andrewducker | You say you want a revolution

Still waiting to see what it's like. I know they have moved away from the RPG aspects of the second, which I loved, so as a straight up action adventure I wonder what it will deliver. Not long left to find out now!

Absolutely. I mean, I hope it is good, but there aren't any reviews yet, are there?

Not yet. Lots of previews, but no actual reviews.

Not long to wait now though.

When does the NDA lift?

I'll tell you as soon as it does ;)

What would you describe as the core RPG aspects? I know that the term is generally termed to mean stats-abuser when it comes to computer game RPGs, but the term role-playing means differnt things to different people.

To me the key aspect of what makes an RPG is if there are, well. Roles to play. Characters I care about. Dialogue. Character development. And a cracking good story (over which I as the player have control).

Well there are certainly characters to care about and hate, dialogue and the Fable games are centred around (at least) your character development. You definitely have control over the story, but as to whether it's cracking good...I guess that's up to the player to decide. Everyone here who's played it through seems to love it (even grizzled veterans), but I haven't done that yet, so it's hard for me to say :)
(I've played most of it piecemeal to repro and fix bugs, but that's hardly the same experience)

Gaining abilities during level progression, increasing in attributes and having effects on other NPC and Monsters, an aspect of randomness or attacks and defence, stats on items and clothings etc. There's a disctinction in my mind though, for example, Zelda is an action adventure and Secret of Mana is an RPG. Game can be a hybrid though - GTA 3 : San Andreas was part RPG, but none of GTAs since have been. Fallout 3 and Borderlands are both FPS RPGs, Fable II was an Action RPG and ISS2000 had a Football RPG (only one I am aware of). It has to have these core things in play though and whilst, sure you gain some abilitys and find items in Zelda and increase your health, it does not come under the bracket of RPG.

I hope that goes some way to explaining it? For desktop and roleplay gamers I imagine the distinction is a little harder to grasp as RPG in their worlds tends to focus more upon the role play rather than the hitpoints and stats to decide what makes it an RPG.

I don't want to go into detail until the information is in the public domain, but we still have the majority of those things, though we're certainly more of an action game than a true RPG (moreso than Fable 2 as well). There will definitely be plenty of character progression, though I believe most of the stats aren't thrust in the player's face and mainly appear through how you affect creatures and villagers. I wrote more, then deleted it. I wouldn't like to get fired before the bonuses kick in :)

I wouldn't want to put you in that position, thats why I asked if it would be okay to talk to you about it. If and when it would be permissable, can I take up some of your time for a quick interview on the subject? Also I ask about the review copies and such so I can point Phil or Graeme at the correct body to talk to about it. Can you tell me who we should contact and when it would be best to do so? (If everything is about getting it gold for xmas release I wouldn't want to hassle anyone whilst it was particularly unwelcome)

I was waiting a reply from our PR lady to find out the process for getting review copies. Unfortunately I don't think she's in today (or has more important things to do), so that'll have to wait. I also don't think I'd be the best person to talk to on the subject unless you wanted to know about navigation or the 3D world map (which I guess is a new feature but a bit of a specific topic of knowledge). We'd more likely want to throw a designer at you if anyone, depending on what you wanted to know about :)

I'll let you know when I have a response from PR, but you might want to go through the usual channels for getting review copies of Microsoft published games, whatever that might be...

Incidently, I write for an online publication called Square-go. Would I potentially be able to speak to you about Fable 3 and/or be able to get hold of someone who would be willing to speak to one of our peeps about getting hold of review copies and writing an article on it? If it needs to go through specific channels, no worries, but I figured it is worth asking :)

If you can get me your email address (here / via Andy) then I'll pass it on.

Sure. Mine is chuma at chuma dot co dot uk. the main guy at square go is Phil Harris and his is p.harris at square-go dot com. Thanks very much :)

No worries. All passed on, hopefully you'll hear from them in the next few days.

I have it on pre-order.

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I'll definitely be getting this! Can't wait :)

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Hey Mike - does this mean you get your life back now? Or at least some of it :-) Must be cool though to have something out there that the general public know (and hopefully love).

3.75 million players can't be wrong (I don't want their love, I just want their money ;)

You say you want a revolution

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