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Fable: The Lost Chapters Preview
preview
game: Fable: The Lost Chapters
posted by: Tristan Mayshark
publisher: Microsoft
developer: Lionhead
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date posted: 11:20 AM Thu Aug 25th, 2005
last revision: 11:19 AM Thu Aug 25th, 2005


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Click to read.Fable: Coming Soon to a PC Near You. If that sentiment seems retro, it is ? when Lionhead announced Fable, they initially declared it was going to be a ground-shattering PC roleplaying game, the likes of which had never been seen before.

One lucrative contract later, and Fable was slated for an Xbox-only release. In September of last year, the game was released amidst much fanfare and more than a couple naysayers.

Now, in a twist that brings to mind Bungie\'s prolific Halo, Fable is making its way back to the PC with more features, under the guise of \"Fable: The Lost Chapters.\"

The title is a little deceptive, because for me it brought to mind a prequel of some sort. This is absolutely not the case. Based on an early build that was made available to GamesFirst, I can tell you that all the content that made the Xbox version a hit has made it to the PC, and then some.

Before I talk about the \"and then some\", I\'d like to speak a little about the port itself. I\'m not going to spend much time with negative comments, even if I had more of them. Any misgivings I have are minor, and most likely irrelevant, since I doubt they\'ll still be accurate when final version hits store shelves around the 20th of September 2005. In the same vein, the positive elements that they\'ve got right already are not likely to go away. The graphics look quite stunning in the higher resolutions offered by today\'s PCs, for one. I found woodland environments to be especially captivating. I have always had a fondness for wooded environments, and games that can reproduce this with any accuracy please me; they also impress me, since woodland environments are fairly complex places. With that in mind, more than one game has fallen flat on its face trying to depict a forest, and these games are usually games I do not enjoy even if they have many other positive features. Fable has managed to do just fine.

The typical port problems of performance, control and graphical resizing do not appear to have caused any trouble for the programmers at Lionhead ? Fable: The Lost Chapters exceeds expectations in all of these areas.

There will be 16 quests in The Lost Chapters that were not in the Xbox version of Fable. However, Xbox owners need not despair ? Fable: The Lost Chapters should be making its way back to the Xbox (in a twist that would have even Bungie spinning around in circles) by the end of the year. Apparently, this was not new material that was drummed up for the PC release, but a chapter of the game that was written for the original release, and cut before the game went gold. Why this was done is anyone\'s guess ? the added material seems right on par with the rest of the game in terms of quality and enjoyment.

RPG gamers, you may want to mark 9/20 on your calendars. Heck, any PC gamer who\'s looking for a new experience should keep the date in mind.

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