Fable 2 - Review @Fragland

Fragland has posted a positive review for Lionhead Studios' so far XBox-only title, Fable II, giving it a score of 92/100:

The world is ready for your rule, and it is a beautiful, interesting world. The setting looks fantastic, both on technical and artistic level, and you really feel like being in a fairy tale in which your play the main part. This feeling is among other things reinforced by the original and enchanting (or when needed frightening soundtrack and the excellent voice acting that finally is not limited to some grumbling Americans or Japanese teenage girls reaching puberty. The many quests also help to bring the world to life and are one by one original, partly original, or at least provided with funny, surprising characters with their own background or story. No simple back and forth quests here, because in return for less quantity, quality is given. The only negative point that we could think of, is that the main story perhaps could have been somewhat more epic, but in the end that is hair splitting.

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Conclusion:

Fable 2 has become a wonderful, exciting fairy tale, one in which the promises of freedom of choice, real role-playing and an exciting world have finally been fulfilled. Regrettably, some technical shortcomings like the many loading times, the sometimes inadequate interface and the not always well devised fighting system make the whole a bit less pleasant. However, at no time those negative points will be able to stop you from fully enjoying this warm, pleasant game in which you can let yourself go and in which you can enjoy the humour, the fantasy, the surprising end and the many unforgettable moments.

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More information.

I'm playing Fable right now, actually. It's pretty fun! My main beef is that it's looking like the game will be pretty short, too. Loading times haven't been a big deal to me with the game on the hard drive.

It's only short if you rush through the main storyline and if you do so ... well then it's your own fault

fatBastard() said:

It's only short if you rush through the main storyline and if you do so ... well then it's your own fault

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It's not really her fault. A game should provide a good amount of enjoyment for the main storyline, anything else is icing in the cake. Otherwise... why have a main storyline at all? Just have it as a 'bigger' quest, but just another quest, and let you keep playing until you press a 'retire' button.
I am one that just does the storylines, and whatever side quests I find on the way. I killed Fallout 3 in a couple of days, not even close to max level. There were a lot of locations in the map I never went to... I didn't need to. Some people like exploring for the sake of exploration, but others just follow storylines (main or side).

Some games are super long like NWN2 or King's Bounty and others are over before you even begun like Fable or Fallout 3. But this isn't anything really new.

A few months ago I played all the Space Quest games in a short period of time. Quest for Glory is taking a little longer since you have to train your character a bit. But even back then you had games that were either really long like Pool of Radiance, Albion or short like Space Quest...........

Hold that thought, I was just searching through Moby Games to come up with another title of an old game that was short and I couldn't find one RPG. The only short ones were the adventure games.

So my first guess that it was always like this is totally wrong. I blame FPS shooters for the destruction of our beloved genre

wolfing said:

It's not really her fault. A game should provide a good amount of enjoyment for the main storyline, anything else is icing in the cake. Otherwise... why have a main storyline at all? Just have it as a 'bigger' quest, but just another quest, and let you keep playing until you press a 'retire' button.
I am one that just does the storylines, and whatever side quests I find on the way. I killed Fallout 3 in a couple of days, not even close to max level. There were a lot of locations in the map I never went to... I didn't need to. Some people like exploring for the sake of exploration, but others just follow storylines (main or side).

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If I open a restaurant with Italian dishes ranging from Pizza to Pasta and salads to seafood but you always order a Calzone and then complain about the menu not having enough variety then you're not being fair. It is true that one of the difinitions of a "side quest" is that it is optional and thus not required for the completion of the game but that does not mean that it isn't worth doing.

If you choose not to play a large portion of the game because you don't "have to" then you have forfeited the right to complain about the lenght of the game ... at least as far as I'm concerned.

well developed side quests, lore, and exploration of unique places ARE what make a game memorable and fun to play. inevitablely the main storyline of a game can't be too bogged down, unless in the rare case it is paced well.

the best analogy for why everything besides the mainquest is important is this:
say you go on a 6 mile hike. sure you can do that rather quickly hitting the "main sights" and that is it. but...if you take the time to explore areas off the path, take pictures or even just lay down and look at the sky well guess what those are side quests. that little rare beetle that crawls on your arm while your sitting gazing across a lush valley floor would never be discovered by staying on course.

its what i look for in life, and in my gaming.
if side quests amount to just more loot and more enemies than its not worth while, but whoever says they finished fallout 3 in a couple of days, missed out on a heck of a lot creative environments if not also a bunch of excessive violence.

i feel sad for those who just saw the main quest in fallout 3, its like going to yosemite and just seeing halfdome, and yosemite falls--dear god theres so much more. but understandably some are more restrained with the time they can or do give a game. by that standard though a shorter main storyline is better suited to them and in my view its unfair to complain that the game was too short.

fable was about as much an rpg as zelda is in my opinion. that said, i'll probably pick up fable 2 if it when it hits the pc and is available for no more than ~$25.