Famed Fable creator Peter Molyneux recently revealed some brief details for Fable III’s downloadable  option. While the game will still receive a standard retail offering to come out in late 2011, Xbox LIVE users will have a chance to start downloading it in pieces a few weeks after the official release.

According to Peter, “Soon after the retail launch we’re doing episodic. We break it down in chapters. We give away the first chapter entirely free, the first hour. When you reach a certain point in the game it says ‘thank you for playing the pilot of Fable 3, do you want to spend an extra 2-5 or whatever dollars to buy the next episode, or buy the whole lot?’ Press ‘yes’ and you will immediately continue playing.”

This scenario looks like it should be a real win for players, as you’re not forced to drop the full $60 up front. Now you can try before you buy. If you feel like the game is dragging, you can simply stop paying for it and move on to something else. Fable III will likely be a must-buy, however, so…

Source: Kotaku

LOS ANGELES — Bethesda Softworks’ Brink is an immersive action shooter that blends single-player, co-op, and multiplayer into a video game experience that finally blurs the line between the single player offline experience and the often rabid online shooter world.

The game is under development by Splash Damage, the studio behind the Enemy Territory games.

Brink has RPG elements that require you to build up your player from the clothing and gear he wears to the missions he decides to go on, to which side of a civil war he chooses to fight for.

You’re on a man made city called Ark — a complex of hundreds of islands seen as the last visage of hope for humanity. It was originally one of those “Bio-Dome” green habitats until Earth’s oceans started to rise, making the Ark a refuge instead of a paradise. After 25 uneasy years, the residents of the Ark reached their breaking point. War breaks out.

The game has beautifully stylized visual elements and scenery. It also has an interesting control scheme with a “smart button” that lets you target a ledge or point on the map that your character will vault, leap, climb or fall to automatically. The game understands where you’re trying to go and interacts with the environment around you.

The game is set for a Spring 2010 release, and it wasn’t playable at E3 this year. Though, the demo we were shown looks wonderful.

Blast did get to sit down with the game’s Creative Director, Splash Damage’s Richard Ham. Ham is a powerful name in video games. He invented Syphon Filter and just finished a stint with Microsoft working on Fable II. Ham told us there’s a message behind Brink and other types of post-apocalyptic games, as video game developers, like movie directors and television producers, engage in social commentary with their mediums.

BLAST: What do you hope to add to this project? What’s your vision for Brink?

Richard Ham: When I actually went in to interview with Splash Damage I was actually a little bit nervous thinking “gosh I don’t really have a lot of multiplayer shooter experience.” I mean Syphon 2 had a little bit of a deathmatch game, and that was kind of nice. Fable has a little bit but not very much, and Paul (Wedgwood), the owner, said “that’s perfect. That’s exactly what we want because I’ve got a whole team full of guys who have been doing nothing for the last decade but make kick ass multiplayer shooters and that’s what they’ll continue to do.”

But now that they’re moving over to console, they really do want to kind of bridge a gap, and what I tend to think we’re actually going to accomplish here bringing all this together is with Brink I tend to think it’s almost a gateway drug in that players like me who traditionally don’t play a lot of online shooters — I mean, I love Call of Duty. I play them all, but I get to the end of the story, and then I shelve it, and I never go online because “that’s a dangerous place” it’s a nasty place and it’s a real shame, because for all these years I’ve been missing out on these great experiences. So a big, big push for Brink is creating a great multiplayer experience, but then making it open and accessible so players who would have thought twice about going online actually have a reason to and will find that “wow we’ve really been missing out.”

BLAST What design elements did you immediately want to bring to Brink?

RH: Probably the number one thing for me, the biggest thing that I wanted to push, was the notion of having dynamic objectives. It’s actually something I did a long time ago going back to Syphon Filter 1. You’re going through a mission and all of a sudden “oh a new objective will happen,” based on the preset storyline of the game and of the level you’re in.

We’re going the complete opposite way in that every mission you’re going to go on has a clear set of objectives you are to go through and pretty much plays by the book. …

But your personal story is radically different depending on what class you’re playing, what body type you have, what type of player you are, what level you’re at. Because in the game there’s this kind of invisible commander running the whole show, running your team, who knows what’s going on, knows who’s doing what and can basically give out orders, optional orders, to everybody.

We will bribe you as a player to do these things. “We need somebody to turn into an engineer to repair the crane. First guy that does it, 300 experience points.” That’s the equivalent of killing 30 guys. Why would you not do it? We’ll do it just to get you to change, just to try. Even if you don’t make it, we’ll reward you.

That’s a really big push. All these dynamic objectives are coming up. It’s one of the reasons I think it’s an accessible game. A first person shooter online is a pretty hardcore place. You go in there; everybody’s been playing for days and months, and they know every square inch of that level and you’re like “I don’t know what to do.”

The worst experience I ever had playing an online shooter was the first time I played a capture the flag match, and I got the flag, and I was like “What do I do? Where do I go? Everyone wants to kill me. My team wants to kill me. This is terrible!” You want to kill yourself just to drop the damn thing. You’re completely helpless. In Brink, at any given time there’s always a lot of missions you can take. You can be on the front line where all the hardcore guys are, whooping it up. If that’s not going to work for you, look at that objective wheel that comes up. There’s always going to be lots of options, whether it takes you behind enemy lines to do some sneaking around, whether it’s all about rescuing civilians, capturing enemy command posts.

BLAST: There are a lot of shooters and a lot of online multiplayer shooters. There have also been a lot of lofty multiplayer games — M.A.G. for instance. What specifically about Brink do you feel will turn on players?

RH: Well there’s a standard answer, but the big one is that mission inside a mission. But there’s other things too. Splash Damage, you go back to the Enemy Territory Games, it was the first online shooter that actually had experience points and leveling up, even before Battlefield. So, they’ve been doing this for a long time, and it’s now kind of become en vogue. With Call of Duty’s perks, people go “oh wow this is really exciting.” Killzone has a really deep system. Resistance had one as well. But these guys have been doing it for a long time.

We’re all big fans of MMOs back at the office. I think players when they finally see all the RPG options that are available so they can really customize themselves and create the perfect guy for them that’s going to be really refreshing.

The entire storyline of Brink is the outbreak of the civil war on this remote man made island, kind of the last refuge of humanity — or so they think — it’s a civil war and there are two sides. The important thing is you choose up front whether you fight on the side of “the man” of security, keep the peace or do you go on the other side and play as Resistance. The important thing is on your side, you’re clearly in the right. When you get to that mission on the other side of the fence, it’s a completely different story and there’s a completely different set of things going on. That’s a really key element in the game is this kind of two sides of the same coin and you don’t know the whole thing until you’ve seen it all.

BLAST: The post-apocalyptic genre has exploded recently. Do you see parallels to modern society with these games?

RH: We’re actually trying to use this platform to actually say something. I’ll be honest; I turned 40 this year. I’ve been doing this for 15 years, and I’m getting to the point where I actually want to say something. I don’t just want this to be about cheap thrills, and I know it has to be. It has to be fun, but when you look at the setting and what’s going on with the two sides, I’ll be honest we’re definitely trying to put parallels into whats going on in our world today, particularly Palestine and Israel.

You look at that situation, and it seems completely intractable. If you look at it from one side or the other, well everything’s entirely justified or justifiable. It’s been in a stalemate forever. We can use a setting like this, because obviously nobody wants to play a shooter set in modern day Palestine. Nobody would want that.

It’s like Star Trek back in the 60s. “Well we can’ really do anything about race relations on network television, so let’s paint a guy with half his face white and half his face black and have him have an internal struggle.” It was a way for them to actually do stuff, and that’s kind of what we’re trying to do as well.

The setting really just kind of comes out of that naturally.

Lionhead studios, the UK based Microsoft development studio responsible for all things Fable have announced that their latest work “See The Future” will arrive on digital shelves May 12 priced at 7$/560 MS Points.

In addition to the wild fantasy and exciting new quests led by Murgo the Trader, Fable aficionados will see the return of their faithful canine companion through three varied alter egos: Dalmation, Husky, or Bloodhound.

In case you forgot, See The Future also brings the soldier helmet, braided ponytail hairstyle, psycho Jester make-up, a new hero expression, and the backflip ability available to teach to your four legged friend.

As if the preceding weren’t enough, Lionhead is offering Silver Xbox Live members a “Multiplayer Unlocked Weekend”, inviting the once restricted users to hook up with Gold enabled friends in Albion starting May 8 at 12:01 p.m. EST, and concluding on May 11 at 11:59 a.m. EST.

Head on over to the Fable 2 developer blog to read the full release and watch the developer diary #9 video.

Peter Molyneux, big boss at Lionhead revealed the latest batch of DLC for Fable 2 titled “See The Future” back in March during GDC, but now, via the extra 250 gamerscore achievement list, we know at least a little of‚  what the future may entail.

A few that stand out are “The Nutcracker” where the Hero must score 25 groin shots, but that’s where I aim naturally anyway.

Also included is “The Paramour” challenging the Hero to make love 25 times, but for the more prude players, as usual, as long as you’re in attendance, you’ll receive the achievement.

Full list below (Gamerscore in parentheses) and be sure to let us know what stands out the most to you.

The Nutcracker (10)
Score 25 groin shots, or see another Hero do so.

The Paramour (10)
Make love 25 times, or see another Hero do so.

The Concierge (30)
Open all the Demon Doors in Albion, or see another Hero do so.

The Visionary (50)
Take a look into the future, or see another Hero do so.

The Con Artist (25)
Find all 10 of Murgo’s statuettes, or see another Hero do so.

The Howler (10)
Scare five people while dressed as a balverine, or see another Hero do so.

The Ghastly Jester (10)
Make five people laugh while dressed as a hobbe, or see another Hero do so.

The Repugnant (10)
Disgust five people while dressed as a hollow man, or see another Hero do so.

The Gladiator (30)
Score a total high score of 20,000 points or more in the Colosseum, or see another Hero do so.

The Multiplicator (20)
Achieve a multiplier of 10 or more in the Colosseum, or see another Hero do so.

The Combatant (20)
Defeat the necromancer in the Colosseum, or see another Hero do so.

The Fowl Player (10)
Dress as a chicken and kick five chickens during the Colosseum battles, or see another Hero do so.

The Colourist (15)
Collect the dyes hidden in Murgo’s magical items, or see another Hero do so.

via Fable 2 development blog.

Microsoft generously announced another way to spend your hard earned capital today with the advent of the “Xbox 360 Game of The Year Bundle.”

Available in May at a retail price of $399 the GOTY bundle includes an Xbox 360 Elite, Fable 2, Halo 3, and passionate hopes for world domination.‚  In all seriousness, the bundle offers everything fans hoping to get the most out of the Microsoft gaming experience could ever wish for.

Personally, Halo 3 and Fable 2 are my two favorite titles on the system and with a 120 GB hard drive, the space available for the recommended game installs is plentiful.

In comparison to the $299‚  60GB Xbox 360 Pro Model, which offers Kung Fu Panda and LEGO Indiana Jones, this new and exciting GOTY bundle is for gamers who wish to crank the intensity up to 11.

Certainly the $400 price tag is chilling, but the replayabilty and lasting value of both titles coupled with the massive storage space of the Elite makes the investment absolutely worth it.

via Major Nelson

Peter Molyneux, boss at Lionhead announced the second batch of DLC for the studio’s award winning fantasy role playing game, Fable 2, at GDC last week, but today dropped significant details on the next piece of digital wares.

Officially titled “See The Future,” this next iteration of downloadable content will challenge the Hero in new ways while meeting new characters, creatures, and by attending events and collecting artifacts.

Remember Murgo, from the odd reminiscent childhood scene?‚  He’ll be venturing to BowerStone market equipped with brand new merchandise of all sorts, including the very, very mysteriously intriguing “canine breed transformation potion.”

In addition, two new quests, “The Ghost of the Snowglobe” and “The Cursed Knight” will extend and infuse prior game elements in new and very exciting ways.

Still not enough? “See The Future” will additionally contain sparkly new clothing, helmets, hairstyles, an undefined Hero expression, a Murgo the Trader statue, and the back-flip ability for your four-legged companion.

Finally, those who emerge victorious will be granted a mystical quest, one that “provides a vision of Albion’s future and what lies ahead for those born into the heroic bloodline,” which is literally translated, the first inklings of Fable 3, probably.

“See The Future” will hit Xbox Live sometime next month priced at 560 MS Points.

via Lionhead

Microsoft Games Studios recently axed over 5,000 jobs at a number of internal studios including Banjo Kazooie creators Rare, and Games for Windows Live, ACES, and many other unfortunate establishments.

The lone survivor of this night of long knives? Lionhead Studios — the friendly United Kingdom blokes that created the Fable series and recently released the sequel stateside.

Legendary video game designer and boss at Lionhead, Peter Douglas Molyneux spearheaded the defense of his company by “remaining professional and playing the internal PR game.”

“Our mission statement is to be the most respected developer in the world, and to create landmark games. And underneath that, to be the most professional studio in Microsoft Game Studios,” Molyneux remarked in a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz.

“Part of that means that when we want to do something, we can’t throw our creative toys out of the pram and say, ‘Look, we want to do this because we’re really smart people.’ We have to prove it.

As we reported early last week, Microsoft came under fire with recent allegations of homophobia from none other than a former employee of Lionhead. Molyneux however, disputed the claims (which have since been settled) by saying:

“I think if you walk around that studio, everybody is happier and they feel more empowered and more creative than they’ve ever felt before.

“I think everyone is really happy at Lionhead. That happiness is defined by the products they’ve just worked on – Fable 2. People feel super-proud of what they’ve done, and they feel they’re trusted creatively to do amazing things.”

Hardly a concise answer from the legend of hype, but without specifics from either side, it is a difficult issue to discern with any true understanding. What is clear however is Molyneux’s love for all things Fable, and the long rumored Fable 3 is, come on, obviously going to happen.

via GamesIndustry.biz

A post on the Fable 2 developer diary blog today unveiled some quirky achievement statistics and future plans for the award winning Xbox 360 exclusive.

Fable 2 was awarded the ‘Easiest RPG’ and ‘Most Original’ achievement award from Xbox360achievments.org for ‘The Swinger’ achievement in which the hero must have conjugal relations with multiple individuals, testing the moral precepts of the player.‚  I received the achievement by accident when I wined and dine Becky the Housewife and had no idea Lisa the prostitute was in tow.‚  Oops.

Lionhead dropped some statistics as well stating 2.6 million copies have been sold to date with 66,000,000 total achievements unlocked.‚  The easiest achievement to attain with 2,800,000 unlocks, was “Whippersnapper,” attainable through a very entry level task. ‚ ‚ On the opposite end of the spectrum, the most difficult achievement statistically speaking was “The Dollcatcher,” with a mere 61,037 unlocked representing only 1.9%.

Finally, Lionhead wants everyone to know they are hard at work and fully committed to updating Fable 2 at least one more time with a new DLC package.‚  The team based in Guildford, England is hard at work on new and exciting content with more details in the coming weeks and months.

Until then, check out the Lionhead crew celebrating their BAFTA award for Best Action Game with Fable 2 in the gallery.

Moral dilemmas are in no short supply throughout Fable II.

The starting quest, involving bird crap landing on your hero’s head, sets you up for the rest of the game with a series of moral choices and dilemmas. Do you find the five prison warrants, or do you hand them to some criminal to rid of? Do you give the bottle of booze to an alcoholic, or do you hand it to his wife to stop his drinking? As a gamer, you probably don’t care, but what if you were told that, in the future, these choices may come back to haunt you?

Your completely customizable hero can be a guy or a gal, but either way, your sister is going to be with you in the beginning. Eventually, you buy a magic song box which has the power to grant wishes. You and your sister are orphan children that live in complete poverty, so you have quite the long wish list. Your sister wishes that you lived in the castle in Bowerstone, hoping that this will lead to a better life for both of you. But the box disappears and you are left to return, bewildered, to your life of poverty. You are then rudely awakened and informed that Lord Lucian, who is reeling from his family’s recent death, has requested to meet you at the castle.

As you enter his chambers, you see the lord distracted and milling over some paper work. Although he is initially warm and inviting, his manner quickly turns angry and he proceeds to shoot both you and your sister. Your sister dies immediately, but a voice tells you that death is not your destiny, and this sets the tone for the game.

Flash forward 10 years later, and you are stronger and wiser, knowing that you must find Lucian and destroy him. You already know you must save the world, however, the true beauty of Fable II is that it doesn’t hold your hand and instruct you on how to do so. Your choices matter. Are you going to sacrifice your own happiness for everyone else, or will you horde all of the riches for yourself? Every choice you make is going to have a consequence, whether it be for your benefit or for another’s.

Fable II’s combat system is truly one of its strongest points. At first I was skeptical about the idea of one button combat, but I’m now a huge fan of the fact that it allows you more options with regard to aim and technique. Seemingly minuscule decisions that wouldn’t be given a second thought in many other games will affect everything from the game’s story and play, to your character’s skills and demeanor. The system reward syour timing — in fact, you can get to the point where you can hit faster and harder just by stringing your attacks fluently

LOS ANGELES — Microsoft’s E3 2008 press conference was all about the games this year. Sure, they talked about the new 360 interface they have in the works, but there was no talk about price cuts or a wireless motion sensor or any of the topics that the Wall Street Journal had leaked ahead of time. Instead, Microsoft senior Vice President Don Mattrick spend his time talking about what games the XBox has in store for us. Here are their big four games they have slated for release.

Fallout 3:

Fallout 3 is an action/adventure role-playing game that takes place in post-apocayptic Washington, DC in the year 2277. The Enclave, the last remnant of the US government, controls the robots that patrol the wasteland and are the enemy that are meant to be destroyed. The game allows you to play in either first person or third person.

“On my wrist is the Pip Boy 3000,” said Todd Howard, Game Director from Bethesda Game Studios who demoed the game. The Pit Boy monitors the stats of the main character, controls its skills and do other various things.

“I happen to have the Bloody Vesper, which lets people die in ridiculously violent ways. I also have various weapons, so that I can kill people in ridiculously violent ways, and I also have radio, so that I can pick up broadcast that are happening out in the wasteland,” he said of the Pit Boy.

“This is where the content might be inappropriate for some audiences,” said Howard as he disembodied one of the radioactive humans in the game.

Fallout 3 contains over 100 hours game play. Its world is so massive that a player can go to the Washington Monument and take the elevator to its top floor.

“I think it’s the marching band music [from the radio] that really nails it,” said Howard.

Fallout 3 will be released in the fall of this year, and will feature substantial material downloadable exclusively for Microsoft in the XBox Marketplace.

Resident Evil 5:

Resident Evil 5 represents the first time a Resident Evil game has appeared on a Microsoft system.

Chris Redfield, the game’s main character, is in Kijuju, Tunisia to investigate the causes of some terrorist activity. He has joined a new organization called the BSAA based in Africa. His partner is a woman named Sheva.

The game features a multiplayer online cooperative system that is new to the series. The cooperative system allows players to complete missions that they would not have been able to alone.

Resident Evil 5 will be available in a simultaneous worldwide release on March 13, 2009.

“Please hold on just a little bit longer, and we’ll have it to you very shortly,” said game producer Jun Takeuchi.

Fable 2:

“Fable 2 is finished” is how Peter Molyneux, the founder of Lionhead Studios, introduced the game to the E3 audience.

Fable 2 takes place years after the first game. The player gets a choice to play as either a boy or girl, and is the story about how each player chooses to progress in their journey to become a hero.

The game seems to be just an update of 2004′s prequel, but Fable 2 offers an interesting multiplayer capability. Around the world are orbs which, when you press a button, is actually a different player in their own single player game. When the button is pressed, the other player has the ability to join that world to create a multiplayer experience.

Fable 2 will be released in October of this year.

Gears of War 2:

Most of the Gears of War 2 presentation was gameplay, but design director Cliff Bleszinski had several other goodies up his sleeve about the highly anticipated game.

“We are quickly building to the point where we have the most anticipated title, this holiday season, on any platform,” he said.

The Locust are back, and it is the job of Marcus and his affiliates to try to destroy them.

Returning weapons are the fan favorite flamethrower and chainsaw.

Bleszinski introduced the new “Forge” mode for Gears 2. “Forge” mode is a five player cooperative multiplayer mode where the team takes on wave after wave of increasingly difficult Locusts.

Gears of War 2 will release worldwide on November 7, exclusively for the XBox 360.