Strangely quiet since the September 2004 release of award-winning role-playing game Fable on the original Xbox, developer Lionhead Studios is now ramping up publicity for its upcoming Fable 2, with studio head Peter Molyneux preparing to once more exercise his gift of the gab ahead of the sequel’s arrival.
Lionhead's Peter Molyneux to unveil major features for Fable 2 at this year's GDC in February. Credit: Navgtr.org.
Lauded for its impressive visuals, open-ended gameplay, character customisation, and narrative depth, Fable received positive review feedback from most respected outlets, with the likes of IGN and Play magazine awarding it 9.3/10 and 9.1/10 respectively.
However, the game was also criticised for not delivering on certain feature promises made by Molyneux ahead of its release. On the latter point, Molyneux apologised for any missing elements (such as the promise of the central hero being able to start a family) in an official Lionhead forum post.
With Xbox 360 exclusive Fable 2 expected to arrive in the summer of 2008, Lionhead now has the perfect opportunity to make up for any disappointments or flaws evident in the original game - and that would appear to be exactly what Peter Molyneux is aiming for ahead of his upcoming speech at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco between Feb 18-22.
Specifically, the official GDC session description outlines that Molyneux’s ambition as a videogame designer "is to make Fable 2 a landmark game," and this will see the renowned studio head unveiling "three big design features" that have been added to the sequel.
"The inspiration and rational behind these features will be discussed along with their evolution throughout the development process," explains the description. "The wider context of their impact and influence on the RPG genre will also be examined as the ambition is also to evolve the genre itself."
To help present these seemingly evolutionary features to GDC attendees, Molyneux will employ retrospective videos along with live game examples from Lionhead’s latest production.
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