I was definitely one of those kids in 2004. I have also not played any of the Ultima series… I’m not sure I agree that people treat Fable as all that though, at the time it didn’t seem anywhere near that level of popular or well-respected. I think I probably picked it up because it seemed at least a little more whimsical than other stuff on xbox at the time, which isn’t saying much when you consider the prevailing aesthetic trends of that era.
I remember enjoying Fable 2 a bit more as a teen who mostly saved up his pocket money for whatever was the newest biggest release on Xbox 360. Again, it felt like it wasn’t hard for it to stand out in a sea of samey big budget blandness. I remember the fact that it wasn’t an open world feeling kinda quaint for the time, with certain areas having a strangely grounded sense of place to them. Also, the side quests were often a lot more interesting than the main story. Felt like a time when games like this had more room for the development team to populate parts of the outer edges with interesting details beyond whatever they were assigned to work on. Like, overall still bloated and uninspiring in quite predictable ways but every now and then you’d catch a glimpse of some staff member’s miniature passion project tucked away in some little corner somewhere…
Never played 3, I think I had checked out of the big budget stuff by then, or at least found a better use for my pocket money… probably alcohol?
If anything this renewed interest in Fable just seems to be part of the current wave of nostalgia for mid-tier games people vaguely remember playing as a child growing up in the early 2000s, which isn’t exactly surprising given the vacuum left by all those AA studios no longer existing and even AAA studios getting shuttered left, right and center. People habituated to a diet of mainstream bullshit will take what they can get, no judgement intended, I have been there myself.
This is a perspective I struggle to understand as someone living in the UK currently. I’ve had about all the Bri’ishness I can handle…
I’m not sure I see or understand the connection between Fable and Ultima 7
as far as I remember, Fable was a linear action rpg with mediocre combat and a ludicrous ‘morality’ system where you grow devil horns because you farted in front of people too often
I might be combining the first two games in my memories, they’re very devoid of personality
oh yeah I remember the molyneux marketing of “you can do anything and go anywhere, this simulates the life of a fantasy hero like no game ever has before!”
It’s always funny how molyneux’s hype has almost no connection to the games he makes
Being a 2000s Xbox kid who has played through Fable maybe five times… I can personally say that it isn’t a game I would recommend very much to people, but it was a solid solid adventure game. I liked the combat. I liked getting powerful. The stories were presented with a good balance of generic heroism and camp, though nothing as bad as you’d find in a Larian game.
I think about being swarmed by a town full of suitors unable to do anything within city limits without starting 400 flirtatious conversations just trying to go through a door in fable 2 a lot
The bit of Fable’s marketing that they liked to mention a lot, and that people remember because it’s not part of the game at all, is that you’d be able to plant a tree and then come back later to see it grow. New Fable didn’t even promise that. All they could offer is that you can buy all the real estate(and then what do you do after you buy something? ) and if you kill a guy then, later, they will still be dead.
I remember pre release hype mentioning that your character might wind up being pale if you adventured mainly at night or spent a lot of time underground or indoors. No idea if it was true
Can’t believe anyone gives Molyneux the time of day anymore
I remember playing that game and meeting a grandma whose grandson was kidnapped by orcs or something so I descended into a cave and got the kid but on the way back the kid beefed it and instead of having to live with that tragedy the game just warped me back to the grandma’s cabin again with her asking me to save the stupid kid, the absolute lamest possible BUT THOU MUST, fuck that fucking game, I immediately deleted it from my modded Xbox, f u Molyneux, I’m glad Milo died before he was born
That zoomers like old video games way more than a lot of old heads think, and the actual trends I see amongst The Youth I encounter are actually speed running and co op games as social experiences rather than some of the common perception of them.
Wondering if Car Combat games died off because they only make 3 styles of car anymore: Civic, F150, a half-breed of the Civic and F150, and the Cybertruck.
) and if you kill a guy then, later, they will still be dead.
