Fable III

Fable III
Developer(s)	Lionhead Studios
Publisher(s)	Microsoft Game Studios
Designer(s)	Peter Molyneux, Josh Atkins
Composer(s)	Russell Shaw
Series	Fable
Platform(s)	Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows
Release	'Xbox 360'PC
Genre(s)	Action RPG, sandbox, life simulation
Mode(s)	Single-player, cooperative

Fable III is the third video game in the Fable series of action role-playing games (RPG) developed by Lionhead Studios and published by Microsoft Game Studios. It focuses on the player's struggle to overthrow the King of Albion by forming alliances and building support for a revolution. After a successful revolt, the player becomes the King/Queen and can then lead Albion in whichever direction he/she pleases. It was released for Xbox 360 in October 2010. In May 2010, Microsoft announced a PC version as part of their renewed commitment to PC gaming. In the February 2011 issue of Game Informer magazine, it was confirmed that the PC version will be released on March 28, 2011.

Plot

Fable III is set 50 years after the events of Fable II on the continent of Albion where the Fable series is set. The old monarch, the hero of Fable II, has died and left the Kingdom of Albion to Logan, the player's older brother. Some characters allude to how Logan has "changed" in the last four years, and is excessively tyrannical now. After a traumatic event that Logan forces upon the player, they escape Logan's castle along with their mentor, Sir Walter Beck and their servant, Jasper (voiced by John Cleese). The player then starts to gather allies to aid in a revolution against Logan. The allies they gain include the "Dwellers," a nomadic community that lives in the mountains; Major Swift and Ben Finn from the Royal Army in command of a remote fort; Page, the leader of the "Bowerstone Resistance"; and Kalin, the leader of Aurora, a desert land across the ocean. When attempting to gain the support of Kalin, the hero learns that a creature called the "Crawler, ruler of the Darkness," the forces of the Darkness which have already devastated Aurora, intends to exterminate all life in the Kingdom of Albion. It is revealed that Logan's reason for treating his people so harshly is to raise money for an army to defend against the Crawler.

The player then leads a revolution and becomes the King/Queen, at which point the player is given the choice to keep the promises made to those who aided in the revolution at great expense to the treasury, or betray those promises in order to raise money for the defense of Albion through industrialization and using natural resources. The player can also utilize the treasury money for personal purposes, or use personal money in the treasury. The player can use the kingdoms money to invest in property or waste. If the player chooses to be a "good" ruler, the treasury will be vastly drained and the only way the player can offset this is by transferring several million gold from their personal funds to the treasury. With 6,500,000 gold in the treasury at the time of the Crawler attack, the player will be able to fully fund an army that can successfully defend the entire kingdom. With no money in the treasury and thus no army to defend Albion, the civilian casualties inflicted by the Crawler's attack amount to 6,500,000. If this happens, the world will be largely absent of civilians upon completion of the main quest. If the player passes lots of time by sleeping, civilians will start to return, but they will react hostilely to the monarch's presence, regardless of whether they previously acted as a benevolent or evil ruler.

Development

At the beginning of the Gamescon announcement of Fable III, Molyneux stated that the game was taking a different theme compared to the others as he believes the third game in a series to be hard to do correctly. "If all the rules have been established and all you offer is a new story and a handful of locations, people will start to lose interest."

In an interview with OXM UK, he (Molyneux) spoke about how Fable was at risk of becoming a generic game where the player started off underpowered and weak but slowly got more powerful after they met the bad guy. After the player killed the bad guy, the credits would roll. Believing that is the formula that applies to many games, he asked why games "end at potentially the most exciting bit?" It was this that formed the basis of Fable III, where the player can overthrow the tyrant before becoming ruler themselves. He stated that it was when the player was ruler that the consequences of "who you are going to be, are you going to be good or evil, cruel or kind" stopped applying only to the player, but affected the entire country.

Molyneux hinted that there may be drawbacks to leaving your castle too often to investigate crimes or fight wars, asking "Are you going to be a king that is the equivalent to Picard in Star Trek? Quite honestly, if the captain of the ship was going down to planets and getting involved in battles I'd be worried because I think he should stay in his chair. But if he chooses to go down and get involved, that's the freedom we give you as a king."

Talking about the inspiration for Fable III, Molyneux said "if in Fable I the inspiration was folklore and in Fable II the inspiration was King Arthur and Robin Hood, then Fable III is definitely the rebels and monarchs – both modern-day and historic."

What's so interesting about that is you look at it and you realise that "Gee, these people who ruled our land up until very recently were actually very creative with their power and abused it and used it in many evil ways." Take Henry VIII, let's just go through some of the things this guy did. Rather than say, "Hey, this marriage is not working out so well," he just decided to completely kill off his wives. Not only did he do that, but to do the deed he just got rid of religion and replaced it with a new one. He also took five percent of the entire tax income – the equivalent of billions of pounds in today's world – and spent it on his personal wine cellar, while many people within the country were suffering from starvation and plague. This guy definitely wasn't that nice a guy, and if you write that down he sounds really evil. Does history paint him as being really evil? Not really, it paints him as being a bit of a jolly chap who was quite infatuated with six women. That's fascinating inspiration and we really want to give you the power to be that colourful when you're ruler.

There are also new takes on traditional Fable concepts such as morphing, where the player's weapon change depending on what they do, and their alignment. If the Hero kills large numbers of skeletons his/her weapon will appear to be made of bones, whereas if they go around killing innocent people their weapon will begin to drip with blood. The weapon will also level throughout the game, making it sharper and more deadly. Another example is the "Extreme Emote" system. For example, if someone angers the Hero, they can show them their true nature, with either demonic or angelic wings sprouting out of their back.

Lionhead associate sound producer Georg Backer announced at the Develop conference in Brighton that Fable III would contain over 47 hours of recorded speech. This rises from 36 hours of recorded speech in Fable II. Backer said that the AI is the "biggest chunk of dialogue." Backer also said that the over 47 hours include "gossip lines" in which the "AI talk to you about what is happening in the game." The "30 or 40" different types of AI characters each have "about 2,000 lines." Three writers wrote the 460,000 recorded words in the game and it took more than 80 actors to voice them. Many lines are ones that previously appeared in Fable II, so how many hours of vocal track are original recordings is unknown.

Downloadable content

Various downloadable content has been announced by Microsoft for release on November 23, ranging from dyes and extra hairstyles to a new quest, much of which is actually just locked content that is already included on the game disk but requires players to pay for it separately to unlock it.

• Free Weapon Pack adds the hammer 'Bloodstone Bludgeon' and 'Gusket's Musket' rifle, which will be added to your gift queue in the Sanctuary; and then become available when you unlock weapons in the storyline.
• Understone Quest Pack will allow players to venture into Understone, a "mysterious town built beneath the streets of Bowerstone," to find a new quest with moral decisions to make. The DLC also adds a replayable shooting range at the Mercenary Camp and arena challenges in Reaver's Mansion. Players will receive prizes for beating high scores.
• Exclusive Hair Pack features corn rows, afro and asymmetrical bob styles
• Reaver Industries Hero Outfit
• 5 Star Dog Potion and Dye Pack
• Free Yule hat
• Dog Breed Set allows the player to change the breed of their dog, transforming it into either a Poodle, a Doberman Pinscher, or an American Alsatian. Contains one potion per breed.
• Red Setter Dog Potion allows the player to change the breed of their dog, transforming it into an Irish Setter.
• Male and Female Highlander Outfits and Highlander Tattoo Set can be obtained for free by using a download code found inside the Standard Edition of the game, but are still available to purchase without the code.
• Dog Outfit

Marketing

Shortly before Gamescom 2009, images of famous revolutionaries and quotations appeared on Lionhead's website, causing discussion about what the next game Lionhead was developing. During the press conference of Gamescom, where Fable 3 was announced by Peter Molyneux, Lionhead had decorated the walls with medieval shields and banners.

Following the BAFTA games awards in March 2009, British presenter Jonathan Ross revealed on his Twitter page that he had been offered a voice part in Fable III. He also went on to say that comedian Charlie Brooker was to lend his voice to the game as well.

Lionhead announced in August 2010 that there would be a companion game to Fable 3. Peter Molyneux was quick to say that it would not be like Pub Games for Fable 2 and hinted that it would utilise a mobile-phone. The official reveal was made on September 28, 2010 for a smart-phone application titled "Kingmaker" The game consists of players marking real-world locations for the two factions in the game, the Royals or the Rebels. The game earns players power-ups and gold to use in Fable 3. The game was announced for use in the United Kingdom and Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, and Sweden.

Retail editions

File:Fable3 limited edition.jpg

Fable 3 Limited Edition Content

The Xbox 360 standard and limited edition will be released on the October 26, 2010, with the PC to be released shortly after. Games that were preordered (both standard and limited editions) in participating stores, will be given a code for a special weapon, a code for tattoos, and a code to transfer the villager created from the Villager Maker to the game on the release date.

Standard Edition

• Xbox 360 The Standard Edition available on Xbox 360 contains the standard game disk, a game manual and standard plastic casing. Lionhead Studios' Peter Molyneux announced as well, that Fable III will also (like Fable II) be released in episodes on Xbox Live Marketplace, some time after the retail version will hit the market. The first episode will be available free of charge.
• PC There will also be a PC version released, both a retail version and a Games for Windows – LIVE exclusive downloadable release.

Limited Collector's Edition

The "Limited Collector's Edition" will only be available on Xbox 360 and will contain a standard game disk, a game manual, a new in-game quest, limited edition Fable 3 playing cards, a "Guild Seal Coin" with good and evil sides to aid the player in making moral decisions, a new "Boxer" dog breed and two new outfits; one for male, one female, a pop-out book and a new region with a family and a new weapon.

Controller

Lionhead has also announced they will release a Fable 3 limited edition wireless controller for Xbox 360 on October 5, 2010. The controller will come with a code to unlock a unique tattoo for the game. There is currently no other way to unlock this unique tattoo as of yet.

Book

A book titled Fable: The Balverine Order was released in North America on October 5, 2010 but the date for the European release was pushed back to the 29th. The book will come with a code for a unique weapon called the Shardborne sword for Fable 3.

Reception

Reception

Aggregate scores

Aggregator	Score
GameRankings	80.73%
Metacritic	81/100

Review scores

Publication	Score
1Up.com	B+
Computer and Video Games	9.2/10
Eurogamer	8/10
Game Informer	9/10
GameSpot	7.5/10
GameTrailers	8.9/10
IGN	8.5/10
X-Play
Joystiq
Hardcore Gamer	5/5

Upon release, Fable III was met with generally favorable reviews. GameRankings gave the game an overall score of 80.49%, with Metacritic at 80/100. IGN gave the game an 8.5/10, praising its section where you play as king, but criticizing its slow beginning and lack of innovation. GameSpot gave the game a 7.5/10. There have also been many complaints on the Lionhead Forums concerning game breaking glitches. Lionhead has stated that it is at work on a patch to fix these glitches. However, as of February 2011, many of these fixes have yet to be implemented.

External links

• Lionhead's Official Website
• Unofficial Fable wiki
• Fable III at IMDb
• Fable III Villager Maker
• Fable III Kingmaker