Fable II * * * * *

WOW!! I really cant do this game justice. If you havent played Fable 1 on the xbox you NEED to! But this one will be 100x amped up if the pre release info is up to snuff. It is scheduled for launch in a regular and limited edition on 10/21/08 and is a MUST GET! The limited edition comes with all the usual crap (a figure a making of DVD some playing cards) and some extra content. Im excited to see what the extra content may be but all they are saying is that it will require an xbox live account.



First an overview of fable 1 in BOLD for all those who have never played it.
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Fable features a character-customization system based on the concept that everything the main character does affects him to a certain extent, measurable through counters accessible through the game's menu, or more generally through his overall appearance, which will change depending on the player's choices. Eating too much causes the character to gain weight. Appeasing his wife will cause her to buy him presents, whereas abusing her leads to divorce. Drinking too much alcohol can cause him to become sick and vomit. The character will also obtain expressions throughout the game which can affect his personality.

Every article of clothing the character acquires will change his in-game appearance. He can be further customized through a variety of haircuts, facial hair, and tattoo cards that allow for a range of body modification options. The clothing, hairstyle, and tattoos the character wears will affect the way he is seen by the non-player characters.

The character's statistics also affect his outward appearance. High levels of Strength cause larger muscles, high levels of Skill increase height, and knowing high-level Will powers (magic spells) causes arcane tattoos to appear on the body and begin to glow.

The hero has a positive or negative alignment. Their actions will award either good points, which produce a positive alignment, or evil points, which produce a negative alignment. For example, killing monsters or saving villagers will result in achieving good points, whereas killing an innocent person, breaking laws, or abusing a spouse will accumulate evil points. The apparel of the character also affects his alignment; dark clothing earns evil points and bright clothing earns good points. The alignment affects not only the responses of the non-player characters but also the appearance of the character. A hero with an abundance of positive alignment will soon find a halo surrounding his head, butterflies swarming around him and his hair will turn blonde. An evil character will sprout horns, emit a red haze from around his legs, draw flies, and have glowing red eyes, in addition to balding.

Over the course of the game, the character ages physically. However, contrary to popular belief, the age of the character has nothing to do with how long the game has been played; rather, how many times the player has accessed experience upgrades in the Guild. Whether he is good or evil, his hair will start to turn white as he grows older. The apparent age of the character is related to the core skills he acquires; using magic often will cause the character to age faster.
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Fable II will take place in Albion, 500 years after Fable's setting, in a colonial era resembling the time of highwaymen or the Enlightenment; guns are still primitive, and large castles and cities have developed in the place of towns. Unlike the original, the player may choose to be either male or female and you have a pet dog that changes with you. A Co-op option will also be avalable! New aspects of the character alignment system include corruption, purity, kindness, and cruelty which will enhance or degrade a character's features. The player can be good but unpopular socially, or be evil yet charming, etc.



The family aspect of the Fable series will also be built upon. Now you can have children who will take after good ol daddy or mommy! The sex aspect, relatively unimportant in the first game, has also been built upon significantly. Players will be able to choose to have protected or unprotected sex (and by extension choose whether or not to have a child). Female player characters will become pregnant, and they will undergo the relevant physical changes. And dont worry, sex will still fade to black as in Fable 1.


Since the game will take place over a hero's lifetime, many things will change; Molyneux gave an example of a trade camp that the player could either help or destroy. Trading in such camps would increase their profit, resulting in a small town growing around them, while stealing from the camp or massacring the camp will result in the abandonment of the area.



Additionally, every accessible property (properties that can be entered by the player) in the world is ownable, and possessions often unlocks further quests. The houses will be furnishable with furniture etc available to buy. In addition titles will be awarded for buying property; if one were to buy every building and piece of land in a town they may become the mayor of that town, greater possessions leads to higher titles such as king, and eventually emperor of the entire land of Albion.

OFFICAL INFORMATION CAN BE FOUND HERE

Sweet new Arcade /Lan Room

A verry good friend of mine opened an arcade recently. It is at the Valley Fair Mall on the west side next to Red Robbin. It does not have access through the mall, it has a seprate entrance so that it can maintain later hours! So anyone looking for a fun activity this summer give it a visit. At 6 tokens a dollar you cant go wrong! CLICK HERE FOR THE OFFICAL WEB PAGE

Mario Kart WII * * *

Another must get for the WII Like Smash bros this game offers a variaty of controlls, however my fave is using the remote like a steering wheel. Not sure why you want to go any other way. Why get a WII and use a standard controller by choice when the great WII controlls are avalable! Everyone whos played a videogame has played or knows of the Mario Kart games so Ill just cover the changes. First you get to choose from a Bike or a Kart! The bike gets a slight boost of speed while doing wheelies by pulling up on your remote. This makes it impossable to turn till you push back down. The advantage of the karts is that you can ram the bikes off the road. Another new feature is the online game play. And because Ive only played mariokart 64 those are the only diffrences I know of other than some new wepons that rock! It has 24 characters and 32 tracks.

Super Smash Bros Brawl * * *

Great Game, one of the WIIs must gets! If youve played any smashbros you know what this is all about. This time they added an online feature to take your battle global, a custome level designer, and a massive powered up attack that is character spacific for the first person to destroy a floating orb that appears at random during the match. And let us not forget the side scrolling story mode they added. The graphics and level design both get a 10! It has about 40 characters and about 40 levels! The controlls are not anything standard for the WII. They are just like any other videogame with no shaking tilting or anything like that. They do however give you the options of using the classic controller, gamecube controller, the remote on its side or the remote and numchuck.

For those who never played the originals heres the deal. The game uses a battle system unlike that of typical fighting games. The player can choose from a large selection of characters, controlling them as they fight on various stages, each attempting to knock their opponents off the screen. Instead of using health bars like most fighting games, percentage displays are employed. These displays begin on 0%, but increase as the characters take damage, up to 999%. As a character's percentage increases, the character flies farther back when hit. When a character is knocked beyond a stage's boundary and disappears from the screen, the character loses either a life or a point depending on the mode of play.

Rock Band * * * * *

WOW! this game is soooo fun. For those of you living under a rock, the object of this game is to simulate the performance of rock music. In this game you must play instruments in time with musical "notes" as they scroll towards them on the screen. Rock Band expands on the Guitar Hero series, in that it offers gameplay for drums and vocals, in addition to lead and bass guitars. Another dif from Guitar Hero is that the song selection is newer and greater, granted they still have some "but rock" but unlike guitar hero 1 & 2 that are 99% all "but rock" rock band has bands like Weezer, Foo Fighters, All American Rejects and 3 new songs a week to downloaad.

DRUMS are great! the drums are the main reson I wanted this game. they are a little more challenging than the guitar, but fun to master. They are adjustable for all sizes to play and you can easily set them up an a table if you wanted (not sure why you would) They are verry well made and react well (light taps will do). The only complaint I have on them is that your ankle gets tired if you dont do the foot pedal a particular way.

GUITAR/BASS is like guitar Hero with the following improvements. First, it looks so real! great attention to detail. The buttons are better positioned for easy use. There are 5 effects you can choose from when your rock meeter is used. And durring solos you can move to the base of the neck where there are smaller buttons that you can push without struming giving you the effect of pounding out a killer solo.

Singing is like any other Karioke game, but you can make it so your voice comes through or the origanal vocal track. Plus you can sing while you play guitar or drums

Did you say CUSTOMIZEABLE ROCKER!!!! you can build your rocker from scratch, you even get to decide if it has a rocker, punk, goth, or metal personality. you can purchase better threads and insturments, you can design tatoos and clothing logos from a huge list of templates, Its great!

This game is definatly funner in a groupe. Visually Guitar hero cant hold a candle to this game. It feels and looks so real, especally when the croud starts singing along with you. I give it a solid 10, a must get!