Fable III Preview

The guys at VideoGamer have gotten around to publishing a two-page preview of Fable III based on the build that was available on the show floor of E3. They also throw in some Develop 2010 tidbits:

Pressing the start button at any time in your adventure will bring up an interactive menu known as The Sanctuary. That said, it’s not actually a menu in any sense of the word, but a relevant substitute nonetheless. Due to being confusing and intimidating for casual players, Lionhead has abandoned the traditional text-based menu screen in favour of a physical location you can interact with as you would anywhere else. The Sanctuary allows players to change weapon loud outs, customise their appearance and sort out co-op settings should they want to invite a friend to play. A round table in the middle acts as your map, and you can use it to quick-travel to locations you’ve visited previously, or check up on your quests. As well as housing a dog basket for your trusty four-legged friend, The Sanctuary also features its very own butler called Jasper voiced by none other than John Cleese of Monty Python fame.

On the subject of voice acting, the recent news to come out of Develop 2010 is that Fable III will feature 47 hours of voiced dialogue. To put that in perspective, that’s nearly two whole days worth of uninterrupted audio. Each of the game’s 32 NPC variants have around 2,000 lines they can pluck from their vocal repertoire, removing the worry of repetition. John Cleese will be joined by Jonathan Ross and Ben Kingsley – just a few of the names from an 80-odd cast list.