A lot of stuff has come out of E3 so far and rather than post hundreds of mini news articles we thought we’d bring you one massive round up complete with news, videos, analysis and links. Buckle up, this is gonna be one hell of a ride.

Get all the day’s news, after the jump!

Fable 2 Releases this October

Before we get started, lets get some stuff out the way. Firstly, Fable 2 releases this October exclusively for the Xbox 360. There, that’s that bit done.

Secondly, here’s the gameplay footage shown at E3:

As you can see one of the main features announced was online co-op. However, it’s slightly different from your usual online game. Every friend on your friends list that has Fable 2 will appear as a silvery hovering orb, showing their exact location within their game world. In one button press they are sent an invite and, if they accept, they are immediately in your world playing co-op. That’s pretty impressive but my main problem with it is that I don’t want to have to walk around the game world looking for where my friend is just so I can invite him. It’s a bit like Burnout Paradise, where Criterion turned a menu system into an entire world, meaning everything took longer to do and was more tedious. Also, what happens if the friend I want to invite is much further through the game than me and is in an area I haven’t unlocked? Can I not invite him? There is no lobby system in the game, but I’m hoping the guys over at Lionhead have still left the basic invite system intact, just so I don’t have to walk for half an hour to invite my friend.

Another thing you’ll notice late on in the video is the interaction between you, your wife, your child and the other player that you’re playing co-op with. Despite Peter Molyneux’s eloquent language and promises of dynamic interaction, I am a bit disappointed. When you look at the video you’ll notice that the interaction look just like Fable 1. Great I can burp and my wife laughs - how advanced and dynamic. Woo, I can show off my muscles and my wide laughs. It’s not revolutionary, they were doing this in the original Fable, and so I’m a bit disappointed with that.

Of course there are also the features that we already know about, like the one button combat (X for melee, B for magic and Y for ranged), where attacks are context sensitive. If I’m standing on the edge of a tower and press X, I’ll throw my adversary off, but if I’m just in an open environment, I’ll swing my sword.

There’s also the trusty dog that, according to Lionhead, will be completely unique. The dog will follow you all over Albion and will fight for you when needed. Of course, there are the family elements, where you will see your wife go through pregnancy, see your child grow, and then see your child be influenced by your actions.

Fable 2 releases this October for the 360 and the 3 Pub Games (small mini-games that allow you to earn money to be used in Fable 2) will be out 2 months before. The October release date allows Lionhead to get Fable 2 out before Christmas and before the big rush of Q4 games, which should hopefully lead to some high sales.

I highly respect Peter Molyneux and love his games, and although I know Fable 2 will never live up to Peter’s claims, it should be an incredible game.

Much, much more on the next page!

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