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Can Fable 2 Live Up To Its Hype?

When Lionshead Studios' founder Peter Molyneux announced that Fable was going to be “the best video game ever,” he gave the developers a daunting standard to live up to. And while Fable ended up being of the great games of the Xbox's later life cycle, its critical reception never really lived up to those early claims, which included some fanciful notions about the character's children, persistent tree growth and other crushed hopes and dreams. Molyneux defended Fable as the best game possible within the devs' technological constraints.

So, when a sequel was formally announced two years ago and some of the same unfulfilled promises began to leak to the press and, once again, Peter Molyneux is at the forefront of Fable 2's hype, giving his own game a 9/10 score in an interview. Whether it delivers on the impressive score or not, most of the features that Lionshead has crowed about appear to be making their way into the final game, including children that treat your character like a role model and emulate their actions, either good or bad.

Some other new features in the October-bowing Xbox 360 Action RPG?

• A richer alignment system that affects the hero's appearance based not only on good and evil, but on cruelty and compassion, corruption and purity and other diametric qualities.
• Guns replace the longbow, a sign that Fable 2's world of Albion has advanced 500 years since the first game.
• Players can choose to play as a male or female hero – and female heroes can get pregnant if they aren't careful.
• Combat has been streamlined to a context-sensitive one-button interface, and an overhaul has been given to the first game's magic system as well.

Fable 2 is due in stores on October 24, 2008, but you can preorder it right now at GameQuestDirect.com. Always new, factory-sealed games. Never any preowned or gutted games.