A select few community members, along with mostly press, were invite last night to celebrate the launch of Fable 2 with Microsoft.  In attendance were Jaken Bear and Jade Live (from Xbox Canada) as well as two (and probably more) well known Canadian community members Kowz and Keadin.   Starting at 7pm and going to 10pm, the event was enough to give us a solid preview of Fable 2, but leave us wanting more.

The event was being held at The Overdraught Irish Pub; the event was well put together, like any other Microsoft event and included an open bar and buffet.  Luckily, no one abused the open bar too much.  The pub has an old classic English style pub feel to it, and with the bartenders being dressed up as “barmaids,” it really added to the whole feel of Fable 2.  As we were leaving, we were all treated to a retail copy of Fable 2, which we were specifically told to go play on Live. Okay, let’s focus on the main reason for the event: Fable 2.

Impressions

My impressions come from the first about 30-45 minutes of the game, so if anything turns out to be incorrect, please don’t hold it against me.  A full review will be coming next week, hopefully by Tuesday when the game will be on store shelves.

Since this is the first thing everyone notices, we’ll talk graphics.  Visually, Fable 2 looks amazing, while the cutscenes look so incredible, as if they were taken from a blockbuster movie.  Moving through the environment is smooth and fluid even though the forests are quite colourful, and the draw distance is really far, almost rivaling that of Crackdown.

The conversations are well developed, but a tad on the uneventful side, for now.  The combat is great fun, and as previously described, each of the buttons makes use of only a certain weapon type: X for melee (swords and such), Y for ranged, and B for will (magic).  While held down, the A button makes you run and automatically puts away either your melee or ranged weapon, provided you have it out.

Travels

Of course Fable is a story that includes travels, so why not include how I got down and my problems along the way?  You can skip this part if you so wish, as it has nothing really to do with the game.  On a personal scale, I had a midterm starting at 7:10 pm out in Oshawa. Having studied like a madman for it on Wednesday night and during some of Thursday, I was well prepared and quickly finished the midterm.  So I was done at about 8:15 pm, left right after and got to the event at roughly 9:15.  From there on, it was smooth gaming and mingling with new and old friends alike.

Last, but most importanty, I want to send out a huge thanks to Jade and Jaken Bear for organizing this event, and The Overdraught Pub for hosting the event! I had an absolute blast!

As I mentioned earlier, our full review of the game should be up sometime next week, hopefully by Tuesday.  You can also discuss the game in our forums or check out some actual screenshots below.