Game Diary: July 14, 2009 - Return to Albion Edition (Fable 2)

For the past week I have been impressed with the amount of time that I have spent playing games. Alas, it is not as much as I once played (I still long for it) but it will suffice.


In the past week I got to concentrate on both Halo 3 and Fable 2.

Halo 3 is just as fun as ever (it really never gets boring) and a lot of the time I wish it were the only game that I had to play just so that I could be as good (because I do get frustrated when my trigger finger is not as itchy as it can be) at it as I once was. For the most part I even managed to avoid all of the kiddies. I do not have any particular memory of wanting to rip off my headphones from the prepubescent screeching of a child's voice. But what started me playing H3 again was the prospect of winning Recon Armor on Bungie Day. I did not have any such luck in running into the Bungie employees so I did not get to enhance my e-celebrity with a shiny piece of digital armor.

The real treat that I have been playing this week is Fable 2. I made a serious thing of it by actually installing the game to my hard drive so that I would not have to listen to the constant loading from the disc. I think that the game was originally designed with installation in mind because the silence is awe inspiring if you have ever played the game without making it a permanent resident of your hard drive. I wish I had the space so that I could keep it on there after I finish playing.

But onto the actual game playing; I forgot how much I loved this game. No, that is not right, I did not forget. I had a perfect image of what playing this game was like in my mind and when I went back to it the game was every bit as perfect as I remembered. I did not get to spend a lot of time with the game when it first came out because I wanted to make more time for Fallout 3, whose release date was only a week after Fable's. If you do not know I spent about four months completing Fallout so I only had that one week with Fable.

This time around I find myself doing exactly what I did the first time I was playing the game (and I am still playing with the same character) which is running around each town looking for better clothes, weapons, new expressions, gargoyles, and silver keys. I am doing everything but concentrating on quests (though I did have an interesting experience with Chesty).

Beating Fable 2 does not leave one with that same empty void that beating Fable 1 did. When you beat Fable 1 you were left with the most powerful weapon in the game (if you chose to keep it) and there was no one of any consequence to use it on.

I love the game all over again and there is a strong possibility that when I am finished with this character I will continue with my male character (I am currently playing a chick) who is still in childhood.

Other than playing those two fantastic games that happen to be in a game of the year bundle with an Elite console (I just realized this) I have been looking at these A-MA-ZING new speaker tags for my A40 Audio System and I have been salivating over the prospect of finally playing an Arctic Monkeys track in a rhythm game (sorry Rock Band, you dropped the ball on this one so far).