Posted by: Jane Douglas

Peter Molyneux has announced Fable III at the Microsoft Game Studios conference at Gamescom in Cologne.

The game is planned for release on the Xbox 360 in 2010, though “don’t expect it too early"," says the game designer.

In this third game in the fantasy role-playing game series, the player will take on the role of their Fable II hero once more, start a revolution and overthrow Albion’s tyrannical ruler.

“You’re going to lead a revolution and ultimately overthrow that tyrant,” says Molyneux. “But to do that you’re going to have to make promises to these people who are going to be following you. Just like our politicians when they stand up to try and get elected.”

The moral choices this time around, then, will be about keeping or breaking those promises.

“For me, as a game designer, it’s all about power,” Molyneux says. “We want the player to experience what it’s like to be a ruler.

“What are you going to do with your castle? Are you going to develop and expand it, or are you going to let it go to rack and ruin and spend the money on the poor?”

Some of the game will be set in familiar places, though they will be changed by time - with industrial districts having grown up in Albion’s cities, for example.

The game will also introduce new places in the Fable universe. “A very good portion of this game is set in places you’ve never seen before. Expect the unexpected. Albion is just one small continent in the world of Fable,” Molyneux says.

Judging and touching

Molyneux outlined two new game mechanics for Fable III: Judgements and Touch.

“Being able to be king, you should be able to say: ‘I judge you.’ It’s the ability for people to come before you and you say: ‘Right, I’m going to judge you now’.”

“Think of it as a new way of getting quests,” he says. With Judgements, your subjects will come to you with grievances or accusations and you can hear their evidence,  or ignore it, investigate and pass judgment, determining the fate of the judged.

Touch, on the other hand, will replace the expressions system from Fable II. Rather than multiple expressions accessible from a wheel, says Molyneux, “We’re installing this one-touch mechanics.”

He explains: “It’s very rare you can see game characters physically touching people… We’ve got this new system. When you first meet someone, you can shake their hand or refuse to. Later, you can earn the right to hug them, embrace them… You don’t need too much imagination to see where this [system of physical touching] leads.

“Being able to touch people as ruler and see how they react, that’s what we want.”