G-pinions

I watched two long-ass preview videos of Fable and Jade Empire tonight, both narrated by a developer, showing various bits and pieces of how the game works. I know that we've talked about them several times before, but they both are looking good enough to warrant all the attention being showered on them. The games are actually shockingly similar in a lot of ways, even though they're from completely unrelated developers and are coming out over six months apart.

I know Tom is a Jade Empire man after playing through KOTOR, and though I'm still looking forward to Fable more, I'll definitely be playing through JE when Tom is done with it. Both games are action rpg's of sorts, grand in scope and gorgeous in presentation. Both games also have a strong theme of good/evil character development that was demonstrated in KOTOR, though Fable has been in development long enough that it's safe to say it was a completely new idea when Peter Molyneux came up with it (remember when it was called Project Ego? Of course you don't, you're probably Dan or Scott or that weird Benny guy). Anyhow, to start, both games look rediculously gorgeous, mostly thanks to some soft lighting techniques that are now all the rage thanks to PoP. I think they can really only be compared to each other at this stage, because I have yet to see another game with such alive, beautiful natural landscapes. As far as combat, Jade Empire certainly has a lot more to choose from, with about three billion fighting styles and transformations and spells and such. On the other hand, the combat in Fable looks to have the basics down a lot more, like solid, rewardingly brutal sword and arrow attacks. The action in JE looks a bit too floaty for my tastes. Although you can't argue with petrifying someone and then smashing them into bits. So, again, both get their respective props.

As far as their strongest aspects right now go, I'd say that Jade Empire looks a bit more varied (that old-school shooter mini-game looks fucking tizzity tight as hell), whereas Fable seems to have all the basics down a bit better, especially the effects that your good/evil behavior have on the world around you (having children run from you when you enter a town must be very pedophilically gratifying). Basically, both videos are a must-watch if you have bandwidth, and both games make me feel a lot more justified in buying an X-Box. That's all.