After Fable 2 went gold and having some time to reflect, Lionhead's Peter Molyneux is so happy with the final product, that he's comfortable with having Fable 2 being the game that defines his "position in the industry."
"At the end of the day you can stand up in front of people and wave your arms, but unless you actually create a product, you don't deserve that attention," Molyneux told GamesIndustry.biz saying that Fable 2 "should define my position in the industry, and if it's not good, that says something about me. And if it is good, that also says something about me. I'm incredibly proud of Fable and with what the team has managed to do with it."
Awww shucks, Mr. Molyneux is not only happy with the final product Fable 2 has turned out to be, but he also isn't giving us any excuses to why it wasn't his ideal vision. We can't wait to give it a go and make our determination of Molyneux's worth. How exciting!
With Fable 2 officially going gold a few days ago, we figured Peter Molyneux and the Lionhead crew would need to find a new project to work on. Surprisingly though, they are already working on a new project, they have been for a while now and according to Molyneux, it's going to be "ridiculously ambitious."
This new Lionhead project information comes way of GamesIndustry.biz who had a chance to chat with Molyneux to discuss what's next for his team. "We've actually been working on another project now for a while, and obviously it's ridiculously ambitious, but it's ridiculously ambitious in a very simple way," Molyneux revealed admitting that it's "different to what you might think Lionhead would do." How intriguing, no?
Just don't get too excited yet, because Molyneux made it known that he hasn't talked about the new project to anyone (how very un-Molyneux) and that the earliest we'd hear a peep out of the Lionhead pack would be sometime next year.
Posted Jul 28th 2008 2:30PM by Dustin Burg
Filed under: News
In Gametrailers.com's latest interview with Fable 2 head master Peter Molyneux, we used our ninja-ears (yes, ninja-terming body parts is allowed under the ninja-naming rulebook) and actually picked up on a Fable franchise fact. At around the 5:10 mark (video after the break), Molyneux talks about his intent for the Fable franchise going forward saying that "we got plans for Fable three, four and five" and that "it's actually a big story arc." With the average turnaround time to develop a Fable game being around the eight year mark, our kids' kids will be playing Fable games for decades to come.
Posted Jun 25th 2008 4:45PM by Dustin Burg
Filed under: News
At the very beginning of Lionhead's latest Fable 2 Video Diary 6, Mr. Peter Molyneux can be seen sitting at his desk with pen and paper in hand, circling boxing-in the word "October" on a piece of paper. We actually spotted Molyneux's mysterious October hint yesterday when we posted the video diary, but now we're even more suspicious about its meaning after Lionhead refused to comment on the video or the October date when Eurogamer asked for more details. An official October Fable 2 release date? An elaborate trick by the Lionhead crew? Or does Molyneux simply utilize the stress relieving technique of writing down one's favorite month and boxing it in with a pen? You be the judge.
Speaking to gamesindustry.biz, Peter Molyneux had some strong words for the ongoing games as art debate. When asked whether or not he considered games as art, Molyneux replied simply, "Of course they are." Elaborating on his point, Molyneux noted, "If art is described as something which promotes a reaction in you and lets you glimpse something that's more than reality - then yes, of course they're an art form." Naturally, one would expect a game designer to espouse such an opinion, but Molyneux does so with no doubt at all. When asked about games based on movies that sell more copies than more artistic games, Molyneux cites it as an example of an alarming trend in game design. Molyneux says that games are starting to lose their "Wow!" and that the industry needs to regain its sense of wonder. Of course, Molyneux hopes Fable 2 will accomplish this, noting that it isn't simply a big sequel with more of the same. "The point is," said Molyneux, "we can still do things that amaze people, and that's a fantastic position to be in." Indeed.
Super Lionhead Studios fansite Loinhead scored an exclusive interview with the creative mastermind behind Fable 2 Peter Molyneux. And in the interview Molyneux talks a little bit about his past failures (Black and White 2), in-game combat, and hints at one of Fable 2's next big announcements ... death. Molyneux doesn't give any specifics to how death will be incorporated into Fable 2, but goes on to say that in other games when you die "you go back in time twenty minutes to do the same thing over again. That's fine if I'm playing a platformer, not so fine if you're doing an RPG game". So, traditional ways of dealing with death will not be good enough for Fable 2. But we've already known that Lionhead doesn't plan on taking the traditional path with the sequel (dog anyone?).
Check out more of Molyneux's candid discussion in Loinhead's complete video interview posted after the break.
As we slowly recover from GDC jet-lag, we thought it would be best to post some of the other features that Peter Molyneux confirmed for Fable 2. After all, a dog can't be the only new feature in Fable 2. There really is quite a bit to consider, so we'll just dole out the info in bite sized bits via a handy bulleted list. Everyone likes lists.
Players can pick a male or female hero
Players can choose to have protected or unprotected sex (and yes, there are STDs)
Female heroes can get pregnant
Players can have children
The world responds to your "hero-ness"
Two new character morphs (besides Good/Evil): cruelty/kindness and wealth/poverty
There's a reason Peter Molyneux is smiling in this picture. He was nervous to reveal the "revolutionary" new feature in Fable 2. Several people on his own team told him not to do it. In fairness, it's definitely a risky feature. No one in their right mind would call it revolutionary at first glance. Yes, the intertubes were right: Fable 2's secret new feature is a dog. That's it. So, why is Peter smiling? He's smiling because he just convinced a room full of jaded journalists that a dog is revolutionary. Yup, it's a dog, but believe it or not, you will love it.
The Lionhead Times has be updated with a few bits of info regarding Fable 2. Most of the info is just general development stuff, but there are a few interesting things to point out. For instance, the story of Fable 2 takes place 500 years after the events of Fable and The Lost Chapters, giving the game a richer history from which to build the story. The story is also planned to be longer than the original, which is definitely good news. Somewhat more cryptic, it's also revealed that the story could take a turn that will "shock" players.
Another little tidbit, the Fable 2 team now has to make "milestone" builds of the game in order to showcase the game's progress to the suits at Microsoft. The upshot of this is that we should get some insight on the game's progress as well. Fable 2 is one of the 360's heavy hitters so, rest assured that we'll keep you posted.