Xmas 'n' Shit, Plus a Fable II Shout-Out

To the surprise of no one, I'm going to AZ to hang with the fam for Festivus.

It will be a "vacation" only in the sense that I won't be working at my day job for a few days. I got notes on the first draft of DEAD RIGHT THERE on Friday, and spent the weekend hacking at them. I'm developing another action franchise, and I'm hoping to crack out a first draft of FIGHT SCHOOL over the holidays. I'm planning to have at least two of these three projects done by the the first of the year. And I still need to rewrite DEMON.

So... besides a party or two, some basic cable and red wine, I'm basically taking the woodshed on the road.

Meanwhile, when I'm not writing, I've been watching John Adams (the amazing-AMAZING HBO miniseries) and playing Fable II. Boy howdy, do I loves me some Fable II.

I never played the first game. I got this one because it was very well-reviewed, and it was used and there was a deal involved. Game-wise, I've spent the majority of the past year on Oblivion and Fallout 3. Much as I love both games, I'm kinda burnt on 'em both. I needed something light and different, and Fable II is the antidote.

Fable II seems to be an effort to deliver on what you want and expect from a fantasy RPG (swords 'n' sorcery, monsters, etc.) while finding ways to turn around as many of the standard conventions of the genre as possible.

For example: the usual situation with games like this is you gear up your dude in weapons and armor, go out, kill monsters and steal their shit. You turn that shit into better weapons and armor, kill tougher monsters and steal their bigger piles of shit, wash, rinse and repeat.

In Fable II, you get a sword and a gun (!), but no armor. Your clothes affect how the NPCs react to you, and that's it. The monsters don't carry treasure. You still get experience for beating up bad guys, but the way to make money is by finding treasure chests and working at jobs, like blacksmithing (hard) and bartending (fun, but a bit monotonous). Then you take that cash and invest in real estate (!!!), which gives you a rent check every five minutes. The more shops and houses you buy, the bigger the bling.

You get a dog that tags along with you. You can name the dog. My dog's name is "Dawg," after the dog John Wayne had in The Sons of Katie Elder. It's weird that you can name your dog, but you can't name your character... you're called "Sparrow," no matter what. I guess that's so the dialogue makes sense, but I've seen other games -- Baldur's Gate comes to mind -- work around that.

This dog is fucking incredible. The animation is beyond belief. Not that it's photo real... it's in the performance. I had a couple of dogs when I was a kid, and man... they captured how dogs move and act. It feels like a real dog. You can teach the dog to find treasure for you. As you wander around, the dog'll start barking and sniff in a spot where you can dig up treasure, which you can use to buy a better sword/gun, or invest in more real estate.

There's also a real Sims influence. You can make your guy dance and sing, which makes all of the other characters gather around and watch. The more you fuck around, the more they like you. In the same way you can train your dog to sniff treasure, you can train your guy to have more options. I bought a lute, and he plays a little tune. If the villagers really like you, they offer a discount on stuff at the stores, and you can talk chicks into coming home with you.

Sex in video games isn't incredibly new... I put in some hours on Leisure Suit Larry when I was a kid. And there's a very cinematic love scene in Mass Effect. But this is the first game I've seen where sex is handled as a game mechanic instead of a cut scene. You can get married. You can have kids. You can cheat on your wife with hookers. What I'm trying to say is -- this ain't Ultima III.

The story and tone feels very Gilliam. It's fun and funny, it's wry, it's smart, it's light-hearted, it's veddy-veddy British. But, like the Gilliam stuff (or Caro/Jeunet) the game gets bleak as hell when that time comes. Without giving anything away... the trip to the Tattered Spire really creeped me out. The sequence does a great job of establishing just how bad the villain is.

On a side note, while playing this, I keep thinking this is Steve Townsend: The Video Game.