Quick Hits: Fable 3, Puzzle Quest 2, Sonic Colors

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Fable 3

Remember Fable 2? You liked that? How do you feel about holding hands? If you like doing that too, then have I got a game for you! Fable is not a series that demos well. Taken out of context, the combat, social interactions and quests all seems very similar to Fable 2. The draw of the new game in the series will ultimately be the origin story of becoming king and seeing how ealier choices will impact the later game. Being thrown into town with a quest or two doesn't do it a whole lot of favors. If you played Fable 2, it will be immediately familiar.

Puzzle Quest 2

An odd step back in terms of presentation. I like the 2D art but HATE the overland map that essentially looks like something I'd play in a web browser. I appreciate that they're giving it a stronger dungeon delving vibe with smaller areas per screen that each represent a room of sorts with treasure, enemies, and a few directions to choose from. What I don't like is the stiff avatar that waddles from one point to the next at your command. It may sound silly to rail on that when the real meat of the game is supposed to be the Bejeweled battles, but without a good presentation and a bland world, you'd might as well just play bejeweled.

High points are definitely the arrays of different powers you can unleash in a fight and how loot plays a role in your powers and abilities. It's just more match three, though. I suspect a lot of people have moved on since the original Puzzle Quest.

Sonic Colors

I really liked this demo. I know, right? I'm surprised too. It's fast, it jumps smoothly from 2D views to 3D and delivers it all with the kind of nearly-out-of-control verve we like in our Sonic games. Not to be confused with Sonic 4, this Wii exclusive seems like a good balance between the classic 2D play and the better parts of Sonic Adventures. The controls are responsive and it was really easy to get a feel for doing your dashes and drilling into the ground to plow through the dirt during one particularly frantic moment.

Whether or not they can continue the trend for an entire game remains to be seen, but don't ignore it! For now.

Comments

This was the first I'd heard of Sonic Colors, and you have me intrigued. The announcement trailer is just the kind of useless garbage they like to show at E3 (i.e., there's not a second of gameplay footage in the whole thing), but this video seems to give a good idea of what the game would be like:

I already pre-ordered Fable 3. You're right that it's a game that doesn't demo well; so much of what made Fable 2 work for me was the progression of the game, my character, and the world. Those kinds of long, branching games, like Mass Effect and Alpha Protocol, are hard to sum up in a brief tech demo.

These are some of my favorite posts from the shows.

Puzzle Quest 2

An odd step back in terms of presentation. I like the 2D art but HATE the overland map that essentially looks like something I'd play in a web browser.

How in the hell do you regress in mapmaking? That's sad.

I think the match 3 may still have life in it if you can make the rest of the game engaging. I mean, I get Facebook updates all the time of people getting new Bejeweled scores and that's only been around for forever, so ...

Simple can be good. Galactrix wasn't either.

Hopefully Molyneux isn't promising the world with Fable this time and instead just billing the game for what it is.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

sonic colors video

It does look INTERESTING. Definitely living up to the Colors moniker...but it doesn't bode well the player in the video spent 2 minutes backtracking before he figured out where to go next. Most games I'd say that's fine but Sonic is supposed to be about the fluidity and sense of speed.

Speedhuntr wrote:
ClockworkHouse wrote:

sonic colors video

It does look INTERESTING. Definitely living up to the Colors moniker...but it doesn't bode well the player in the video spent 2 minutes backtracking before he figured out where to go next. Most games I'd say that's fine but Sonic is supposed to be about the fluidity and sense of speed.

Having read a bit more about the game, it looks like the player didn't know to useone of the color powers there. In the E3 demo, the powers were all available and presented out of context, but in the full game they'll be added gradually and you'll be taught how to use them.

Ah, so that's what that thing was that he kept popping or whatever. Aren't the handlers supposed to tell them those things. Anyway ...