Fable III Video Interview and Preview

Eurogamer is next in line with a hands-on preview of Fable III, thanks to some firsthand time with Lionhead’s RPG/action/adventure/whatever sequel during this year’s E3.

One remarkable change is the game’s menu interface. Incredibly for a role-playing game, there isn’t one. Press start and, in a neat bit of technical sleight-of-hand, you’re instantly warped to your Sanctuary, an otherworldly home, map and options interface in one. Here you’ll find your John Cleese-voiced butler Jasper who offers explanation, guidance and dry comment. (Fable III’s impressive voice cast also includes Bernard Hill, Simon Pegg, Michael Fassbender, Zoe Wannamaker, Jonathan Ross and Stephen Fry.)

You change your weaponry, wardrobe and other options in this dark chamber by walking through a series of doors, and there’s a 3D map table in the centre to interact with. You can use it to see all open quests and warp to them. A treasury room houses your records and stats, and a Live room leads to the game’s online co-operative mode for two.

This, as we’ve heard before, is much improved over Fable II’s. “We do admit, the co-op in Fable II was rubbish,” says Timmins frankly. “We’d be restricted to being within 10 yards of each other, I’d have to be your henchman. What we’ve done this time is, if you bring your hero into my game, you bring your hero, your stats, your weapons, your interface… Together we can run anywhere in the same region.” You’ll be able to pursue entirely different tasks as you go, as well as trade weapons, even get married.

And I’m not sure if we’ve linked to this video interview with Peter Molyneux when it first surfaced on G4 a couple of weeks ago, but better late than never, I suppose.