Thu, Jul 15, 2010 | 20:24 BST
Molyneux: Fable II felt “rushed”
Lionhead boss Peter Molyneux told attendees at his Fable III session at Develop earlier today that its prequel was “rushed”.
MGS Europe’s creative director also admitted that Fable II had “huge design flaws”, and had so many bugs, it went code “super black” on Microsoft’s colour-coded fix list, the first game to become a black-coded title on the list.
“Fable II, let’s be honest about it, it has some terribly messy things about it,” said Molyneux.
“Half of that, again being honest, was because we rushed at the end and we had this terrible phase where, the world looks this beautiful with this many game features, and then slowly transitioned into being less beautiful.”
On the colour-coded situation the game was once in, Molyneux added:
“On Fable II we had, at one point, 67,000 bugs. The Microsoft Test team rated us super black. No-one had been black before. They’d been red and orange and green. But we were super black. They said it’s utterly impossible for anybody to come out as super black.
“That’s why we had to reduce down what we had. But, to be honest with you, there were also huge design flaws in Fable II.”
Aside from Fable II, Molyneux showed off Fable III at the event. Get the skinny here.
Fable III releases this October for 360. As for Fable II, you could probably pick it up for the price of a fish supper right now.
Thanks, Eurogamer.
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Posted in: Action, Develop 2010, Hot, Microsoft, RPG, Xbox 360
Tags: fable II, Fable III, lionhead studios, peter molyneux
9 comments
#1
Bloodyghost
15/07/10, 8:24 pm
And Fable 3 does not? I never liked Fable 2 because I did not feel I really had time to admire it and find out why people wanted.
#2
Captain Fruitloop
15/07/10, 8:33 pm
3 years between Fable 1 and Fable 2, but only 2 years between Fables 2 & 3, and yet it’s Fable 2 that we’re told was rushed?
Shurely shome mishtake?
#3
DeSpiritusBellum
15/07/10, 8:42 pm
I thought it felt more unfocused than rushed. It had a ton of features that were no fun at all and didn’t really do anything except to distract you from actually playing the game (GTA IV syndrome).
That’s just not what you want from a linear RPG.
@2 If time had anything to say for quality, then Duke Nukem Forever and Alpha Protocol would be the finest games ever made. It ain’t really that simple.
#4
Anders
15/07/10, 9:09 pm
@2&3 Also, they probably had to build a new engine from the ground-up for Fable II. Two years is quite a lot of time when you have an engine to start from.
#5
r0cks0l1dd
15/07/10, 9:20 pm
isn’t there a bigger gap between 1 + 2 than the one between 2+3?
#6
LOLshock94
15/07/10, 9:25 pm
i guess that fable 3 is super duper black
#7
Blerk
16/07/10, 8:45 am
None more black.
Nice to see someone admitting what did and didn’t work for a change. Fable 2 was great, but it should’ve been greater – there were several things which just didn’t work on a design level. I hope they really have managed to sort that stuff out for Fable 3.
#8
Filofax
16/07/10, 6:53 pm
Anyone else thinking that this is going to be another Molyneux hype job?
#9
revolting
16/07/10, 10:14 pm
I was thinking it will be another Molyneux work of art, but I guess that’s just me.