We take one last pre-look as the clock counts down to F-day

The last time we talked to you about Fable III, we were filled with cautious optimism and hopes that the as of yet unseen portions of Lionhead's sequel will add the finishing touches to what many expect to be the best game of the series yet. Having had one last round with the game at the recent Eurogamer Expo, we're still left with that guarded optimism, but there's a chance now that maybe, just maybe, Molyneux will be right for once. This will most likely be the last Fable III preview before the games release at the end of the month, so we'll draw together everything we know so far to give a more clear picture.

There always has to be some undead

As we mentioned in our previous preview, a lot of the more significant changes are long-term and deal with the evolution of both your character and the world. Lionhead and Microsoft have been very tight-lipped about the second half of the game where you are the ruler, but unfortunately that's where most of the really interesting elements lie. The other continent of Aurora is also in that half of the game, and the fact that you can even choose to invade it sounds very interesting. We wonder if there's going to be some strategic elements involved.

Other things like the interactive 'menu', which when you here Molyneux talk about faceless lists and everything, makes a lot of sense, but it's going to take some getting used to. We predict they'll be several silent curses as people secretly wish for the traditional menu system, but with any luck it will grow on people. The evolution of your weapons as well sounds intriguing, and whilst we've never had our hands on code for long enough to get a feel for it, it's been talked about a lot so that will be something to witness at least.



During our recent hands on, we got to grips with several demos. 'Bowerstone Boat' was a short and simple romp through the docks of Bowerstone as you find yourself on the run from the King's men. This was pretty much another demo to highlight the combat portion of the game, which we have to say is proving to be smoother and more intuitive than we initially thought. Switching between melee, ranged and magic is smoother, and carefully guiding the thumb sticks can help with targeting. There's fancy finishers, counters and special moves with melee combat, although we haven't seen anything with ranged or magic so far. It would be a shame if there wasn't anything just as flashy with ranged weapons, as Lionhead would have missed a trick. There also doesn't seem to be any cross-type combos or anything, which is also a shame.
 

The supporting cast is going to be superb

Another demo involved a side-quest where you enter a table-top game and play through a generic 'rescue the princess' quest. Obviously, it's not the quest itself that's interesting, but the setting itself. You play through a table-top world that's always changing depending on the game masters, and you hear their awkward yet witty banter as they narrate for you. This shows that Lionhead have tried at least to put a lot of effort into making side-quests fun and interesting. With this quest in particular, they probably could have done more with it, but it's a good start.

Playable at the convention (although we didn't get a chance to play them all) were the opening 15 minutes of the game where you get a feel for the story and some of the more basic elements; a Hero Test section where you first gain all of your hero powers, a couple of side quests that are thrown back from Fable II, and a section called Morningwood Fort. This potentially would have been the most interesting demo to play, as it will have been the first time we encountered the decision making and choice section of the game. After helping the soldiers of Morningwood Fort fend off enemies, you can make promises to them to gain their support, promises which you then have to keep once you become monarch.

These little snippets help show off what the game is about, and what it hopes to achieve. There's potential here, we can see, but let's just hope the final game capitalises on it. At the very least we love how they've brought the world to life in this new industrial era. Curiously, we couldn't see any Redcoats in the demos we played, but maybe they appear later. Either way, there's a great mix of fading medieval rustique mixed with the new industrial style. The banter as well is still there, and with the all-star cast that's been recently finalised, this is probably going to have one of the best narratives in the series so far, at the very least.
 

Oh wait, this is a dude. I was going to make some point on how the girls were being bigged up this time round...

Our words of concerned hope in the last preview haven't diminished as much as we'd have liked this close to launch, but we're less worried now than before. Again, we can only have faith that Molyneux isn't just talking a load of smack like he usually does, but there's enough hints laced in the hands on we've had to give us optimism. At the very least, I think we can say that it's worth getting excited about this game - not too excited maybe, but excited none the less. This could very well be the most definitive game in the series yet. Fable III is due out on Xbox 360 on October 26th. There's still no news of the PC version.

Most Anticipated Feature: How Aurora fits into the game is now what's intriguing us the most.