It’s Throwback Thursday so let’s reflect on a series that convinced me open world games can be amazing, Fable!
A Fabled Reflection
Good day backloggers!! I can’t believe it’s already Thursday again, but that also means it’s Throwback Thursday! So, I thought I’d step away from backloggin’, pause and stare at the beauty that is known as Vambrace: Cold Soul (I could honestly stare at it for hours), and reminisce about some of the past games I’ve played, or most likely not played in my backlog. But, I’m also going to take a stance and boycott this whole Throwback Thursday thing and resurrect one of my favorite segments from The Backlog Odyssey’s past, The Collection Reflections. Truthfully, it’s basically the same thing, but I like that title better.
Now, when trying to figure out what game or games I would talk about today, I was kind of struggling. I mean, I already talked about Ninja Gaiden and I went down the Mario RPG route so ninjas and Mario's were covered. Really, what else is there to discuss?! But then I thought, what were some more relatively recent games that inspired me, or made me want to pick up a new console or better yet, made me want to experiment with a new genre. Which, when I get that hamster wheel spinning, is really hard to come up with! Mostly because each one of the games in my collection has some sort of meaning or inspired me in some way. I mean, I bought it for a reason right?! It’s also why my wife and I came up with the whole Collection Reflection thingy.
That’s when it came to me! Why don’t I talk about a game from a console I rarely talk about. A console that introduced us to a new competitor in the console market and one that took the industry by storm, especially in the previous console generation. The Xbox. The only question was, what game could I pick? Although I have a decent collection of games on the original Xbox, I really don’t have too much experience with it. Sure, I could talk about Halo, but to be frank, I’ve never been much of a fan. Then it dawned on me. How could I have overlooked it really?? Why don’t I talk about Fable! I’ll roll its two sequels in there as well, but the first Fable was THE game, that onboarded me to the Xbox. That and it was the first game of its type, an open world RPG, that hooked me and made me realize that there was a ton of fun to be had, when you make your own fun.
The Story of a Chicken Chaser
So, like I mentioned earlier, until I got Fable in my hands, I really didn’t have much experience with the Xbox. You know, that gigantic and bulky piece of hardware that could potentially be used as a weapon. And that goes double for its controller. At the time I was 100% committed to the PlayStation 2, it was my defacto video game machine after all. That and you couldn’t get Final Fantasy 10 anywhere else, so yeah, enough said. Sure I heard rumblings of Halo, and even played it here and there with my brothers, but I really wasn’t into the whole FPS thing. Probably because, before Halo redefined the genre (at least on consoles), they always seemed a little janky and the controls left something to be desired.
Then, I caught wind of a new game being released by the name of Fable. A third-person action RPG where you could choose to be good or evil, marry random passersby and quest around an open ended world helping its denizens. And not only that, you could customize how your character looks or even affect how people treat you! Honestly, the fact that you could punch that little bratty kid at the beginning of the game and have him say “Hey, what was that for!” or label yourself as a “Chicken Chaser” or “Arse Face” and actually hear the NPCs call you that was mind blowing! The game seemed like it had infinite possibilities!
It also helped that Fable played exactly like you’d want it to. With fluid combat, an engaging leveling system and side quests that both challenged you and made you laugh!! From that day forward I was an instant fan. Even its sequel was impressive! Fable 2 took everything that was amazing about the original and expanded upon it. The devs added more variety to the quests, tightened up the combat and outdid themselves with even more hilarity! I even recall my wife and I playing the Pub Games offshoot for Fable 2 tirelessly, trying to acquire each and every achievement and of course boost our gold stash in the main game. And although Fable 3 wasn’t quite as memorable as its predecessors, it was still a blast to play.
It’s really too bad we haven’t seen any more from the franchise, and hopefully one day Microsoft will release a true follow up to 3, but the Fable games will forever go down as a series that I’ll remember. It introduced me to a new console and a genre I didn’t give much of a chance before playing it. And that my friends is a feat.
Day One Hundred and Thirty Eight
Well my dear backloggers I think that’ll do it for today and the week! The Fable games did a fantastic job of showing me how a well crafted and interactive world can be so engaging, and it still impresses me even to this day! It’s a bit more quirky than some of the other open world games out there these days, but I think that’s part of its charm.
Until next week my friends, I hope you all have a great rest of your week and a fantastic weekend!!
Currently Playing
Vambrace: Cold Soul (Steam)
Marenian Tavern Story: Patty and the Hungry God (Nintendo Switch)
Total Backlogged Games: 728 …the number of hours I put into that dang pub game!
Total Completed Games: 41 …the number of times just today alone, I've said "We should play these again!"
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