Alright everyone that is interested in a brief review of the first game and some of its features can read it below or you can simply look for the highlighted fable 2 section if you don't care about that sort of thing. Anyways it starts below the line.
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The original Fable
If any of you remember hearing of the first fable while it was in development then you also remember the many let downs that came with the game's release on September 14, 2004. If you didn't hear about it and played it you probably were impressed by several of its included features. Many of the features that were supposed to be implemented into the final game were cut, dumbed down, or just seemed unpolished. The company promised greater customization and long lasting effects of the player's actions...those of us who played this game didn't quite feel any long term difference because of our actions...in fact if you killed dozens of people all you had to do was leave town for a few minutes and then everything would be the same as when you left it. In the end several things were cut or didn't feel like they had enough time invested in them.

The customization was limited to a small supply of clothing, haircuts, and tattoos which are added to the same exact character for everyone that plays. Also the lure of having to "grow from an adult to a child" was not that amazing since it was done through just a few minutes of playing through your child, teenage, and then advancing into your adult years in less than a half hour. Though this game was somewhat disappointing to most gamers who had followed it from the beginning it was still a decent game with some interesting points like the good and evil system and the leveling system as well. These features were rendered nearly useless since the entire game and all of its side quests could be completed in less than ten hours.


Fable 2
Now in 2008, some time after the release of the first game, Peter Molyneux and his crew are at it again with fable 2. There is a little gameplay footage on IGN and I must say that I'm impressed so far with the way the game looks and is played. According to Molyneux, the towns have been replaced by huge cities and castles, primative guns have been invented, people can roam to a much greater extent, and players can choose between male and female characters now.

The game takes place 500 years after the original with characters experiencing more of a colonial setting. Characters will be able to have a family in this game, including a wife/husband, and children. Males will be able to get women pregnant and women will be able to get pregnant. Your children will look upon your actions and see you as a role-model and react accordingly.

According to wikipedia which is usually a very trusted source of information: "Albion is expected to be 10 times the size from the original game with 11 fully free-roaming regions and roughly 30 dungeons to explore. There are around 100 augmentable weapons, 70 augmentable clothes, and 20 different tattoos and haircuts. There are only eight basic spell types, but they are upgradeable to varying degrees, allowing for around 80 spells. There will be more than 160,000 lines of "AI-driven dialogue", over 150 unique quests and more than a half-dozen minigames."

The game will also feature drop in/out co-op on the xbox 360 allowing you to play with a friend on one console. They refuse to comment on if it will be available through xbox live and insist that they have yet to reveal all of the games features to the public in the video demonstrations.

Interesting links
Article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fable_2
Videos via IGN: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fable_2

Overall, it was the length of Fable 1 that kept it from being great. That and the linear setup of the areas you could travel. The gameplay itself was quite enjoyable and it wasn't too difficult to become godly in that game.

I loved being my evil archer. I smoked the last boss with my multi-arrow spell while using the Bow of Skorm.

If I had a decent computer, I'd definitely play the next installment.

According to IGN the official release date for this game is October 1st in the U.S. and September 30th in the U.K. its not yet specific about any other regions though.

Lots of new video/screenshots on IGN and Fable's official page now as well.

From the videos I've seen, this game will be godly. I also like the fact that Molyneux has been more down to earth with this one, and that he had a video in the backdrop whenever he was talking about the game. Still, how can you not be fooled by this man into buying a game?

But regarding the first Fable, I played it back in 2004 after my father bought it in France. The manual was in French but the game itself was English and I enjoyed it immensely, not being privy to the hype of development. I bought the game after reading an article about it in Official Xbox Magazine in which they praised it like Molyneux was stuffing money into their pockets for every ten words they wrote. I loved Fable, however, in spite of the short story which you could finish in under 17 hours, even if you did all the extra quests and explored all areas. I liked the environment, and the way the character could get scars and change during gameplay based on how you played.

It seems Fable 2 will bring back all this and much more. The environments seem as colourful as ever and they actually remind you of being in a fairy tale. The new dog feature seems quite nifty and interesting, and I also like the fact that marriage has been extended. Whereas in the previous game you could only marry and have sex, now you can have protected and unprotected sex and also have children in the process. This, to me, seems like a great idea.

I also read that you could be an adulterer and cheat on your wife/husband and have your own little bastards if you were the more evil type.

The good/evil choices are not as plain as they were in the past game. If in the previous game, when having to choose whether to do a good thing or evil thing, the good thing was something pleasant while the evil thing was unpleasant.

Now, I read an example of a choice the player will receive in the game. At one point, the hero is in a forest, and a pretty little maiden enters the same forest innocently. An spirit at that point shows himself to the player in order to test him and the player must pass through this test, in order to advance the story. The spirit offers the player a choice. If he is to advance in the story, he must have his face gruesomely scarred. Either that, or he can have the pretty little lass that just entered the forest be horribly disfigured by the spirit, if the player doesn't want to go through the rest of the game as a disfigured creep. That is the price of Good and Evil, however.

I can't wait to get my paws on this game.

I think that Molyneux really learned his lesson about keeping his mouth shut from the first fable...I've noticed that he only talks about things that have already been implemented into the game this time around.

He even refuses to comment on things that are still under development...a wise strategy for sure.

im really looking forward to fable 2

Peter Molyneux has really got something going here with Fable 2. The system with the dog looks like it is going to be incredible, and the is so much more depth than Fable 1, this game could probably keep you playing for hundreds of hours. I dont know about anyone else but i am going to play through it probably more than ten times making different choices all through the game.

But in regard too Fable 1, I agree with mainly the fact that it was just too short, i mean TLC (The Lost Chapters expansion) was a nice add-on for 3 more hours of playing time but i mean come on, thats still way to short.

P.S- For anyone who is wondering the official release date for Fable 2 is Oct.21 unless delayed, and knowing Peter Molyneaux it probably will be.

...Talk about a spambot trying to get all the google hits.

Yeah we've had this one before, I remember the site.

Nothing to see here folks, move along

I won't say I'll like it or won't based on "videos" and "reviews." The game is a lot different than in the development stage.

All I can say is: Fable 1 is way better than Fable 2 or 3.

I agree, they pretty much ruined the franchise in my opinion.

I'm currently replaying through Fable 2. I'm pretty sure I'm the only one out there that thinks Fable 2 is superior to Fable 1.

Nope. I like Fable 2 the best out of all three. Fable 1 I felt was too short (than again Morrowind may have "spoiled" me) and Fabe 3 is milking the holding hand thing -_-

I also hate how few expressions you're limited to when talking to people. Fable 3 was a disappointment to say the least.

Fable 3 did fail in that regard. It was REALLY annoying trying to get that demon door to open where you have to do all the expressions?

I rented Fable 3 for a week and was done in about 4 days. Got about 700 achievement points.

It was an EXTREMELY shallow excuse for an RPG.

I wouldn't put it in the RPG category. More like a hack n slash button spam game. I think they call those action games?