E3 '08: Hands-On With Fable 2, Plus The Gay Butterfly Effect!
Fruit Brute and I both spent some time with Fable 2 at E3 this year, and while the gameplay was fantastic, Peter Molyneux himself made the event a bit more special for the GayGamer crew: he approached Fruit Brute and said he remembered our interview from last year's E3.
Apparently Sir Peter took our questions about gay marriage seriously, returned to his team and made it a priority to flesh out the gay marriage scripting. Whereas the original Fable's gay marriage option resulted more from programming (writing people as people rather than as men or women), Lionhead made certain to flesh it out with deliberately crafted scripting this time, because - as Molyneux said - they knew it was important to certain players. So go us! This is the second time we believe we've influenced game development in a gay-positive direction, the first being our Bully: Scholarship Edition "Over the Rainbow" achievement antics - but it's definitely the first time we've been told point-blank that our mere presence at an event like E3 has resulted in any kind of enriched gay content. Thank you, Peter Molyneux!
Anyway, the game: I played the opening of the game as a boy and then a bit of magical combat, and I can definitely say that while the basic mechanics of the original game have survived, there's been a massive upgrade to the magic system as well as a generally more plush, open-ended world.
The moment I discovered the dog, who will be the player's companion during Fable 2, there was a strong emotional connection. I won't spoil it, but the storyline of Fable 2 feels much richer and in just a short time I had more and better conversations with NPCs than I ever remember doing in Fable.
Magic, or "Will," receives a big update as well - the B button casts spells, but if you hold it down you'll see a "charge spell" piece of HUD pop up that displays a series of spells. As you hold down the button, the charge meter will pass through various spells, allowing you to cast multiple spells on the fly. You can change the order of the spells as well, so the game doesn't punish you for choosing to cast a fireball instead of, say, quickly conjured daggers.
It does feel a bit awkward standing still to select a spell whilst enemies attack you, but since death in Fable 2 is really just a moment of grayed-out slowness that ends in an epic sudden recovery (a-la action films, where the hero never actually dies), that's more about learning to pace your gameplay (ie, running away before you start casting) than needing to stay alive. Also, my mage had sexy braids.
It won't be long until we're all getting gay-married in Fable 2, since the game arrives October 1, 2008. Just a few more months!
tiny dancer
Posted to E3, Hot Stuff, Video Games, Videos on 20 July 2008
· Comments (16)
Other stuff like this: e3, e3 2008, fable 2, lionhead studios
Fantastic! Great kudos to Peter Molyneux and the entire team for taking some extra effort to reach out to their gay and lesbian players. That means a lot to someone like me, and is part of the reason I really appreciate this blog and the people who run it.
I'm excited for this game. It may be the first game I personally put in the 360 (besides Lego Indiana Jones) in a long, long time.
Love Peter, and I certainly can't wait. I just hope we can get any guy, and not just a few in each city...
Great! And I have my vacation at the end of October...I bet you can guess what I'll be doing with it. :)
I agree with PurpleRose...I kept trying to chat up the hunky guards, but they weren't having any of it.
I don't think every guy should be gay and every girl be straight. And even if they are they shouldn't all like you. I am hoping that this is a much more dynamic world, and that you may see people going to the stores to buy stuff, and you see relationships grow right in-front of you.
While I agree that everyone shouldn't like you from the onset, they should enable you to get people who initialy dislike you to grow to like you through some means (the equivalent of getting a fratboy drunk so to speak XD, but then long term).
And I just hope that this scripted gay marriage doesn't turn into a stereotype-fest.
Hurray! He remembers! Can't wait now. I swear I'll make a evil gay landlord! Maybe with braids too!
Oh and Nexus, I doubt it'll be a stereotype relation. Don't forget peter molyneux remember the encounter with Fruit brute. So I'm sure he realized the gaygamer community and that'll do his best to make it gay appealing. If not tolerable.
But what if you don't like dogs? :(
:-) Looking forward to this! Excellent job, GG!
Nice. I never played the first Fable, but I'm definitely interested in playing this one.
Well I remember that ''gay prostitute'' concept sketch from a while back and that was pretty stereotypical.
So I'm still somewhat worried. Though I'm trying to be hopefully optimistic.
If all goes well, this might be exactly what we've always wanted: a game that actually has specifically gay content built in that you can choose to pursue or not. Fable 2 could be a milestone in gay gaming...
This is fantastic news. Can't wait to try this out. Great stuff, guys!
I would buy a 360 just to see my avatar find a little husbear of his own.
I've been a huge fan of Molyneux since Syndicate. Dungeon Keeper 2 remains my favorite game of all time. I am ecstatic to hear that he went out of his way to really design for the gay community!
You know that feeling you get when something you've loved either turns out to be super homophobic (I less than 3 Coors, but now I can't stomach it) or super gay progressive? This is the best I've felt on the positive end of that spectrum! Thank you, Mr. Molyneux!
There you go, Peter Molyneux, because you were nice enough to acknowledge my human experience as valid, I will now buy this Fable 2 game of your.
@Nexus: Stereotypical? Really? You do realize you're on a blog where one of the contributors calls himself "Fruit Brute", don't you?