These are dark times. The shadows of Albion are stirring, and strange winds are blowing. Your choices, whether they lead you down the path of good or evil, will change the face of the world.– The GuildmasterA young boy from a peaceful, rustic village is suddenly beset by a tragedy that ultimately forces him out of his comfortable life and into a conflict between good and evil with the fate of the world resting on his shoulders. It may not be the most original idea for a story, but it’s a premise that has worked throughout the ages, from Odysseus to Frodo Baggins to Luke Skywalker. Joseph Campell called it “The Hero’s Journey,” and that’s extremely fitting for the July 2024 TA Playlist Game of the Month – Fable Anniversary.The game that would eventually become Fable was originally conceived by brothers Dene and Simon Carter and their fledgling studio, Big Blue Box, back in the late 1990s. Even then, they had grandiose plans for the type of game they wanted to make:We wanted to create a roleplaying game like no other. The world would be a breathtakingly beautiful place filled with waterfalls, mountains, dense forests, populated with compelling and convincing characters with real personality, people who actually reacted to what you did. We wanted to give the player control of a hero who would adapt to the way they played, who would age, become scarred in battle, who could get tattoos, wear dreadlocks and a dress if the player was so inclined. We wanted each and every person who played our game to have a unique experience, to have their own stories to tell. Fable Developer Diary #1The Carters were having trouble finding funding for such an ambitious, technically complicated game until a “passing, drunken conversation with Peter Molyneux” led Big Blue Box to join as a satellite studio with Molyneux’s Lionhead Studios. Through Lionhead, Big Blue Box received funding and technical expertise, and eventually a publishing contract from Microsoft Game Studios. After several years of development, Fable was finally released for the original Xbox in September 2004. Set in Albion, a fairy-tale representation of medieval Britain, Fable is an action-RPG featuring magic and monsters, and its core theme is shaping the world around you based on your actions. Guitar LInc0ln said:I first came around Fable (the original game) when I was 15 years old (which was 19 years ago ). My first experience with the RPG genre, and it was a great one! Fable will always have a special place in my heart.After his home village is ransacked by bandits, your character is rescued by a Hero named Maze and raised at the Heroes’ Guild, a sort of academy and training ground for exceptional people. The Heroes’ Guild teaches you about the three basic attributes – Might, Skill, and Will – that you can use in your adventures as you progress from childhood to adolescence to adulthood. The Guild assigns contracts for Heroes to perform, but you can choose which quests to take and, in some cases, how to go about fulfilling them.GreatMistYT said:I played it years ago; it was my first introduction to an RPG that tried to give you meaningful outcomes based on your character. Granted, it wasn’t as deep as Peter boasted it would be, but as a kid, I think it was a good start to opening my eyes to the genre. Without it, I wouldn’t have been as blown away by games like Fallout or Mass Effect when they took a formula like Fable and iterated on to such a far extent. I do think the First Fable is lacking in some areas compared to the later installments, but for overall openness of choice, there was I don’t think the others quite get there.Fable became infamous soon after its launch because of some of the hype from Peter Molyneux while it was in development. Most famously, he talked about being able to plant a seed at the beginning of the game when your character was a child and watching it grow to a full-sized tree over the course of the game. Molyneux also said that the Hero would be able to have children, a feature that wasn’t possible in the original game but would be added in the sequel. Ideas like this were discussed at various points in the development process but ultimately dropped due to time, technical difficulties, or other issues.Brasshande said:I played the original Xbox version and quite liked it, but it definitely suffered from Pete Molyneux’s traditional overpromising and underdelivering. Fable 2 I liked more, in spite of it having James Corden in it.Fairly quickly, the disappointment about these missing features started to overshadow the praise for the game itself, and Molyneux’s name became synonymous with making unrealistic promises. The criticism eventually led to a public apology from Peter Molyneux, which read in part:[..W]hat happens is that we strive to include absolutely everything we’ve ever dreamt of and, in my enthusiasm, I talk about it to anyone who’ll listen, mainly in press interviews. When I tell people about what we’re planning, I’m telling the truth, and people, of course, expect to see all the features I’ve mentioned. And when some of the most ambitious ideas get altered, redesigned or even dropped, people rightly want to know what happened to them.If I have mentioned any feature in the past which, for whatever reason, didn’t make it as I described in Fable, I apologize. Every feature I have ever talked about was in development, but not all made it. Often, the reason is that the feature did not make sense. For example, three years ago, I talked about trees growing as time passed. The team did code this but it took so much processor time (15%) that the feature was not worth leaving in. That 15 % was much better spent on effects and combat. So nothing I said was groundless hype, but people expecting specific features which couldn’t be included were of course disappointed. If that’s you, I apologize. All I can say is that Fable is the best game we could possibly make, and that people really seem to love it.Whatever features ended up on the cutting room floor, the one core aspect of the game that did survive was the idea that your choices should matter and should reflect a visible change in the world around you. The Guild doesn’t care whether you become a paragon of goodness or an evil tyrant, but the way you play will affect how your character looks and how the other citizens of Albion react to your presence. Dark Death 90 said:I put so much time into the PC version of this game called The Lost Chapters back in the day. I remember being so evil that my character grew horns. I enjoyed the following games but I never felt that they captured the magic of this first one.Fable’s XP system also reflects the choices you make. In addition to general experience, you also earn XP, specifically in Might, Skill, or Will, for defeating enemies in combat, depending on whether you use melee, ranged, or magic attacks. Heroes who level up in Might will become more muscular, while frequent Will use results in glowing runes appearing on your body. Following a virtuous path will cause your hair to become lighter, and eventually, a glowing halo will appear above your head as the citizens of Albion cheer at your very presence. Commit evil acts, and your character’s eyes will glow red as horns sprout from your skull, and citizens will cower in fear as you approach. Citizens also react based on your attractiveness, which is affected by the clothing you wear and even what you eat — red meat and pies will make you fat while eating tofu and veggies will keep you lean and trim.TipoKot said:This game was one of the games that made me think, “Is this possible?”. Surely, this sounds silly by modern standards, but having your character change appearance based on your actions was mindblowing back then! Fable always will have a special place in my heart, and I’m waiting for the next game so bad!Despite the negative press and Molyneux’s reputation for over-promising, Fable was a huge success for Lionhead and Microsoft Game Studios. An expanded version, Fable: The Lost Chapters, was released a year later, bringing a continuation of the storyline as well as new side quests and some quality-of-life improvements and bug fixes. Lionhead went on to develop two sequels (both of which have been featured as previous TA Playlist entries), as well as several smaller spin-off games, before remastering Fable: The Lost Chapters into Fable Anniversary for the Xbox 360 in February 2014.Allgorhythm said:Speaking of anniversaries, this coming September marks the 20th anniversary of the first Fable game. Admittedly, Fable Anniversary looks somewhat dated, and some have already compared it unfavorably to Fable II & Fable III. But, in 2004, when Fable was released, it was impressive and quickly became an original XBox flagship title. Fable Anniversary, for me, was a nostalgic trip down memory lane, and I enjoyed it tremendously. [..] Now that we have the Series X. Fable Anniversary looks even more primitive. But I encourage you to envision how it must have appeared to players on the Original XBox twenty years ago. “Nostalgia” was a word that came up frequently in our forums this month, as many of our commenters mentioned having fond memories of playing this game when it first released. LoneBro4k said:I had a ton of memories of playing this game with friends as a kid and causing all kinds of chaos. Going back like 18 years later to replay it was a massive nostalgia trip and I enjoyed every minute of it.For those digging into it for the first time, however, the response was more mixed.TriRock said:I played this 10 years ago after having played Fable 2 & 3, and it felt somewhat disappointing. It was still fun, but I question if it has withstood the test of time. Propably better to not re-visit it and keep whatever nostalgia is remaining.PeriodicRx said:I’m having fun so far, I really enjoy the humor in the the game, makes for good fun and some Easter egg hunting as to what interactions I can entice from the NPCs and other things you can interact with. I like how the game will automatically slot into what it thinks you might need for a situation ie food for small health gains and potions for larger ones.[However…] The controls really suck. From collision to simple things like spell control, it just seems unnecessarily hard to do anything. And it’s part of what makes those damn pub games so difficult. Also, the save system…Jesus…after a save I really never know where I’m going to end back up.The controls certainly take some getting used to, especially by modern standards. Personally, I found zooming in with the bow to be extremely hard to manage, although it’s probably worth remembering that this game was originally released back when the Xbox controller had six face buttons and no bumpers!FruitofPassion said:So it was a while since I played it, but I remember that I didn’t enjoy this game. I loved the 2nd one and really enjoyed the 3rd one too (yes, I did! Leave me alone!), but the first one was unenjoyable for me.I just remember being extremely frustrated at the gameplay, and maybe that’s not fair to judge it by old video game standards, but I remember getting knocked down and stun-locked being a serious issue that did nothing but hurt my enjoyment of it. Too bad Microsoft deleted the clip but there was a time against two trolls that just continued to throw a bolder at me one after the other that prevented me from standing up until I was dead. Unfortunately, that’s the stuff I remember from the game. Pretty much nothing of the story or humor (though I probably at least enjoyed the humor, as the Fable games are fantastic at that). I didn’t have the childhood nostalgia of it either to save me from ignoring those kind of things.The ”British humour” has become a hallmark of the series, with a sort of dry, tongue-in-cheek, self-referential style that has been compared to Douglas Adams or Monty Python, with a fair amount of fart jokes thrown in and a frankly unhealthy obsession with chickens. As we’ve seen with other Playlist games, like High on Life, humor is very subjective, and any given game’s particular style will resonate with some people more than others.Cylon 118 said:I didn’t play these games when I was younger. In fact, when 2 was the playlist game a few years back was the first time I played through all three of them, and what sticks out to me is how memorable to me they aren’t, as I don’t remember that much about them other than the humor not really clicking, a lot of references to Halo, and that magic was quite op compared to melee!The Noto said:I really enjoyed my time with it over the years, both on the OG Xbox and then again for the Anniversary. I should probably get around to finishing Fable II since I’ve already completed Anniversary and Fable III. I always vibed with the charm and humor that the series is known for, and I am very excited for the new game whenever we get our hands on it.But regardless of whether you personally enjoy the game’s sense of humor, there’s no denying that Fable did a lot to innovate and expand the RPG genre.Chariot Choogle said:Looking back, I think the original game represented a shift in RPGs towards a more accessible style compared to the complicated stat-fests of the 90s. Reducing combat variables to a core 3 (Might, Skill, and Will) disciplines, as well as simplifying weapon and clothing stats, all made this a suitable entry point to the genre. The stylised graphics and often childish humour all made this rather dark story something that kids were drawn to. Some may have been put off by the more horrific elements but many will have been introduced to games with consequential decisions. The humour is core to its appeal though and I can see how it could become so grating to players who don’t jibe with it that they can’t continue. As someone who struggles with hardcore gameplay, I found it challenging enough to keep engaged without frustration, and maybe I’m a sucker for reference and meta jokes, but returning to Albion for the anniversary edition still put a smile on my face. One of my all time favourite scores as well, I might go and listen to it again right now.With a new Fable in the works from Playground Games, many are wondering how closely this upcoming entry will stick to the formula established by Lionhead’s original trilogy. With a full decade since Fable Anniversary and an entirely new studio handling the development, it’s only fair to wonder whether this new entry will still “feel” like part of the same franchise.VOODOO85 said:I’ve completed all of Fable 1-3 and really enjoy the series. I’ll never play this though due to that achievementI’m really hoping the upcoming Fable keeps with everything that made the originals so good, particularly the charm and humour. Really looking forward to itTheDude722 said:I completed Fable on the original Xbox in 2005-2006 and Fable Anniversary on 360 back in Feb 2014 when SmartGlass was still running. Great game and series. Completed Fable II and III of course, and Pub Games. But still need to finish Fable Heroes and maybe The Journey (360 Kinect) one day. Eagerly awaiting the new Fable game, but I wish they’d add more words to the title. Fable 4 or Fable, anything other than just Fable.Oh yeah… SmartGlass. That may have come up once or twice in the forums, thanks to a now-discontinued achievement related to the defunct mobile app.This achievement was very easy to earn – simply have the SmartGlass app running on your phone or mobile device while you also had Fable: Anniversary running on your Xbox 360, both logged in with the same Xbox account. SmartGlass was meant as a way to add second-screen functionality to some Xbox games, such as using it as a map or to alert the player to nearby secrets. Unfortunately, the Xbox 360 SmartGlass app was officially discontinued in 2018, making it impossible to unlock the achievement after that. Unsurprisingly, the TA community was none too happy with the move, and it’s left a bitter taste in some gamers’ mouths to this day.BigBanjo K said:I already see the ‘wrap up’ article being written with all the discontinued achievement posts You’re not wrong. This was the very first post in the Spoiler-Free Thread, posted almost as soon as the forums went live for the month:Reelbiggerfish said:Shame the discontinued achievement will never be fixed! And it didn’t stop there. Of the 147 comments in this month’s forums, more than half (76, to be exact; 15 of 27 in the spoiler thread and 61 of 120 in the spoiler-free thread) mentioned the discontinued achievement in one way or another. Some were happy to report that they had gotten the achievement when it was still available, while others were willing to give it a shot despite not being able to get the completion. Not everyone is so forgiving, though:N1klot said:Ugh, I tried to bring myself to play it the whole month. I can’t get over the discontinued achievement. I played the original on PC multiple times and thoroughly loved it…I wish they would fix this, auto unlock, maybe adapt the whole trilogy to series consoles, I dunno. But since I have Fable non anniversary on steam if I ever feel like replaying, I’ll just do that.I wouldn’t care if it was a game I didn’t care about completing but that’s not the case.Many commenters echoed this sentiment, saying that they weren’t going to play this game at all because of this single achievement. Here’s one doing their best “Shark Tank” impersonation:Osmo76 said:Discontinued cheevo For that reason, I’m out.Several people thought it would be a good idea for the game to be patched so that “See the Future” unlocks automatically, although not everyone was on board with that solution.Chicken Chaser said:What a great game 🙂 I may end up booting up even though I have no more achievements to unlock outside of See the Future. I’ve always loved the idea of changing the achievement to just unlock to anyone playing it in 2024 or after (or whatever date they would implement a fix). They just may have to change the flavor text to say something along the lines of: if we could have seen the future, we would have known smart glass would fail!Prattalmighty said:I love the Fable games and I’m sad I didn’t play this when I bought it at launch, it’s still sitting in the plastic on my shelf. Darn Smartglass discontinuing. It’s a shame because Smartglass was actually pretty cool and novel when it first launched.I have a foot in both pools when it comes to stuff like this. It sucks that an achievement is no longer able to be earned, but I also don’t think things should be changed or given because it degrades what people did to earn it originally.In this case, since there was very little effort involved in downloading the SmartGlass app, it probably wouldn’t be too offensive to have it pop automatically, although there were other ideas:Allgorhythm said:Whereas achievements aren’t supposed to change unlock conditions, there is a way to do it. All that has to be done is patch the game to introduce an in-game device with the smart-glass app. Activating it would pop the achievement.rholliday said:You’d think they could add the SmartGlass features to the Xbox app to keep championing backwards compatibility.To me, this idea has merit. It might be tough to make changes to the game itself, given that Lionhead is no longer in existence, but the current Xbox app is still being actively developed at Microsoft. If somehow they could emulate the SmartGlass features, at least for the purpose of unlocking the achievement, that seems like a perfect solution. But I’m not holding my breath.BigBanjo K said:They should’ve at least removed the Smartglass ad at the beginning of the game When they discontinued itRight?! That huge “Download SmartGlass” splash screen every time you boot up the game is just adding insult to injury at this point. Flumptigan said:Good game in and of itself, but that discontinued Smartglass achievement boils my piss. It’s made all the worse by the fact that the rest of the achievement list is really good with more good ideas and creativity that 99% of any other gamesThe rest of Fable Anniversary’s achievement list is very entertaining, with lots of jokes referencing other games or movies – Combat, Evolved, There’s Always a Lighthouse, and Winter is Coming, just to name a few – as well as several achievements that allowed the player to choose how to complete them.BlackEyedMonkey said:Everyone mentioning the smart glass achievement but man are collecting those dolls annoying. Just got them all and the coin games were not fun. Besides that, love the idea of do this OR that in many of the achievements. Great way to not lock out too many.In keeping with the game’s core theme letting the players make their own choices, achievements like Fight Cluck and That’s a Real Lunker offered two different ways to unlock them. Open Saysamemiddlefinger, for example, could be unlocked either by opening all the Demon Doors in the game, or by simply using the “Middle Finger” expression on any of them.Wicelow said:Never got to play the original game on release, but did 2 & 3 on 360. Had a great time with that remake also, and was pleased they tried something with the achievement system with different requirements, even though the tile was the same for everyone in the end…With all this discussion about achievements, it’s time to get to the stats!In all, 1,576 tracked gamers played along with Fable Anniversary in July by unlocking at least one achievement. Just shy of half (769) of those gamers were starting it for the first time, while 28 gamers were able to finally finish off the game after earning the SmartGlass achievement back when it was still available. A total of 11,731 achievements were unlocked during July, worth 246,590 Gamerscore and 452,322 TrueAchievment score – an overall ratio of 1.83 for the month.Naturally, the most-earned achievement for the month was “From the Smallest Acorn”, an unmissable, story-related achievement for completing the childhood prologue in Oakvale. With a 1.00 ratio, it’s the first achievement available in the game, earned by 718 tracked gamers in July.At the other end of the spectrum, the least-unlocked achievement during the month (apart from “See the Future,” of course, which can’t be unlocked by legitimate means) was ‘Fable Heroes’, which required you to collect seven Hero dolls from across Albion, most of which were prizes for pub games. While this was one of the more challenging achievements, unlocked by just 65 gamers during July, the dolls in this game were still much easier to earn than the dolls from Fable II, which require trading with other players on Xbox Live.Since Fable Anniversary can’t be legitimately completed in July 2024 unless you had already unlocked an achievement several years ago, there is no Shout-Out list this month, but a big congrats to all those who finished the game this month, including this user:BlackEyedMonkey said:After 3,800 days, I’ve finally completed this game. Happy I went back to it.They earned ‘See the Future,’ along with several other achievements, on February 7, 2014, just three days after the game launched, and finished up by finding all the Silver Keys to unlock ‘You Are A Super Playe’” on July 4, 2024 — 3,800 days, 1 hour, and 32 minutes later. Nice work!And with that, our journey in Albion comes to an end… for now. We’ve played all three of the mainline Fable games for TA Playlist, with this month’s Fable Anniversary joining Fable II from March 2018 and Fable III from July 2021, so is there any doubt that the upcoming Fable title, set to release in 2025 from Playground Games will eventually make it to a future Playlist as well? Until then, there’s still time to participate in this month’s TA Playlist feature, Lies of P. As always, you can earn your participation badge by unlocking an achievement in the game, or by making a substantive comment in this month’s Spoiler-Free and Spoiler Discussion Threads. See you next month!
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