December 30, 2008: Starting Fable (Lost Chapters)

After the Kirby demonstration last night, Oreo and I were not very tired so I made my dinner and settled into the recliner in the living room to watch Come September with Rock Hudson, Gina Lollobrigida, Bobby Darrin and Sandra Dee from 1961.  Then, around three in the morning, Oreo and I headed to bed.

I discovered a high pitched alarm sound as I ascended the stairs.  Not what I was expecting as I was heading off to bed.  I found that at some point recently my Respironics CPAP machine had gone into error code E-24 and was no longer working but was wailing pretty loudly.  This is not good!

I spent twenty minutes or so playing with the CPAP and finally managed to get it to start up before giving the alarm (the alarm disables the unit – what great design) and once the blower started the unit ran fine all night.  Pretty scary, though.  I guess that I need to deal with this problem right away.

I was pretty tired when I got up to get to work this morning.  Oreo was very sleeping on Dominica’s pillow all night.  He definitely misses her and is not entirely happy to not have everyone home together.  I think that having people in the house vacuuming and shampooing did not do much to calm his nerves either.  It has been a long week for a little Boston terrier.

There was actually some real work for me this morning but nothing major.  I sure do enjoy the winter industry freeze.  It is a good thing that we have it, otherwise the Christmas holiday would be way too difficult to handle with all the traveling and activities and everyone being out of town.

I spoke to Dominica around lunch time today.  She hasn’t seen the Kirby yet but she said that it sounded like a good decision based on the amount of repair that already has happened to the carpet.  So today I am continuing to do carpet cleaning to try to get the carpet to as close to “as new” condition as is possible.  After shampooing you have to vacuum a bit because part of the shampoo process leaves behind some residue that has to be sucked up once it is dry by design.

Our new Onkyo receiver that we bought from Amazon shipped today and is expected to arrive on Friday which is perfect timing since we are giving up the HDMI switch that we currently have on Thursday.  Originally the Onkyo was not expected to arrive for several weeks so this is good news.

While I had some time this evening, I began playing the original Fable: The Lost Chapters (the extended second release of Fable including all of the original title plus extra quests) for the XBOX (original, not the 360.)  Dominica has already started playing Fable but is not very far ahead of me in the game.

Six Amazon shipments arriving via UPS came around seven this evening!  Six more boxes to go into our massive cardboard recycling stack that takes up half of the dining room.  We really need a storage spot for empty boxes waiting to be recycled each month.  What a silly thing to have causing a storage headache.

I got three movies today: Shinobi, The Forbidden Kingdom and Strange Bedfellows. I also got several books including the Pragmatic Programmer’s new book on programming Groovy (the Java scripting language that runs on the JVM) and two books on Ruby and Ruby on Rails.  We also got another atomic clock because you can never have too many clocks that have the right time.  This one is a Honeywell unit that also includes weather forecast information and temperature information.

I am hoping to have all of the DVDs that we currently have here in Peekskill converted for the AppleTV before the end of the weekend so that the Ralstons can transport them back to dad’s for us.  So I have my desktop and Dominica’s laptop both working on Handbrake conversions tonight.  We only have a handful of DVDs to convert – all but two of them are ones that we discovered at the Toccos’ this week while searching for Dominica’s Nintendo DS.

Speaking of the DS, Dominica’s DS is still missing along with a book that was packed somewhere with it and, possibly, a set of keys.  It is getting hard to believe that that DS and all of the other stuff have been missing for an entire week with us looking so hard for them!

Most of my evening was spent taking care of Oreo.  He is having one of his needy nights where he constantly needs to eat, walk, play, get attention and start the cycle over again with just enough time between each thing that you think that he is done for the night and going to go nap and so you attempt to do something else.  It ends up taking two to three hours to take him through his nightly routine on nights like this.  Quite exhausting.

So far, after just getting through the “learning” functions of the game and then the first tiny quest, Fable 1 is looking to be really awesome.  It is, thus far, much better than I was expecting.  I am really impressed by the graphics and dialogue and how closely it resembles Fable 2.  I was expecting it to be “older” and more dated than it is.  This is a completely enjoyable game that in no way is hurt by the passing of time.  No wonder you can still find places selling new copies for $40-$50!

Around midnight I started a serious basement cleaning binge and finally managed to get all of the random stuff that has been collecting all over the basement put away and organized in the basement closet.  Lots more space available down here now and the closet is pretty well organized – for the moment.  Once the stuff starts pouring in from dad’s house then it will be a different story.  Some of the stuff that is in there now will end up going to the attic I think.

I ended up working until two in the morning.  I sent out my last email of the night at five after two in the morning.  I signed out of my instant messenger and decided to walk away from the basement or I would just keep working until it was way too late (as if two isn’t way too late!)

The plan for tomorrow is to work around the house and continue cleaning in addition to the normal office work, cook Oreo’s food for the week and then, if the weather cooperates and everything is going okay here, to drive up to Frankfort fairly late at night so that I can crash at the Toccos’ and then drive back to Peekskill in the morning with Dominica, Liesl and Oreo.

December 29, 2008: Kirby Day

I have apparently adjusted already to having the house a lot warmer than I am used to because waking up this morning it was very, very cold.  Oreo and I were very snuggled trying to stay warm.  I have the house set to sixty-two degrees and the warm air vents in the bedroom closed off so as not to heat it unnecessarily.  Brrrr.  There are no extra blankets or anything on the bed because it is kept so warm when Liesl is here.  I had forgotten about that before I went to bed.  So now I am quite chilled.

I got up before nine to get to work.  I went down to the office and Oreo followed a few minutes later.  He made it down to his pillow but didn’t get a chance to lay down before he got his look of panic and suddenly had a big accident on the floor.  I hate when this happens because I never know if he just drank too much or if something is really wrong or what.  It might be nothing more than he was cold and hadn’t moved in a really long time and then didn’t have time to figure out that he needed to go outside.  So my first job was to clean that up which is very hard in the basement, I have learned, because of the poor lighting and the type of carpet that as have which doesn’t allow anything to sit on top at all.  Within seconds I was unable to even determine where it had happened!

So I decided that one of my first projects is to get a serious floor cleaner.  Dominica and I have been talking about it for two weeks now and I figured out this morning that Kohls has a sale on them going on right now.  I hope to be able to run over to Kohls today to see if they have one that will work well for us.  I prefer to shop at Kohls over Walmart if at all possible although it isn’t relatively rare that they have the types of things that we need.  This will actually be my first time setting foot into a Kohls if I actually make it out.

Work was incredibly slow today.  I was expecting there to be much more to do than there was.  It is good as it gives me a chance to do other things around the house that need my attention.  There is much that can only really be done when I am home alone so this week is my chance.

I set about re-enconding the first episode of LieslTV this morning in the hopes of getting a copy that will work correctly with the AppleTV.

Here is an interesting bit of news, Josh Silver from the UK has invented a new type of eyeglasses, designed for the third world (at this point,) that use water instead of glass for the lens.  Instead of going to an optomitrist the wearer can self-adjust the lens until everything is crystal clear and then “set” the lens at that point.  In the developing world there is very little, if any, availability of eye-doctors and the cost of seeing one (no pun intended) is prohibitive even if the cost of custom-ground lenses was not.  These spectacles are very inexpensive to mass produce and need to special training to use.  Very, very cool.

I managed to get the last of the Christmas pictures edited (in Picasa 3) and uploaded to Flickr this afternoon.  Not too many new ones, about a dozen.

I did pretty well at getting household chores done today.  Obviously the big task was just moving boxes and items around the house, up and down the stairs, mostly from Christmas stuff.  Liesl has a ton of stuff that has to be moved up to her nursery and stored in the closet plus there is a lot of stuff that just has to be readied to be placed into the attic the next time that I take a trip up there.  I did some basement cleaning getting boxes emptied and stuff put away.  Wires being the biggest obstacle down here.

I did the dishes, cooked me own food (I know, everyone thinks that I am forced to order in when I am home alone,) unpacked delivery boxes, sorted mail, cleaned the kitchen, unpacked stuff from dad’s house like our “new” Midnight Sun servering stuff that Dominica bought from Pfaltzgraff like a year or two ago but that went to dad’s and directly into storage.  So this is the first time that we have unpacked them.

I worked until five thirty.  I spent a bit of the afternoon on the phone with Andy.  It was the perfect day to talk to Andy since Dominica wasn’t here to be ignored while I was on the phone.  I put on my hands-free headset and walked around the house doing cleaning.

While I was on the phone with Andy I thought that I heard the doorbell ring so I went down to check the front door.  There was a woman asking if the Kirby demonstrator could do a free carpet shampooing with the Kirby to demonstrate the product.  I decided that it was awfully fortuitous that the Kirby demonstrator showed up just as I was about to get off of the phone to head out to Kohls to buy a carpet cleaner so I decided to take her up on the offer.  This was around six in the evening maybe just a little later.

She came in and we talked a little about the Kirby and the demonstration.  She called and set up the appointment and vacuumed the upstairs using our existing Eureka vacuum which I had just gotten out to do some vacuuming myself.  This really was good timing.  I spent a few minutes moving boxes around so that there would be room to clean.  Then she left around six thirty to go set up another appointment and I had some time to make sure that work was all set without me (they were) and to get the floor cleared up for the demonstration.

At seven, her husband, Kelly, came by with the Kirby vacuum system to demonstrate it for me.  We spent several hours first vacuuming and then shampooing the living room and dining room areas.  I have to admit, the system was incredibly impressive.  The vacuum portion of the display really pulled an amazing amount of dirt and grit out of our disasterous living room carpet (this was a vacuum demonstrator’s dream assignment – this carpet was a mess even after being vacuumed just half an hour earlier.)

There was a lot of moderately impressive stuff that I don’t really remember.  Lots of attachments, ergonomics, etc. that did not interest me very much.  There was an interesting demonstration on mattress cleaning that makes you think!  I, for one, will be vacuuming my mattress from now on, that is for sure.

Then the coup de grâce, the shampoo feature. This is what I was waiting to see.  I have always heard that the Kirby is a great vacuum but that was hardly going to sell me as we have two decent vacuum units already.  The attachments weren’t going to do it for me.  Today I am interested in a way to shampoo the carpets.  Our carpets are in desperate need of a good shampoo and I was about to go spend between $150 and $250 to get a halfway serviceable shampooer as it was.  If I was not impressed with the shampoo-ability of the system then it wasn’t even going to be a consideration as I was not about to spend crazy money twice in one day.  That and I gave up my only shot at the Kohls carpet cleaner sale to watch this demonstration.

The shampooing went really well.  I was really impressed with how well it dealt with our nasty, grimy, greasy carpets that were left to us by the previous occupants of our house.  The carpets were stained and disgusting.  We have become increasingly disgusted by them which is why I had decided that I had to get a carpet cleaner tonight.  It just couldn’t wait anymore.  I want Liesl to be able to play on the floor.  I want to be able to walk across the floor without making my socks all gross.  You know that it is bad when the carpet makes the bottoms of your socks more gross than walking around outside on the sidewalk does.

All in all the complete demonstration, following discussion, negotiation, agreement and wrapup took a total of six hours!  From the first doorbell ring a little after six until Kelly finally left at a quarter until one in the morning.  What a long day.  I can only imagine how tired he was as he does this all day.  We haggled for quite a while on the Kirby.  The “full” price (which I hope no one ever pays) is $2,495.  The price that I was going to get all discounts considered (we qualify for a lot of the stock discounts being a single income home, paying cash, etc.) was going to be $1,759.  Keep in mind that a Kirby has a lifetime guarantee so it is a home cleaning investment.  Ha ha.  Anyway, it is a serious cleaning device and competes with the best vacuums and shampooers and a good shampoo unit alone can hit $999.

In the end, after two hours of just discussing the price, I finally agreed to buy the Kirby at $1,215.  It is an incredible amount of money but I am figuring that $250 of that price is knocked right off by the fact that I was going to spend that much tonight anyway on a carpet cleaner that was only a fraction of the quality (long term and short term) and that I didn’t have to buy it until after Kelly had cleaned the entire main floor area and that I had seen that the stains had come out – the Kirby made our carpets look so much better.  And it has a lifetime warranty and is easy to store.  So I am planning on donating the Eureka vacuum (before the end of the year)  and maybe even the little hand-held shampooer that we have and reclaiming the amount of space that they were taking up as the Kirby is relatively small.

Was it a good decision?  I have no idea.  But I was impressed with the demonstration and I liked the sales guy.  I’ve read mixed reactions to the Kirby vacuum cleaners but got a lower price than what I have found people online saying that they have received.  There are tons of consumer complaints about the Kirby but all of them seem to be against devious shops doing the selling – which we will see if that affects us in this case.  The Kirby company definitely does nothing to protect its customers from bad distributors and since Kirby doesn’t deal with customers directly the distributors, for better or for worse, are the face and voice of the Kirby company.  So if one rips you off – it is Kirby authorizing you being ripped off.  The vacuum seems great but the real question will be about the ongoing service.  Overall reports seem to be very positive about the vacuum itself.  So I decided to be risky tonight.  Meh.  The carpets needed to be cleaned and that was done.  If it dies and we can’t get it serviced, well, at least I have a voice online and can let lots of people know about it (more than the Kirby company lets know about anything since they totally ignore the entire world online) and I can survive the loss of the money.  It would suck but hey, you have to take chances.  But tons of places say that the vacuum is a good deal at far higher prices than I just paid.  So maybe, in this case, I get to be the evil neighbour who got the really good price instead of being the one who overpaid.

Probably not.

It is one thirty in the morning and I am going to go ahead and post.  I have not even had an opportunity to get myself any dinner yet!  This was a much busier day than I had expected.  I think that I am feeling good about my massive purchase.  I didn’t really have a means of consulting Dominica and she wasn’t still awake when Kelly headed out so I will let her know tomorrow.  We had been talking about spending a bit and getting a really amazing shampoo unit and this really seemed to do a great job shampooing so that is all that I really care about.  If this thing can keep the carpets looking good then I am happy.  These carpets were really nasty before and now I feel good about them.

December 28, 2008: Returning to Peekskill

Dad left home early this morning to get out to Frankfort ahead of the storm that hit western New York this morning.  The wind was so bad that while he was driving up i390 he was very tempted to turn around and head back home but once he was on to the NY Thruway (i90) heading east things improved so he decided to keep going.

It was around twelve thirty when dad finally arrived in Frankfort.  The drive took him a bit longer than normal.  Liesl was very sleepy by the time that he arrived and ended up being pretty drowsy for most of his stay.  They only got a very little time together but at least they got to see each other for the Christmas holiday.

Dad brought a big load of stuff from our storage to move to the new house.  Several boxes plus several large bags of bedding items were able to fit plus all of the new stuff from Christmas.  Now Dominica and I have to sort through all of the new stuff and figure out what to do with it.

The family all had an early dinner at two thirty so that dad could join us.  Then he hung out until four or so and then hit the road back to Peoria hoping to get home before it got too dark.

I left for home at six thirty.  I stopped at the Stewart’s in Frankfort and filled up on $1.82 gas which is amazingly priced for New York (it was $1.35 in New Jersey a few days ago!)  Then it was off to Peekskill.  The trip went by very quick and easily.  We made no stops and Oreo and I were home by nine thirty!  Pretty much exactly three hours of drive time.  Not too bad.

The first order of business after arriving at home was to turn the heat back on.  The house was around fifty degrees.  Then I unloaded the car which took about half an hour trudging back and forth from the car to the house.  Then Oreo needed to go for a walk.

I did a search of the house but there was no Nintendo DS to be found anywhere.  Our only guess is that it really is at the Toccos’ house and just missing.  We are thinking that there might be an entire container (bag, box, etc.) or things that we brought that is missing all together.  Dominica had also packed a book to give to dad today that we also could not find.  So there are at least two things missing that she remembers having packed together and both, I believe, were loose in the trunk.  So maybe they both got shoved into something that we have not yet looked at.

I checked the Google Analytics report on SGL and our readership levels have returned to pre-Liesl levels.  For a little while there, right as Liesl was being born, SGL readership tripled or possibly quadrupled as tons of people came to find out the latest news.  Now we are back to normal levels although, I wonder, if the Christmas holidays don’t bring down the readership somewhat as there are so many people traveling and everyone’s schedule is off so they tend not to read the site.  I know that during the holidays I do not post as often or as lengthily.  We will see if readership doesn’t pick back up after the holidays are past and people get back into their routines.

December 27, 2008: Liesl’s First Restaurant

Today Liesl turns one month old!  It is also her grandmother’s birthday.

Oreo, Dexter and I really slept in this morning.  It was probably after eleven when we finally got up.  We haven’t been getting really solid sleep so we have been sleeping in really late although it doesn’t seem to be making up for it because I am exhausted by around ten in the evening and Oreo is clearly tired all day.

We bought some WiiWare titles for Dominica’s mom for her birthday to have loaded onto the Wii like Tetris Party and Dr. Mario Online Remix which are classic Nintendo titles remade for the Wii console and available as downloads.  We were pretty excited to find that these games had been remade for the Wii via WiiWare because it means that they will have better graphics, work with the Wii controllers and have connectivity online which the original titles did not.  So that was a nice surprise since we had thought that we were going to be getting Virtual Console titles from the old NES.

This evening we went out to the Franklin Hotel in Rome, New York for dinner at six to celebrate Dominica’s mother’s birthday.  This is Liesl’s first trip ever to a restaurant!  She did very well.  She stayed in her car seat and slept through the entire event without waking up or making a peep once.

After dinner Dominica and I went out to Walmart and to Hannaford’s to do some shopping.  Dominica is looking for food that she can eat this week as she has not been getting enough protein.  It was around eleven thirty when we got done with dinner and shopping.

Oreo and I were off to bed pretty much as soon as we returned to the Toccos’.  Dominica stayed up with Liesl who, again, kept her up until after one in the morning.

Tomorrow my dad is coming out to Frankfort to visit for the day and then, in the evening, he is returning to Peoria and I am driving, along with Oreo, down to Peekskill where I will be all week.

Fable 2 Review

Fable 2 for the XBOX 360 is an action RPG leaning heavily upon true role-playing elements such as character development and life-choices, rather than upon stat development often used in video game RPGs to give an impression of role-playing without the complicated programming overhead.  Fable 2 ranks as one of the, if not the, most authentic role playing title that I have ever played and definitely one of the best in the genre.  This is not a console RPG even though it is on a console (also known as a Japanese RPG a la Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, etc.)  This is a true RPG in the same vein as Morrowind, Oblivion, Baulder’s Gate, Neverwinter Nights, etc., but Fable 2 contains character-driven elements that make it stand out compared to those more stat focused titles.

What Fable 2 does incredibly well is blending the storytelling common to linear console RPGs with the freedom and openness of true RPGs.  One aspect of Fable 2 which I did not like and detracted from the openness is that the “open areas” between game regions are only theoretical – you “warp” from region to region and within each region there are carefully designed “paths” so that you cannot just wander and explore unimpeded.  You are stuck within one of thirteen pre-defined regions and within each of those you are blocked and barricades from being able to wander completely freely.  This limits your freedom in the game as you must discover a path leading from each region to the next.  This also cuts down game play time.

Fable 2 does a great job of taking a primary storyline which is mostly linear and weaving it into a player-chosen course of events that allows the player a great amount of freedom within the game while allowing for a strong storyline.  As a player in Fable 2 you get to make a lot of decisions about how your character is going to behave and these decisions not only effect the way in which other characters will react to you but also your appearance (and your dog’s appearance as well.)

The game itself lies almost entirely in the side quests and free play and not within the primary quest.  If you only want to complete the game as quickly as possible you can but if you want to spend a lot of time exploring Albion, the Fable gameworld, finding every hidden treasure and completely all of the extra quests then you are free to do so.  The game really gives you a great degree of latitude.

My Fable 2 experience lasted approximately 38 hours.  I tend to be a slow player taking the time to explore, take in the view, interact with the locals and to complete as much of the “side” game as possible.  In 38 hours I completed the main quest and all quests that were completable (some always remain open for you to do again and some reoccur from time to time) and that were not evil (I was playing a “good” character.)  I even completed the entire gargoyle quest which is rather time consuming.

One of the complaints that I have heard about Fable 2 is that it is very short and in truth, it is.  The main storyline could be rushed through and the side quests ignored so that the game could most likely be completed in around ten to twelve hours.  Even with extensive time spent doing all possible quests, jobs and more it is hard to imagine that the game would ever be stretched to more than fifty hours at the most and that is a very high number for this game.  The upside is that there is some replay value in the game because of the variety of choices that you get to make as you play.  My wife watched me play the majority of the game and is still interested in playing it herself with a very different character making completely different choices.

The graphics is Fable 2 are very good and really take advantage of the XBOX 360.  However, because of the limited draw distance and the large amount of “backdrop” versus true, far off locations to which you can walk I found that this game was much less likely to find me walking to a great vantage point and staring off into the distance exploring the landscape and enjoying the view which I often do in Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion or Dragon Quest VIII.  But the graphics were still very good and enjoyable and did a great job of pulling you into the game.

One of my favourite aspects of Fable 2’s extensive gameplay is the option to invest in real estate.  This is an aspect of the game that I expect is ignored or partially ignored by most people who play the game but I found it to be very enjoyable.  You are able to save up and buy houses and businesses.  A house you may choose to rent out to earn some money or you can leave the house empty and move into it yourself.  You can keep a single house for yourself or have several all over Albion.  Sleeping in different houses provide different bonuses to your character so they can be used strategically as well.  Some quests only become available when the player owns certain properties and others can be simplified by owning the right house or business.  Some properties only become available to buy (or only exist at all) after certain quests have been completed (or possibly completed in a certain way since there are multiple outcomes in the game.)

Houses can be increased in value by upgraded furnishing as well (all homes are sold furnihed in Fable 2.)  This adds yet another area of the game in which a player can choose to focus or to completely ignore.

Sidequests vary from the very short and simple (stopping a hand of slavers and freeing some slaves) to extremely long and intertwined with the main storyline (Gargoyles or The Archeologist.)  Some can be played over and over and some can only happen once and may require waiting for the main quest to advance before more parts of them become available.  My favourite quest was Gargoyles which required carefully exploring the realm going into all of the nooks and crannies that might otherwise remain unexplored and forcing you to explore the scenary and to appreciate a lot of the extra work that went into the game that is often missed by people rushing through it.  Gargoyles alone probably took me more time to complete than the main quest did.  It is a very long quest.

Fable 2 also offers a jobs system allowing the character, Sparrow, to earn a living by working as a blacksmith, woodchopper, bartender, bounty hunter, etc.  As you improve in your job you can make more and more money allowing you to buy better equipment, potions, food, books, real estate, etc.   The jobs are basically very simple mini-games that are highly repetitive to make the money earned really feel as if you are earning the money.  They can be quite time consuming and several hours could be added to the game if the player is really dedicated to earning a lot of money in this manner and wants to master several of the jobs.

Fable 2 also includes highly detailed character interactions with just about any person that you will encounter throughout the game.  Depending on what you do throughout the game will change how people perceive you.  You have a range of expressions that you can “perform” to make people like, dislike, fear you, etc.  Make the right people fall in love with you and marriage becomes an option.  Children are also an option.  You can buy your spouse a house and raise children in it for special family bonuses although be prepared as your family will need a generous allowance to be able to live well.

Some characters that you will encounter can be convinced to give you free gifts if they like, fear or respect you enough.  Having characters like you might reduce the price of goods if that characters owns a shop at which you shop.

One of the most interesting aspects of Fable 2 is your trusty dog.  Your dog joins you while on your very first quest component and remains with you throughout your adventure although you will need to take care of him, reward him, play with him, give him treats, etc.  Eventually your dog will aid you in some quests, find you buried treasure, warn you of impending attack, help finish off wounded enemies and more.  No matter how many people like or dislike you, whether you are good or evil, corrupt or pure your dog is always your faithful companion helping and sometimes guiding you along.  Strangers might even walk up to your dog and talk to him.

Like most XBOX 360 games, Fable 2 uses achievements which interact with systems external to the game itself.  Achievements are viewable on your XBOX Live account and add to your overall gamer score.  The achievement system also encourages you to try a lot of tasks within Fable 2 that might easily be ignored otherwise such as attempting a long-distance chicken kick to earn the “Chicken Kicker” achievement.  Attempting to obtain all achievements will definitely increase game play time but generally add relatively little to the game’s enjoyment.

A new feature of Fable 2 that did not exist in the original title is the “golden path” – a sparkly yellow line which appears to help lead you to your next task.  This system works amazingly well.  You use your quest/jobs menu to tell the game which quest or job you would like to currently pursue and the game will guide you to your next location as long as it is in an area or a region in which you have been previously.  This helps speed the game along while reducing pointless wandering but can lead to missing hidden items because it is so easy to ignore anything that is off of the main path.  This feature can be disabled but, overall, is pretty enjoyable.

Action within Fable 2 is simple and straightforward.  Three control buttons are assigned for battle so there is always a dedicated “swing melee weapong”, “fire missile weapon” and “cast readied spell” button available for use.  This makes battles fast and easy and not unnecessarily complicated.  This lowers the barrier of entry as there are many people who find the battle systems in RPGs overly complicated.  Sparrow is updated through the use of better weapons but armor is non-existent in the game which allows for upgrading without the large time spent investigating armor and weapon options common to other RPGs.  Fable 2 really focuses on the gameplay and character interactions and development and minimizes stats and equipment systems making them simple and straightforward.

Stat development in Fable 2 happens through a unique experience gaining system where experience is gained through strength (melee), skill (missile and speed) and will (magic) areas plus a general experience pool.  Then the player can select how experience points will be spend within each area.  It is very easy to learn and get using right away.  I really like the experience system because it allows for a certain amount of player choice in development whenever enough points are accumulated but also skews development towards areas which the player uses in actual combat.  Ergo, if a player always uses their melee weapon then experience will be accumulated in that area primarily.  So to grow in all areas a player needs to utilize different combat methods.

While the initial game is rather short with roughly ~40 hours of gameplay depending on play style there is also downloadable content planned for Fable 2 which, at the time of this writing, is due to arrive in January, 2009.  The first bit of downloadable content, the Knothole Island expansion, is expected to add one new region to Albion taking the world from 13 to 14 total regions and adding three additional complete quests to the game along with new characters with whom to interact.  How much extra content will be available in the expansion waits to be seen.  It could be as low as about two hours of extra gameplay or as much as about ten.  I will review the expansion as soon as it is available.  There are rumors that there will be expansions to the Gargoyle quest and Silver keys achievement but nothing has been confirmed.

Hopefully, in the future, additional downloadable areas will become available.  Fable 2 has a lot of potentially to be a great platform for continuing gameplay.

Fable 2 offers so many different ways to enjoy the game that I think that a very wide variety of people will find it a lot of fun even though few people generally enjoy RPGs.

For those wondering, I completed Fable 2 having found all Gargoyles and achieving both Mayor and King.