Fable 3, or Why You Should Quit While You're Ahead

At the end of my previous entry, I promised to write a post about World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, the third expansion of the mega franchise by the gaming company that has done nothing but flourish over the past fifteen years or so.

This is not that post.

With the onset of free time that I received from finishing my first semester of Teacher’s College, I decided to hunker down and attempt to finish Fable 3. I am well aware that I am about two months late on this, but I now feel reasonably compelled to put aside my ambitions of writing a lengthy post about WoW to instead write a sizeable rant about what was supposed to be my (second-)favourite game of the final quarter of 2010. Lucky you.



I should warn you that this post will contain sizeable spoilers for Fable 3, its plot and game progression as well as mechanics. If you have zero urge to spoil yourself or to read what I have to say, then I don't want you to leave this post empty-handed.

An extremely cute holiday video featuring a really cute Japanese cat for those who don't want to read further. (Heck, even if you read the rest of the post, go watch the video. It's adorable.)

Last call, spoilers ahead!

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Alright. Fable has had a pretty mixed history when it comes to reviews. It seems as if in the past, people either really LOVED Fable, or they completely hated Fable. In general, Fable 2 did better than the first Fable, but that was mostly because Lionhead/Microsoft Game Studios perfected upon certain elements of gameplay that were slightly problematic/boring in the first game. (Making money, figuring out how to be good/evil, maintaining property all come to mind as elements that were massively improved upon between Fable and its successor.) Naturally, I believed Fable 3 would be an improvement on even Fable 2. This excited me.

Another thing that excited me about Fable 3 was the premise. You are the daughter of the King of Albion circa Albion's version of the industrial revolution. Your brother becomes the King on your father's death, but his rule is built on tyranny. The people grow poor and restless, and you are called to lead a revolution against your brother. Um, kick ass. The trailer (the awesome version of which I cannot seem to find on the internet anymore - funny, that) instills a sense of absolute epicness regarding your undertaking as the new hero of Albion. You gain alliances with people in the kingdom, and together you thwart a tyrant. Yes, kick ass indeed.

When I picked up my controller after my large gaming hiatus because of school, my budding heroine was still in the process of gathering alliances. She carried on, kicked some ass, took some names, and eventually I had gathered enough people and made enough alliances to take on my brother. And take him on I did!

And then.

And I am disappointed to say that there is, in fact, an "and then".

And then you are asked to rule for your first year as ruler of Albion. What this entails is making sure that you make good on your promises with the various people with whom you allied yourself as well as amassing troops for the RANDOM SUDDEN THREAT THAT WAS INTRODUCED IN BASICALLY ACT 4 OF THE GAME. You need to gain 6.5 million gold in order to have enough to amass a decent enough army to fight the "darkness incarnate" about to invade Albion. You have 365 days in which to make this gold, while also making good on your promises (or breaking them, whatever, but the choice becomes make good on your promise or be a complete amoral dickhead in order to not spend money) which ends up costing you several hundred thousand gold. This would seemingly be possible, except for the fact that if you advance the plot at all by doing a day's worth of royal duties (making good on the aforementioned promises as well as other random pointless things), YOU SUDDENLY ADVANCE ABOUT A HUNDRED DAYS INTO THE FUTURE.

Uh.

Oh, did I mention that when you do advance about a hundred days into the future, you do not gain profits from your properties/businesses as if a hundred days have passed? So if you ended Day 1 with about $100,000 in your treasury and personal accounts, at Day 100 you have...$100,000 in your treasury and personal accounts, even if you have incoming assets. That's probably worth mentioning.

So I conducted an experiment. I finished the game while being completely moral, making as much money as I could (and I should point out that by the end, I was still in the hole by about $400,000-ish) and letting the final chapter happen after only three possible cash-making days. Sure, I was good, I got my good powers and I defeated the darkness. But most of Albion was killed, dead bodies littered the streets, and on top of that, the final boss was my best friend in the game who had gotten possessed by the darkness. And once the game was actually over, it was noted that my rule would be the one in which I LET ALBION DIE. And when you open the save file after all of this occurs, Albion has about one sixth of the population you started with, and the same dead bodies litter the streets.

Yeah.

I did some research when I was done playing through the plot, because I was sure as hell not going to continue with that save file, since the result was completely ludacrous, and I found that pretty much the only way to get the necessary gold was to use a goddamn exploit.

Seriously, Lionhead Studios? I get that you wanted this to be like "a real monarchy", but everything about this final keystone chapter was flawed. Why couldn't I gain money in the same real time that I should have? Why didn't more opportunities come up to save my people? Why must dead bodies completely litter the streets after I am done playing the game, as a constant reminder of the "great sacrifice" I made as the motherloving benevolent leader of Albion?

If it was possible to end the game directly after I became the ruler of Albion, I would not have needed to write this post. But the last chapter of the game ruined the rest of the game for me, to the point where I actually want to delete my completed save file and create a new one so I can run the game overnight to accrue funds like people needed to do in the original Fable. That's just peachy.

Okay, seriously...next post will be about Cataclysm. Then you probably won't see a game-related post from me in a very long time, either much to your dismay or to your enjoyment.

Happy holidays everyone!

The Countdown Begins - er - Continues...

It has been quite a long time since I have had any space (or time, for that matter) to myself. Practicum ended uneventfully (though it was an amazing experience, as I have alluded to before), and then suddenly we were all thrown into a meat grinder of rapid required reflection. We needed to reflect on absolutely everything...an experience that went well, something we did that we could critique so we could do better next time, alongside several informal reflections - whether alcoholic or not - with the people I have randomly dubbed "the OISE peeps" (appropriate, I know).

It has been a time of massive reflection. And reflecting is all well and good, but now I'm pretty tired of reflecting. It has hit that point where you repeat a word over and over again until the word becomes absolutely meaningless. That's pretty appropriate, actually. The process of reflecting on our teaching becomes a bit meaningless after a time. I can see the purpose of it, but something that is a weakness one day will eventually be changed upon a single reflection on the problem. Instead of hashing it out several times, graded and ungraded, why can't we just be left to our own devices to learn by doing and to do so while learning?

And so the countdown continues. A countdown to what? Well, there are actually two things for which I am "counting down", and now I will list them for you. Okay, the list is mostly for me. But if you're reading this, you might as well indulge me and read the list as well:

1) Christmas

Oh man, am I ever stoked for Christmas. Now that the plans have more or less been hashed out, I have discovered that I will be taking the train ride home for 5 days to bask in the glory of Christmas time with the family. For the first time ever, S will also be coming down to be with my family for Christmas, but he can't come until the 23rd. Whatever, small victories!

My money troubles have been quelled for now with a needs-based scholarship I received from the university. Receiving the scholarship made me realize that my OSAP debt is more or less a ticking time bomb, but now's not a very good time to REFLECT on that (there's that damn word again), so I'm just going to move on.

Slightly related to that, I managed to get my Christmas shopping mostly done. When I go home on the 21st, I will have some time to get those last-minute gifts for the people in my life for whom gift shopping is a notoriously tedious and difficult affair. Regardless, I feel (mostly) ready to begin the holidays now that my shopping is done, and also now that...

2) School is almost over (for now).

How sweet it is! Today is the last day of class for the fall semester. There's a three-day Professional Preparation Conference beginning tomorrow, but that will be useful and interesting. I managed to sleep in this morning by accident, and I missed my last FSL of the semester. Oops. However, I am in the Learning Commons waiting for History to start, and I have my last two assignments to hand in in-hand. Once I have relinquished control of these two pieces of sh--work, and once I have endured the AWESOME PARTY that will be History this afternoon (since even though today is actually a party, History class is always a party to me), I feel as though I will finally begin to count down the days until the holidays. Sure, I still have to haul ass out of bed to attend this conference from Wednesday to Friday, but...it's not quite the same as class.

So that's my personal reflection for today. Dammit, I just used that word again.

Coming soon, a post about World of Warcraft: Cataclysm. Why? Because it's out, and it's awesome, and I'll actually have time to experience it in full very soon.