Fable Anniversary Preview

Lionhead’s showing of Fable Anniversary at this year’s E3 has led to another hands-on preview of the re-polished RPG, and this time it comes to us via the editors over at Dead Hamster. A few paragraphs to start you off:

As I continued along in the demo I had a chance to try a variety of gameplay elements including using my bow, casting magic, performing expressions, and kicking chickens (which are much tougher to catch in Fable TLC than any other Fable game). Everything worked just as I remembered it working, but with an extra layer of polish applied. It was this really great balance between the old and the new.

The most notable change was, quite obviously, the graphics. Fable TLC was always a game full of vibrant colors and fantastical locations and this is taken even further with the Unreal engine. Colors popped, the scenery was detailed and crisp, and the lighting was lightyears ahead of the original. It’s amazing how we take lighting for granted in today’s games, but it can make such the difference. Seeing Fable TLC’s Albion casting realtime shadows, rays of light shining in through the trees, and fireball spells creating an orange glow added a deal of life to the game’s atmosphere. Additionally, character models are significantly upgraded. As I was playing, lead designer Ted Timmins was explaining how they had to go back to the original concept art for Scythe to see what the symbols on his clothes were. In Fable TLC the textures were at such a low resolution that the team couldn’t even make out what they were supposed to be.

Plenty of other areas seemed to have been overhauled as well. Lip syncing and animations have been updated from the original, there’s some new character animations to go around, Russel Shaw is remastering the entire soundtrack, load times are being reduced to mere seconds, and much more.