Use A Potion... Maybe.

So Fable 3 is pretty fun.

Thought I'd open with that. Get it out of the way. Mix things up a bit.

Fable 2 was the first ever game I played when I first got my XBox and I absolutely played it to death. It was a lot of fun and despite a few flaws I really had a lot of fun crafting a character who, for some reason, wore sunglasses.

So on to the sequel, which I have been waiting for since it was announced back in 2009 (possibly) and I was waiting on the courier for aaaages until it turned up. For some reason, despite pre-ordering it at least a month ago, Amazon decided to send it out on the say of release. Play were smart enough to send out New Vegas two days in advance so it arrived on release day, but Amazon... Well I certainly won't be using them again for any pre-orders. Not that I can afford another. Saving up for that 3DS.

Fable 3 was always very pushed as removing many of the features that were apparently clogging up Fable 2, and that's obvious from the get go. The health bar has been stripped away, the weapon equipment screen has been removed, and the emotes wheel has been taken away. It's a bold choice and it feels like something you might see in an experimental indie game as opposed to one of the 360's flagship franchises. Personally... It doesn't gel too well with me. The pause screen is clever I suppose and Jasper's dry humour is something I enjoy, but I didn't particularly ever feel that Fable 2 was clunky. The choice of only two emotes when interacting a character seems to detract from the level of interaction in the previous game and I liked having a health bar to indicate when I should start panicking. In Fable 3, it's more guess work.

The combat is still fun, striking the balance between challenging and manageable. There are some surprisingly vicious flourishes, like the other day when I jumped onto the shoulders of my enemy and BROKE HIS NECK WITH MY KNEES. It was pretty horrendously awesome. I also enjoy weaving spells together, with my personal favourite being a mix of fireball and lightening. Burn 'em and stun 'em. Just like Bioshock. Ranged combat is still ranged combat, and it's still great fun to blast away at enemies as they charged toward you. The weapon morphing is a nice feature, but doesn't really seem to be as dynamic as initially suggested.

The story is progressing nicely and has a more fantasy based plot-line than the previous. Whilst it took a while to get going, the cave sequence was very intense and really got under my skin. Freaky skull this are freaky.

Fable 3 will keep me busy for a while and gives me something to play when I'm tired of New Vegas, and vice versa. I have to see between the two I prefer F:NV, but they are both top notch games, and I heartily recommend them both. Although play Fable 2 first.

Next time... Something else. More New Vegas. See y'all in the Dino's mouth!

Viva New Vegas

I went for the easy option with the title today. And why not?

So yes, as should be clear by now, Fallout: New Vegas is here, and has been for about a week and a half now. I really wanted to write about it but the problem was that it was so damn good. The reservations I had about it after playing it at Eurogamer were completely unfounded. After I had starting playing for a while and I had recovered from being shot in the face by Matthew Perry, I really got into the swing of things. The attack on Goodsprings was a really good start, and it felt great to rally the people around town. There is a lot more variety in quests, and a lot of the story telling is much more compelling. I've also enjoyed the humour which is much more obvious.

Obsidian clearly wanted the player to have more choice in the direction of the plot, as I've been bombarded with options as to who to support in the grand battle for New Vegas. I'm currently supporting the NCR, in the hope that we can push Caesar's Legion right out of the Mojave. I've even toyed with the idea of disguising my self as a Legionary and assassinating Caesar to get it over with, although I get the feeling that killing him wouldn't really put an end to things.

My character, who travels by the name of Zach, is a gun-toting science geek with a penchant for smoothing talking, which is not entirely dissimilar to my Fallout 3 character (also called Zach). There are a lot more stat checks in the conversations, which I really love because passing them makes me feel as if I'm cheating the game somehow. It's also a bloody marvel that Zach isn't addicted to Mentats because the amount of them I take to pass repair and science checks is unbelievable.

New Vegas is really great fun, maybe more so than its predecessor. If you enjoyed roving the Capital Wasteland, you'll equally enjoy moseying through the Mojave dressed as a cowboy. If you didn't enjoy Fallout 3... There's something wrong with you.

I'll be posting more updates over the next few months. I've even thought of turning a few of the quests into short stories, just for a laugh. Who knows?

Next time; Adventures in Albion with John Cleese! See y'all on the throne!