Fable 3: First impressions

I got my preordered Fable 3 last night and managed to put a couple of hours into it before forcing myself to set it aside until I have some actual peace and quiet around here. The preorder got me:

The game on release date, shipped to my door, for 3 cents less than retail. Yes, Amazon sent me an email bragging about how I saved the three cents.
A code that allows me to create my own villager (also allows you to add it to a wallpaper, see mine above). The first code was wrong, and the second code didn’t work until the launch date.
A card in the game box that allowed me to download some freebies.

There isn’t much to say after just two hours of playing. I put over 100 hours into Fable 2 and I really liked it, and so far I am not seeing anything that is worse than in Fable 2. The basic constant for Fable 3 is that they dumbed down the living hell out of the game. Almost everything has been simplified one way or another. Stupid, since Fable 2 wasn’t terribly complex, but it is still entertaining enough. Half of the things you expected to do through menus is now done in a hideout of sorts, that has rooms dedicated to major menu functions like LIVE, armory, wardrobe, etc. Except for this hideout, the game feels almost exactly like Fable 2.

As for the storyline, the tone is very different, but still very entertaining. The only thing left to be seen is if I am going to get at least 60 hours of entertainment out of my $59.99. Sorry, $59.96.

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