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With a new Fable on the way, I reinstall Fable

by: Randy -
More On: Fable

If you asked me what the next game from the makers of the Forza Horizon series would be, I would have guessed a Fable reboot right off the top of my head! Of course, I would've. That's okay. I understand when it's better for a particular studio to stick to its core competency, and when it's time for a studio to stretch its legs. Besides, Playground Games sounds like a company more suited to the flirty, farty Fable series than...well, come to think of it, Forza Horizon 4: LEGO Speed Champions sounds like it has just enough of that same whimsy to let Playground Games spread its wings a little bit.

The narrator introduces this Fable reboot this way:

The world is filled with stories of legendary heroes and treacherous villains and fantastical creatures and wonderous places, where nature and magic live in perfect harmony. Not all stories have happy endings. But yours has yet to be written.

And really, I'm only using the term "reboot" here since it's doing the now-popular thing where a game series drops the number after its name and just goes back to being its root. This might technically be called Fable 4, but not too many entertainment properties like the number four. Don't ask me why, I just work here.

So, while we're only given a cinematic-only look at Albion once again, it revisits Fable's childlike-but-weirdly-immaturely-adult themes. There's a sword (there's always a sword), there are bones (there are always bones), and a cute little fairy mushroom village. And there's a fairy that turns into a toad snack. 

Peter Molyneux, creator of the Fable series, is nowhere to be seen. But I don't care. Since 2004, when it was an original Xbox launch title, Fable warmed the cockels of my heart, whatever cockels are. I watched a roommate play through it, since I was not super into console gaming at the time. I bought Fable Anniversary in 2014, but never actually installed it, the game still just occupying that cockel-warmed area of my heart. Until now. Now I've installed it and fired it up for real. It's time to chase some chickens. Did you know the very first two scenarios you can encounter in Fable give you a comically wide swing of its moral pendulum? In one scenario, a little girl asks you to find her missing teddy bear. In the second scenario, a lecherous man bribes you to keep your mouth shut about the hottie he's having an affair with practically behind your own house. This game will provide some good times!

The new Fable is coming to Xbox Series X and Windows 10.