Yes, that is my issue.
ok but like
what does that mean in relative terms
master of orion 2 was probably cheaper to make than galciv3 even so, it just doesnāt have the same stature relative to its peers
1 Like
Imagine if they spent all the money on complicated branching story paths a la the original Deus Ex instead of more shaders or whatever.
Actually imagine if Alpha Protocol looked and played well
CDPR should make all of the action RPGs now that the bar is impossibly high.
It bums me out that Obsidian isnāt making action games now that theyāre deep into the real time w/ pause niche.
I wanted to wait until there were more posts itt to say this, but the promise : delivery ratio on the Fable series is so extreme that Iām pretty sure they are the games that convinced me video games would never be Good
I donāt know how I feel about attempts to redeem or reconsider them
3 Likes
Look at it from the AAA companies perspective: if you have a complicated branching plot, itās essentially wasted content for the majority of their audience. So why spend that money on something they wonāt see by the time theyāve moved on to another piece of entertainment?
1 Like
witcher 2 did it!!
but a) CDPR are very confident and willing to make smart decisions and b) skilled labour in poland is abnormally cheap
Witcher 3 is even more extreme. You can tell how many press people only got a dozen hours in by the wave of writing about the Baron quest line, which is good but just one example of the consistent quality throughout.
I donāt find much illuminating about looking at things from AAA companiesā perspectives, no.
Donāt get me wrong, they are bad, bad games. I think the promise:delivery ratio is the most interesting thing about them. You can tell that the game was supposed to be incredible and important without even reading an interview with Molyneux, and none of it works as intended. I find that fascinating.
Like, what did they think they were delivering?
Anyway, Iāll write more tomorrow when Iām not on my phone
I never wrote more.
3 Likes
God I love Fable 2. Just reading this makes me want to play it again.
Remembering Fable 2 is weird. My memory tends to very quickly lose detail and Iām left only with the scaffolding of whatever I experienced unless I dig very deeply. In the case of Fable 2, the scaffolding is:
Beautiful fields
Running with a dog
Shooting people in the head and watching yellow orbs pop out
Hammer rules
Slowing down time and stabbing people in the back
āMediocre!ā
Beautiful music
Manipulating store prices to alter my appearance
Monty python humor, except not as funny
So Iām left with this impression of a game that appeals very much to me; looks nice, has weird systems to manipulate, and has at least one very good character, also I get to shoot people without having to really aim, so thatās nice.
Then when I actually deeply reflect on it I remember: walking around sucks, combat is annoying, the first 30 minutes of the game are godawful, the last 4 hours of the game are godawful, thereās a section in the middle thatās godawful, the DLC is godawful, most of the spells are useless, the quests are all very linear and usually involve lots of just āwalking from A to B,ā the Golden Trail often malfunctions which makes me remember that this game is impossible to navigate, etc etc.
And still, I fucking love this game. Despite how weird and misguided most of the decisions are, thereās a lot of obvious love put into this game.
I wonder if itās this: Peter Molyneux sold this as The Game That Will Change Your Fucking Life, but the game itself is not serious at all. I think thatās the main difference between Fable 2 and Fable 3. The sequel is so obviously trying to be āimportant decision simulator 2010ā that thereās no room to take the game any less seriously than Very Seriously. Fable 2 would rather you kick chickens and sacrifice people to the goofiest cult of darkness than ask the question āAre taxes evil??? or are they good though??? what about murder???ā
Fable 2 is one of the games that will remain with me for the rest of my life despite not deserving it at all.
right anyway
5 Likes
I liked being able to thumbs up someone into marrying you.
6 Likes
this was just good, comfortable pulp from that era. 2008 reminds me of worse times but I liked playing this game. i remember having fun just doing the blacksmith thing for awhile
how the fuck did I not come into this thread and give Fables 2 & 3 the dressing down they deserve
instead of asking the important questions and making you think about the morality of certain actions in the most hamfisted fashion like in 3, 2 instead just calls you evil for eating meat and kills your dog and holds them for ransom behind DLC
1 Like
hey Clint did you know more than half the game was developed by Microsoft in Redmond? Lionhead had a habit of pitching half of features
I work with the guy who wrote all the jokes in Fable. He wrote all the jokes for Orcs, too. He watches Fury Road a dozen times a year
7 Likes
oof, yeah i remember those magazine spreads for Project Ego. iād like to find some of those. i found this ign writeup from 2001 >.
I even @ed you hahaha
I feel like the āmeat is evilā thing probably arose from their pathological need to assign a purity/corruption value or good/evil to like, literally everything. Less a statement and more a āwellā¦what should meat do?ā
I did not!
Please tell the guy I enjoyed his jokes very much, especially the loading screen ones.
1 Like
Obligatory āinvite him to SBā
2 Likes