As seen on your computer!

Hey guys,

I was searching around youtube for videos on Fable 3 and came across this video review of Fable 3 by IGN. So I figured I would the link to it since it doesn't want to embed itself in the post >.< Enjoy!
Fable 3 Review

Pop Culture in Fable 3

So, I was playing through Fable 3 the other day and I began to notice a lot of the pop culture references within the game. There is one quest that you have to help these three gamers finish a game of what is a poke at games like Dungeons&Dragons. I thought it was pretty funny being an avid fantasy game player, both on tabletop and in games. The other funny reference that I love that they've been doing since I think Fable 2, the Normanomicon. Which makes reference to two things, one an actual joke of the other. The first comes from H.P. Lovecraft (Behold! I am a Dork!) and his whole story around the Necronomicon. Fast forward to the 80's and you have the Evil Dead series with Bruce Campbell where someone accidentally reads from the Necronomicon and he has to stop it, B-movie campness ensues. So that's what I've seen so far, I'll tell you more as I see them.

The Coolness of the Limited Edition

Now I know my previous post was all serious and dealing with the philosophy of Fable 3. But here's a little bit of fluff for you as well. When Fable 3 first released, it, like so many games before it also came out in a Limited Edition form. Now, I don't usually buy the limited edition of a game, unless I superbly enjoy the series, as of now I've only bought one other Limited Edition of a game. But, I digress, this game's Limited Edition is the second time I've actually been impressed with the design and implementation of the Limited Edition as well as the content. I'll include a picture below but first I want to describe how this thing looks. First off, it looks like an old leather-bound book that has been sitting on the shelf for a very long time. On the spine is the game title and the cover is the famous Fable Guild Seal. Inside this book you find the actual game itself along with additions such as a good/evil coin for when you need help making decisions and a deck of cards that have illustrations of all the characters within Fable 3. Though, I do have to say the only reason I bought the limited edition is because of the extra stuff they gave you with the game and its case, I would've been perfectly fine buying the regular edition if they had done something similar to the book style case for the limited edition. Now I'm just ranting, so before I become worse, I bid you all good night.

Your Hero. Your Choice

I know I've been talking this entire time about how Fable 3 has this whole open world but that it does have consequences. Well, I figured it was high time I told you about them. In the game, you come across multiple instances where you, as the hero need to make a decision. Sometimes these decisions are simple and don't have very far reaching repercussions. However, there are other times when you need to make a decision and you don't like either choice, but a decision still needs to be made (trust me you'll have to make a decision like this very early in the game and it isn't pleasant). A few of these choices happen later in the game as well and I applaud Lionhead for upping the adult and maturity factor on the choices in these decisions. If you ever pick up the game or have already, you will know (or soon will if you decide to pick it up) what I'm talking about. These far reaching repercussions are seen within the game, and can sometimes be obvious from the choices you've made, such as building an orphanage for the street children, or putting them to work as forced labor. Others can be subtle, such as deciding who is the victor in a law case, and dealing with the angry noble who you stopped from stealing someone's land or the farmer now destitute because of you. Like the title of this post says; "Your Hero. Your Choice."

Metacritic sees all

Howdy all,

So while cruising around the internet I decided to take a loot at metacritic to see how Fable 3 fared on there. Now for those of you who don't know about metacritic, its this website that takes all of the different reviews made for different movies, tv shows, video games, you name it and weighs them all in and gives you a final tally of how the thing did out of 100. Fable 3 it seems has had some detractors, which is ok, there were quite a few bugs still left in the game, which made it quite frustrating for those who bought it on release day, but even with its drawbacks, Fable 3 was able to pull out an 80 which is not bad considering. If you want to take a look at the metacritic website I'll post a link to the Fable 3 review page for it.
Metacritic goodness
See you all again soon!

Death - The Great Equalizer

So,

We've recently had a really interesting discussion on death in my Video Games and Culture class. Which got me thinking about Fable 3, naturally. But, it's interesting how the game portrays death within Fable 3. It can happen to everyone except you. You have a health bar, which is similar to the COD health bar in which the edges of your screen get progressively red and your heart beat gets faster and faster. But, when you (the Hero) "dies" in Fable 3, you don't really die, you're "knocked out" which was similar to how earlier games Streets of Rage portrayed death. However, in Fable 3, getting knocked out does have consequences, all the experience that you've been grinding to get the next guild seal, goes away. Trust me, this can be very frustrating when you die when you're one guild seal away from unlocking something really bad-ass. But, going deeper, I feel that this is kind of a double standard. You can kill pretty much everyone and every thing within the game, but they can't kill you. Why not? Why not make an ending where the main hero dies before he/she is supposed to in the storyline and see what happens. I know that's what Heavy Rain (momentary pause for greatness) did, so Mr. Molyneux, do you think that by changing around the consequence levels in the next Fable, because there will be one, so that we could have this mayhaps?

No Blades! No Bows! Leave your weapons here!

Howdy All,

So after I dug myself out of my mountain of work now that the semester is coming to a close I decided to do a little Fable searching. I found a full in detail list of all of the legendary weapons within Fable 3. I'll include a link to the weapon's list below. Hopefully with the new patch that is coming out they'll fix the bugs in the game so we can actually have a playable multiplayer...I'd like to be able to show off my hero outside of my system. But anywho just a quick stop gap of information until next time.

Here's the Link:
All your weaponry needs in Fable 3

From the home of the Traveling Gnome

Hello All,

I hope everyone had a filling and enjoyable turkey day. While I took the day off yesterday to search for things Fable and Fable 3. I've come across a guide that will be of helpful use to everyone who plays Fable 3. A guide to the gnomes!. Gamesradar released a guide to the gnomes recently on their website. For those of you who don't know,(WARNING: Side-Plot SPOILER!) these pesky little gnomes are the effect of an earlier quest gone wrong. By finding a piece of the gargoyles your hero destroyed in Fable 2. The quest giver uses this piece to make his odd collection of garden gnomes come alive. However, not everything goes according to plan and the same quest giver wants you to destroy all of his gnomes thereby somehow returning them to him. But, as you know they are the same insulting creatures as the gargoyles, so find and shoot to your merry pleasure.
Here's a link to the guide:
Guide to Gnomes
Happy Hunting!

Continuing our conversation from earlier

So I was thinking again about our conversation earlier, and I forgot to mention the comedic tone the Fable series takes for sex, in the earlier games the past comments were pretty funny. I also forgot to mention that your hero isn't sterile, you can have kids, The Fable series has a strong tie to your character establishing a family, which is a great tool to help develop the emotional ties to the characters within the game. But, as I've mentioned earlier, the clip I'm including from YouTube, definitely shows what I'm talking about.

Everyone's favorite subject

Howdy All,

I've been thinking, Now that I explained a little bit about the nuances within Fable 3, I wanted to talk about how not every decision is a world changing one, and I felt it appropriate to start with one of the more semi-comedic aspects of Fable 3. How relationships work in Fable. To begin with, the game reacts appropriately to the sex of the Hero, with either sex having a slightly different opening storyline, now at the beginning of the game, the main character has a love interest who is the opposite sex, but don't let that tinge your view on the game's image of relationships and marriage. This is only one of your options within this game.

The game itself leaves the sexual orientation of your character up to the player, so it doesn't matter if your character is straight, gay, or somewhere inbetween. Fable 3 itself makes relationships within the game comedic and cute at the same time and allows the players a closer tie to the game itself. Marriage is the same way, there's even an achievement for doing certain things within marriage. One of which is called Henry VIII, in where you marry six times and kill two of your wives.
Now this is kind of a history joke, it deals with King Henry VIII of England who outside of starting the Church of England had also married six times and killed two of his wives for adultery. Not a friendly fellow, I'd have to say.

Fable Wiki

Evening all,

So in my searches of our vast internet for things on Fable 3, I have found a jackpot of information on wikia. Someone has made a fable series wiki containing things from all four, yes four...The Lost Chapters count, Fable games. I will post below and continue on with my quest for all things Fable.
Fable Wiki

The revolution will be televised

Howdy all,

So, as my first post said, this blog is all about Fable 3...and as such I wanted to include probably one of the best tv spot trailers I've seen in a while, released for this game. Notice the protagionists outfit...not saying anything, but it's got that Revolutionary war theme going for it...Is Mr. Molyneux, the master of Lionhead Studios, possibly drawing on historical themes for this game? I'll let you guys decide.

Check back soon for more content

First one...here we go

This list of 1s and 0s is a blog pertaining to the recently released game by Lionhead Studios Fable III. This game has been released to many lauded reviews by websites such as IGN and Joystiq, with more to come in the upcoming month.

To begin with I will explain one of my favorite aspects that Lionhead Studios added, well in actuality taken away. The lack of menus in the game. The only menu you will ever see in this game will be the Title screen and the settings screen within the Sanctuary, which I will explain later. Within the game when you press the start button instead of dealing with unwieldy menus a la Fable II, instead you are whisked away to the Sanctuary; your hero's fortress of solitude, if you will permit me to use a old comic book reference. From here you can change your weapon, your clothing, as well as see what achievements you've unlocked

Another favorite addition to the game is the ascetic of the evolving weapon. Within the game you are given two types of weapons: Melee, which consists of swords (fast, but less damage) and Hammers (slow but massive damage) as well as Ranged, which consists of rifles and pistols. When you level up within Fable III you're weapon evolves as well, so depending on how you've used your weapon, whether it was to slay that last village you went through or the cave of Hobbes plaguing aforementioned village, your weapon will evolve to you're playing style.














This blog is currently under development for a College Art class on the impact of Video Games in American culture, check back regularly for news, and different things dealing with Fable 3 found on the interweb, both good and bad, funny and maybe sometimes just a little bit corny.