User:Fel64/Fable 2
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| Fable 2 (working title) | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Lionhead Studios |
| Publisher(s) | Microsoft Game Studios |
| Designer(s) | Peter Molyneux |
| Engine | Custom in-house |
| Platform(s) | Xbox 360 |
| Release date | TBA 2008 [1] |
| Genre(s) | RPG |
| Mode(s) | Single-Player, Multiplayer(possible) |
| Media | DVD-ROM |
Fable 2 is an upcoming video game for the Xbox 360, in development by Lionhead Studios and will be published by Microsoft Game Studios. It is a sequel of Fable and Fable: The Lost Chapters but is intended to have a somewhat darker, more mature feel. Announced in 2006, a release date of 2008 is planned [2]. The game will take place in Albion, 500 years after Fable's setting, in a colonial era resembling the time of highwaymen. Guns have now been developed and the entire area is more developed, with huge castles and cities in the place of towns. A general outline of the storyline is known, and multiplayer has been hinted at but not announced.
Contents |
[edit] Storyline
At the X06 speech about Fable 2 on September 29th 2006, Molyneux revealed the beginnings of the storyline (the rest of the speech is transcribed here):
Now let’s talk about the story, let’s talk about the opening of the story, as I said, you can be a man or a woman, the story starts in classic computer game style. It’s all about this bird, this regal bird, flying through this, oh this amazing, incredible landscape, through, down vales, over mountaintops, through city streets, the bird just comes to rest on the top of this, this tower, and, it takes a dump. The camera follows the dump down, it comes down, the crap lands on this kid’s head - that’s you. That’s the style of the game. You’re nobody, you’re nothing, you live in the sewers, everybody, you know, just disregards you. Your destiny is to be a truly great hero ...
The story has a baddy, who’s Lucien, we’re trying to make him the most cruel baddy you’ve ever seen, not evil, cruel. He is destined to build this tower, called the spire, that tower will end up five miles high, what you do with that tower is very much dependent on how you play the game, we are really going in, and anyone that saw the talk with Peter Jackson this morning and heard some of the things that I said will realize that I’m really into the world and the story connecting with you, what you are, so you will find the story slightly different when you play it, but you still will be able to talk about that, you are destined, in that story, to bring together a group of heroes rather like the Magnificent 7.
[edit] Dogs
The player will encounter a dog that will stay with them for the rest of the game. Molyneux has stated that the dog is an attempt to get the player to care, to experience love, when he annouced this feature at the GDC 2007. Every dog will be unique in some way and morph depending on a variety of factors such as alignment. The dog will assist the player by alerting him to threats (although never giving the player away) and so completely replacing the minimap, and attacking whatever enemies the player is weakest to, depending, for example, on the weapon drawn.
Obeying three main laws (do not aggravate the player; unconditionally love the player and self-preservation), the dog features advanced AI. Although the dog is not directly controllable, it will respond to the player's actions; moving to attack will bring it to attack, running somewhere will have the dog run. Behaviour is context-specific, and the dog will stay much closer in towns or when the player is hurt than when outside. He is to a degree trainable using expressions. [3]
[edit] Family
Another mechanism to get the player to care are families. The player is able to chat up anyone (of any gender) and get married. Marriages tend to degrade after about a year, with the hero's spouse becoming more and more demanding.The player may engage in protected or unprotected sex with NPCs of the opposite gender, which may result in a child. Female heroes can become pregnant and will have to take some time out at some point to have the child; Lionhead have something called hypermatter to simulate the body. The children will take after the player, although their ageing will end at some point and they will not have families of their own. [4] [5]
[edit] Dynamic World
Molyneux has stated that his aim is to create a dynamic, changing world on a large scale. Since the game will take place over a hero's lifetime, many things will change; he gave an example of a trade camp you could help or destroy that would later be a town or ruin. Additionally, every property in the world is ownable by the player, often unlocking further content such as quests. [6] [7]
[edit] Hints from the Teaser
Lionhead released a Fable 2 teaser video in 2006 and stated that it included 10 hints about the game's final content. During the GDC three things were revealed for sure; there may be others. The teaser can be found here.
- Playing as a male or female hero.
- Using guns.
- Dynamic regions.
Interestingly the dog was not alluded to in the teaser; what other hints there are is uncertain. They may have been revealed already. [8] [9]
[edit] Technology
The graphics engine is written in-house, but middleware is integrated for several other parts of the game. Havok is used for a physics engine and Kynapse is used for some AI. The engine is expected to take much of the Xbox 360's power, as leaves will be individually animated and 15 million poppies are already in the game. [10]
