes based on your alignment and (I didn't find out until later) your combat ability, extended quests and spells for the user to play with, people react to you based on what you've done in game. Was I disappointed with my purchase, or have I been happily putting entire towns to the sword in an orgy of death and destruction? Read on and find out.

Simon: I think if you were to ask our artists, the bit they were most pleased they got away with was the topiary cocks.

Dene: If you were to hang around the guild in the northern part of Bowerstone, you'd have all these bushes which are very strangely phallically shaped, and we only realised this fairly close to the end. Basically, it was late and they were a bit pissed off that they were working late, so they decided to make things shaped out of penises.

Simon: Yeah, I think they're actually in the north part of Bowerstone. But if you asked them on another day, they'd just say that it was in fact a complete accident and there's nothing even remotely phallic about the shape of those bushes.