Did Lionhead make a boo boo ?

Well, I took my copy of Fable 2 back today - I think there may be a problem with the amount of data the game has to consistently stream from the DVD causes issues (numerous crashes - my xbox is only 2 weeks old so I do not think the hardware is to blame. Shame, Fable 2 is a VERY captivating game.

Edit: on the 14 Dec replaced my 5 week old XBox - it was the hardware not the software that was dodgy.

Oh well, now we have Halo 3 and a number of other games to play.

Yay for PC games!

Pretty sure there's anything wrong with the game. I've read a number of reviews, none of which mentioned any such issues, and it was certainly working perfectly on my 360, which was 2 years old and which died a few days later, so if it's not working properly on yours, it's either a problem with your console or perhaps your disc.

Oh, it's a 360 game?! Ignore my last comment then. :)

Oh, and you could try installing it to the hard drive, although that would be avoiding what does sound like a real issue, but since the NXE dashboard, you can install any game to the hard drive, and Fable 2 does apparently install without any problems. *

* I recall a pre-release piece in a non-gaming magazine where they were praising the improved graphics after installing Fable 2 to the hard drive. Gotta love non-gaming journo's.

Yeah, I suppose it could have been a disc issue, and there is the possibility that because it has sold in such huge volumes there will be a few DVDs that have manufacturing errors.....

That doesn't mean anything, I'm afraid. I've bought several bits of hardware that have been DOA, even.

Halo 3...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

I expect the guy holds 3 guns this time? AWESOME NEW FEATURE!!!!

Excuse my tone - I found Halo the most over-hyped and boring FPS I've yet played, and I've played Rise of the Triad :)

I thought the first Halo was pretty awesome when it was new, mostly because of the visuals and Marine AI which were quite novel back in the day. It had it's high points, but the extreme repetition of areas like the library lowered the score and replay value significantly.

Halo2 just didn't push the game much and 3 doesn't interest me in the slightest. It amazed me that people got so excited by the franchise which I thought was soso with some high points but hardly worth the floods of praise and enthusiasm poured upon it.

regarding the hardware, I've 10 or so other games for the XBox, none of which crashed ...ever. Only Fable2 had the crash problem - again installing to the XBox hard drive may have resolved the problem - but if it does it should state that an xbox with a hard drive is necessary.

On the Halo 3 note, well I picked it up for £10. Brilliant value for money - especially in glorious HD.

Install to the hard drive? This is news to me and welcome as I'm finding the PGR3 loading times a bit slow. But do I need to update the XBox first (I have an Elite one I just bought). Sorry for the derail...

Oh I'm finding Halo 3 a bit so so. I never played the others but there is nothing that exciting about it for some reason. Bummer as I paid $60+tax...

Yes, since the NXE dashboard update, you should be able to install any 360 game to the hard drive. The only two games I know of which should not (but can) be installed to the hard drive are Halo 3 and Fallout 3. I imagine they will be patched to address that at some stage.

Ok cool thx. Looks like I'd better wire it up to the network.

The first Halo was just an acheivment in gameplay especially as a console FPS. Even today it's more fun than newer FPS games such as COD. The gameplay is just pure elegance. To each their own however. My friend and I took on 2 of my younger cousins in system link mode and being from a different generation ( and losing badly ) they couldn't wait to get back to COD ;)

COD1 and 2 are great games (on PC) not played 4 yet...

@Grey, yeah I have raced PGR4 online - its great fun. The mic & headphones work quite well too.

We will probably get Fable 2 again to install on the hard drive, my daughter is missing it. Somewhat amazingly, I paid 39.99 for it two weeks ago - when I went to ask for a replacement it'd dropped in price to £19.99.

To get the most out of Halo single-player you have to play it in Heroic or Legendary. The AI is excellent in those modes, and really forces you to actually use your brain rather than just blasting through the game easily.

I don't think Fable II's problems are to do with streaming. It's just not finished and chock full of bugs.

Still a great game.

I've had no problems with Fable II?

I'm certainly tempted by Fable II but I'm trying to figure out if it's suitable for my 7 and 4 year olds to watch/play. Certainly the 7 year old can handle most things (like he is playing Kameo which is a Teen game, but I won't let him play Mature games) and the 4 year old is nearly 5...

Well, I'm just installing one of the 4 games I got for the one game trade in - oblivion - onto the hard drive via the new dashboard.

As far as age goes, my kids are 9 and 7, both loved Fable 2. I'd still recommend it - though only if you install it to hard drive though.


I will be getting another copy as long as the threads suggest HDrive install stops it from killing your DVD Drive. The amount of drive activity may only be related to badly burnt disks - in which case Linoheads QA on their disk burners needs checking.

@Ian Thompson - interesting. No problems....

@Grey. My 8 year old daughter completed Fable II without any problems. In terms of adult content well obviously that's your decision. The sex stuff is audio only. The violence is non-gory.

Installing OBlivion to the hard drive made it way faster - errrr NO, thats what I was expecting. It turned level loads from 1 - 2 mins to 5 -6 mins. Brilliant.

Anyway back to Viva Pinata now.

My significant other has played through fable 2 a couple times now from start to end (of the main quest), and has only encountered a couple of minor bugs. (Nothing to the magnitude that you're reporting)

Sometimes clearing the xbox's cache resolves disk streaming issues (if that's the problem)

http://news.teamxbox.com/xbox/11131/Xbox-360-Cache-Clear-Code-Revealed/

Unfortunately, this will force a re-download of any patches you've already obtained, but won't kill any of your DLC or anything you've otherwise purchased or received for free through XBL.

@John Pickford: OK thx for the info, I'll probably get this.

@Blitzplotter: I've heard a lot about Viva Pinata, do you like it and is it good for kids?

My kids love Viva Pinata (both of them.. not that one is like the other.. the second is a little like a mario-kart clone)

Oh I didn't know there were two versions...

I like Viva Pinata myself, and my kids enjoy it. Very colourful and gratifying to play. Other fave at the moment is Perfect Dark.

Thx. I have Perfect Dark waiting to play.

I can't take Lionhead games seriously - they usually include quite dark and serious themes that could be interesting, but cover them with a treacly layer of cutesiness and infantile humour that's obviously designed to appeal to kids (guess I'm not the target demographic).

You grow out of that Madjack

;)

errm, I've not gorwn out of being amused by infantile humour of the ilk in fable, I find it quite refreshing for a game not to take itself to seriously.

BTW I saw in the news today that lionhead is releasing a patch for the 360 version of fable 2 shortly, to fix the numerous bugs. So I guess there were quite a few problems.

I read John Pickford as saying "you grow out of finding cutesiness and infantile humour NOT funny" in other words you get back into it as you get older. I like it anyway ;-p fart

That's what I meant. You go through a phase of disliking 'childish' stuff and then you loosen up and just enjoy daft things again.

aah right, I see. Regarding a patch for Fable 2 - thats interesting.

phew, glad it wasn't just me!

Would having kids have something to do with that? ;-)

@MadJack - you could have a point there !

Regarding the patch , fair play to LionHead, rumours of releasing a 'patch' so soon after the initial release suggests they need to improve their test team - or just carry on using the masses/forums to identify the faults for them - is that good business sense, I suppose it works for Microsoft.

btw I installed PGR3 on the HD last night and it's definitely faster. 6GB though!

Hmmm, might install PGR4 to my hard drive - although I'm noticing no slow down. Another title I started playing recently is MASS Effect - again no slow down. MASS Effect does have some pretty large RPG esque graphics - admittedly it does not try to change ther scenery as fast Fable 2.

Yah, the only thing I ever noticed with Mass Effect was a bit of texture pop-in, but you seem to get that with a lot of games these days, and I can't say as it bothers me.

I'm 32 and I've never grown out of liking childish stuff. Child at heart, and all that. I just like more stuff now.

Yeah I'm pretty much the same.

back on thread - I replaced my 5 week old XBox and Oblivion is running like a dream. So, sorry Lionhead it was Microsofts QA that let Fable 2 down, I'll be getting another copy.

@Big10p, yep you were right on the money - my 360 wasn't quite DOA, bit more like a long distance runner, but when it came to trying to sprint it blew chunks.

Morale of the story - if Oblivion or Fable2 runs like poo - your hardware is dodgy. Sad but true.

Well I'm glad you figured it out. It did sound like it might be a hardware problem, but I can understand that seeming like a slim possibility when the machine is brand new. The important thing is that you figured it out, fixed it and now you're ready to have a lot of fun with it over Christmas.

glad the new XBox fixed it! In a way it's good you had a game that made it obvious instead of realising months later it was crappy.

My copy of Fable2 ran like poo,
I thought the software was writ like goo.
It turned out my new xbox was suss,
maybe some memory was made of puss.
A replacement xbox was the way to go,
Now eye candy games don't run so slow.
I was so lucky to have some demanding games,
The xbox was bad - much to msoft's shames.
My cars in PGR4 now go so fast,
My new xbox makes games a blast.

Merry Christmas - no offence ment.