Fable 2 (Xbox 360)

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== History of Fable II ==

Well, set 500 years after the original game Fable and Fable: The lost characters, having not played either of these games I had no idea what to expect when I put the disk in the console. Apparently the game is set around the time of what would have been the Enlightenment, my god if I haven't heard enough about the Enlightenment in the past two years doing my English A-Level. All about the times with ...
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=== Fable Game Play ===

== Albion itself.. ==

To get around most places it is simple enough to follow the glowing trail that shows you basically where to go if you set the quest to a certain place in the land then the glowing trail will show you how to get there..

Obviously running and walking everywhere is not going to always be the fastest option for an explorer so there is a feature ... more

Its only when you save up for things and work really hard for something I think you really begin to appreciate what you have worked for..
That includes one of my most recent purchases.. My Xbox 360 Elite.. Oh yes I had to buy the most expensive one with the biggest memory etc.. (Review coming soon I would imagine!!)

So I got this game as part of the package with my Xbox there was a choice but I knew I wanted to play this.. At least after all the times on of my friends had played it on her boyfriends Xbox and was telling me how amazing it was! At the same time I also got Fallout 3 included in the price so there may be a review of that coming your way soon.. Well once I've started playing it of course, after all the games my boyfriend has passed on for me to play..

Anyway this was the first game I started to play on my console when I got it that night and I have been hooked since, hours whittle away while I play this which is a little annoying for my parents as they keep telling me they never see me anymore..

So about this game..

History of Fable II

Well, set 500 years after the original game Fable and Fable: The lost characters, having not played either of these games I had no idea what to expect when I put the disk in the console. Apparently the game is set around the time of what would have been the Enlightenment, my god if I haven't heard enough about the Enlightenment in the past two years doing my English A-Level. All about the times with castles and guns being fairly primitive obviously!

The original game was released to the original Xbox in September 2005..
The previous game had only one option of character, an orphaned boy who realises his dream of becoming a hero.. As with the new game it is possible to change the characters appearance by doing either good or bad deeds with the quests given during game play. Not only is there the characters quests there are also little other quests that a character can do like romance and trading these can all lead to the appearance of your character..!

Fable Game Play

== Albion itself.. ==

To get around most places it is simple enough to follow the glowing trail that shows you basically where to go if you set the quest to a certain place in the land then the glowing trail will show you how to get there..

Obviously running and walking everywhere is not going to always be the fastest option for an explorer so there is a feature in the pause menu to travel quickly to a place that you have already discovered on your map.. Like home if you have a husband or wife.. They must be pleased!! Also for a job that perhaps has a limited time on it to earn your gold!

Like anywhere you will see there is going to be ledges and difficult places to reach.. Therefore your character has the ability to jump off ledges and dive into water to save someone vital perhaps.. Or to gain access to a hidden treasure that can increase your wealth!

Around the land there are a fair few things to find and uncover.. Like demon doors with treasure behind and old relic statues that can reveal some deep dark secrets..! Providing you have trained your dog well around the land there is 'Dig Spots' were you can dig for gold and other treasures that are sure to be of value to you at some point! Statues can be a good thing for you too.. By getting a sculptor to build a statue of you, you can become even more famous.. Not that its always a good thing!

My opinion

It is fairly easy to get around Albion with the help of the glowing trail but sometimes to make things more interesting its fun to get off the path and have some mischievous fun murdering for the sake of it and getting yourself into trouble because playing the good girl isn't as fun!

Controls

As the game goes there is obviously going to be quite a bit of fighting the further you get into the game the more difficult it becomes, thankfully the controls for the game are relatively simple and easy to do multiple things when in a fight..
It is easy to chose a weapon whilst fighting considering the main controls are..

X..
To use a sword or any upgraded weapon, or as the notes say it is for strength obviously the stronger you become the stronger your sword swings and the chances of killing the other character

Y..
To use a crossbow or as before any upgraded weapon, as the notes say it is for range, which it is as providing you have bought the right abilities holding down the Y can give you better range to shoot your enemies..

B..
Holds the power to your spells by pulling the right trigger after buying many abilities you can choose which spell that can eliminate your enemies..! Which is always a nice feeling knowing that the character highlighted in red can be annihilated, and you can do it quickly to save your health bar from lowering..!

Obviously there are the usual left joystick for movement, and the round arrow button below to chose your spell when fighting and sometimes when the area is right to give you the option to dig a spot and earn yourself some money or some potions to save yourself in a fight to heal instead of eating and getting fat..!

My Opinion

This being the first proper console game I played on my own without my boyfriends help, I did find the controls confusing at first but after a few minutes they became perfectly clear to me.. Even though I did find myself running into walls for a while.. Regardless now I can run in a straight line and even during a fight I find the controls easy enough to master even if I need to do tow or three things at once..! So even for a beginner this game is not simple but easy enough!!

The Hero (Your Character)

Picking a gender at the start of the game is only the beginning of all the choices you have to make, and all these choices can lead you into deeper and darker things, from being a good soul with fairly pleasant features.. Well as pleasant as you can get for something set in somewhat medieval times.. To an evil soul with nasty looking horns and a permanent scowl on your face..!

As your character gets injured you need to replace your health, to stop you from being knocked out and loosing your experience.. Therefore you have a choice.. Either eat or be stocked up on potions to keep you healthy.. Remember however the more you eat, the fatter you become, and the less attractive other characters find you..! There are other things however that can shape your appearance.. They are the choices you make.. In the towns chose to kill someone innocent, the innocent ones are the ones that glow purple when you get close, the evil ones glow red..! Or you could steal something then be warned not only does your appearance may become fairly unsavoury, but people can become fairly scared of you..! Though that is not always a bad thing as you can get discount in shops from the fear factor!

The abilities to gain and the way you use them also has an effect on your character, the different abilities take different shape of your body.. For example using spells excessively gives you glowing lines that can make you somewhat more attractive, Skill makes you tall and more empowering, and strength can give you muscles, hopefully your character wont be fat and muscley because that is never a good combination..

There are many things around Albion that can change your image such as tattoos, hairstyles and make-up.. Also dyes to change the colour of your hair or your clothes..! Of course the more you do this the more attractive you become, and can make more people fancy you.. Maybe you can even commit bigamy!

Along side your character is your noble canine.. Which can be of a great help to you, train him well and he can sniff out treasure and growl when enemies are nearby giving you enough chance to be ready to face your opponent.. There is also dog potions should he get hurt, and of course you must praise your company as the majority of the time your dog is your only companion..! You need to keep your dog happy with treats and praise as he can help you out in many different ways!

My Opinion

I spent a while looking to make my character a good one, but to be honest being evil is more fun..! There is nothing more fun than stealing perhaps a till from a shop or pub and watching everyone's opinion of you decrease very quickly! The actual appearance of the character I found changed quite slowly in the face, but my character got fat far to quickly.. Then of course in Albion there is no chance of a diet!! At least this game reflects society today as the government keep telling us we are all too big..! No offence!! Anyway, the little dog companion is quite a nifty idea as if you use a spell to knock an opponent out your little dog will help you be rid of them permanently..! Hopefully.. If he isn't hurt or not up to the job depending on how much training you give him!

Experience.. How to get it and what it can buy you..

Whilst defending yourself against an enemy you can kill them and the little orbs that they leave with their deaths give your character experience.. Kill enough and you can buy yourself some great abilities to kill off others in the future and give you the power to cast spells and basically annihilate most things around you..!
There are three separate experience sectors to gain in..
They are;..
Strength,
Skill, and
Will

Strength
Strength is basically a tool to increase the damage you can do in hand to hand combat.. Basically when you are fighting someone, it gives you the strength to over power them and increase the damage you cause! There are a few different ways that you can increase your strength, they are:

Brutal Styles - a way to block attacks from those coming towards you, although not all attacks can be blocked!
Physique - Enables you to cause greater damage with your weapons..
Toughness - Helps the character to stay conscious for longer and to fight more effectively..

Skill
This enables you to gain brilliant abilities when fighting with crossbows and guns, something you need in abundance with the multiple enemies that come your way! There are three ways to improve your skill they are:

Dexterous styles - gives you many ways of getting a target and staying out the way of any attacks that are thrown at you..!
Accuracy - help you to get a better shot on the guy your trying to get rid of..
Speed - can help your reload time stopping you loosing the battle from having bullets..

Will
With the more Will you collect the more spells you can cast and at greater levels..
There are a number of Will spells.. They include..

Chaos - Confuse your enemies..
Force Push - push enemies away or even over the edge of a ledge!
Inferno - Pretty obvious! Set them on fire!!
Raise Dead - gives you an extra set of hands in the shape of 'spectral allies'
Shock - stuns enemies and blasts them with lightening!
Blades - create magical swords to stab your opponents..
Time control - slows the world or increases your speed..
Vortex - creates a powerful windstorm and hurls enemies and debris around damaging opponents..

My Opinion

These things are essential and to be honest they are pretty well easy to come by.. A few fights and you can gather enough experience to buy new things and there is always a prompt to give you a chance to buy new skills which is always a benefit because it's not always the top of your agenda after being in a fight! However when you do have them they are brilliant especially the blades as it is pretty funny to watch enemies impaled with magical swords!

Live game play..

Having never personally played Fable online I am only going on the word of my boyfriend who has..

Basically if any of your friends are online playing the same game you can invite them into your game by high lighting their orb.. If your feeling friendly you can also give them gifts and when you are bored with them you can give them a kick out of your game which is a bit mean!!

There are a few ways to represent yourself in 'live' play, as a henchman where you can play alongside your friends.. Gaining gold and experience along the way..

I haven't actually played it online so I can't really comment if it is any good or not!

My opinion overall

For this being the first game I played without any help from my gaming expert I think I did pretty well to finish the game.. Initially the game has a tutorial which doesn't really act like a tutorial it just seems like a proper introduction to the game, which for people like me makes you feel pretty confident about carrying on with the rest of the game.. The tutorial itself gives you a character of a little boy regardless of which gender you chose at the start.. The tutorial like I said does feel like actual game play, without being too easy, it has the glowing trail and the assistance from Theresa.. Giving you a little hint about what is to come in the actual game.

The quests I find are a bit laborious every quest takes a long time but on the other hand some of the things you get to do are quite cool.. From battling giant trolls to finding treasure along the way it does make up for some points were there really is no action! The favourite quest I found was the 'till death do us part quest where you can break someone's heart just because you feel like it which is especially fun because you can't do that in real life!! The rest mainly involve battling people all those evil red glowing people..!

This game is pretty fabulous for an afternoon when you have nothing to do especially if you take the time to befriend villagers, get married.. Though you can obviously suggest to your husband that you go have sex, though you must buy your marital home first.. Having sex with your 'husband' is such a strange thing to hear but good because it is not graphic but the noises are quite funny! Having a baby.. Well its such a quick gestation period for the members of fable, literally 10 seconds and you have a baby not that you get to name it!!

There is also pub games to play with the game-master.. They are fun but I won't spoil them for anyone but don't do anything silly like play and get yourself into serious debt because people then respond really badly to you.. Well if your already being evil then it doesn't make any difference!

Price and Availability

Game station - £39.99
Game - £39.99
Play.com - £39.99
So to be honest for the minute the game is going to be around £35 - £40 but it is worth it! 

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