Fable II was supposed to look as though it was "done by Ridley Scott"

Lionhead technical art boss Ian Lovett has told Eurogamer that Fable II's original "visual mission statement" was that it was to be like Fable, "but done by Ridley Scott".

"The idea behind that is that Microsoft understand Ridley Scott, they understand that this means that we wanted to mature the franchise a little bit. Not losing its charm, but basically trying to grow it up ever so slightly," he said.

There's more through that link, and a full interview here.