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Snugglers Birthday Celebration Thread

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commedieu

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Snuggler is 1 year older today.

Lets celebrate by reading his review of Fable3.

Snuggler said:
Other Reviews by Snuggler: Dead Rising 2 (B+)

Fable 3
Platforms: Xbox 360
Qualifications: 1 complete playthrough, roughly 20 hours of playtime

As someone who has enjoyed both Fable games, this is a title that I was very excited for. I expected it to be the best title in the series, without a doubt, but it turns out that I was very wrong. Fable III brings a few new ideas to the series, but unfortunately all of them fail to improve the game. In previous Fable games, the leveled up your by choosing different branches separated by melee, ranged and magic and experience points were earned by focusing on the skill of your choice. In Fable III, experience points are universal, the combat skill you focus on doesn't matter, and they're spent on the 'Road to Rule'. This is a separate area with a series of treasure chests that are opened with XP and unlock abilities (expressions, real estate) and upgrade your skills. Although you have the choice to avoid chests, it turns building your character into a linear affair that will have the same result regardless of how you play. Thanks to the 'Road to Rule', you can no longer build unique characters based on the combat skill you prefer.

One of Fable II's biggest criticisms was the silly expressions system that had you farting or growling repeatedly to communicate with people. Lionhead decided to "fix" this by removing the system entirely. In Fable III, you're given two or three random good/evil options and you'll most likely be forced to repeat the same expression and watch the same animation several times to get on a single NPC's good side. Choice has been removed, and you're left with a system that only discourages you from NPC interactions. It's only one small step from being removed entirely, and it's one of the many aspects of Fable III that feel rushed and incomplete.

The biggest bullet point in Fable III is that you play the King of Albion in the second half of the game. It's an idea with a lot of potential, but unfortunately it falls far short of expectations. I felt like I was held back from doing what I wanted to do by the overly simplistic morality system. You're given two choices: one good choice that improves your citizen's lives but drains your kingdom's funds, and one evil choice that brings in a lot of funds and saves more civilian lives, but lowers the quality of life in Albion. Choosing between good and bad is hardly choice, I wanted to play as a fair but screwd king, but any thoughtful strategy is made pointless by the limited options that Lionhead offer the player. In the end, my time as king was short and unsatisfying, it managed to briefly fellate my ego but left me wanting much, much more.

It's also worth noting that you'll be doing a lot of button holding in Fable III - most of the big story moments revolving around holding down a button to progress the plot. Some quests consist entirely of holding down a button several times until it's complete. This is likely another aspect that Lionhead though could be improved by simplification, but it only succeeds at feeling like lazy design. The other step towards accessibility is the removal of pause screens. We have the Sanctuary instead, which is actually a nice place to view all of the trophies/clothing/weapons you've earned but it's not a suitable replacement for a traditional pause screen. Actions as simple as selecting a mission take much longer than they should and in the end, it only makes things more cumbersome than streamlined.

Outside of the questionable changes, we're left with a fairly typical Fable game. The combat system is mostly the same, aside from being able to combine magic spells. In my experience, even the combat system felt lesser with the momentum being removed from melee combat. About halfway through the game it begins to feel like a grind, and an inescapable sense of tedium sets in. It's extremely easy, I never bothered acquiring healing items but I still never "died" in combat. With the limited moveset (only regular attack and special attack by holding the button), combat consists of nothing but excessive rolling and tapping the same buttons again and again. Enemies were given too much HP which doesn't add any challenge but causes battles to drag on much longer than they should. It doesn't help that most missions have you following a linear path where the same group of enemies are thrown at you several times in a row. Towards the end, I found myself running from enemies just to avoid participating in combat. The combat feels like nothing but filler, something to take up time in between story moments, and it fails at even amusing the player.

As a big fan of the series, I can say without a doubt that Fable III is the weakest yet. It has a few positives, Albion is still an appealing setting - watching the sun set over Bower Lake is very pleasant and it manages a few emotional charged moments thanks to the great voice acting but overall it's not only the worst Fable game, but a poor game in general. Lionhead had two years of time to reflect on the shortcomings of Fable II, to improve on them and deliver the game we've all been waiting for, but instead they made a series of boneheaded decisions in an attempt to make the game more accessible and casual friendly. Important features from the previous games are removed entirely, and the game ultimately feels lazy and incomplete. Even if you're a big fan of the series, I recommend you wait, because this isn't a product deserving of a full price sale.

SCORE: D
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yay Snuggler!!! Enjoy one on me! And plenty more to come..!!!

1!

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Does it come in cat-years?


also commedieu, i declare that your posts will be read aloud by your avatar, in a French accent.
 
Happy Birthday bro, even if you are a filthy Iorverth lover. Death to the Squirrels, but long live Snuggy Buggy.
 
Haha I remember you during my old days at IGN (hell I think you gifted Insider to me when it changed over).

Happy birthday Snuggler!
 
Green Scar said:
You seem less pissed about the whole thing than Snuggler is, so I'll wish you a very happy birthday instead. :D
Click to expand...
Thanks dude. I'm 28. Gonna have a nice dinner tonight, have some drinks with friends, and probably buy the Borderlands Season Pass. I already had someone help me p level my siren to 50 from 35... which was pretty awesome. Now I just need to get better loot. Hah.
 
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