First and foremost, the game purports to be open-ended. This couldn’t be further from the truth. In each zone there are multiple paths you can take to get places but they really don’t let you go anywhere else. No exploring off the path, no random encounters in the woods, nothing. It’s just getting from point A to point B and doing X. Nothing open-ended about that.
Farting and flirting is also starting to lose its initial fun. Interactions with the NPCs are good but still feel canned and unnatural. I suppose I really need to give the game some more face time and let my character develop and see how that really works. Seeing the scars appear and watching him grow is still cool but I am just not feeling Fable right now.
First and foremost, the graphics, animations, and presentation aren’t even close. ESPN looks pretty darn good. There are times that the players look a tad “squatty” but it’s not too bad. I am amazed at how nice it really looks, screen shots don’t do it justice. It has made me much more disappointed with NCAA’s graphics. It’s just no contest. It makes NCAA look old.
Computer opponents are better in ESPN and there’s the VIP which is a profile of how you play the game and you can use it to play against, well, yourself. Sounds cool, I want to let it learn more of how I play before I try it.
I have completed Halo, I’m proud to say. It took me less than two weeks, playing about an hour or two, with a couple longer sessions. I thoroughly enjoyed it, everything looked and sounded great, the vehicles are a blast (I really liked the race to the finish), the fact that only two weapons can be carried is genius. The music was moody, but often triggered at weird times. My biggest gripe, of course, is the level design. I understand that some areas need to be repeated, but not every darn one of them. Some were a pain to navigate, but on the whole it never was overly frustrating. The pace was perfect, maybe a tad too fast.