Fable III Review

I had intended to do a very upbeat Fable 3 (PC), review, considering I beat the game. However, this morning my saved game is gone, roughly 30 hours down the drain. My character is gone. As you can imagine, I'm pretty miffed. I still had so much I wanted to do. I've researched it and it is something that has happened to many others, except... My game NEVER crashed, not once.

Since I'm not wanting to jump back in right away, even if I planned on making a new character soon to play it again, I'm scared of losing that one too, I'll go over some good and bad, this being the worst thing any RPG can have happen. I hope this is fixed soon with an update. I do want to say- I loved this game, that's why I am so upset. It is a fantastic RPG game.

*Spoilers INC*

Even after this BS happening, I would have to say it is now my favorite RPG. I still haven't played DA2, so we'll see what happens when I do. The setting and world is lovely, it's very enticing. You can explore and find treasures around the world, buy property and houses, rent them out to make a small fortune, buy businesses, have relationships with the many people of Albion. It is all very in depth. For each person in the game you can complete a quest to gain a friendship, which adds to the game play.
Things I recommend doing.
Pick a profession and skill it up with Road to Rule (best to stick to one instead of squandering points until you get everything unlocked that you want- first). You can make lots of money this way, making pies,  preforming with the lute and blacksmithing. I chose pie making. That's one helluva pie!

Buy up houses and rent them out, keep them repaired. Do this before you take on the throne. I'd say, when in the sewers and asked if there is anything left that you need to attend to, make sure you've got some money incoming.

Make choices quickly or the game makes them for you. Sadly, this happened to me twice. I wanted to do the 'good' thing but sometimes the bad seemed much more fun. Next time around I'm picking whatever is fun. Most choices won't really change your direction in an absolute way but there are a few, such as your childhood sweetheart. Make sure you pick them if you really want to see them again! Killing the people has no negative impact on the game. It could change your course a tad but as I said no negative impact.

Being good is fun but being bad seems just easier, though that will be my next path probably, making more 'bad' choices just to see the results. Being good is also much harder sometimes, annoying problems popping up and making a good based choice can lead to harsher problems.

Things I loved within the game.
I loved that you could use magic, melee and guns. I used all three, depending on the situation. You'll need to focus on one more than the others, unless you do a lot of side quest for guild points. Unless you gain a lot of points frequently.

You can wear whatever you want and dye it, you can also mix and match sets and save up to three. I like the freedom of this. Pink outfits, woo! I also liked how you could decorate houses, I had planned on this but never got  far, always busy with other things. I will next time.

I liked the characters and story. I never played the other two Fable games, while I watched my son, I didn't ever bother (I am thinking about doing so though). You don't feel like you're missing something just because you didn't. If you did, you'll notice little things in the game. My brother and son pointed these out to me. I like how the people in the game react to you, it is endearing. I loved my butler, he was one cool dude. And, last but not least, I loved my dog. He was very helpful of a companion!

The humor was great, the world was open and the game felt vast and exciting- I could go on and on about how much I loved this game.

Things that I didn't love so much.

I know some people may complain about combat and the lack of complexity in combat. It really isn't horrible. You get use to it. However, long fights and bunches of mobs can, at times, grow boring due to lack of options. My arm starts to hurt from all the freaking clicking (AUTO ATTACK OPTION PLEASE) and power ups on top of that. I've seen worse so I can't say it's the worst system. Not the best either.

If you don't chose your childhood sweetheart as a romance option (especially for a female char) you're out of luck as every other person wandering the world is goofy and annoying, enough to the point of not wanting to see them very often. Not so much for female NPCs as the males counterparts. There definitely are not plenty of fish in the sea, lol.

You should be able to wear every hair/clothing item in the game. Period. While the options are great, there is not much of a variety in female hairstyles. There is for the female NPCs, lucky them.

Ok, mostly small things that bothered me.And ... well... you know. The whole I LOST MY FREAKING CHARACTER... thing.

What else does Fable III offer?
There is a great quest system. You can manage this in the map. You can pick which quest to show up as the current quest. You can also repair all your houses using the map. There is a repair all option, this helps a lot. Map travel is great too and, of course, the map room where you can enter different rooms for armor, saves, accept gifts, interact with your pets and weapons, trophies and so on.

The game doesn't offer intricate tactical fights. If you're looking for that, go elsewhere. I wasn't, I like beating things up and moving on. There are impressive kill moves, many can be random but still enough to make you feel heroic and badass. Nothing like stabbing someone in the face to make you feel on top of the world or breaking someones neck with your thighs... RAHHHH!

Oh, yeah! And, for people who like multilayer, you can play with friends. You can also marry and romance them, take things home from their world and so on. It was something that really appealed to me.

Dying isn't severe, some may not like that option but it really was pretty nice sometimes, like when I was at my wits end with a long fight.

And... 3D. You can play in 3D. I'd like to know WHO the hell plays in 3D? I hated having this option and never found if you could turn it off, at times in cut scenes, the characters had trails. It was annoying sometimes, to the point of blurring.

Your character also changes due to what type of fighting you use. You gain taller if you use magic and more bulky if you use melee and you also gain scars from melee too. I used a lot of magic and melee but for some reason I ended up very tall. I towered over most of the characters in the game, some of them even pointed that out to me.

If you notice in the pictures, weapons do change, according to what you do, this does have a bit to do with how it looks. A very nice option. Also, you may not think tattoos are very cool at first, but with this game they tend to change color as you progress through the game. Pictured at the very top, you can see how mine glowed blue.

While I am a bit angry that I lost my game, I eagerly await my next play-through.  It was a game that will stick with me for a long time. And yes.. I am a screenshot freak!

-kaozz

RPG Therapy- Fable III

I've been in need of some RPG therapy. You know, just a good ol' RPG game to play at your own speed and style. Fable 3 is just the game for that! Since I first saw it on the 360, I've really wanted to play it. My brothers and son have already beat it and I drooled watching them play. We have a PS3 and I am not huge on playing a console anyhow so I've been patiently waiting for the PC release. It is about time, I was so tired of waiting!

So, with one cat sprawled across my desk and another across my lap, I set off to adventure into the world of Albion. Thus far I've only played it about three hours, I've loved every minute of it. It really is a fun game, lots of direction, lots to do. Some exploring leads to neat things, a pet is handy too. Magic, guns and melee all at my disposal, oh my! Different outfits to wear, houses to buy and rent... This game is really hitting the sweet spot!

I like the multiplayer options, that is always something that I really like with my RPG games. Maybe I can convince the ol' man to play with me. It adds another dimension to the game, if you so choose. I'm not a big fan of the whole windows live game deal, it does make easy for downloading additional free content though. The game would NOT start until I signed in with it, so if you're having issues, try logging into that first. Also, I <3 Xfire for the SS option, great for taking pics in any RPG game. I'll soon have plenty of them to show off.

That's it for today, I'm going to squeeze in some more playtime before I have to get ready to head out! Have an awesome weekend peeps! I leave you with an awesome song on this awesome morning ;)

-kaozz

Have It YOUR Way!

I want it ALL! Yeah, I took your stuff! Whacha' gonna' do 'bout it?! That's right, keep walking.

Last night, and this morning, I managed to get some levels with my priest alt and hit Wrath, in WoW. She is sitting halfway into 68 and things are going smoothly. I'm mainly killing time waiting on 4.2 to come out. I check in to see what is going on with it at MMO-Champ and it seems like more and more tweaks. Gah, more tweaks? How about tweaking me some appearance slots and housing?! There are things for me to do but I've already been baited with the new content and that is what I want to do. If it doesn't come out soon I may just have to let my account freeze for a bit.

I suppose in a way I am just tired of heroics, raiding and so on. Dire and I don't even play together at this point, but as soon as (or IF) I get the priest back up there we should be golden.

I'm not burnt out on the games I play, just bored with all this conformity. I'm tired of keeping up on gear that gets replaced as fast as you can use it- As if it were toilet paper. I'm sick of min/maxing. I was playing EQ, recently, and Dire tells me that I should be doing this and that. But I don't want to do that stuff.... I want to do what I WANT. And? I do. He is a huge min/max player, I'm not these days.

I don't want to be some carbon copy of everyone else. I want to explore cool places and horde cool things to take back to my virtual 'castle'. I want to enjoy the games I play without worrying about every nit-picky detail. I'm a bit tired of reading blog posts that sound like second jobs with all the worry and stress put into what should be a fun hobby. Maybe it is me getting older and not wanting to rush into everything and spam rotations like my life depends on it. Whatever it is, I'm going with it.

I suppose this is just a selfish post about what I want. I like the things that last through expansions, housing, appearance items, mounts, pets, titles and so on. So, lately I've been leaning heavily towards EQ2 for this reason. Then again I don't love every aspect about EQ2 but it offers a lot of things for me to do. That is why I play on EQ2X, so it is always available without a sub. I just want to settle down to one game for a bit, I guess.

No game is perfect though. So, I'm just weighing my options a bit. Do you feel like you just want to march to your own drummer sometimes? What do you do? I feel like this more and more. Right now I feel like having Burger King, just so I can have it my way...


-kaozz

Wandering Around Norrath

I'm trying to decide if I want to stick with my EQ2 inquisitor or just level up my alt on EQ2X, the fury. In a way I really, really don't feel like doing it all over again. I enjoyed the 1-79, or so, content with many characters but 80-85 is just not sparking much interest with me. Once I gain a few more levels I can move to the new content which I think will be lots of fun, just getting there is proving to be less fun than I thought it would be.

For one, I dislike some of the quests in this game. Go find so and so. No direction, no idea where so and so is. If I forget where a quest giver is, I could spend ages looking for it. I tend to use the EQ2Wiki a lot, which helps but who wants to tab out all the time, just to find where a quest is. If I don't, it can take quite awhile to find what I am looking for, with these huge maps, and I hate wasting time. I think this game needs a quest helper thrown in- One that works in every zone. EQ2 maps isn't working for me either and this is starting to get under my skin.

Even though I sound sort of negative I do enjoy EQ2 for a lot of reasons and really do want to hit 90 with my inquis. I have plenty of housing ideas to work on and many things I still want to do in the game, once I finish leveling. I just need a good push to get me going, sometimes it is hard to get back into things. Plus, the area I am in now has a lot of things tied in from EQ and it makes me nostalgic to play that.

On a more positive note, I have been messing around in EQ also. I was thinking of playing my mage or bst some. I'm still just puttering around on many of my characters trying to get a feel for what I want to play. Sometimes it is nice to just head out somewhere and just kill mobs without worrying about silly quests.

So, I'm just sort of wandering around in Norrath(s) just trying to get a feel for what would be fun to stick with. Maybe I'll have more of an idea what I want to do, in Norrath, next time I write. Safe adventures all!

-kaozz

Weekend Recap

Poor Tut, not feeling so well here :(

Meh, blogger has been acting funny today upon trying to login. A simple clearing of the cache and cookies fixes it though. Anyhow, I had a pretty busy weekend and really didn't get to play much of anything. My little Tut kitty started acting mopey on Friday and by Sunday I had decided he needed to go to the vet. I was very worried and upset because he was so sickly acting. He was not eating, I was thinking he had a temp (which the vet said he had a 103 temp, normal for cats is around 100) and he was very lethargic and was crying when picked up. He had a respiratory infection and was very dehydrated. But my kitty is much, much better today! I've been having to give him meds twice a day too. He's now happily purring in my lap :)

Then on Saturday the building next to ours caught fire. I think a total of six apartments were ruined (at least 12 vacated) and it spread across the roof, we were very worried it might spread to ours. So we spent quite awhile outside to see what was happening. Then after that the power was out for awhile, I suppose for the fire dept to do some stuff.

So, as you can see just a lot going on! Plus some other things and I was so tired by Monday! I've been reading a lot too. I got a hold of some really good books recently and it is nice not to be reading them on the phone for a change. I love to read on my phone but sometimes it feels as if I am always looking at a screen!

I am wanting to tone down things on hopping around in my games. I am considering finishing my trek to 90 on the Inquisitor, in EQ2. I'll definitely keep RoM on the side, I enjoy that game a lot. However, EQ2 really covers my fluff cravings well and it would be nice to hit 90.

I think my Rift account expired last week. WoW will be expiring this week or next, I think. I am just not feeling Rift now but I love how they are having free server transfers. Smooth move without making the company looking like it is floundering while trying to set an example. I give them props for the smart move. I surely wish EQ2 and WoW didn't charge for transfers.

So, with WoW I am just waiting around for the next patch to hit and until then I figure I'll mess around with something else, I have free time on EQ2 and I may as well utilize it. I considered EQ, which I still may play since I have the free time, but it takes awhile to get set up sometime and that isn't something I really feel up to. Plus I tend to get bored when I solo, sometimes. Dire had been playing it a bit but we could never find a good time to meet up together in game. Either he or I being busy when the other was playing.

So, that's it for today. Have a great week peeps!
-kaozz

RoM- Retail Box (of Goodness)

Recently I read that Runes of Magic had an retail box in 700 Walmart stores across the US. The nice thing about purchasing this box is that it holds a 100$ value in items that can be claimed with a code. If you're already playing it you still benefit from the items. Which sounded pretty sweet, 20 bucks for all these cool rewards.

I recently saw it in Walmart and had to pick it up. I didn't see it listed on their website so I was surprised to see it on the shelf. I popped into the electronics department while picking up some ipod accessories for my son and just couldn't resist it.

So what are the claim items? 
Storm Hippogriff Mount (70% mount)
Loyal Little Goat of War- Pet Egg (Gives an xp buff, first time summoned that day)
100 Diamonds
Adventurer Weapon Enhancement Bundle
Shadow Scout Outfit
Blaze of The Purple Shadow Outfit (maybe it is 2 out of 3, I only received two costumes)
Purple Fantasy Outfit
Splendid Low Sofa
Tall Engraved Wooden Cabinet
Royal Blue Leisure Chair
Caesar Bed
Aristocratic Engraved Fireplace
Fashionable Blue Knitted Carpet
Lionhead Treasure Chest (10 slot)
Expansive Luxury Villa Contract (House, Click on Contract while in your home)

If you're going to be playing the game I think it is a wise investment. I am enjoying the items so far and was very glad to have found it in my local store. I haven't really seen much on this box version so I thought I'd make a post on it. Some pictures below!

Tut agrees, he likes RoM!

Storm Hippogriff Mount.

Expansive Luxury Villa

LoN= More EQ & EQ2 Welcome Back Goodies!

Last night a friend of mine excitedly sent me a message that he thought would interest me. We're both big EQ2 fans and he had some interesting news to tell me, which was cool he took the time to made sure I knew! Knew what? LoN was included in the SOE welcome back program. EQ and EQ2 accounts (upon logging into LoN) get a free LoN (Legacies) choose your loot card. Very good news indeed!

I logged in later on and had a chance to see all what was available, it was a tough choice with all of the cool loot but as I was thinking, just the other day, a New Halas home would be great to decorate... Well I picked New Halas Housing License! Gorgeous house- FREE and Rent Free! On my EQ account I grabbed a really nifty mount.

So, all you EQ and EQ2 players check LoN for your loot card. I had around 18-20 LoN packs to claim also. Some great things available to you for free. I saw people asking, on the EQ forums, for a free choose your loot card from LoN, many thought the EQ WB rewards were a bit meh, so maybe this will help sweeten the deal! It is one claim per station account so pick wisely! Included at the bottom are shots of the loot lists available for each game!

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Also- Thought I'd add this in. You don't have to download LoN to log into it this game, you can do so by logging into it with EQ or EQ2. Simply click on the EQII or EQ menu and select Legends of Norrath in the list.


 If it gives you an error about installing it (EQ2) you simply log out, go into the launcher, options, select Legends of Norrath and then back to the main login screen- Click: Update. Below is a picture to give you the gist of what you'll need to do. All separate game launchers should look similar to the picture, if you use the station launcher (which is sort of phasing out for EQ2, I cannot use it any longer) simply do a full scan. However, it should, most likely, be integrated into EQ already.

-kaozz

Nomadic Gaming

EQII.

I probably have too many games I am interested in now. WoW, RoM, EQ, EQ2(X), ESO, The Sims Medieval... Still wanting to log into Vanguard soon and my son has been wanting me to play Minecraft too. I still want to check out DA2 which is sitting on my computer unplayed as well as Portal 2 (which my son plays). Then Fable 3 is out.... I've been dying to play this for PC since I saw it on the 360. So, I just play a little of this and that. I can't complain, too much good stuff is better than not enough interesting things to play. Plus, I have a friend going back to WoW and wanting us to play with him more.

In EQ2 they have all the city festivals going (all the loot can be found on all the vendors, making it easier to do the quests without too much travel). The Ether Races are here again... Which I still have to do. I've been trying to get the Moonlight Enchantment stuff and the festival items first. I used a few things to cure my housing cravings yesterday. I'll show you my 'gingerbread' house, which is still a work in progress. Just a little, small building I built 'outside' my house.

In EQ I have not had such a glorious return. Isn't it always like that for me, lol?! I've solo'd some here and there, but every time I go to group with Dire... well I died the first time and he died the second. Then by the time we get rezzed or try to go somewhere else we end up logging off due to the time or something in real life. Dire has been playing it more than I. He's enjoying it a lot.

On top of that, my rogue's house is gone, along with her plots. I logged in to receive eviction boxes. I thought they added time to the housing? I wasn't too pleased about this and just said 'screw it'. I might work on the housing, again next week. I spent a lot of time on my plots and I'm not happy about having to buy them again... I suppose it's an excuse to play with housing more. Plus my beastlord needs a new house on this server!

Minecraft. My son loves, loves, loves this game. I am going to have to start playing it with him more. He wanted to show me some stuff people made on the classic-server games you can log into. There were some really fantastic places! Just showing off a couple of screenshots from our travels. The creative/builder part of me really would fit in here, I think.

I started playing Ether Saga Online again too... I am on like a binge with free games this month. However, this one is really cute, gorgeous graphics and characters, fun to play and laid back. I played it years ago and wanted to pick up on it again. It has a really great pet system too.  I am making my way through the game again as it has had a revamp in April, so it has been pretty fun, thus far! Just showing off some cute shots.

For now I'm a bit nomadic, but enjoying it all!
-kaozz