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Fable 2 360

Format:
360

Genre:
Adventuring

Style:
Thirdperson
Singleplayer
Cooperative

Buy/Support:
Support Melrose, click to buy via us...

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Other GamePeople columnists have reviewed this from their perspective - huh?:
Family Guide Gamer (360)
Family Gamer (360)
Soulful Gamer (360)
Perpetual Gamer (360)
Teen Gamer (360)
Eclectic Gamer (360)
Frugal Gamer (360)
Intimate Gamer (360)
Podcast (360)
Odyssey Gamer (360)

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I love playing games after a long day teaching at school and it's a great way to escape for a while. Fable 2 was one of our family's must have games from last year but for some reason I only managed to play it for a few hours before it was consigned to the pile of unfinished titles. My two sons on the other hand spent many hours on it and both finished it to varying degrees of 'completeness'.

So when a friend recently started talking about how much he was enjoying it I started contemplating picking it up for another whirl. At the same time my elder son was having a second run through the game and while I was watching him pounding iron in the blacksmiths I noticed the eyes on his character glowing a menacing red. Amid the 'chink' of the hammer against steel and the hissing of his blades plunging into the quenching vats, he explained that this was because his character was evil this time around.

But surely this must just be a graphical glitch since my holier-than-thou character also developed 'red-eye' for a while, and I wasn't evil - well not very.

But all this talk had my fingers twitching and I was ready to invest some serious time. Especially as this also coincided with both children abandoning the 360 for a while to concentrate on their World of Warcraft characters - conveniently leaving it unattended for periods never before witnessed!

And I'm very glad I got the chance - though it has meant a couple of longer than sensible playing sessions and a few bleary eyed mornings. I loved the unbelievable depth and layers of Fable 2 - such a lot of effort has gone into the most trivial things that you are almost always noticing something new or smiling at the antics of the inhabitants, human and other, of Albion. Just a few of my favourites: the brilliantly caustic gargoyles - "come back and kiss my stony ass"; weird ramblings of drunkards and dreaming citizens (I'm sure I heard someone mumbling about "not forgetting the jam" and another rather pleadingly declaring "no - not the tofu!"); the delightfully sleazy Bloodstone with its grotesque prostitutes and Stephen Fry voiced sexually ambiguous Reaver.

I was playing one evening while my youngest was in the room and I was visiting my family. A quick sock puppet show to keep their spirits up was followed by gifts of a wooden sword and teddy bear. "You never treat us like that" a voice piped up behind me - to which I replied "well, that's because they're always pleased to see me and don't give me as much grief as you do".

I've just this evening finished the last few pieces of the game - finally amassing sufficient gold to purchase Castle Fairfax and do the last mini-dungeon. At the end of this one you get the chance to drink a 'change sex' potion - so I thought "what the hell" and tried it. I got some funny looks from the inhabitants of Albion and although my children just seemed to accept it and started calling me Mum, my wife was, shall we say, not impressed - she still loved me, but not in 'that' way anymore!

Written by Melrose Fish

You can support Melrose by buying Fable 2



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Melrose Fish writes the Teaching Gamer column.

"Welcome to my teaching Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, DS lite and PSP game reviews. As well as being a parent of a teenager who is learning languages at school, I'm also fluent in French, and a trained educator myself, so I hope to bring a bit of teacher know how to these educational game reviews."

Here are the games I've been playing recently:

• Playing Games Could Be Good For You
• Starship Patrol
• Super Scribblenauts
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• Home