Fable 3, now with impressions + the official GT Review!

[Roguetad]

More bitchy whining from me, ignore it if you're not in the mood 

Spoiler for Hiden:

I'm still shocked and dismayed with the money thing.  I'm now just sitting around letting the game run, moving the cursor every now and then so it doesn't go to sleep, just so I can have money accumulate.  Ridiculous.  I went ahead and checked the guidebook and just by chance I happened to start doing this at the last possible chance.  Apparently at 121 days left to the end (which is where I started suspecting something wrong) you are supposed to have at least half the amount stored up in the treasury (3.25M).  Presently I'm at -1.65M, so I need to make about 5M total at least before I move on or I guess I "fail" at saving the kingdom.  My property value is prob worth around 1M so essentially I need to wait out about 4M more.  I did a few more quests and boosted my Lute Hero to Lv 5, but you really can't make much money doing that.  Quests are no guarantee to make any significant money, and nothing seems to scale up.  So it's all just about... waiting.

At this point I guess there's not much more to say, except I'm genuinely surprised there's not more of an uproar of complaints about this.  Am I the only one who got caught with his pants down (money wise) so to speak?  Was it simply obvious to everyone they needed to make a ton of money from the getgo?

Spoiler for Hiden:

Not really.  I had the same thing happen.  I was lucky that I asked if I should buy houses or not.  Somewhere I saw that the game ends a little quickly, so I just stopped a few steps before the end and let the money build just as you are doing.  If I would have kept pressing as usual, I would have lost the kingdom as well.  I think it's lame, and I suspect they threw out a lot of content meant for the second part of the game to get it out the door.

Thank you!!!  Now I don't feel like I'm alone/insane anymore!!!! 

I feel the same way...you summed up my thoughts well.  Concerning $:

Spoiler for Hiden:

I started my experience as king about 1.5million gold in debt, thanks to trying to stay true to my promises.  I finally righted the ship and got the treasury in the black after i agreed to open a legal brothel, much to Page's disappointment.  From this point forward I'm trying to ride the middle when it comes to spending.  I really dislike this part of the game, suddenly turning it into an economic kingdom sim.  Not very fun, especially trying to play the game as a good character.

[Roguetad]

About the ending (major spoilers):

Spoiler for Hiden:

Wow...that was quick.  So much for having any time to prepare.  It's clear that you either become a tyrant and save a lot of your people, or you try and remain a good leader and suffer the consequences of not being fully prepared.  There's even an achievement for saving most of your citizens called "tough love", which just supports the notion that if you play it good you're going to lose people.  I even did the trick of leaving the system on with my guy running into a wall, which allowed me to make about 3 million in gold from my properties.

Unfortunately, with about 120 days until the attack I decided to proceed through the scheduled events for the day (thinking I still had plenty of time).  However, to my shock and surprise, the ending of that day was followed immediately by:  "Congratulations on 1 year as king!  You are not prepared, so many of your people are going to die"...cue ending fight section.  It was really weird and abrupt.  The ending fight section was short, and seemed rushed and unfinished.  I thought there would be much more to the final battle.  Regardless of only saving a little more than half of my 6 million citizens, the people still loved me, and it didn't really seem to make a difference in the end.  Happy ending for all (except the 3 million that perished).

I never figured out what happened to his love interest from the beginning of the game.  I spared her life, found her during the middle of the game, I thought she was going to break off her engagement, and then I never saw her again.

Anyway, the parts leading up to the revolution, and the revolution itself were fun.  The section as king I didn't like.  The game was so short.  I enjoyed Fable 2 much more.  I would only recommend Fable 3 as a rental.

[CeeKay]

About the ending (major spoilers):

Spoiler for Hiden:

Wow...that was quick.  So much for having any time to prepare.  It's clear that you either become a tyrant and save a lot of your people, or you try and remain a good leader and suffer the consequences of not being fully prepared.  There's even an achievement for saving most of your citizens called "tough love", which just supports the notion that if you play it good you're going to lose people.  I even did the trick of leaving the system on with my guy running into a wall, which allowed me to make about 3 million in gold from my properties.

how I ended:

Spoiler for Hiden:

benevolent while saving everyone.  On the days it let me I ran around doing quests and exploring more, so with my massive real estate holdings I was able to reach the end with about 10 million in the treasury (padded it just in case) and about 5 million left over.

on a side note, mroe quests open up after you win the game.

[Travis]

on a side note, mroe quests open up after you win the game.

Spoiler for Hiden:

Out of curiosity, what ones do you have?  On my good character I only had the one to pay to send someone off, one to open the hobbes caves a bit more, a few more to get criminals, and one to put people to work.  With my evil character everyone died, so the quests I have I can't complete (aside from killing a prostitute).

[rittchard]

About the ending (major spoilers):

Spoiler for Hiden:

Wow...that was quick.  So much for having any time to prepare.  It's clear that you either become a tyrant and save a lot of your people, or you try and remain a good leader and suffer the consequences of not being fully prepared.  There's even an achievement for saving most of your citizens called "tough love", which just supports the notion that if you play it good you're going to lose people.  I even did the trick of leaving the system on with my guy running into a wall, which allowed me to make about 3 million in gold from my properties.

Unfortunately, with about 120 days until the attack I decided to proceed through the scheduled events for the day (thinking I still had plenty of time).  However, to my shock and surprise, the ending of that day was followed immediately by:  "Congratulations on 1 year as king!  You are not prepared, so many of your people are going to die"...cue ending fight section.  It was really weird and abrupt.  The ending fight section was short, and seemed rushed and unfinished.  I thought there would be much more to the final battle.  Regardless of only saving a little more than half of my 6 million citizens, the people still loved me, and it didn't really seem to make a difference in the end.  Happy ending for all (except the 3 million that perished).

I never figured out what happened to his love interest from the beginning of the game.  I spared her life, found her during the middle of the game, I thought she was going to break off her engagement, and then I never saw her again.

Anyway, the parts leading up to the revolution, and the revolution itself were fun.  The section as king I didn't like.  The game was so short.  I enjoyed Fable 2 much more.  I would only recommend Fable 3 as a rental.

I finished it over the holiday and that was pretty much my experience as well.  I would rate the first 3/4 of the game an A and the last portion an F.  I don't even know if I could recommend this to anyone given how disappointing and abrupt the end was.  I never played Fable 2 so I'm a bit curious if I should go back and play it now.  I thought it originally released to mixed reviews; is it really much better than this one?  Keep in mind I absolutely loved the first 10 hours or so of this game.

Spoiler for Hiden:

As I mentioned in one of the spoilers, I was actually pretty lucky because just as I was getting the money frustrations and posting here was when I stopped at the 120 day mark, which as you noted was the last chance to put money into the treasury (yet another horrible and pretty much inexcusable design decision IMHO).  I let the money keep rolling in, then did the new DLC in about an hour or so, and by then I was able to bring in enough to roughly meet the 6.5M needed.  Oddly enough you don't even get a chance to put any extra in (and the last good decision takes like 50K I think) and there is almost no fuss over whether you saved everyone or not.  Definitely one of the most bizarre and horrible game design decisions I've ever seen implemented.  I think from a gameplay standpoint I only really "played" about 12 hours total; the rest was all just wait time which brought it closer to 20+ hours.

[CeeKay]

on a side note, mroe quests open up after you win the game.

Spoiler for Hiden:

Out of curiosity, what ones do you have?  On my good character I only had the one to pay to send someone off, one to open the hobbes caves a bit more, a few more to get criminals, and one to put people to work.  With my evil character everyone died, so the quests I have I can't complete (aside from killing a prostitute).

Spoiler for Hiden:

I had the hobbes one, which is supposed to have a follow up, plus I think a couple of quests opened up in Aurora.

I'm holding off on the first DLC pack for now, seems like it'll be best bought during a sale.

[Roguetad]

About the ending (major spoilers):

Spoiler for Hiden:

Wow...that was quick.  So much for having any time to prepare.  It's clear that you either become a tyrant and save a lot of your people, or you try and remain a good leader and suffer the consequences of not being fully prepared.  There's even an achievement for saving most of your citizens called "tough love", which just supports the notion that if you play it good you're going to lose people.  I even did the trick of leaving the system on with my guy running into a wall, which allowed me to make about 3 million in gold from my properties.

Unfortunately, with about 120 days until the attack I decided to proceed through the scheduled events for the day (thinking I still had plenty of time).  However, to my shock and surprise, the ending of that day was followed immediately by:  "Congratulations on 1 year as king!  You are not prepared, so many of your people are going to die"...cue ending fight section.  It was really weird and abrupt.  The ending fight section was short, and seemed rushed and unfinished.  I thought there would be much more to the final battle.  Regardless of only saving a little more than half of my 6 million citizens, the people still loved me, and it didn't really seem to make a difference in the end.  Happy ending for all (except the 3 million that perished).

I never figured out what happened to his love interest from the beginning of the game.  I spared her life, found her during the middle of the game, I thought she was going to break off her engagement, and then I never saw her again.

Anyway, the parts leading up to the revolution, and the revolution itself were fun.  The section as king I didn't like.  The game was so short.  I enjoyed Fable 2 much more.  I would only recommend Fable 3 as a rental.

I finished it over the holiday and that was pretty much my experience as well.  I would rate the first 3/4 of the game an A and the last portion an F.  I don't even know if I could recommend this to anyone given how disappointing and abrupt the end was.  I never played Fable 2 so I'm a bit curious if I should go back and play it now.  I thought it originally released to mixed reviews; is it really much better than this one?  Keep in mind I absolutely loved the first 10 hours or so of this game.

Spoiler for Hiden:

As I mentioned in one of the spoilers, I was actually pretty lucky because just as I was getting the money frustrations and posting here was when I stopped at the 120 day mark, which as you noted was the last chance to put money into the treasury (yet another horrible and pretty much inexcusable design decision IMHO).  I let the money keep rolling in, then did the new DLC in about an hour or so, and by then I was able to bring in enough to roughly meet the 6.5M needed.  Oddly enough you don't even get a chance to put any extra in (and the last good decision takes like 50K I think) and there is almost no fuss over whether you saved everyone or not.  Definitely one of the most bizarre and horrible game design decisions I've ever seen implemented.  I think from a gameplay standpoint I only really "played" about 12 hours total; the rest was all just wait time which brought it closer to 20+ hours.

The biggest issue I had with the ending...

Spoiler for Hiden:

was that there was no warning that 150 days until the attack really meant 1 day.  I had plenty of properties, I owned every store and stall in the game (set to high prices), and most of the homes.  I was making bucketloads of gold.  I was getting bored running around doing smaller quests, and decided to do the events for that day.  At that point I had a little over 3 million in gold in the treasury, with another million or so in my personal funds.  If I had known that was the last day, I could have sold all of my properties for a nice chunk of gold, goofed off for another 30 minutes to an hour roaming around doing side quests, and then transferred all of that into the treasury.  For a game that does so much hand holding, and really simplifies the gameplay (compared to Fable 2), a warning from the butler or treasurer would have been consistent.  "Sir, you should ensure your affairs are in order before we proceed.  There is no turning back after today."

Regarding Fable 2, I thought it was an excellent game, better and deeper than Fable 3.  I thought the story was better too, imo.  I like the period setting of Fable 3 better, but I got a lot more value and enjoyment out of Fable 2.   

[CeeKay]

man, you guys aren't proper adventurers!  a true adventurer would buy up all the property as soon as possible to maximize his loot potential!


(plus if you buy a place you can go inside and loot it!)

[Fez]

Hey Ceekay, any chance you have the long hair or bob styles?  I am still missing a bunch of the cosmetic stuff it seems.

[CeeKay]

Hey Ceekay, any chance you have the long hair or bob styles?  I am still missing a bunch of the cosmetic stuff it seems.

doesn't look like I have either.

I did notice some of the stuff in the store:  160 points for 3 hairstyles?  cheat potion to 5 star your dog?

[metallicorphan]

i just got this game,however cheap bastard i am i opted for a used copy,and realised too late that i missed out on the DLC code inside the box

the card says 'Potions,Power suits,Tattoos,another dog and more'

so,have i missed out on anything good?(especially where it says 'and more'),and does that mean a different dog than the one you get or another dog as in having two dogs?


i got the understone DLC or whatever its called,but think i will pass on all the other bits and bobs(different breed dog,5 star treasure hunter,highlander outfit etc)



EDIT:okay i just looked at the back of the box,and notice it doesn't have online co-op...has that been taken out of the game this time round?...no orbs either?


EDIT 2:nevermind,i have just remembered that you can get married to an xbox live friend(and hold hands if i remember rightly),so i guess it does have it whatever the back of the box says

[CeeKay]

so,have i missed out on anything good?(especially where it says 'and more'),and does that mean a different dog than the one you get or another dog as in having two dogs?


i got the understone DLC or whatever its called,but think i will pass on all the other bits and bobs(different breed dog,5 star treasure hunter,highlander outfit etc)

not really.  I don't think I used any of the bonus stuff other than changing what my dog looked like.  I heard Understone was really short (20 minute range) so I skipped out on it for now.

[Bullwinkle]

For a buck, the 5-star treasure dog has made a big difference for me.  It'll cut back on the backtrekking significantly, but I like to find all of that stuff.

[metallicorphan]

For a buck, the 5-star treasure dog has made a big difference for me.  It'll cut back on the backtrekking significantly, but I like to find all of that stuff.

yeah i wasn't too bothered about that one TBH,i like to earn it all as well

and the understone DLC lasts for 20minutes?....FFS ,i should of read up on that before diving in and buying

[CeeKay]

yeah, Eurogamer gave it a 4 out of 10[/url], saying it took them 45 minutes to complete everything.  it's a short quest and two challenges like the arena and shooting range from Fable 2 (except they were included in the game for Fable 2 at no extra cost).

[Fez]

I've only been able to get 500 points at the shooting range in my first night of attempts last night.  Tough to get the 550 necessary to improve the pistol.

[dangerballs]

I've only been able to get 500 points at the shooting range in my first night of attempts last night.  Tough to get the 550 necessary to improve the pistol.

They don't go right out and tell you, but you can get lots of points for shooting the "real" random animals and birds that are wandering around on the course on top of the paper targets.  They are just about the only way to get the 550 score.

[KC]

I'm only a few hours in.  Should I keep using and improving the sword I got in the beginning?  Or am I better off buying new swords in the shops?

[CeeKay]

I'm only a few hours in.  Should I keep using and improving the sword I got in the beginning?  Or am I better off buying new swords in the shops?

I kept on using the starting weapons for quite some time but eventually ended up switching over to the legendary weapons.

[KC]

I just finished the game.  My bottom line impression: while Fable 3 is fun, Fable 2 is better.

[PeteRock]

Am I missing something, or is the map almost absolutely useless?  Is there a "you are here" kind of indicator?  I find it almost impossible to find specific areas and to determine where I am in relationship to landmarks.

Also, now that I've taken control of the throne the game seems to have become completely boring.  And everywhere I go I run into herds of balverines.  They're everywhere.  While trying to find gnomes I spend almost all of my time guzzling health potions and fighting armies of werewolves.  Up to this point I've been having a blast, but now all of the sudden the game feels like a chore.  Too bad that the leadership portion of the game isn't that much fun considering you spend the entire game working toward it. 

[CeeKay]

yeah, the wolves grow up to become Balverines towards the end (I noticed they seem to pop up where the wolves use to) but I did find a sword that did extra damage against them after completing one fo the weapons 'mini-quests'.   and the map is only useful for repairing your properties or getting a very general idea of where to go.

I still went adventuring during the rule Albion section so I didn't find it boring; there's no time limit as to how long you take during a day, so you can go out and do more quests.

[PeteRock]

I still went adventuring during the rule Albion section so I didn't find it boring; there's no time limit as to how long you take during a day, so you can go out and do more quests.

The problem is I apparently already completed all of them, all except for the evil quests.  I don't have any left to do.  When I bring up the quest list I only have the missing books quest, the gnomes quest, and a few evil quests, but nothing else.  So I've been trying to find the remaining gnomes (have found just over 30 of them) and may move on to the books quest.  Do any more quests open up outside of the ruling responsibilities?

[CeeKay]

I still went adventuring during the rule Albion section so I didn't find it boring; there's no time limit as to how long you take during a day, so you can go out and do more quests.

The problem is I apparently already completed all of them, all except for the evil quests.  I don't have any left to do.  When I bring up the quest list I only have the missing books quest, the gnomes quest, and a few evil quests, but nothing else.  So I've been trying to find the remaining gnomes (have found just over 30 of them) and may move on to the books quest.  Do any more quests open up outside of the ruling responsibilities?

I could have sworn there were some non-main story quests that didn't open up until after you get the throne, but I could have just had some left over from before the boat trip (or maybe they opened up as the days passed).  IIRC there are some that open up after you finish the main storyline though.

I'm having trouble remembering how I managed to spend the time it took to fully pay off everything that cost a lot of money in the rulibng section and end the main story with 7 million gold in the treasury.

[PeteRock]

I'm having trouble remembering how I managed to spend the time it took to fully pay off everything that cost a lot of money in the rulibng section and end the main story with 7 million gold in the treasury.

 

Right now I'm 200,000 in the hole and nowhere close to raising enough money.  My people love me but my royal bank account mirrors my real-world one.   

[Purge]

buy up houses and rent them out. When you have the cash buy stores.

Go into an upstairs section and start walking into a wall. Then place your controller on the floor where your L stick is still moving your character and use a throw pillow to keep it in place. This should keep your three-sixty from getting bored.

Go outside for several hours and do things unrelated to your 360.

Come back, use the map to fix up all your rental properties.

Lather, Rinse, Repeat.

[Travis]

buy up houses and rent them out. When you have the cash buy stores.

Go into an upstairs section and start walking into a wall. Then place your controller on the floor where your L stick is still moving your character and use a throw pillow to keep it in place. This should keep your three-sixty from getting bored.

Go outside for several hours and do things unrelated to your 360.

Come back, use the map to fix up all your rental properties.

Lather, Rinse, Repeat.

Yep.  This is what it is like to be king.

I don't remember what quests open up, but I believe there were three and two were evil.

*edit* not right.  That's after you beat the game.  During the king portion there are a small number of quests that some people want you to do.  They are short and small in number (I think getting a diamond and retrieving some other artifact).

[PeteRock]

buy up houses and rent them out. When you have the cash buy stores.

Go into an upstairs section and start walking into a wall. Then place your controller on the floor where your L stick is still moving your character and use a throw pillow to keep it in place. This should keep your three-sixty from getting bored.

Go outside for several hours and do things unrelated to your 360.

Come back, use the map to fix up all your rental properties.

Lather, Rinse, Repeat.

Yep.  This is what it is like to be king.

With each and every Fable I've managed to keep from getting caught up in Peter Molyneux's wild claims and still enjoyed the games.  Fable was supposed to do so much more, yet I still played it from start to finish.  Fable II made a number of improvements on the original, had a fantastic storyline, a variety of settings and locales, great dialogue, etc, but still didn't live up to Molyneux's claims.  I still enjoyed it immensely despite its shortcomings. 

I ignored everything Molyneux lauded about Fable III as fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, blah blah blah.  But I feel the series has somehow gotten worse.  The map is the most useless tool I've ever encountered in a game.  The paths are far more linear than in prior games.  Combat is even more simple.  The game is much shorter.  And the ruler portion of the game has been terribly boring so far.  If you are expected to grind out earning money in order to pay the kingdom debt if you hope to make good choices then this is just ridiculous. 

[PeteRock]

 

Apparently some royal decisions immediately follow each other and do not leave time to revisit quests or property management.  And so the final sequence began before I had enough time to fully replenish the royal treasury with my own earnings. 

While I dislike how the game ended, I just don't see it being worth playing through again just to get the desired outcome.

Boo on you, Molyneux.  Boo on you.   

[Azhag]

Yup, like many of you I got screwed by the lack of warning at the end... enjoyed the game, but why save up 3 million in property and then not be able to use it? So my people got masacred and remember me as the king that let everyone die  Since there aren't any save points or achievements related to it I'm certainly not going through it again. Off to Goozex.

I enjoyed it, and thought there were some brilliant quests (the 3 wizards was a personal favorite), but still, the way the ending worked and it's abruptness was quite unfortunate.

[CeeKay]

they are taking a survey: 'What do you think are the most important features of our game?'

[Travis]

they are taking a survey: 'What do you think are the most important features of our game?'

THEY CAN'T EVEN DO THIS RIGHT.  They made it too complicated.  I can only rank each one an individual score?  I am not ranking these 1 - 13...Way too much effort on my part.  Lionhead must be the most frustrating company to work for.  I can only imagine how hard to must be to get anything done there.

[CeeKay]

low res Fable 

[metallicorphan]

new DLC March 1st 560 points

Traitors Keep

[metallicorphan]

has anyone got this yet? i have been in two minds whether to get it,it certainly sounds better than the Understone DLC that's for sure

"The Traitor's Keep game add-on continues the journey as fans venture into three new levels called Ravenscar Keep, Clockwork Island, and the Godwin Estate, taking on new quests and encountering a mysterious prisoner. Traitor's Keep also comes packed with 250 gamerscore points and additional content."

and there is another Dog Potion you get that turns your dog into a clockwork dog,which has to be a good laugh

[CeeKay]

can't play, must stop the Aelfwar....

[metallicorphan]

no idea what that is but nevermind


i paid up for Traitors Keep yesterday,and i just finished ,it took me about 3-4 hrs altogether and it is much better than the Understone DLC

there are a few side quests as well,mainly collecting books(achievement for each set),collecting robot parts(achievement for full set) and killing prisoners and Hollowmen(needed to finish to be able to get the last quest)

the main quest starts off with you stopping a prison riot,in a prison that is pretty large and after that you find out that 3 of the most dangerous prisoners have escaped so you have to go in search for them,which takes you to entirely new islands to capture each one,each island,as well as The Keep (which is the Hub)are typically the same size as a Fable III area so decent enough size

there is also an extra Demon Door that if you pass his quest,as long as you have done the other Demon Doors around Albion,you finally get the Achievement and there are also extra Costumes along the way to collect(one collection,which is scattered all over The Keep Island is vital for the Demon Door)

the only problem was that it had a hell of a lot of slowdown..i mean a hell of a lot,maybe because i chose not to install the Fable III disc this time round,not really sure

worth 560 points?..yeah sure,its probably the best DLC for a Fable game to date(well against Knothole Island-F2, See the Future-F2 and Understone-F3)

oh and if you decide to go after the second part of the East Hair Egg quest/thing(the first part was in the main game)...DON'T..its totally not worth it