Lionhead Studios makes some fantastic games. Both Graev and I are big fans of the Black & White and Fable games. Graev was the first of us to discover both the original B&W and Fable back when they were in development years ago. He showed them to me and I’ve been hypnotized ever since. We’ve had a lot of open gaming time lately which allowed us to revisit a few old favorites. I have gone back and played through B&W2 and Graev went for Fable: The Lost Chapters since Fable 2 is coming up here soon.
Black & White 2 is a fantastic game. I love it a lot more than the original but I think Graev still clings to the old ways of creature development. Black & White 2 is a game of choices. You are a god to a tribe of people and their entire fate is in your hands. Basically you can be good or evil and every action you take has a direct and even visible effect on the land and your people. I love the game because the pacing is completely under my control. I can take hours building and perfecting my city and then lay siege to the enemy or I can focus strictly on sieging and taking over enemy tribes. Playing god never gets old. Telling my people who does which jobs like farming, foresting, building, or even breeding can be a lot of fun in a weird sort of way. There’s also the creature who can learn strategies, master new abilities and skills, lead armies into battle, harvest, eat people (my favorite) and poop – yes, poop.
I’ve had a lot of fun replaying through and could not pin myself down as good or evil, so I made a save file for both! I have a Monkey who is good and a Tiger who is evil. My Tiger loves to eat villagers, poop in their grain, and slaughter platoons of enemy soldiers. My Monkey loves to dance and entertain, water my crops, and build stuff. I find the game much harder to be good because raising the appeal of my city can be tough and pleasing everyone is tiring. Being evil is a lot easier since I don’t have to worry about the needs of my people; I just force them all to breed me an army and live in skyscraper slums… mwahahaha!
It’s lots of fun and I hope Lionhead makes a B&W3.
Graev has been playing through Fable since Fable 2 is coming soon. Fable was originally a let down for me in some ways because, quite honestly, it failed to deliver on what it promised. It was and is still a great game, but it will always have this shadow lingering overhead constantly reminding everyone of what it could have been. Graev is playing through as evil this time around at a very casual pace and he says he’s enjoying the game a lot, even though it’s like his 5th time playing. Below is a picture of his character progressing from an innocent farm boy to an ego-maniacal goat man or sorts.
We’re both ecstatic about Fable 2. Peter Molyneux is going to deliver this time, we know it. All the videos being shown are of actual gameplay and they’re literally showing us footage of what they’re promising this time. With co-op play and a world supposedly 20-30x the size of the original game… mmmm Fable goodness. We can’t wait!
Lionhead Studios definitely ranks up there in our list of favorite developers. Great games!
Black and White and Fable are FANTASTIC games.
I can’t wait for the return of Lionhead and Peter to the main stage. They need a new, big release. Things have been quiet on their front for a long time.
The Ape was the best pet, by the way. Definately better than the cow and the wolf. The Ape seemed like the smartest.
We want a B&W mmo. 😛
Did they ever add multiplayer to B&W2? I know the first had it and was quite fun but the sequel seemed like it would be a lot better in terms of multiplayer.
I think Populous is the best Peter created imho. I would like a new version of that with updated graphics so that I can drown more villagers 😉
They just try to hard with B&W and Spore to do too many things.
@Anders
I remember Populace! Wow. That takes me back to middle school in the 6th grade. That game was one of the first games that really lit a fire under me for computer games. It was one of those rare gems that you find under a rock somewhere.
I am so looking forward to Fable 2. At this point, I think it may be the most anticipated title on my list with the possible exception of Dragon Age.
Magic Carpet 2 was my favorite. Despite being rushed to ship it still was alot of fun. Also Terrain Deformation in 1995 was pretty damn impressive.
<3 Peter Molyneux since Populus. Best designer in the industry by far if you ask me. So ridiculously passionate. I went to my first E3 just to meet / interview him. Well, that’s not the only reason I went, but it would have been enough.
Powermonger was insanely ahead of its time and the #1 game I think should be updated / redone with today’s technology. I literally begged the man, but he said he’d rather not fight EA for the rights, nor return to a game from the past. Maybe he’ll change his mind one of these days, I can only hope.
In many ways that’s what so many gamers love about him, always moving forward within an industry that hates to take risks beyond pushing the next graphics technology. Molyneux wraps himself in AI, interface, prototyping, the works. It doesn’t always fly, but it’s always new and fresh.
The big influential feature of B&W for me were the mouse gestures. Sure, they were very dependant upon a good framerate, which the game didn’t tend to get, but oh man what a revolution in controls.
Don’t even get me started on Dungeon Keeper.
Okay, I just had to gush, one of my favourite topics. =)
I disagree — Lionhead (and Molyneux) is long on ideas and promises, and disappointingly short on smooth execution. B&W, Fable, The Movies… great ideas, huge promises and hype, and extremely lackluster (and sometimes confusing) implementation. I’m not saying they didn’t have a certain cult appeal, but these titles have not held up well against sales or reviews, and that’s for a good reason.
I’m all for branching out in new directions, but the games simply have to be playable, intuitive and fun.
Good to see you again kmxs.
I keeed…i keeed 😀
WoW Black and White. That takes me back. Watching my Lion eat villages, WHOLE lotta fun. Good times!
Fable 2 = WIN.
That’s my game of the Holiday season this year, even with Fallout 3 on the table as well.
“I remember Populace! Wow. That takes me back to middle school in the 6th grade.”
Thanks Bartlebe, I now feel officially REALLY fricking old. :p Happy Friday to me.
Hopefully by the time Fable 2 is out, I’ll have an XBox 360 to play it on. B&W was great (didn’t play the sequel) and Fable was excellent as well. The only problem with Fable was that there was (in my opinion) almost no replay value, and once you beat the game your character was so powerful that nothing could touch you. If Fable 2 is truly going to be 20 or 30 times bigger, then it’s going to be amazing.
@Graktar
Dont feel so bad about age, I remember being the first kid on my block with Pong “Atari Owned!!” but it’ll never play well as an MMO /sobs There you still feel old?
I just wish they’d release Fable 2 for PC at the same time. I’m not a big fan of concles (sp).
I was someone who played B&W1 and bought into the hype about the creature AI. There were whole guides devoted to figuring out what made creatures tick. It wasn’t until the sequel that I realized how very simplistic the creatures were, and that all the behavior that I thought was emergent was nothing more than randomness based on some incorrect training I did or some scripted behavior. I don’t know if anyone remembers, but the AI was very hyped before the game’s release–two creatures playing ball with each other without being trained to do so, for example.
B&W2 was fun for a while, but I didn’t play it for longer than a couple of months. All the genres it was borrowing from felt like watered down versions, especially the RTS elements, and the creature was less important (and even dumber than in the first game).
Being able to specifically train the creature by moving sliders took away the mysteriousness of the creature and made it feel like adjusting values in a spreadsheet. The sandbox elements were gone.
I bought fable for the PC a few months ago and thought it was a decent game but the german dub really ruined the experience and the english dub wasn’t included, so I had no way to switch it =/ I also played black and white 1, it was innovative but it missed something, kinda agree with syp on that.. found it funny to throw people around though =p
I didn’t buy B&W:2 because raising a creature was my least favorite part of the first game, but the first B&W is one of my favorites. I agree that Molyneux is one of the industry’s best designers.
I look forward to beating your dog and stealing your wife in Fable 2. 😉
What’s your 360 gamertag, Keen? Mine’s hallower1980, if you care to add me. It’s pretty much just Call of Duty 4 for me until EndWar comes out in August.