Couple of Fable previews

[OC Noob]

Alright, anyone with an Xbox or even with out needs to read this first preview!
A taste:

"The real question remains: Is this the greatest RPG of all time? Having played so little of the game, I couldn't possibly answer this yet. However, I will say that it very well could be the greatest RPG ever -- I cannot dismiss that possibility."

"Express Yourself
Expressions are handled on the D-Pad and you'll gather dozens of them as your progress through the world of Albion. At first you get just a couple. You can laugh and fart, but you will learn a lot more useful expressions simply by interacting with the world. You'll learn to hit on girls (and guys), make sexy poses, offer a menacing growl, motion for people to follow you, flip the bird, say rude things about people, sneer, chuckle, compliment, and my favorite, the grind, where our hero asks, "Hey, baby, you wanna..." and then begins jack-hammering the air with his hips. Oh yes, this game has it all."

"Turn the page to find out how you can earn the name Lord Arseface and wield the Ultimate Frying Pan to cleanse the world of evil. No, really, that's all on the next page!"

"Evil and benevolent opportunities abound at every corner. Take, for example, the wasp head trophy I've won. Right after claiming my prize, I spot three old men sitting on a bench, looking at me in wonder. I display the trophy proudly and they give me props and boost my renown. Then I beat them to death with the trophy. Yes, you can be the most brutal tyrant to ever grace the world of Albion while still being its champion. I kicked the **** out of just about everyone I saw, because I wanted to see the lengths of brutality. You can go all the way with your sadism."

"In the end this allows for anyone to see your character for the first time, say halfway through your adventure, and immediately understand how you play. You think that's a joke, but it's not. Really, after having played some Fable and gotten a greater understanding of its workings, I can look at any of the characters in our videos and begin to understand their story. I can even get a sense of how powerful they are. That's pretty damn cool. Maybe not as cool as the natural progression and behind the scenes leveling up that was initially envisioned, but damn cool nonetheless."

"My first sight in Albion's largest town was a giant barrel. I'm thinking, "This is an RPG and in RPGs you go around and collect gold from broken barrels." So I smash the barrel. No big, right? Then I enter the pub it was in front of and a woman begins yelling at me about how I've destroyed her property. I have the choice to pay a small fine or tell her to flip off. You know which I chose. Then she calls the guards who begin entering the bar looking to tussle. It's no longer about surrendering or paying a fine, I have to get the hell out of town. But I'm relatively weak and there are a lot of guards. Hell, some of them are launching arrows at me, the ********. Then I notice this cool, calm, and collected bloke standing in the corner of the bar, dressed all in black. I go up to him in the midst of the melee and he tells me that he's an assassin for hire. So I pay him (more than the fine for breaking the barrel, mind you) and he begins taking on the guards. Hot damn. My next goal? Rather than run from town I smack the woman who called the fuzz. I begin to take my leave, only to hear the painful death howl of my hired assassin. The guards jump on me and kick my ass. When I wake up, I'm outside town and I've lost half my gold and am no longer welcome in Browerstone for a period of time."

"If you've got skill, you can decapitate an enemy and then play soccer with his head. Conversely, you can become the merciful one, who spares enemies when possible, helps even those who don't want to be helped, and offer gifts of charity to the impoverished. These things can be done throughout your journey in Fable."


http://xbox.ign.com/articles/537/537930p1.html


This game has instant classic written all over it.

OLD STUFF:

Saw these on another forum and they have some good info for anyone interested.


http://www.gamespot.com/xbox/rpg/fable/preview_6092322.html

http://www.1up.com/article2/0,2053,1554601,00.asp

http://xbox.ign.com/articles/502/502402p1.html?fromint=1

[spiritedandy]

:beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: ty

[OC Noob]

Originally posted by spiritedandy
:beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: ty


Glad you like.

I'm gidy like a little school girl for this one.

[Redstone]

I am definitely not saying other consoles are lame or anything, I am just really impressed with the quality of games finally out and on the horizon for Xbox. Some are rivaling the PC.

[OC Noob]

Originally posted by Redstone
I am definitely not saying other consoles are lame or anything, I am just really impressed with the quality of games finally out and on the horizon for Xbox. Some are rivaling the PC.

Speaking of the PC, the head of the Developement company said, in not so many words, that Fable may come to the PC. No other consoles, but if it gets ported it would be to PC.

[madcow235]

Well if they are having frame rate problems on the Xbox i would think the devs would say Hey we can't play this that great on Xbox but we made it so that it could play great if the hardware was better so lets release it on PC so everyone can see how amazing the game really is.

[wannaoc]

I am just really impressed with the quality of games finally out and on the horizon for Xbox. Some are rivaling the PC.
I agree. The shots of Doom3 for the xbox have been stunning even though I know PC will look better. ;)

[OC Noob]

Bump for a just about finished, finished product preview.


Lots of interesting info for those who haven't been following Fable closely.

http://games.kikizo.com/news/200408/010.asp


ps its out on September 11th or 15th, some where in that time frame.


ps this game is a revolutionary step in gaming (5 sims built into an action RPG to create a truely interactive world), not a set of Conga drums or extra gaming screens. Some devs need to sit up and take notice.

[KfistoRok]

I am definitely not saying other consoles are lame or anything, I am just really impressed with the quality of games finally out and on the horizon for Xbox. Some are rivaling the PC.

Someone sees the light. :attn:

Nice beaver noob.. :drool:

[OC Noob]

Someone sees the light. :attn:

Nice beaver noob.. :drool:


Thanks, I stuffed it this morning:D


ps man I can't believe this game isn't generating more hype around here.

[bojangles]

Thanks, I stuffed it this morning:D


ps man I can't believe this game isn't generating more hype around here.
Believe it, the tidal wave of awesome games on the horizon are stealing its righteous thunder.
This is Fable2, Joe Schmo hasn't heard of it, but then again, joe schmo isn't on this forum. I doubt it will be my favorite rpg after KOTOR2 though. I'll definately buy it.

[OC Noob]

Believe it, the tidal wave of awesome games on the horizon are stealing its righteous thunder.
This is Fable2, Joe Schmo hasn't heard of it, but then again, joe schmo isn't on this forum. I doubt it will be my favorite rpg after KOTOR2 though. I'll definately buy it.

It won't have as tight a story as KotOR (not sure about 2), but it does have quite a bit to offer that KotOR didn't. It also has hours and hours and hours of voice acted text which I loved about KotOR. It has combat like Zelda vs turn based, which might turn some RPG fans off.

I can't wait to get into the game kill everyone in a town, buy up the property cheap and then become a slum lord, lol. Burping, farting and womanizing should be interesting too.

I think it will be better then KotOR 1 or 2, but we'll see for sure soon. I'm a little worried that Bioware isn't doing KotOR 2, but given a decent story the sequal would be hard to screw up.

[OC Noob]

Alright, anyone with an Xbox or even with out needs to read this!


http://xbox.ign.com/articles/537/537930p1.html

[bojangles]

Funny, I missed the part about the Zelda combat. WOW, Ocaraina of Time is still my favoritist game ever. Ya it will be different than KoToR. It is beginning to sound a little like all that Morrowind wanted to be.
EDIT: Just for the people who won't read the preview: " I display the trophy proudly and they give me props and boost my renown. Then I beat them to death with the trophy." All I can say is coolest game ever?
EDIT part 2: Let the battle begin, Epic single player and the greatest multiplayer of any console game ever VS. The massively open endedness and just sheer quantity of potential for fun. I present: Halo2 vs. Fable.

[N1vek215]

The game looks great, seems very Morrowindish...which is a damn good thing. I guess not too much hype seeing as it's only for Xbox, and I myself only see previews in mags or occasionally online. I never see HGUE BANNERS POSTED everywhere about this game.

[OC Noob]

They advertise a lot in gaming mags. Atleast, the ones that cover all platforms. Not at all like Halo 2. I don't get MS sometimes. They are all about making money, but they are usually the worst when it comes to advertising.

[I.M.O.G.]

Alright, nice review, and now I want that hour of my life back so I can spend it playing the game. :)

[snyper1982]

This game is going to take up a LOT of my life..... i think i will be chicken punting, and killing innocents for many, many hours. This game is going to be awesome. I cannot wait.

[Hardin]

Drinks for everyone! :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer:

[OC Noob]

I like the stats it keeps.

Everytime you burp, fart, score with someone, punt a chicken, get married and anything else you can think of.

Its going to be fun to just beaotch slap someone if they annoy you. Like the lady with the barrel.

Sept. 16th, only a hair over a month to go.

I was mildly excited before reading that greatest preview article, now I'm a giddy school girl.

ps I thought they were removing the ability to "chat up" men in the game? I guess not.

[Hardin]

Check this out. http://www.canada.com/national/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=de1c864e-e541-42cc-bc99-f3755382cdc5
In the U.S., when he demos the game, the vast majority of people want to see the good side, Molyneux said. In Germany, it's the other way.
;)

[N1vek215]

Hmm, this game will offer lots and lots of replayability. I usually like being good, but I'll play first as good, then I'll go about whiping the face of the earth! MAuahAhAh

[masterchief]

There aren't enough drooling emoticons on this forum to express this game...

[Aslan]

Crud, now it looks like I might have to get an Xbox just to play this... I really hope a PC version is in the works. :-/

[OC Noob]

Its been said if it gets ported it would be to PC. Personally, I'd like it on PC because people could make so SWEET mods with it.

[bojangles]

ARG!!!!! I can't wait. I want it so bad I want to pee my pants. I can't even play Doom3 without thinking of how badass Fable will be. I need a life btw, or my lisence back.

[OC Noob]

ARG!!!!! I can't wait. I want it so bad I want to pee my pants. I can't even play Doom3 without thinking of how badass Fable will be. I need a life btw, or my lisence back.


You know what makes the waiting worse???

(This applies to almost all the great new games)

They don't come out until school starts, arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!

I've had 4 years school free, but they pick August, September, and November of this year to release their games :bang head:

Valve, ID, Bungie, Lionhead... I'll get you for this :temper:

[Aslan]

Its been said if it gets ported it would be to PC. Personally, I'd like it on PC because people could make so SWEET mods with it.

Yep, but my main hope (and what I should have said) is that I hope it's not like another Halo where it takes so long to come out on PC that I lose all interest.

[Dracknem]

Yep, but my main hope (and what I should have said) is that I hope it's not like another Halo where it takes so long to come out on PC that I lose all interest.


Or they program it really really badly.

[Methical_K]

There aren't enough drooling emoticons on this forum to express this game...

agreed.

i am going to enjoy trying to come up with ways to do evil things when the game comes out.

btw does anyone know when they started working on this game??? i've been following it since it was called Project Ego.

[OC Noob]

agreed.

i am going to enjoy trying to come up with ways to do evil things when the game comes out.

btw does anyone know when they started working on this game??? i've been following it since it was called Project Ego.


I thought it had been in developement for like 5 years, but in the preview didn't they say it was 3 years? How ever long its been it seems like a damn long time.

[snyper1982]

same here. it was shown on the back of the original xbox boxe's. I read about it a little, and i have been waiting ever since. The game is definately going to push RPG's to a whole new level.

[bojangles]

You know what makes the waiting worse???

(This applies to almost all the great new games)

They don't come out until school starts, arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!

I've had 4 years school free, but they pick August, September, and November of this year to release their games :bang head:

Valve, ID, Bungie, Lionhead... I'll get you for this :temper:
OMG! I know. It is terrble that they pick my Junior year for the greatest year of games ever. I can't express how screwed I am. :bang head I will HAVE to play these games. Atleast I'm not playing football this year. But ya I am spreading the word to my friends how cool this game is. This game will give us hours of fun untill Halo2 comes out(we are big halo fans). I really honestly hope HL2 gets delayed untill atleast May so I can enjoy these games w/o ruining my hopes of college.

[Jarlaxe]

Bojangles, thats kinda pathetic how you would put school last, considering that fact that you're almost in college. You know if you get really good grades, and say become a doctor, you will be able to buy whatever you want. You won't even think about overclocking because you can hire an expert to do your **** for you. Than you can say goodbye to obsolete comps, hell if i become a doctor I can afford a VoodooPc every month lol.

Back to Fable. This looks absolutely awsome. Guess what, I'm going to go out and buy an Xbox just for this game. Even though I generally hate console gaming, this looks like my dream RPG. Btw I got an 36' HDTV and I want to hook my Xbox to it, has anyone done this yet? Does it look better? Also is Fable going to be an HDTV game??

[snyper1982]

yes it does look better. MUCH better, especialy if the game supports 480p or 1080i.

[OC Noob]

Bojangles, thats kinda pathetic how you would put school last, considering that fact that you're almost in college. You know if you get really good grades, and say become a doctor, you will be able to buy whatever you want. You won't even think about overclocking because you can hire an expert to do your **** for you. Than you can say goodbye to obsolete comps, hell if i become a doctor I can afford a VoodooPc every month lol.

Back to Fable. This looks absolutely awsome. Guess what, I'm going to go out and buy an Xbox just for this game. Even though I generally hate console gaming, this looks like my dream RPG. Btw I got an 36' HDTV and I want to hook my Xbox to it, has anyone done this yet? Does it look better? Also is Fable going to be an HDTV game??


Naw, HS is so easy all you have to do is show up enough not to get kicked out. Unless you want to go to one of those really tough to get into schools, HS grades don't mean much. Anyway, being a D.O. or M.D. isn't worth it. You spend all your time working and have no time for playing with that Voodoo PC or overclocking for those of us who do it for a hobby. Doctors die young too. Way too many of them kicking the bucket in their 50's. Its no wonder with the 80 hours they put in a week. Thats why I went with pharmacy over D.O. You make a lot less, but you get to have a life outside of work.

Right, back to Fable. I haven't heard any official word on HD support, but a lot of games support 480p so hopefully Fable will to. Although, that article did mention some frame rate problems when there were a lot of enemies on screen, so maybe not. One thing is for sure it will look nice on the 36" TV (Tube I'm assuming since its 36"). Either way, use the HD pack for the Xbox or get the monster cables as the colors are noticably better then with RCA cables (composite or component, I get them confused, the yellow, white and red ones are sometimes called RCA cables).


As for developement time, Peter Molynux (SP?) said in this 40 minute interview its been 4 years. Heres the linkage.

http://games.kikizo.com/features/fable_vidint_feature.asp

Its pretty good, but not as good as the IGN preview.


EDIT:

Acording to this site, its supports 480p. Which means, what... that its 60 FPS vs 30 FPS. Thats what progressive does right? 60 full frames per second vs the standard 60 half frames per second of normal interlaced TV?

http://previews.teamxbox.com/xbox/700/Fable/p1

[bojangles]

Bojangles, thats kinda pathetic how you would put school last, considering that fact that you're almost in college. You know if you get really good grades, and say become a doctor, you will be able to buy whatever you want. You won't even think about overclocking because you can hire an expert to do your **** for you. Than you can say goodbye to obsolete comps, hell if i become a doctor I can afford a VoodooPc every month lol.
How did I say school was last? All I am saying is that if I want to get into UCSB I am not going to be playing that much Halo2 with my friends. If you were in your most important year of HS you would be ****ed if the most amazing year for games has to be in the year that requires the most work.
Anywho everyone I have introduced Fable too LOVES the idea of it. I really can't wait. It is almost like an action MMO w/o all the problems of an MMO.

[snyper1982]

thats correct noob. 60 full FPS. i like my tv because it upconverts all sources to 480p, unless of course its 1080i or 720p. its nice having no scan lines.

[Jarlaxe]

So 480, does that mean its going to be full screen, or the sides will be cut off? Does anyone have a pic with their Xbox on an HDTV?

[OC Noob]

480i and 480p are standard TV size.

I think 720p is 16:9 or what ever the wide screen mode is.

1080i... anyone???


I really need an HDTV.

[snyper1982]

1080i is also widescreen, and yes, the aspect ratio is 16:9.

-edit-
on another note, the game doesnt have to be in 1080i or 720p in order to run in widescreen. The simpsons hit and run supports widescreen, and it is only a 480p game. The game just has to support it.

[Jarlaxe]

1080i is not widescreen. I have 1080i on Comcast INHD channels, which broadcast HDTV 24/7(nature shows and ****) and its full screen. Then if I can also press compress on my TV remote and it makes it widescreen. But set at normal 1080i is full screen to me. BTW, I have a Toshiba 36" HDTV PureFlat with Colorstream(aka component connections.) Also does Xbox support progressive scan DVD? Last question: the microsoft xbox hdtv comes with cables, are they attached already, or can I swap them with my $60 monster components?

Also when I meant the sides cut off I mean Verticaly on the left and right. Not horizontaly top and bottom. I don't really like this mode I think its 720, and some channels broadcast that way. Like picture attached. I would hate to play the game like this.

[Mustanley]

Xbox does not support progressive scan for DVD because M$ did not want to pay royalities. However, the hardware does support progressive scan, so it can be enabled if you aren't afraid of modding your Xbox.

Also, 1080i runs at a resolution of 1080x1920 and 720p is 720x1280, both of which have an aspect ratio of 16x9. 720p is probably the best option of all modes because it is not interlaced, assuming your source media supports it.

[Jarlaxe]

Whats 16x9?? Sorry, I'm confused about this hdtv stuff.

[Mustanley]

16x9 is the horizontal to vertical aspect ratio.

The basics are at the following link.
http://www.cnet.com/4520-7874_1-5107912-1.html

[Jarlaxe]

Well, I guess I'm watching 16:9 ratio on a 4:3 tube. Thats why it seems just a tad stretched up. Is this how fable is going to be? or is it just going to be 4:3 hdtv?

[Jarlaxe]

So Fable is going to be 480p, so it that 4:3 regular size, just in HD quality?

[snyper1982]

ok, 1080i IS ABSOLUTELY widescreen. They may have different formats where it is presented in a 4x3 aspect ratio, much like 720p can be presented in a 4x3 aspect ratio, but in general, they presented in widescreen 16x9. Xbox games that support widescreen are anamorphic, in that it can be viewed as 16x9 or 4x3, without "stretching" the image, either horizontaly or veritcaly depending on your setup. Much like watching a widescreen movie on a widescreen tv, you have to set your dvd player to recognize the fact that you are wathing on a 16x9 display, you must do the same in the xbox dashboard. As well as selecting what formats your Set supports. To anser your question jarlaxe, yes 480p is for the most part 4x3, but it can also support widescreen.

[OC Noob]

1080i is not widescreen. I have 1080i on Comcast INHD channels, which broadcast HDTV 24/7(nature shows and ****) and its full screen. Then if I can also press compress on my TV remote and it makes it widescreen. But set at normal 1080i is full screen to me. BTW, I have a Toshiba 36" HDTV PureFlat with Colorstream(aka component connections.) Also does Xbox support progressive scan DVD? Last question: the microsoft xbox hdtv comes with cables, are they attached already, or can I swap them with my $60 monster components?

Also when I meant the sides cut off I mean Verticaly on the left and right. Not horizontaly top and bottom. I don't really like this mode I think its 720, and some channels broadcast that way. Like picture attached. I would hate to play the game like this.

Do you have a link to the Xbox HDTV? I remeber a non-HDTV that radio shack was selling (RCA I think), but not an HDTV. This is what I am think of (VPort).

http://www.rca.com/product/viewmodellist/browseproduct/0,2589,CI700226,00.html?

[Jarlaxe]

None, of those are HDTV... What is an Xbox HDTV? There is no such thing, any hdtv will run xbox the way its meant. LOL, i think u are confused.

[Amino]

Bojangles, thats kinda pathetic how you would put school last, considering that fact that you're almost in college. You know if you get really good grades, and say become a doctor, you will be able to buy whatever you want. You won't even think about overclocking because you can hire an expert to do your **** for you. Than you can say goodbye to obsolete comps, hell if i become a doctor I can afford a VoodooPc every month lol.

Back to Fable. This looks absolutely awsome. Guess what, I'm going to go out and buy an Xbox just for this game. Even though I generally hate console gaming, this looks like my dream RPG. Btw I got an 36' HDTV and I want to hook my Xbox to it, has anyone done this yet? Does it look better? Also is Fable going to be an HDTV game??

Trust me, High School is a joke. I got straight A's, didn't study once and got into UT Austin, and now I'm heading off to medical school in January. Yup, I'm going to become a doctor. LOL.

And yes, the game's going to be HD Compatible.

[Jarlaxe]

So is it going to be 4:3 480p? So semi HD? Or did you mean 720p 1080i(true HDTV)?

[OC Noob]

None, of those are HDTV... What is an Xbox HDTV? There is no such thing, any hdtv will run xbox the way its meant. LOL, i think u are confused.


This oddly worded sentence confused me. "microsoft xbox hdtv"... similar to microsoft xbox tv, as in the RCA unit. You must be talking about some sort of HDTV Xbox package or something. If that is the case, you will probably need to get a monster or generic monster cable set up specifically for the Xbox.

Last question: the microsoft xbox hdtv comes with cables, are they attached already, or can I swap them with my $60 monster components?

[Mustanley]

Yeah, my roommate has an "Xbox ready" TV, whatever that means.

[snyper1982]

yeah i have seen those "XBOX ready" tvs as well. it seems like all they are is EDTV. Basicaly they are a SDTV, that has progressive scanning capabalities.

jarlaxe, yes you can switch the component cables to your moster cables. The xbx HD connector is a box that plugs into your xbox, and you plug your component cable into the HD box, and from there to your tv. it DOES come with component cables, but you can use any component cables you want.

NOOB, he was meaning the HD connector for the xbox. Not an actual, XBOX HDTV.

and i will go out on a limb and say the game will most definately NOT be in either 1080i or 720p. I tried UNREAL championship in 1080i, and while it looked spectacular, the framerates just werent quite there. they have been having troubles with keeping the framerates up in this game, so i highly doubt it will playable at those resolutions, 480p is as good as its going to get it looks like. which, as far as i know, is standard for ALL xbox games.

[Jarlaxe]

Can anyone help me find the Xbox Hi Definition AV Pack somewhere PLS. Not monster cabes one.. I have looke online and local and its sold out everywhere. PLS Help lol! Even Newegg is out of stock with no ETA. I really need it soon, and am deparate to find one fast. Much help appreciated!!!

[Mustanley]

I can't find the Hi Def Pack locally either. I have probably checked 8 or 10 different retailers.

[snyper1982]

try ebay? maybe gogamer?

[OC Noob]

I can't find the Hi Def Pack locally either. I have probably checked 8 or 10 different retailers.


I know Jarlaxe isn't looking for the moster style cables, but if you don't mind, Best Buy carries the monster brand and the generic/off brand monster cable knock offs like I have for only about $10 more then the official MS HD pack.

Its nice (the generic one) because you can use the box that hooks up to the back of the Xbox to conect composite, component cable, S-Video and optical audio in any configuration you want.

I don't believe the monster or the MS HD pack offers that kind of flexability, but I could be wrong.

[Mustanley]

Last two times I checked the local Best Buy there weren't any brand of HD packs.

I don't even have a HD tv, but I want to use one of those HD Packs in combination with a HD->VGA converter and connect it to my Proxima MM projector.

[YellowDart]

Haven't really read what's been posted here.... but...

MAN I CAN'T FREAKIN WAIT TILL TEH FABLE IS OUT!!!!!!!1ONE

Fable == :drool: :drool: :drool:

[Jarlaxe]

Guess what...NEWEGG HD PACK IS IN STOCK!! W00t, I just ordered.

[Jarlaxe]

WTF, it says this order is VOID???

edit: GODDAMN NEWEGG!!! IT NOW SAY OUT OF STOCK!! I ordered it immediately when it said in stock, and now its out of stock?? GOD I AM SO PISSED.

Edit: Ok, try buy.com its in stock and ships in 1-2 days for those interested.

Edit: Ok, no clue wtf Newegg is up to. First it says out of stock, then it changes to instock, than I reload page and it says out of stock. Anyone else getting this crap?

[Amino]

Can anyone help me find the Xbox Hi Definition AV Pack somewhere PLS. Not monster cabes one.. I have looke online and local and its sold out everywhere. PLS Help lol! Even Newegg is out of stock with no ETA. I really need it soon, and am deparate to find one fast. Much help appreciated!!!

Why not use the monster cables?

[Jarlaxe]

Cause monster cables are more expensive, and besides I will just get the adapter and use my $60 dollar monster cables lying around.

[snyper1982]

the cool thing about the monster cable ones, is that it also has an Optical out on it, if im not mistaken. But to be honest, i doubt VERY seriously, you will notice a difference between your $60 monster component cables, or the generic ones the xbox comes with. But if youve got it, use it. :)

[Amino]

the cool thing about the monster cable ones, is that it also has an Optical out on it, if im not mistaken. But to be honest, i doubt VERY seriously, you will notice a difference between your $60 monster component cables, or the generic ones the xbox comes with. But if youve got it, use it. :)

Xbox doesn't come with component cables.

[Jarlaxe]

He meant the M$ Xbox hd pack...I think. Also, I'v posted this in general hardware, but: My tv says it upconverts all signals to 1080i. How will this work with an xbox and 480p?

[snyper1982]

yes, i did mean the HD pack, and im not sure how that will work. what model TV do you have again?

[westau]

my roommate just bought an xbox, hopefully he will buy this when it comes out

[Amino]

He meant the M$ Xbox hd pack...I think. Also, I'v posted this in general hardware, but: My tv says it upconverts all signals to 1080i. How will this work with an xbox and 480p?

Basically, upconverting is like pressing the fullscreen button on windows media player when it's playing a video that doesn't fill up the whole screen. However, it doesn't lose clarity becasue your TV will extrapolate pixels and colors, based on what's around the pixels in the original video image. It's a lot more complicated than what I'm tell you, but upconverting to 1080i simply means making the picture bigger so it fills the whole TV screen instead of being all small and having a bunch of black around the picture.

I don't know why they bother making games at 480p or even 720p though, when it is entirely possible to make all games 1080i. Enter the Matrix is the only 1080i game out there (I think) for Xbox, or any console for that matter. I suppose it's because not all HDTVs can produce 1080i pictures, and they don't want people with the "wrong" TV to be unable to play the game they just bought.

[Mustanley]

From what I have seen, 720p is optimal even though it is lower resolution than 1080i. Interlaced displays loose quality when displaying fast motion and also have a more pronounced flicker.

This page has some good examples and comparisons.
http://alvyray.com/DigitalTV/Naming_Proposal.htm

[OC Noob]

Yeah, 720p is the best quality despite its lower resolution. Now when the next gen systems are out they might be capable of 1080p, which would be sweet.

[Jarlaxe]

I have a toshiba 36hf73 i think, HDTV for sure.

[snyper1982]

i agree on 720p being beter. unreal championship is 1080i, i believe. Not positive, but it may only be 720p. anyways, the reason they do them in 420p, is because the framerates drop tremendously when you go to a high def res. I noticed quite a large drop in performance running unreal in high def as opposed to standard res.

[snyper1982]

you sure your tv upconverts to 1080i? i have heard of upconverting to 540p, but not all the way to 1080i, it seems to me that it would look HORRIBLE. lol.

[Jarlaxe]

Well, I gave you the model number Toshiba 36hf73. It says 1080i, but I have the 540p option as well. I think that 1080i and 540p are the exact same thing, except that 540p is progressive.

[Jarlaxe]

According to Amino it doesn't look worse, its just blown up to fit the screen. Gah, I;m so damn confused. Still waiting till Saturday when Costco get the Xbox to buy it.

[snyper1982]

no, 1080i, and 540p are not the exact same. i am not saying it WILL look horrible, im just saying it seems to me that it would. but if it looks good, then more power to ya. :)

[John G]

A lot of people say Xbox video essentially = Geforce4 MX. Which, isn't exactly true. The GPU portion is actually fullblown Geforce4+ (extra vertex shader or something like that - I forget exactly), but the memory bandwith is what's more on par with the MX. Since the xbox operates at low resolutions, the memory bandwith isn't a problem at all and real world performance is well above MX capabilities. If resolution gets cranked up for 720p or 1080i and such, then the memory bandwith becomes and problem. Any game that would run at 720p or 1080i on the Xbox okay really isn't utilizing its full capabilities anyway....so, don't expect to see it on a good game.

If a game allows you to run 480p, that's great. Run your HDTV's in native 480p (with native aspect ratio) if you can. Many can upconvert, but it'll be as good visually at best, maybe slightly worse.

HDTV standards are a huge mess right now...nothing is truely standardized. So, try not to worry or obsess about not being able to figure out how you're supposed to get things to run perfect and ideal. Generally, you can't. We're going to have low res, up converting, and black bars on the screen for a long time still. Almost makes you wonder why to even bother buying an HDTV...

John G

[John G]

Yeah, 720p is the best quality despite its lower resolution. Now when the next gen systems are out they might be capable of 1080p, which would be sweet.

Even if they do, good luck finding a TV that is capable of displaying it. Very few TVs even now can run 720p. Half the ones that do are massively expensive (but they are awesome TV's). The other half are....not good. LCD based projection TV's and such...bleh. The Samsung DLP TV's are pretty darn good and not insanely expensive at least...and 720p capable. They're not the norm, though.

John G

[Jarlaxe]

Ya, thats the problem, my HDTV is native res of 1080i so it will upconvert always.

[Cowboy X]

Screenies : http://firingsquad.com/media/gallery_index.asp?media_id=23

[TheGreySpectre]

(prepares to get excited if it is officially anounced that their will be a PC port)

LOoks like an awesome game but my 2 favorite RPGs are still Planescape:Torment and Fallout 2

[OC Noob]

Even if they do, good luck finding a TV that is capable of displaying it. Very few TVs even now can run 720p. Half the ones that do are massively expensive (but they are awesome TV's). The other half are....not good. LCD based projection TV's and such...bleh. The Samsung DLP TV's are pretty darn good and not insanely expensive at least...and 720p capable. They're not the norm, though.

John G

I have looked at the DLPs, but am trying to wait 3 years to finish school, again.

I'm sure things will be quite different then, so looking now does no good, but its still fun:D

[John G]

I have looked at the DLPs, but am trying to wait 3 years to finish school, again.

I'm sure things will be quite different then, so looking now does no good, but its still fun:D

Yep... I don't know if you noticed an article by Ed a while back that talked about future LCD and Plasma panel prices. He noted that Asian companies were dumping massive amounts of money into increasing manufacturing capacity. And, signs show that supply has already managed to saturate demand at current prices. So, when the hugely increased production hits, they will have to lower their prices and lot and start being a lower margin business in order to increase demand enough to sell anywhere close to all of what they produce. It was estimated that prices would end up being half or less of what they are now in a few years.

So, we might be looking at fairly high end plasma displays for prices comparable to what the Samsung DLP's are now... Which, I would expect to see either the DLP projection sets drop down to just a little above what current basic CRT based projection sets sell for, or them just drop off the market completely if they can't swing the lower price.

Will have to watch and see how much they might try to skimp and cut corners on the internal electronics, though... That's usually the first thing that gets the axe. Kinda like with PC monitors, the cheaper ones often are not capable of high refresh rates like more expensive ones due to the internal electronics. And, that's usually not the only corner they cut either.

John G

[OC Noob]

Yep... I don't know if you noticed an article by Ed a while back that talked about future LCD and Plasma panel prices. He noted that Asian companies were dumping massive amounts of money into increasing manufacturing capacity. And, signs show that supply has already managed to saturate demand at current prices. So, when the hugely increased production hits, they will have to lower their prices and lot and start being a lower margin business in order to increase demand enough to sell anywhere close to all of what they produce. It was estimated that prices would end up being half or less of what they are now in a few years.

So, we might be looking at fairly high end plasma displays for prices comparable to what the Samsung DLP's are now... Which, I would expect to see either the DLP projection sets drop down to just a little above what current basic CRT based projection sets sell for, or them just drop off the market completely if they can't swing the lower price.

Will have to watch and see how much they might try to skimp and cut corners on the internal electronics, though... That's usually the first thing that gets the axe. Kinda like with PC monitors, the cheaper ones often are not capable of high refresh rates like more expensive ones due to the internal electronics. And, that's usually not the only corner they cut either.

John G

No, I didn't see that. Thanks for the heads up. I will definitly be waiting then. That is cool. Sounds like my $3000 will buy a much better unit if I stick it out. Waiting is so hard, but maybe they will have some decent 1080p units by then.

[Jarlaxe]

maube, lol, for sure! In fact you can buy 1080p now, it only costs around 9k.

[Jarlaxe]

Anyways, lets get off T.V.'s and go on to about Fable.

After reading basically every review out there, and looking at all the screens so far. I am really impressed overall with this game. In fact, I believe that this will probably be the best game to ever hit Xbox, or any console for that matter. Though there are some things that I don't really like about Fable. So here they are, your opinions on these are welcome(in fact I want to know what you think).

1. There are no sheilds in the game, at all. -This is kind of bad for me because if you want to be a warrior with a big sheild, basically a real tank, it won't be possible.

2.You block everything with your sword. -What if you are a wizard(aka trained in Will) do you block with your staff? Or are you soley reliant on casting sheilds?

3. You cannot swim in the game at all. -I believe this takes away a huge part of exploration, I was hoping that there would be secret islands and such where you would have to swim to.

4.BIGGEST LETDOWN EVER RECORDED IN AN RPG!! YOU CANNOT NAME YOUR CHARACTER!!!!- Ok wtf were the guys at BBB thinking when they did this?? I don't want to purchase titles like the Dark Avenger because that is Super Ghey. Unfortunately, that is exactly what we will be doing. So you think that you will have a cool name like something RPGish ex:Thor. Nope most likely you will be Freedom Adventurer, ya some bs like that.

5. You cannot kill children... -Um how freeform is that? Yes, my fireball annihalted the entire town, yet the children remain unharmed. Really stupid in my opinion. Sure you can play soccer with a severed head, but god forbid you kill a child! This attachement is how cool it was before: :temper:

6.There is no dialogue tree at all. -Yes and no are the only 2 options of saying what you want? DUMB! Baldurs Gate 2 always had many different things you could say, which was really awsome. In Fable it could be like this: some child runs up to you and says :"Hey mister are you gay" You reply:"No," or yes if you are.. Wow, what a great interesting conversation. Its sooo deep. In BG2 you could have been like:"How bout I rip out your tongue and feed it to your cat" See how much cooler that can be? :o

7. Average time to beat it is 40hours. -Sorry, but in the RPG world this is really low. Hell that like 1 week. Only three things you can spend points in: Strenght, Will, Stealth(or whatever its called). I was hoping for maybe a speech skill, for persuasion, but then again there is no dialogue tree... Oh well. :-/

8. The only race are humans. -This kinda sucks because I wanted to be a huge orc with a 2handed battleaxe.. :-/

9. The body figures look out of proportion. -Seems like some parts of the body are not in proportion to each other. :confused:

10. When you are evil you grow horns, when you are good you have butterflies flying around you. -OK EXTREMELY PATHETIC. Just because of the whole butterfly thing, I will never be good again. Also what if I want to be evil and not have ghey horns? And what if you are not evil nor are you good? Do you have horns and butterflies??

I can see how this game is still not fully explored by anyone who reviewed it yet. Even Ign said they only got 2 hours to play with it. Therefore, they did not see much or do anything but fool around. Hopefully, before the game is released we will see things such as sheild, since I imagine it would not be difficult to put them in. Opinions anyone?

[John G]

*strengthens grip on Morrowind box* ....

[OC Noob]

Anyways, lets get off T.V.'s and go on to about Fable.

After reading basically every review out there, and looking at all the screens so far. I am really impressed overall with this game. In fact, I believe that this will probably be the best game to ever hit Xbox, or any console for that matter. Though there are some things that I don't really like about Fable. So here they are, your opinions on these are welcome(in fact I want to know what you think).

1. There are no sheilds in the game, at all. -This is kind of bad for me because if you want to be a warrior with a big sheild, basically a real tank, it won't be possible.

2.You block everything with your sword. -What if you are a wizard(aka trained in Will) do you block with your staff? Or are you soley reliant on casting sheilds?

3. You cannot swim in the game at all. -I believe this takes away a huge part of exploration, I was hoping that there would be secret islands and such where you would have to swim to.

4.BIGGEST LETDOWN EVER RECORDED IN AN RPG!! YOU CANNOT NAME YOUR CHARACTER!!!!- Ok wtf were the guys at BBB thinking when they did this?? I don't want to purchase titles like the Dark Avenger because that is Super Ghey. Unfortunately, that is exactly what we will be doing. So you think that you will have a cool name like something RPGish ex:Thor. Nope most likely you will be Freedom Adventurer, ya some bs like that.

5. You cannot kill children... -Um how freeform is that? Yes, my fireball annihalted the entire town, yet the children remain unharmed. Really stupid in my opinion. Sure you can play soccer with a severed head, but god forbid you kill a child! This attachement is how cool it was before: :temper:

6.There is no dialogue tree at all. -Yes and no are the only 2 options of saying what you want? DUMB! Baldurs Gate 2 always had many different things you could say, which was really awsome. In Fable it could be like this: some child runs up to you and says :"Hey mister are you gay" You reply:"No," or yes if you are.. Wow, what a great interesting conversation. Its sooo deep. In BG2 you could have been like:"How bout I rip out your tongue and feed it to your cat" See how much cooler that can be? :o

7. Average time to beat it is 40hours. -Sorry, but in the RPG world this is really low. Hell that like 1 week. Only three things you can spend points in: Strenght, Will, Stealth(or whatever its called). I was hoping for maybe a speech skill, for persuasion, but then again there is no dialogue tree... Oh well. :-/

8. The only race are humans. -This kinda sucks because I wanted to be a huge orc with a 2handed battleaxe.. :-/

9. The body figures look out of proportion. -Seems like some parts of the body are not in proportion to each other. :confused:

10. When you are evil you grow horns, when you are good you have butterflies flying around you. -OK EXTREMELY PATHETIC. Just because of the whole butterfly thing, I will never be good again. Also what if I want to be evil and not have ghey horns? And what if you are not evil nor are you good? Do you have horns and butterflies??

I can see how this game is still not fully explored by anyone who reviewed it yet. Even Ign said they only got 2 hours to play with it. Therefore, they did not see much or do anything but fool around. Hopefully, before the game is released we will see things such as sheild, since I imagine it would not be difficult to put them in. Opinions anyone?


1) Yeah, shields would have been cool.

2) Not sure, but you will have some form of weapon and that will probably used for defense (using blocking button).

3) Swimming would have been nice, in Fable 2 in another 5 years, lol.

4) I thought you could name your character, but you get titles so NPC will be able to call you by the title. Where as, they can't do voice acting for the name you make up for your character. So titles are just to give the game a more immersive, personal feel.

5) You posted the famous dead kid screen shot that forced BBB to remove the option to kill children. Had that not been released (I think it was unauthorized) you would still be able to kill children. I don't see it as a big deal, because killing children really doesn't apeal to me no matter how evil my character is.

6) The dialoge was replaced with expressions. There are tons and tons of expresions and you are suposed to use them in place of conversation. This is another one of those things put in to give the game a more natural feel and from one of the videos, it allegedly works very well.

7) They said if you run straight through doing only what you have to it won't be all that long, but there are endless side quests and other things that can easily extent play well, well over 40 hours. You can assign experience to attributes ranging from strength to skill (distance) at kicking chickens. There should be tons of skills to use exp on.

8) The more races the better, maybe Fable 2;)

9) The art is unique. i don't like it too much, but I can deal with it. Although, with some of thoughs suits of armor and clothing you can make your character look pretty freakin sweet.

10) I like the horns. A Halo and butterflys seems a bit lame to me as well, but I doubt I will ever play extremely good and have either of the two.


ps some of this might be wrong, but to the best of my knowledge its not.

pps its nice to get back to Fable!

[Jarlaxe]

The kid pic rocks! See, I would love to do that while everyone is watching me, so that they can trully phear me!!!! MUAHAHAHhahahAHAHA

[OC Noob]

http://xbox.ign.com/articles/542/542632p1.html

Frist review and Fable got a Ninja Gaiden like score, so I guess its a great game, but best of all time, no. I just hope there is something to do after the quests are done. i.e. the 3rd layer that IGN talks about.

[amazon10x]

WTH cares if its HDTV or what? As long as if I can see the screen I'll be happy! This game looks like the end-all-get-all of RPGs. Who need EQ2 when there's Fable?

[Banyan]

WTH cares if its HDTV or what?

no shi*!!! im the type that can't hear a dif between shn and mp3, digital and regular cable etc...

this is going to be a pretty big game. looking forward to kingdom under fire also...

damn that guys review at ign just teased the hell out of me... and once again have to wait over two weeks for this. i think this looks much better than kotor but we'll see.

[John G]

This game looks like the end-all-get-all of RPGs.

I wouldn't say that at all. I have little doubt that I will find aspects that I miss from games like Morrowind, SW:KOTOR, BG2, etc... I would say that it looks like a very refreshing new direction for RPG's with a large "fun" potential. Likely a game that PS2 RPGers would be extremely jealous of if they weren't such big Square/Enix fanboys. FF X-X-VIII PWNS!!!!

John G

[OC Noob]

I wouldn't say that at all. I have little doubt that I will find aspects that I miss from games like Morrowind, SW:KOTOR, BG2, etc... I would say that it looks like a very refreshing new direction for RPG's with a large "fun" potential. Likely a game that PS2 RPGers would be extremely jealous of if they weren't such big Square/Enix fanboys. FF X-X-VIII PWNS!!!!

John G

FF XXIIIIXXXIIX, lol.

Yeah, it could have been SO much more and been the best RPG... hell best game ever, but it apears the technology/ability is not there yet.

There isn't enough power to make all of the things like NPCs and environments age with time and the BBB team didn't have the ability to make a great sotry like KotOR or open environments like Morrowind.

That being said, I too like the way its taking RPGs and think it will be a great freaking game. Just guessing it will probably be my favorite even though features have been trimmed back and cut like nobodies business.

Heck, you can still flirt with other women so your wife gets pissed and yells at them. Then take it a step further by giving the ladies gifts in front of your wife so she takes off to the bar and gets ****faced and screams at you.

Now that is something you won't get in other RPGs:D

[John G]

FF XXIIIIXXXIIX, lol.

Yeah, it could have been SO much more and been the best RPG... hell best game ever, but it apears the technology/ability is not there yet.

There isn't enough power to make all of the things like NPCs and environments age with time and the BBB team didn't have the ability to make a great sotry like KotOR or open environments like Morrowind.

That being said, I too like the way its taking RPGs and think it will be a great freaking game. Just guessing it will probably be my favorite even though features have been trimmed back and cut like nobodies business.

Heck, you can still flirt with other women so your wife gets pissed and yells at them. Then take it a step further by giving the ladies gifts in front of your wife so she takes off to the bar and gets ****faced and screams at you.

Now that is something you won't get in other RPGs:D

Yep, it's almost like an RPG version of the Sims or something...the funnest parts will probably be when you just say "screw the story line" and start messing around.

Getting off topic...

I think RPGs are getting to the point where the bottleneck on making an excellent game is in the programmers creating CONTENT. Looking at how long it took for games like Morrowind and Fable to be finished...it didn't take them very long at all to start putting out screenies of the games and stuff showing that they had the engines and such very far along...but then they spend years more just building up content...still never truely reaching all their goals.

In order to make a game take a step up in quality from what's already out there developers simply have to pile on more people, take more time, extend the schedule, spend more money...it's hard to keep doing that. Efficiency probably drops the more you do it, too.

I think the next big step for RPGs will be creating semi-intelligent construction sets for creating content. Basically, construction set software that with some input information can automatically generate landscape, buildings, towns...complete with unique plants, trees, hills, rooms, buildings... Then have a programmer look through it... If they like it, touch it up a bit, modify a tad, and use it. If not, randomly generate another. Also generate people and creatures to an extent. They need to start borrowing more from the sports games industry on achieving realistic movements and motion too. Gear up more like the movie industry with voice acting, character animations, music & sound, and story/dialogue writers. Basically, drastically increase the power of a programmer to create a large quantity of content and the speed and ease at which they can do it. Being a designer myself in a different type of industry, I fully know that a person can do a lot better job intelligently creating content when they're equipped with tools that allow them to spend most of their time focusing on WHAT they're creating rather than HOW they have to create it.

I don't think we'll see any huge across the board improvements in RPGs until developers make significant strides in that direction. I can easily see a Bioware or a Bethesda doing it though...Elder Scrolls series already puts a lot of focus on their Construction Sets and Bioware already puts a lot of people into their characters (voice acting and such).

[Cowboy X]

According to Gamestop , Fable is gold and will be available for purchase on 2004/09/13 .

[YellowDart]

Teh thread == resurrected fellaz.

Feast yer eyes on the first Fable review. Gamespot's got it first. :D They rated it pretty well for gamespot... their reviewers rate EVERYTHING low.

http://www.gamespot.com/xbox/rpg/fable/review.html?q=1&tag=gs_xbox_flashtop_bg

[Cowboy X]

I'll wait for the Firingsquad review .

[Dracknem]

psst, YellowDart, you're a lil late. ign and some x-box sites had reviews first. "A" for effort tho. :)

Someone even noted in this thread that it got a 9.3 on ign, the same score as Ninja Gaiden.


Ooh, and one thing they could prolly use for Fable 2 is a professional story writer, tho I haven't played through the story (or gotten the game) yet. Just going by what reviewers say.

[Amino]

I'm not expecting much. The last bath of games were supposed to be AMAZING adn I was like "meh, they coulda done a lot better, because I've been WOWed before, and well, I'm not WOWed."

I know I'll like it, but I'm trying not to hype it up in my mind that much right now so I'm not left with a bad taste in my mouth and bad words in my head.

[Redstone]

I'm not waiting for any reviews. I will be getting it early. I like RPG's and haven't had time to play a RPG since Arx Fatalis last fall.

[OC Noob]

Teh thread == resurrected fellaz.

Feast yer eyes on the first Fable review. Gamespot's got it first. :D They rated it pretty well for gamespot... their reviewers rate EVERYTHING low.

http://www.gamespot.com/xbox/rpg/fable/review.html?q=1&tag=gs_xbox_flashtop_bg


I was waiting for this one. Thanks.

Some where in the 8-8.9 range is what most people at Xboxaddict expected. I guess Gamespot usually isn't kind to Xbox exclusives.

It wasn't a bad review though, but I would have expected about a 9 from what he wrote.


One thing have noticed is that the 3 reviews seem to contadict each other in some ways. i.e. Gamespot said NPC will repeat themselves once in a while, while XBN said they repeat constantly and it was very, very anoying. There have been a few examples like this.

I wonder if the game is very different depending on playing style. Although, one said the slow down sometimes was bad while the other two said it wasn't a big deal and thats really got nothing to do with gameplay.

Wierd.