Well I only had an hour on Fable II last night, but my thoughts are mixed - see below:
Opening movies are beautifully crafted and rendered, I wish the game was just as good looking, but that may be harsh.
The first section of the game has an 'unfinished' look and feel to it. Conversations don't seem to be intelligent, they just continue on even when you run on and passed whoever is speaking to you, the conversation seems to continue anyway as if you are still there listening attentively!
Graphically its quite nice and vast - lots of details but the textures don't look to detailed on my CRT tv - maybe I need to watch this on an HDTV? (I hope that will solve the issue). The snow effects look lush - fab in fact.
Controls are reasonable to begin with, but the way to get another set of gestures mapped to the D-pad is a little overly time consuming and fussy imho.
Characters look very nice , though not as good as those in the movie clips.
On screen text is small and difficult to read on a 32" CRT tv via my yellow, red, and white cables.
Story is good and has twists and turns a little, but in fairness it's as if Link has just walked into another game dressed differently - that's a little harsh too, but you'll see what I mean as the story unfolds a little - and I couldn't help thinking I've heard this tale before - again I only played the first hour and these are only initial thoughts.
There are subtle and maybe less subtle moments in the game where you make a decision and it has an underlying effect on your future choices and character. For me even the subtle ones were pretty obvious - I hope this is not a dumbing down of the game or a sign of things to come.
The character movement is a little stilted occasionally, you can see what they were aiming for, but in my mind they missed, and there are moments in the early part where characters do not blend animations and that's really bad for a title of this stature.
My 15 year old son felt that during the main character swimming sequences the programmers have been lazy and I have to agree, this is a NEXT GENERATION flagship title and some of the splash effects are - well sub standard in my eyes, and things like effects around such actions are either too subtle or just plain wrong for such a prestigious title.
Annoying things occur in the initial section too because a second character follows you everywhere and, well to be honest, they just keep getting in the damn way all the time as you turn around and head back the way you came.
Maybe I was expecting too much - although this is Lionhead and Microsoft - it is a flagship title and the expectation has been pushed very very high, however maybe its because the programmers did this bit first and forgot to go back and polish it, which is all it really lacks and that is sad. Maybe the next section will be more pleasing?
I did feel the interaction with man's best friend was nice in the start of the second section, there are some pleasing moments in all those.
So overall I did like what I found, there were just some moments and aspects which felt out f place. I just noticed Edge gives it a 9/10. I shall wait until I have played it more before I judge further. I'm back on Sunday night so I shall have another play session then. In the meantime what did you guys think ?
IPete2.
Opening movies are beautifully crafted and rendered, I wish the game was just as good looking, but that may be harsh.
The first section of the game has an 'unfinished' look and feel to it. Conversations don't seem to be intelligent, they just continue on even when you run on and passed whoever is speaking to you, the conversation seems to continue anyway as if you are still there listening attentively!
Graphically its quite nice and vast - lots of details but the textures don't look to detailed on my CRT tv - maybe I need to watch this on an HDTV? (I hope that will solve the issue). The snow effects look lush - fab in fact.
Controls are reasonable to begin with, but the way to get another set of gestures mapped to the D-pad is a little overly time consuming and fussy imho.
Characters look very nice , though not as good as those in the movie clips.
On screen text is small and difficult to read on a 32" CRT tv via my yellow, red, and white cables.
Story is good and has twists and turns a little, but in fairness it's as if Link has just walked into another game dressed differently - that's a little harsh too, but you'll see what I mean as the story unfolds a little - and I couldn't help thinking I've heard this tale before - again I only played the first hour and these are only initial thoughts.
There are subtle and maybe less subtle moments in the game where you make a decision and it has an underlying effect on your future choices and character. For me even the subtle ones were pretty obvious - I hope this is not a dumbing down of the game or a sign of things to come.
The character movement is a little stilted occasionally, you can see what they were aiming for, but in my mind they missed, and there are moments in the early part where characters do not blend animations and that's really bad for a title of this stature.
My 15 year old son felt that during the main character swimming sequences the programmers have been lazy and I have to agree, this is a NEXT GENERATION flagship title and some of the splash effects are - well sub standard in my eyes, and things like effects around such actions are either too subtle or just plain wrong for such a prestigious title.
Annoying things occur in the initial section too because a second character follows you everywhere and, well to be honest, they just keep getting in the damn way all the time as you turn around and head back the way you came.
Maybe I was expecting too much - although this is Lionhead and Microsoft - it is a flagship title and the expectation has been pushed very very high, however maybe its because the programmers did this bit first and forgot to go back and polish it, which is all it really lacks and that is sad. Maybe the next section will be more pleasing?
I did feel the interaction with man's best friend was nice in the start of the second section, there are some pleasing moments in all those.
So overall I did like what I found, there were just some moments and aspects which felt out f place. I just noticed Edge gives it a 9/10. I shall wait until I have played it more before I judge further. I'm back on Sunday night so I shall have another play session then. In the meantime what did you guys think ?
IPete2.