I know this review is a tad late but I've had a lot of stuff to do :S

Fable 2 is a third-person, action RPG based in the word of Albion, which is similar (even geographically) to Britain. This instalment is set in the 1700s(ish), which kind of put me off at first. I loved the first Fable and the semi-medieval feel of it. Though it may differ graphically to Fable 1, Fable 2 is still a very colourful, beautiful world (except the people, they could do with some major face-lifts)

Story-wise, you don't have to play the first game to get it, You'll find many books and quests which will tell you about what happened (also check out Tales Of Albion on the Lionhead website, 'tis an awesome read, yaaarr). Peter Molyneux, creator of Fable 1 & 2; made a big deal about wanting the players to feel loved/love via the video game. I won't say it went that far, but there were some moments when I really did care what happened in the game, and I think PM's vision of bringing emotion to video games has been a success. I was sad that - like it's predecessor - it was a rather short main story.

The combat is better than any other RPG around, but that's all it can hang it's hat on. It's like Wii Fit being one of the first proper "fitness" games, but was done really badly because they could get away with it due to there being no competition. I feel I'm digressing... in short, I really do pag-ibig the combat but there were a lot of things which I saw from the E3 demonstrations which none of the six characters I've created have been able to do. A disappointment compared to the hype but not a huge disappointment. When your character in Fable 2 is defeated, he falls to the ground in a painfully slow manner (excuse the pun), and will gain a scar every time you do so. This mechanic was designed to make you care about the outcome of a battle, but all this did was annoy me, and there are never enough resurrection phials in the shops (which removes the scarring and slow-motion element of defeat).

The NPC interaction is quite an improvement on the last Fable, but not jaw-dropping. I'm pleased that they recorded a LOT of dialogue, because going through crowded towns you're sure to hear a lot of talking and would become rather frustrating if it was the same words each time. I'm glad they didn't spend masses of time on the interaction element, and used it on madami important factors of the game.

In Fable 2, you don't earn money from quests. You earn money sa pamamagitan ng getting jobs. You can either be a barman, a woodcutter, a blacksmith (all involving variations of the same stupid but addictive mini-game) an assassin, gambling, a bounty hunter, a "citizen displacer" or sa pamamagitan ng renting out houses you have bought (the game helps you out buy giving you a starter "house"). It was a risky move, and they pulled it off well. However, they try to help the "adventurer type" sa pamamagitan ng hiding treasure chests and dig spots all around Albion, so you have to keep stopping and detouring to find what your dog has been barking at (I'll get to that later). The annoying thing is, I feel great when I find a hidden area or my dog sniffs out a treasure chest I would have never seen, but when I pull a crappy kuwintas out of the treasure chest that becomes very frustrating. Good feature, but prizes should have been bigger.

I won't describe the introduction to the dog. Yaaarr, would be ye olde spoiler. The dog helps you find items, alerts you of enemies, helps with the opening of a Demon Door, assists you in fights (a bit), and a few other things. A very good inclusion, although one of the few things (along with invisible walls) that brought me out of the experience is when the dog would run through me and occasionally glitch through fences and glitch into mid-air. The game needs polishing, but considering the judgemental players who were still twitching from disappointment of the Fable 1 hype, and the numerous stuck-up-their-own-arse media groups criticising Lionhead for irrelevant things like LCE problems, Lionhead really couldn't take the risk of delaying the game, people would've sinabi "This is just Fable 1 all over again".

Peter Molyneux says the game is a massive, "free-roaming" world. Rubbish. You may be able to hop over the occasional fence and dive off the occasional bridge, but he made it seem like there are no pagkarga screens, of which there are many. Which can't really be helped considering the size of the world and the ability to go inside every single house AND a fully functioning economy. Not a complaint about the game, just a complaint about Mr Molyneux's clumsy gob. Definitely a game to install onto the hard drive of your 360.

I'm really pleased with the character customisation. You can choose anywhere between good or evil, pure or corrupt, fat or thin, cross-dresser or not, tattooed or not, gay or straight, male of female, bearded or clean-shaven, muscular, tall or really-cool-glow-in-the-dark-magic-tattoos! You can even dye your clothes (and hair) any colour you want (good gosh, I sound unbelievably girly).

The comedy is great, everything from references to other video games (like Bioshock), or a daft British pub name (The Cow and Corset) or a strangely intelligent child who asks you a deeply philosophical tanong then says "never mind, I'll just go play with my dolls". Funniest game I've ever played.

The replayability is through the roof. There are so many different styles of playing the game.

Despite my moaning and whining about bugs and errors and stuff, the game is the most fantastic RPG (yes World of Warcraft fans, I did just say that) on the market and definitely worth buying if you like those kind of games. However, don't start the game with the frame of mind of: Right, I want to become a really powerful magic user with a huge sword and... DON'T plan ahead, just go with the flow and do your best to get passed the annoying first quarter/half oras of the game.