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Molyneux Talks Fable 2

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the telling-tales dept.

Eurogamer has some details from a discussion with Peter Molyneux, on the upcoming Fable 2 and the as-yet-unnamed 'Project Dmitri.' The site comments on Molyneux's obvious enthusiasm for his work, and manages to get a few tidbits of information from the designer on these in-production titles. From the article: "I think it's exactly what Lionhead stands for - it's uniqueness, it's originality and it's taking something and doing something with it that no-one's done before. And that's really what the core of what the whole of Fable is. Fable 2 should be everything you expect, then 10 times more that you don't expect — and that doesn't just apply to this one feature ... I almost said it then! — that applies to the whole game."

3 of 44 comments (clear)

  1. Good at innovation... by Exsam · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Horrible at content! Yes, the lionhead games are unique and different and some of the gameplay features are very fun, however that all means squat if the game you make doesnt have the content to make it worthwhile. For example Fable was a very fun game, but its also the shortest RPG i've EVER played, totaling all of 8 hours of gameplay. I expect 8 hours from a FPS but from a RPG I expect to get at least 30 hours of normal gameplay out of it before i've finished the main story. So go ahead and make your new and innovative features Lionhead, but while your at it make sure you add in some content this time around and if you find you are not up for the job hand the engine over to someone whose proven themselves able to do such a job; Bioware for instance. Just my $0.02.

    --
    "To face death, that's nothing much. But to feel really stupid when you die, well, that would be insufferable."
  2. "Look at me, I'm so unique!" by stnf · · Score: 5, Funny
    I think it's exactly what Lionhead stands for - it's uniqueness, it's originality and it's taking something and doing something with it that no-one's done before.
    And you are doing a sequel now, right?
  3. Re:Fable by EggyToast · · Score: 5, Insightful
    It doesn't help that it was initially hyped as being a hyper-sandbox, where everything you do is unique. Really the only unique thing was character customization, which triggered different scripted events. I know lots of people who would try to make a character a certain extreme way, only to get sick of dealing with the same thing over and over again (constant marriage requests, or the inability to enter any town at all, all with the same time-consuming results).

    Lionhead's problem, and Molyneux's especially, is that they hype their games as if they were something entire new and unique. They're not. Black & White was an updated Populous game, only really short. Fable was similar to a Baldur's Gate/Zelda hybrid, only really short. They've got good ideas, but they spend so long fleshing them out that they end up chopping up half the game and the only thing left is a very short adventure for the amount of enjoyment people are supposed to have. 4 real worlds in B&W for a "play god and have complete customized control" game? 10 hours for a "create a unique character that exists in a unique world" game?

    If Fable developed the story at half the rate it did, focused less on the characters reaching their more-or-less finished state, and gave the user some in-depth exploration, it would've been tons better. But, more than likely, Fable 2 will suffer the same fate as B&W 2 did -- it'll fix a lot of things wrong with the first game while presenting a bunch more problems that make the game plain unfun.