For the five days leading up to the New Year, Ani-Gamers is posting an un-ranked list of our favorite titles from the year 2010, featuring up to two choices from each writer. Be sure to check back throughout the week to find out what geeky stuff our contributors really dug this year! We now present the choices from reviewer and columnist Ink.

Ed. Note: We miscalculated the number of contributions we would be receiving from our writers, so we won't be following a one-a-day schedule from this point on. Sorry!

Fable III (Lionhead Studios): What this third incarnation of the Fable franchise does so completely that the former installations do not is create a truly immersive and believable world in which its main character's participation is only a piece of the proverbial pie. It accomplishes this by forsaking the isolated, hero-centric approach of old and broadening the story's focus and consequences to include the needs of all the people around the hero — intimately and in a broader sense. As people in our world continue to grow increasingly isolated from one another, Fable III illustrates how many lives the actions of one person can affect and also serves as a reminder to step into others' shoes before judging their actions. As a poet, I can think of no better video game execution of Shelley's sympathetic imagination.

---

House of Five Leaves (Manglobe): Though focused on a group of thieves and a lone ronin, House of Five Leaves is less about action than growing to understand personal reasons behind past actions and present conditions. The main character is a samurai turned woebegone bodyguard who is hired into a den of thieves that kidnaps people for ransom, under the auspice of humanitarianism. The art is a bit jarring at first, with fish-like faces adorning otherwise realistically drawn bodies, but there's no denying the animation's beauty via color contrasts and use of darkness or its direct reflection of the story's pacing, which is slow and utterly character driven. All the above characteristics contribute to the sense that this is not an anime aimed at kids but rather the adult viewers of the noitaminA block in which it appeared.

---

See Also:

• Fable III review

Today, via their official website, Lionhead Studios announced that their upcoming action RPG, Fable II, will be released in North America on October 21st and in Europe on October 24th. In addition to the standard retail game, a limited edition version of the title was also detailed at $79.99 and is set to include: a “making-of” DVD, a figurine, bonus in-game content, and five special “fate cards.”

The British game studio also announced that the XBLA title, Fable II Pup Games, will be arriving August 13th for 800 points (or for free if you pre-order the game). The title will include three casino style games, titled “Fortune’s Tower,” “Keystone” and “Spinnerbox,” which will allow players to gamble away, and hopefully amass, money which they can transfer over to their Fable II account when it launches.

[via Xbox 360 Fanboy]

Seems the time has come again: Peter Molyneux has opened his abnormally thought-filled mind to explain and show his ideas for Fable 2. The announcement was made on February 22nd during GDC 2008, and seems to improve my main complaint with the original game, namely that there are now more than 2 choices: being an angel or being the spawn of Superman 64.

Many of the new features include instilling more compassion for the world around you, such as a family, and rewards for being especially good. Combat will be more MMO-like, implementing single-button fighting and switching weapons on the fly. However, the more gracefully you fight, the more experience is gained. Also, there will be co-op with another human player, with shared experience points. A switch prevents the co-op partner from killing certain things, such as friendly NPCs.

The demo showcased the replacement of the mini-map with a breadcrumb trail, a somewhat questionable decision. It also showed that the player can kill their co-op partner, an unintended feature in the game. There is still same-sex marriage, as in the original, but now protection is optional and same-sex couples may have surrogate parents to have babies. If Molyneux can keep all (or at least most) of his promises, Fable 2 could become a pretty good game.

[via Joystiq]

Joystiq had a chance to speak to Fable 2 developer Peter Molyneux about his upcoming game for the Xbox 360. They decided to ask about that classic neverending sleep we call death. Apparently, in Fable 2, when you "die," in video game terms, you will instead be given a scar from your enemy. These will not affect gameplay, but may change how people view your character. If you want to avoid getting your pretty face cut up, you can pay to stop your enemies from scarring you. This sounds pretty cool, and it follows Molyneux's goal of making his sequel as in-depth and interesting as possible.
[via Joystiq] Save This Page   Slashdot It!   |Share on Facebook|