It's been a hot minute since we last gathered round the RPS Time Capsule vault (thanks, Gamescom), but at long last we have returned with another cracking year of PC games to preserve: 2011. In hindsight, it's a bit of an interesting year for Time Capsuling purposes, as we're now getting to the point where games from this era are getting their own remakes and remasters, or fancier, super duper director's cut special editions. We've included the original 2011 release of one of these games in this month's Time Capsule, but there's another notable exception we've decided to save for further down the line. I mean, seriously, would you really recommend vanilla Skyrim from 2011 over 2016's Special Edition?
]]>This week the Electronic Wireless Show podcast discusses some of our favourite (and least favourite) inventory configurations. A humble beast, the inventory, yet a feature of many games - sometimes even a necessity. Often we only notice one if it's terrible. But boy, a good inventory is worth a dozen mules. So lets talk about them today!
In other news this week, Nate thinks he has come up with an original premise for a Pixar film, only to discover he has invented Seth Rogan's nightmare film Sausage Party, and we are officially starting our campaign to get Henry 'Vitamin H' Cavill on the show. We will be mentioning him every week from now on. Plus: what we like doing on our birthdays, school plays, and pro-wrestling adaptations of Dickens.
]]>According to the rumour-mills, we may be due another Fable in the world of Albion. A Fable 4, if you will. It's easy to shrug that off as no big deal. Fable is arguably the series most talked about for what it doesn't do rather than what it pulls off, not helped by the PT Barnum level overpromises of a certain Mr P. Molyneux. Plant an acorn and watch it grow into a tree, anyone? Not in this game...
When you ignore all of that though, and look at Fable as the hack-and-slash RPG that it is rather than the fantasy life simulator it was pitched as, it's always been a somewhat underrated series with great ideas practically oozing from its pores. Successful? Often not, but if a sequel promises anything, it's another crack at what could have been great. What does Fable 4 have to draw on? Plenty...
]]>This year has been unusually rich in the kind of game that I most enjoy: those that are open-ended, or provide a sandbox world for me to mess about in. We usually get a couple of these every year, but in 2011 we seem to have run into a minor bounty of the open stuff, which is good news for explorers and meanderers alike. I've gone into a bit more detail about why this pleases me below.
]]>After having been out on Xbox 360 for approximately 48 years, the PC version of Fable III arrived today. A roleplaying game designed primarily for people who don't live and breathe roleplaying games, Lionhead's game has charm in its blood and a tale of revolutionary heroism to shout about. Reception on console was mixed, but improvements and upgrades are promised for the PC version. Did they work? Here we go...
]]>So, Microsoft and Lionhead's PC version of Fable III is to simultaneously release on both Games For Windows Live and Valve's Steam. Jim perhaps did not entirely acknowledge the importance of this news in his post ysterday. The importance being "HOLY GOD-DARNED CAMEL SPIT, MICROSOFT ARE SLEEPING WITH THE ENEMY."
]]>Sooo, here's a thing (not of legend, but of PC gaming distribution news): Microsoft have decided to ship Fable III simulataneously on Steam and Games For Windows Marketplace. That says something about who is boss in the digital download market, I think. There are even bonus things for both: preorder via Games for Windows Marketplace and you receive Fable: Lost Chapters for nowt, and if you purchase it on Steam, you’ll get the “Rebel’s Weapon & Tattoo Pack", which is a collection of uh... weapons and tattoos? Look, over there! A inverted bee!
]]>Hello! So, when I pottered off to Lionhead to take a peek at the upcoming PC version of Fable III, I also had a chat with lead designer Josh Atkins. Read on for how the studio feels about PC gaming and PC gamers, the choices, changes and improvements they made for the PC version of Fable III, how youngsters react to difficult moral decisions in games, and the thorny issue of Games For Windows Live...
]]>It’s ok: there is a cursor on the menu screen. The PC isn’t being treated like the ugly stepson who’s only allowed a bowl of water and a rotten banana for dinner this time. Fable III’s conversion to personal computer may be a few months late, but that’s not because someone fell asleep and forgot to press the ‘Insta-Port!’ button. Lionhead have done this properly.
]]>Xbox Live mouthpiece and all-around inoffensive man Major Nelson has word on the release date of the PC version of Fable 3 in his latest infodump. Americans will be getting the rebellion & kingdom management-driven third instalment of the series on May 17th. On the one hand, it's coming to us 7 months late. On the other hand, we'll get 3D support and a new, PC exclusive 'Hardcore' difficulty mode, just in case you felt like punishing yourself some more. In the same post Nelson announces the first sizeable piece of downloadable content for the game, Traitor's Keep, which you can read all the details on below. It's only announced for consoletoys just yet, but these packs have a habit of wandering our way eventually, like one-legged cats scrabbling their way home.
]]>God, here's some news to rival yesterday's some manner of Mass Effect 2 DLC is coming at some point story. Lionhead Studios have tweeted that they can't currently reveal anything about the PC version of Fable 3, which had previously been scheduled for December, but they hope that they will be able to "spill the beans" soon. You'd better believe that when Lionhead finally does upend its precious beans, RPS will be right there on the scene, standing behind the protective perspex bean screen. That is all.
]]>So the Xboxers and Xboxettes are currently enjoying Fable 3. Where's our PC version, eh? In a tweet today Lionhead Studios announced that "Fable 3 PC Version is still in development here at Lionhead so PC GAMERS don't panic. We'll announce details when we're ready to do so." You hear that? Don't panic! Stop panicking!
]]>Some people have wondered why we're yet to write about Microsoft's recently-announced relaunch of Games For Windows. I wondered too, and eventually settled on it being something to do with just how tainted that name is now. After all these years of confusing marketing and frustrating attempts to regulate multiplayer, so many PC gaming brains either skip right over it or focus into some manner of cranial snarl at its mere mention. Well, let's resist that impulse and strive for a little understanding.
Here's the plan: Microsoft are rebooting Games For Window again, but this time around it's about trying to make that strange, cludgy brand be associated with something other than irksome sign-in screens. How are they doing it? By putting its Marketplace element head-to-head with Steam.
]]>Yesterday revealed that Fable III has a web-based Villager Maker, which allows you, yes YOU, to design villagers that could find their way into the full game. What a clever idea. (And saving someone some work, I should think...) However, if you're planning to play the game on PC then you will be waiting an indeterminate amount of time longer to see said villagers, due to the PC version of game being delayed from the original October 26th date. MS say we should expect more detailed news on the PC version soon.
]]>The Fable 3 demonstration starts a little late, due to Peter Molyneux being a little too reliant on his SatNav. Which is the sort of thing which strikes me as a workable critique of the “bread-crumb” hand-holding in Fable 2, but we're probably denying the existence of that non-PC Game. Which is going to make writing about the first public European showing of Fable III, it brings directly to mind its direct prequel.
]]>The trailers must flow! E3 continues to disgorge the sticky contents of its hype gland all over the internet, and that includes the Fable 3 trailer. For some reason this reminds of that period of third-person action games that appeared in the time just after the first two Tomb Raider games. You know the ones, they all scored about 70% in PlayStation magazines, and were then forgotten. But anyway, the third Fable game was only recently confirmed for PC, where it will apparently be available to buy via digital download on GFWL. Heh.
]]>Rumours are afoot that Fable III may be making its way to the PC. During Lionhead head Peter Molyneux's GDC chat with Gamespot yesterday, he referred to "platforms" for the new game in the plural, and that doesn't really leave a lot of options. The Microsoft-owned developer is not particularly likely to aid their competition with a PS3 or Wii version (although you'd have to think a Wii port of the Fable series would be a 400ft golden egg-laying goose made of diamonds), which leaves the PC as the only viable Microsoft-supported place for the game to be. The original Fable made it to the PC after a lengthy delay, although Fable II stayed exclusively on the wheezing white crate. You can see him drop the hint on the video we've tucked in below. And even more clues too.
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