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Peter Molyneux has pissed off a lot of gamers. They think he has purposefully overpromised and under-delivered with his games, and they are sick of it.
I'm not one of those gamers. My excitement for Fable 3 runs deep. Very deep.
On my list of all-time favorites the Fable series stands just under the Zelda series. It just barely misses the top because each release has been a tiny bit rough around the edges.
I was working at GameStop when Fable 2 came out. My biggest pet peeve for the next few months was customers coming in to complain about it because they had beaten it "in like ten hours." Every time one of these customers would come in I would ask them if they had simply followed the golden path the whole time and almost every time the answer was yes.
To use a cliche, Fable is like an onion. You get what you put into it. You can plow through the main missions pretty quickly, much like you can with Grand Theft Auto, but in doing so you miss many of the best layers of the experience.
Fable is all about taking your time to explore and see what's possible. By doing so you help create an even more unique experience than is possible by simply following the main path. The more you stray from the main path, the more the game ends up being a reflection of your personality, or at least of the persona you want to try on while playing.
Molyneux is once again out there pushing what he sees as the revolutionary new aspects he is adding to Fable 3.
He believes that by allowing you to touch the characters and world of Fable 3, you will get an even bigger connection to them. The addition of touch will let you do things like grab unwilling citizens and drag them through town to sell then to a slaver, or just go on a pleasant stroll around town holding hands with someone you are trying to court.
Peter wants you to be excited about being able to eventually become the king, but is warning that ramifications of the promises you have to make to achieve this will possibly come back to bite you in the ass.
These all sound like great additions to the series, but I think that there is a good chance they will not effect the final game quite as much as he is promising.
No, I think is the most exciting thing Peter Molyneux has talked about when discussing Fable 3 actually comes from his observations of how people played Fable 2. Watch the first part of this video to see what I am talking about.
[embed:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2Xthk3_qmo]
While many may balk at the idea of removing some of the elements that add depth to the Fable series, trimming features that are not used a ton, as well as making elements that are used often even easier to discover and use, should allow for more players to experience the true depth of this series. It should also make people less inclined to blow through the story in a ten-hour binge.
Peter may talk over and over again about elements like adding a touch mechanic to Fable 3, but what he is really trying to do is to make more people feel more connected to their own personal experience while playing Fable 3.
It is easy to get swept up in some of the hyperbole the comes from Peter Molyneyx. If you are one of those people who gets a rush out calling him out for the things that he promises and does not deliver in full, I am pretty sure you will end up with something to gripe about once Fable 3 launches. However, if you are excited about the idea of playing an adventure game the way you want and are willing to forgive someone for having aspirations that do not always end up totally successful when put into use, then I will go so far as to guarantee that you will have a blast playing Fable 3.