IN BRIEF

Set 500 years after the original game, Fable 2 offers even more choices and features, while building on the core gameplay theme of Fable where every choice continually defines who you become, allowing you to truly live the life you choose.

IN FULL

The world in Fable II will be fully dynamic. For instance, the player will be able to jump over fences and climb certain objects. The player will not be assigned a set path or quest to follow. Since the game will take place over a hero’s lifetime, many things will change; Molyneux gave an example of a trade camp that the player could either help or destroy.

Trading in such camps would increase their profit, resulting in a small town growing around them, while stealing from the camp or massacring the camp will result in the abandonment of the area. Additionally, every accessible property (properties that can be entered by the player) in the world is ownable by the player, often unlocking further content such as quests.

Molyneux also announced that players will be able to purchase furniture and fully customize their houses and property. Titles will be awarded for buying property; if one were to buy every building and piece of land in a town, they may become known as the mayor, king, and eventually emperor of the entire land of Albion.

The environment in Fable II will feature trees with branches and leaves that are individually animated according to their own unique physics, each tree having roughly 120,000 leaves. There are also around 15 million poppies, a common flower, in Albion

RESOURCES

The official site: here
The Developer: here
Video source: oxm.co.uk

Now bearing all this footage in mind computer and video games.com state:

Under a microscope the PS3 version does look a bit sharper when the two versions are running side by side.

However with a little more googling and image study I believe the lighting and color to be better on the 360. If you look at the above you can clearly see the brick definition on the 360 half whilst the PS3 section also looks quite saturated and a bit washy.

Ok I admit you can never trust image comparisons like this due to possible degradation in their production etc, but reviewing lots and lots of video gave me chance to look for subtle things such as alpha texturing and particles used for items such as straw bales etc and in my opinion the 360 is also a winner there.

In the past system controllers were my major deciding factor in this type of situation, which usually led to the PS2 winning hands down when in competition with the XBOX. However the 360 controller has changed all that, I much prefer the offset of the sticks its much more ergonomic.

CVG also state:

The Xbox 360 version makes up for this with (arguably) better controls and we’re also told it runs two or three frames faster than the PS3 cousin, though no-one’s going to notice that.

Believe me when you do what I do for a living you will notice 1 frame makes all the difference never mind 3 but hey I’m very very sad.

The changes from the original include:

• Revamped, updated graphics featuring new character designs, extra animations, better visuals, and added lighting effects in high-definition video.
• New original fully orchestrated soundtrack (composed by Arnaud Galand)
• Some of the new animations are in fact new moves, allowing the player to roll, rebound of walls, and climb and descend floors quicker.
• Some characters are based on their The Sands of Time counterparts, such as the Prince, Princess Farah as the Princess, the Dark Prince as the Mirror Prince, and the Vizier as Jaffar.
• The inclusion of one checkpoint per level.
• Full 3D, in-engine cut scenes of important events, such as the freeing of the Dark Prince, the Princess choosing death over marriage (if the timer runs out), and so forth.
• An optional butterfly that points out correct routes for stuck players.
• The game can still be finished if the player takes more than 60 minutes in the default mode.
• Two additional modes: Time Trial (finish the game as quickly as possible) and Survival (only one life, one hour).
• An optional ghost that allows players to race against themselves from their best time through a single level.
• Twelve Achievements, most of which unlock during significant events in the story.

Microsoft has said that it is facing a bill of more than $1bn to cover the cost of offering extended warranties, after failings with its Xbox 360. The company admitted it had been forced to make:

An unacceptable number of repairs

to the consoles after key hardware failed. Customers who suffer the problems will now be given a free three-year warranty, the company said.

The failures are indicated by three red flashing lights on the console.

Microsoft has not revealed how many of its machines have suffered the problem, but said the number was:

Bigger than we are comfortable with.

It added that the move – which will also see some people reimbursed for postage and repairs on consoles which were out of warranty – was aimed at keeping the loyalty of its customers.

The majority of Xbox 360 owners are having a great experience with their console and have from day one

said Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft’s Entertainment & Devices Division.

But this problem has caused frustration for some of our customers and for that, we sincerely apologies.

It added its xBox division was still expected to make a profit during the financial year beginning 1 July 2007.

Migration manoeuvre

Separately the company has announced an October launch of its advanced version of the Xbox – the Xbox 360 Elite – in Japan, where it lags behind Nintendo and Sony in the console market.

And the company has also unveiled plans to open a software development centre in Canada which it said was a way of hiring talented people from abroad who would struggle to obtain a US working visa.

The Vancouver location would “allow the company to continue to recruit and retain highly skilled people affected by the immigration issues in the US”, Microsoft said.

Official Mothership Referance

• Microsoft XNA Developers Center
• Microsoft XNA Faq
• Microsoft XNA Game Studio Forum
• Microsoft XNA Framework Forum
• Microsoft XNA Team Blog
• Microsoft GSE / XNA Downloads

XNA Development Sites

• http://www.xnaresources.com
• http://thezbuffer.com/
• http://letskilldave.com/
• http://xbox360homebrew.com/
• http://www.ziggyware.com/
• http://www.xnatutorial.com/
• http://learnxna.com/default.aspx
• http://www.xnadevelopment.com/
• http://www.xnastart.com/
• http://xnarocks.spaces.live.com/
• http://geekswithblogs.net/clingermangw/
• http://learnxna.com/
• http://www.xnaspot.com/Tutorials.aspx
• http://sharky.bluecog.co.nz/
• http://www.threesixbox.com/
• http://www.thehazymind.com/

XNA Tutorials

Tile Engine Tutorials – xnaresources.com

• Home, Creating a Tile Engine with GSE XNA
• Part 1, Creating a Tile Engine with GSE XNA
• Part 2, Smooth Scrolling / Tile Sets / Game Screen
• Part 3, Multi-Layer Map / Tile Animation / Player Avatar
• Part 4, Map Editor / Mouse Control / Simple Text
• Part 4b, Moving Away From The Center
• Part 5, Building a Tile Engine Game Component
• Migrating Beta’s – LetsKillDave

3D Tutorials

• www.ziggyware.com: Content Pipeline Mesh Rendering
• www.ziggyware.com: XNA – Parallax Mapping

Collision Detection 2D

• XNA – 2D Per Pixel Collision Detection
• XNA – Collision Response in 2D
• XNA – Rotated Sprite Per Pixel Collision Detection

Collision Detection 3D

Text and Fonts in XNA

• http://www.ziggyware.com: Drawing Text in XNA XBOX 360
• http://www.threesixbox.com: Font Maker for XNA
• http://www.xgamelibrary.com: XGameLineInput

XNA Components

• www.xgamelibrary.com: Home of XGameLineInput and XGameInputB2
• XGameInputB2
• XGameLineInput

XNA Demos

Game Development

• http://www.gamedev.net/reference/