HOLY CRAP I’ve actually been playing something! Fable II has been monopolizing my gaming time just as the first one did when that came out oh so long ago. This sequel is more like an improved version of the first one which is completely fine with me. There’s more to do and what you choose has a more lasting and real affect on the world. I find myself splitting time with doing primary quests and just messing around. It’s become somewhat of a mini game to see how many wives I can accumulate but that quickly becomes a bit much to handle, much like what happens in real life. I’ll probably talk a bit more about it on the next BitCast.

Last night the wife, our friend and I went on a Friday Night Lights season 3 binge. I’ve been accumulating the episodes since this new season began and this was the first time we watched any of them. If you’ve never seen the show you might think you have to be a big football fan to enjoy it which really isn’t the case. The show really revolves around the characters and their relationships living in a football-obsessed town. The relatively unknown cast know their characters really well and that helps to let yourself get absorbed into their world.

This week in music has been filled with binging on The Decemberists since I’m going to their show tonight in Philly. They’re a very unique band in terms of sound and lyrics. I’ve often described them as “colonial”, like they should have been making music in the American Revolution period. Really they should be a really pretentious band but they’re melodies and hooks make them very welcoming.

That’s about the size of it for, What’cha Been Up To?

When the original Fable was released on the Xbox back in 2004, there were mixed reactions. On the one hand it under-delivered on everything Peter Molyneux had promised. It was so far short of the goal that it actually lead to Peter offering a public apology on his company’s official website. On the other hand? Despite not being the world we were promised, where our actions and the passage of time would have a true and lasting impact on everything we touched, Fable offered one of the best action-RPG experiences that we’d seen to date. No matter how far it fell short of the mark, Fable offered some amazingly addictive gameplay that easily ranks it in the top 5 games available for the original Xbox.

But what did they have in store for Fable II? Was it to be more of the same, or would Mr. Molyneux again shoot for the stars? And if he did, how close would he get before falling?

Continue Reading »

Remember all that hubbub Molyneux made about how people who exploited the glitch in Pub Games (that they supposedly left in there on purpose) would be punished in-game? Yeah, not so much.

Last night I finally made my to a gamemaster in town and merged my in-game hero with my Pub Games patron, complete with a small fortune in glitch-enabled gold. So far, not a single thing has happened to me and has also enabled me to start my in-game goal of marrying almost every woman I see. So far, three wives, two kids in two towns, all happy.

After I got done with playing Fable II I decided to load up Pub Games, which I haven’t done since the glitch-fix patch was released. When it prompted me to patch the game I declined and was still able to go in to the game, choose my in-game hero and continue to exploit the Fortune’s Tower glitch.

Good times.

Really though, it’s not like it’s all that hard to make money in Fable II. Blacksmithing and bartending both yield pretty good amounts of money so it’s not like I’m truly exploiting the system. At least that’s what I tell myself…and that I did this as “research” for you guys, our beloved readers.

One of the fall’s biggest releases dropped yesterday, a week before another prominent RPG hits. I had thought about passing this one over for now in favor of that other big RPG release but the draw down the path of evil was too great for me to resist…as usual.

I LOVED the original Fable game and after spending about 45 minutes with II this morning (and finishing the youngster portion of my nameless hero’s journey) it seems like this is a more polished version of the first game…so far, of course. The opening pre-rendered cut scene is absolutely gorgeous.

I don’t have much else to say about the game yet but I was wondering who else out there might be playing it and who’s globes I might see floating through my version of Albion.

Poor Major — he’s in a real predicament. His wife doesn’t normally play games so when she does it should be considered a real treat. I’m in a similar situation so I can sympathize — anything that doesn’t have the words Zuma or Warcraft in it may as well be greek to my wife. But how did he react when he came home and found his significant other playing Fable II Pub Games?

Not so good. You see, Mrs, Nelson had future-bankrupted his Fable II character. To paraphrase Louis CK, he’d have to raise 3600 gold to be broke.

Normally we try and steer away from linking to other peoples posts, but this one was too good to miss. Check out Major’s anguish here.