As I’m sure we’re all more than familiar, Peter Molyneux has a way of overpromising what the games Lionhead puts out are capable of in terms of content, context and ultimately we end up feeling well oversold on the experience – at which point Molyneux usually apologizes for overselling us on the game and tells us the next one will be better. Well, with Fable III set to release next week, I’ll be honest in saying that I’m pretty excited with what I’m seeing so far and thing it has the potential to be a cohesive experience, easily topping what was proffered in its two predecessors. After all, Molyneux has to be pretty well aware that if he can’t deliver on at least a small portion of what he’s promising – the entire gaming community is going to be pretty pissed off. So, it seems only fair, if not a bit late, to slip out a few requests that hopefully Lionhead might get a glimpse at and be so kind as to satiate a couple of fears before Fable III takes dominion over our 360s come next week.
10. An OPTION for a loyal pet: The dog in Fable II was all well and good, giving me a few laughs and smiles throughout my questing along with finding me tons and tons of treasure, potions and other gear – but I know for a fact that the mangy mutt more often than not got in the way for a great many players – driving them up the wall in a way that would have dictated a call to whatever digital equivalent was of the ASPCA. Sure, Molyneux came out prior to the release of the game and stated that not only would there be a dog in the game, but it would be ‘optional’, the option basically revolved around letting the dog die or not – which really just ended up making you feel like a complete douchebag when all was said and done. Maybe some people didn’t want to have a dog tailing them, no matter how cute or cinematically important it was. Take a clue from Bethesda with Dogmeat in Fallout 3 – the dog was adorably endearing despite being nothing more than creative coding and design – but the dog was ultimately able to be left with a babysitter of sort or would simply head back to the entrance of the vault and wait for you. Personally, that comes off as a better option than forcing a pet on someone – only to make them feel guilty for not taking care of something they really didn’t have the option for in the first place.
9. True Class Specialization: World of Warcraft pretty much has this down pat with seamlessly well-designed talent trees that make specifying what your character is capable of ability-wise and passively easy enough that just about anyone can do it, which if you’ve seen some of the players out there who’ve made it to level 80, believe me – it’s never been easier to fail upwards. Point being, with the ability to dither between magic, agility and strength – it has never felt compelling or truly capable of catering to any one play style – leaving the overall entirety feeling like an absolute mess of the highest order. So, Lionhead, it would be really great if you could make it possible for a spec’d character to feel a bit easier to play and let me decide what exactly I’d like to play as in a competently designed tree of abilities as opposed to something that comes off as nothing but a huge mess.
8. Expanded, Streamlined Relationship System: This is probably one of my bigger issues with Fable II in that targeting a particular person when a crowd of people who think your too cool for school surrounds you in a fit of adulation causes you to usually miss and more often than not, aggravate a spouse or potential spouse into a small fit of rage that usually calls for a culling of the relations one way or another. While I applaud Lionhead’s ability to make a player feel genuinely loved in the same way a Rockstar would feel after stepping off the stage at a concert – it still feels like people were surrounding me a la Invasion of the Body Snatchers more often than not, which often led to me becoming overwhelmed with the urge to slaughter my way out of a town due to the aggravation of being unable to move through a village because people loved me so much. A menu never killed anyone and it seems that since Lionhead isn’t bashful at all about those to begin with – so make everyone else’s lives easier and streamline it for the sake of getting things done in the world of Albion.
This feature top 10 list continues on the next page, please click below to see our next couple things Fable 3 needs to be epic.
