I stopped playing Fable II a while ago after completing it, and yes I chose the 'nice' option despite being left emotionally scarred through events that won't be repeated just in case anyone reading this hasn't played/completed it! I played it intensively for several weeks, getting a lot out of the game and enjoying it.  I do plan to go back and go through Fable II being “evil”, but at the minute there's some 'Insane' difficulty Locust that are still in need of being handed their asses.

(By contrast I recently picked up Mario Galaxy on the Wii pre owned – based purely on it's accolades from the BAFTA game awards I felt I needed to sample it. Although an enjoyable game with mind bending gravity, physics and game play – it's been a slow burner for me and not one that has enjoyed intensive playing.)

So with some time to reflect I thought I'd leave a few notes/musings about Fable II. It's not a review, but if I had to score Fable II out of 10 – I'd probably go for something around 8.  If you do want to read a review check out testfreaks, gamespot or metacritic if you want to read a few opinion snippets in a casual discussion style, read on!

Things I liked...

I liked the currency and money aspect of the game.  Building up from humble beginnings without too much trouble you can be crowned mayor and then king by the end when you buy enough of the property in the game.

Quick guide to being rich in Fable II: Put the time in being good at one job. Get up to the highest level at that job and invest it all in houses or shops – start cheap and get bigger.  Don't worry if you don't have money to upgrade clothes, weapons etc at first, put it all into houses around the Market place to start with. You'll collect rent even when the game isn't on, so within no time you'll have enough to buy a new house, and so on until you own everything and money won't be an issue.  Then you can fill your new velvet lined, gold stitched boots with as much furniture, weapons and clothes as you can!

I thought the abuse hurling, foul mouthed Scottish gargoyles were – genius! Loads of fun and (with a bit of help from some guides) not too difficult to find them all and reap the reward at the end – which is rubbish (or is it?).  You can check on the individual maps in the start menu how many you've found in each area.

I thought the voice acting and celebity voices were fantastic.  Stephen Fry should have been in the game longer, Zoë Wanamaker was good as were the smaller character appearances and even the villagers.

The prison scenes of the game were among the best. Agonising choices to make and horrible consequences for either decision!

There's freedom of action and expression in the game, to an extent that even makes GTA look weak.  The ability to control your own good/evil scale is obviously good, it's reflection on your (and the dog's) appearance is a great feature.

The game can be played at different levels depending how deep you want to go. Pushing through the main story isn't a problem, but if you want to get involved and find it all, see everything and unlock every box, you'll find hours of extra fun and adventures.

If you want to, you've got 2 games in one box here giving fantastic replay value.  Complete the game as a good character and earn your halo and adoration of the population. Lovely. Then restart the game, earn your devil horns and bask in the fear and loathing of the population through evil deeds and general bad behaviour!

Things I didn't like...

Not enough weapons – or too many? I felt I had the best, or at least very good, weapons from relatively early on in the game.  Although my levelling up increased evenly as I journeyed through the game, I felt that upgrading weapons was a bit of an anti climax and not much to look forward to. Contrast this to Zelda where a new weapon or sword is a major event and there's quite a stark difference.

Downloadable content contains a new Island in which armour can be collected. I personally thought it should have had armour options within the core game.  Another thing that is supposed to be improved by the downloadable add-on is the variety of in-game character designs. I personally think a game like Fable II should be aiming for the same complexity and quality as GTA did.  I don't want to see the same face and person time and time again around the game. If I see the same face or character design twice, I think someone hasn't gone to enough effort.

I didn't like the loading between areas of the map.  The game was no where near as rich, complex or busy as Grand Theft Auto which doesn't have loading screens. I don't think there's any need for loading screens as laborious as in Fable II in modern games.

A lot of the 'dungeons' looked the same as each other – even if it's not, this stinks of laziness to design and build fresh new environments, which gamers really don't like.

The success of Fable II means there will be a Fable III.  The game will most likely be set in Albion again but obviously there's a lot of potential and scope for how the game will play out, the time which it is set in and, as a consequence the details of the game.

I dont think the Fable team would, should, or could take on the GTA series in what it does best - “contemporary” free roaming games set in modern cities with gritty modern tasks.  I think they have to stick to the “magical”, “heroic” theme of their games to avoid drawing too many comparisons with games like GTA.  If they go down the chronological route we might see them move into industrial 19th Century Albion with factories, early motor cars, more advanced guns etc.  Not sure how well this mixes with the magical, heroic theme though. 

Maybe they'll take the series back in time as a prequel to Fable 1, which might allow them to make a bigger deal of the fantasy/magic theme of the game.  There's the risk by doing this though that they'll draw comparisons with WOW, Conan, LOTR online etc which, again, they may not come out of well.  Or, maybe they'll think out of the box and do something completely different like take Albion into the future. Giving us more of the same, c.17th century based time period with early guns, swords and magic is a possibility but, if so, I'm not that excited, because I'm not sure what else there is to get from that period.  Whatever they do with it, I'm excited about the prospect of where, and when, they're going to take the Fable franchise next.