Fable III PC Previews
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Unchanged and likely to remain as divisive on PC as it was on 360 is a strong emphasis on collection and achievements. Well, capital A Achievements being a Microsoft title, this is unavoidably a Games For Windows Live game. Without playing it in the wild, I can't attest to whether its implementation is any better than the traditional horrors of that bloated choke-hold system, although I did notice that it insisted in dropping down one its of disruptive, Xbox-esque screens even for stuff like changing the names of your pet dog and customised weapons. So yeah, our ancient enemy is there, but at least it's tied into an Achievement system that actually unlocks stuff in-game, rather than acts only as willy-waving.VideoGamer.
Fable III is all about the unlocks. Persistent throughout it, both in its monster-splatting dungeon crawls and in its more free-form exploration of Albion's towns and villages, is the collection of Guild Seals. This meta-currency is spent on upgrades for weapons, for powers, even for the expansion of features such as building-purchasing and charming/outraging civilians. It is possible to unlock the lot, but much of the time you'll be picking and choosing what you can afford and what you most desire. A bigger axe, or the option to flirt someone into bed? I'm going to have to see how this plays out across the game as the whole; I appreciate the idea of essentially building the game you want to play, emphasising only the features you're most interested in, but I'm worried about the ghettoising of key features behind a fence of grinding pseudo-progression. We'll see; I can't judge that now.
Graphics, then. Fable III on PC looks considerably better than its console comrade - but then again it should. The texture pop-in and '˜Vaseline screen' that plagued the console version are nowhere to be seen, replaced with more defined character models and a smoother frame rate. I spent the duration of my time with the game sporting a pair of glamorous 3D glasses, which does wonders in bringing Albion to life. Teaming up with Nvidia has worked well for Lionhead in the visual department.
