First Fable II: Game Episode is live

By Tom Bramwell Published 29 September, 2009

Details on how it works inside.

Fable II. We're fans, you may remember. Well, those of you who haven't tried it yet can play a decent chunk of it for free today with the launch of Fable II: Game Episodes on Xbox Live's Games on Demand channel.

As you may remember, Fable II is being chopped into five episodic instalments, the first of which comes at no cost other than the time it takes to download the 2GB file.

Lionhead informs us that it covers the player's childhood and period as a young adult, and that all save progress, profile information and items will be kept for future episodes and will work with a disc version, should you decide to buy that rather than hanging on for the other episodes.

All the original game's Achievements make it over intact, too, there's full compatibility with Xbox Live co-op in each episode, and you can still download the Knothole Island and See the Future DLC later if you're so inclined.

The first episode is available via web Marketplace now if you're into that sort of thing.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (43) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Mkwone #1 2 years ago

    More free things please:D

  • kangarootoo #2 2 years ago

    This is a rather good idea. Sort of like a return to the level limited shareware that was so common way back.

  • hiddenranbir #3 2 years ago

    Woo Fable!

  • superdelphinus #4 2 years ago

    massively overrated game imho

  • bioreit #5 2 years ago

    Goddamn money-grabbing M$!

    First they make you pay for the console, then you have to pay to play games, then you have to pay for your OWN FRIKKIN' BANDWIDTH?!

    I don't think so! M$ can shove it!

    Yes this may be a free episode of a decent game, providing access to people who wouldn't otherwise try it, but it's the principle of the thing.

  • GamesProgrammer Verified Games Team Programmer, Eutechnyx Ltd. #6 2 years ago

    bet it will be cheaper to pick this up new than download all the episodes.

  • Ace_McCloud #7 2 years ago

    Wicked idea. I love it. When I find myself bored one day with nothing else to do - this will be my friend.

  • superdelphinus #8 2 years ago

    i liked it to start with until it became rapidly apparent that it was a very linear game, and not the more open game that reviews etc seemed to suggest

  • Goffee #9 2 years ago

    Will buying the full title by episode cost more than the full boxed edition on Amazon (about £16)?

  • Jonathan_Fakenham #10 2 years ago

    If nothing else, I welcome the return of the extended shareware "demo".

  • DFawkes #11 2 years ago

    First bit of Fable II for free? I think I'll have some of that :)

    I like that it's a new way to go about downloadable games. It's not like they can string it out for hundreds of episodes, we know just now it'll be 5. Curious to see how this'll work out for Lionhead, but I'm certainly grateful for the free chunk of game.

    EDIT: I had a bit of trouble using that link since it's the US one. Not that it's much difference, but should you need the UK one:
    http://ma rketplace.xbox.com/en-gb/games/...
    Edited by 1 at 29/09/09 @ 17:26

  • BigJonno #12 2 years ago

    Fable 2 isn't a linear game by any means. If you're the sort of person who will zip through the main quest line without wandering off the beaten path, you'll finish it quickly. If you run around doing side quests it'll last a fair bit longer. If you actually play around with world, you can spend hours without progressing things one bit.

    The Fable games are some of my favourite console titles ever, but I can totally understand why people don't like them. You need to have the right "videogames as toys to play with" mindset or they'll just come across as short, pretty action RPGs.

  • Pulsar_t #13 2 years ago

    Fable is Peter Molyneux's Shenmue, albeit not quite as charming.

  • superdelphinus #14 2 years ago

    i know what you are saying, and that is what i was expecting. Just didn't seem like that at all to me. From only being able to follow set paths physically (i.e. not roam around in the countryside) to the other mini-game sort of things. I just sort of stopped playing it, maybe i'll try again soon

  • tachometer #15 2 years ago

    Fable II should have been more like Fallout 3

  • Britesparc Verified Creative, ITV #16 2 years ago

    I see the future, and it's full of things like this...

    Also, Fable is great.

  • Pulsar_t #17 2 years ago

    @tachometer I totally disagree. Fallout 3 was made for the more jaded players but Fable can be played by almost all.

  • Progguitarist #18 2 years ago

    Did somebody just put "PressAtowinable II" and "Shenmue" in the same sentence?

  • GiarcYekrub #19 2 years ago

    How much for installments?

  • VibratingDonkey #20 2 years ago

    Microsoft might want to offer their users an affordable hard drive upgrade so people can actually give them money for things like this. But as long as Microsoft's "On Demand" stuff is so ridiculously overpriced (as well) I guess hard drive space won't really be a problem for me.

    I approve of this free episode though.

  • Retroid #21 2 years ago

    This is a very interesting idea, I hope it goes well for them.

  • Xerx3s #22 2 years ago

    "It is an atrociously overrated game with a ludicrously pedestrian story and non-existent characters. What the hell is wrong with everyone? Why can't anyone else see it?"

    OH NOES, WHY DOESN'T THE REST OF THE WORLD SEE IT MY WAY WHEN I'M CLEARLY RIGHT?!

    Seriously. ¬_¬

  • Kosumo #23 2 years ago

    So I can download this free bit and then be able to play the add on without having to rebuy a copy? If this is true that's awesome... if not I'm just stupid and misread it. Would my save load up in the DLC though? This could be sweet if I had a bigger hard drive! 20(13)Gb fills up pretty fast!

  • Sunyavadin #24 2 years ago

    SHAREWARE FTW

  • WinterSnowblind #25 2 years ago

    @MrED209
    Very well said. Unlike the first game, Fable 2 wasn't even over hyped. There wasn't all that much press about it, and when they did announce new features, we always had gameplay videos. If people were disappointed this time, it was purely because THEY wanted it to be something it's not trying to be.

    It's a fun, rather trivial action adventure game, that I personally enjoyed a lot and got a lot of playtime out of. I'd like to see a bit more depth added to certain aspects for the sequel, but it most certainly does not need to try and be the Elder Scrolls/Fallout.

    Buying the new GoTY version would be much cheaper in the long run, but it's nice to be able to download the first part of it as a demo to try it out.

  • Retroid #26 2 years ago

    I loved both Fable and Fable 2, infact I'll go as far as saying I found a good portion of Fable 2 to be.... charming.

    So, haters can STFU and GTFO ;)

  • Stoatboy #27 2 years ago

    "It is an atrociously overrated game with a ludicrously pedestrian story and non-existent characters. What the hell is wrong with everyone? Why can't anyone else see it?"

    Either A) because everybody else is completely and utterly wrong, B) because you are completely and utterly wrong, or C) because people have wildly differing tastes, and not everyone likes the games you like, or the bands you listen to, or the films you watch, or the books you read, or the food you like etc, and every one of them probably has a bloody good reason why they like what they like and not what you like, and that if you think the answer is A there's a bloody good chance you're either extremely arrogant, incredibly insecure, or just a complete prick.

  • Mr_Brown #28 2 years ago

    Its a great idea, I downloaded it earlier today. Only problem with it, is that it 'saves' your acheivements until you have downloaded episode 2. I'm probably going to buy this now anyway in the shops, so it worked. More developers (especially RPG's) should do this IMO. My perception of the game before I played it was very negative, I didn't have any interest in at all. After completing the childhood section, I was ready to buy the full game. This works better than a demo.

  • Roamer #29 2 years ago

    @ Tachometer:

    Actually, Fallout 3 should have been more like Fable 2. What was the point of even creating a character in Fallout 3? Your choices didn't have any real impact, neither visually nor gameplay-wise as the 3rd person viewpoint was everything but workable. Never have I felt so distanced from the hero I'm supposed to be playing. Both great games, mind you, only with different strengths and weaknesses.

  • mattigan #30 2 years ago

    I finished it 2 days ago, and I didn't think it was that great TBH. It suffers from the same problem a lot of action RPGs do, i.e about 3 hours in you are massivly overpowered and can destroy pretty much any opponent with ease.

    All of the other stuff, whilst nice, boiled down to basically just fluff, inconsequencial and pointless. By the time you could get the good weapons and equipment there was no point having it. The ability to give NPCs nicknames, why? the dog got on my tits too.

    But maybe it's just me being a miserable old git and not playing along with the developers 'vision'.

  • busboy33 #31 2 years ago

    @vibrating donkey:

    "Microsoft might want to offer their users an affordable hard drive upgrade so people can actually give them money for things like this."

    It does seem a bit counter-intuitive. We will drip content to the consumer so they don't mind ultimatrely paying more over time by comfortably and constantly leaking a steady stream of micro-charges, and we will charge them a insultingly painful upfront cost to do it! BRILLIANT!!

    "Where can we hide this ice cube to protect it from the fire?"
    "Let's put it in the refridgerator!"
    "Great idea! Now where do we put the refrigerator?"
    " . . . How about the volcano?"
    "Yes! The fire will never make it through all that magma!!"

  • bad09 #32 2 years ago

    Great idea! I never played Fable I might try that....

    .....Oh, sorry Lionhead my HDD is full so I can't use the Marketplace even for free stuff. You may of enticed me me to buy your game but MS are intent on ripping me off on a HDD so I am not gonna upgrade. Sorry about that....

    If you whack the same thing out on PC and I'll take a look though.

  • Nephirion #33 2 years ago

    I don't see the relevance of being able to pull faces at a bunch of npc's

  • FHUTA #34 2 years ago

    nice idea - though I really don't know how something that can be played in a non-linear fashion'll work when cut up, but I'd guess that big story cues will be absent meaning the paths and areas that they open up and the ascosiated better gear will require the next cucnk of game to play.

    it's just a shame the childhood section of the game is the weakest part and features the most hand-holding. But it's not as if the game could just give you a portion in the middle..

  • SpaceMidget75 Verified Senior Software Developer, Minerva Computer Services #35 2 years ago

    Does anyone know how the non-story parts work in this downloadable version?

    For example can you shoot the gargoyles and buy all properties from the initial free version? What about the side quests?

    If these are blocked out until certain episodes then it surely will destroy some of the open nature of the game.

    I don't care so much my self as I've already played through it and loved every minute of it, but I might recommend this to others.

    Fable 2 was great not because of it's easyness or it's length or its combat. It was great because it was fucking CHARMING. Like a cross between the Labyrinth and Blackadder. What might have been a generic main storyline was polished by adding some nice features that you don't often see in games such as deciding between making a young girl ugly or taking that upon your own character, or being tortured and having it represented as skill drain. In fact the whole going away for 10 years thing was fantastic!

  • mrmonkey1980 #36 2 years ago

    I really enjoyed fable 2 until it ground to a sudden halt and finished when it had barely begun. As such I havent gone back to it since and refuse to pay money for DLC to expand it to the length of a normal game.... but if the game is free, I can't relaly complain....

    Wait how much will the other episodes be??

  • telboy007 #37 2 years ago

    A big ol' lol @ farticusmaximus, well said.

  • metalangel #38 2 years ago

    No doubt this will be a failure as it was about where this first "episode" ends that I started regretting buying Fable 2 and buying a bigger HDD to install it onto. And no doubt I'll get huge negative feedback because the fact it was made by Molyneux/features the world's most pointless dog/has appalling sub-Python humour counterbalances the hateful characters, broken controls, rubbish combat, mindnumbing minigames, gibberish story, terrible menus and all the other massive problems that ensure it fails as any sort of game be it epic adventure, RPG, "just some light fun" or whatever else you try to justify its failings to yourself as. So go on, the big red minus button is right there, push it in your righteous fury at my slagging off your precious shit game. because I am really that sort of sad cunt who still has to whinge about how bad it was, which incidentally is entirely different from the sort of sad cunt who still has to cheer it on a year later.

  • spekkeh #39 2 years ago

    Good idea of chopping the game up into pieces, now you can skip the incredibly formulaic and ho-hum first three-quarters, and go right to the somewhat new and interesting bits.

    Saves you a lot of time so that you can play RPGs that are not a dime a dozen, such as Fallout 3 and Mass Effect.

  • metalangel #40 2 years ago

    @Ashen-sugar: Marking someone down because they express a valid point in a way you don't care for, AND making a point of telling them this too... Well, I leave it to you to decide what I think that makes you ;)

  • mattigan #41 2 years ago

    Don't get me wrong I didn't barrel through the main quest, I took time to go off the beaten track, but ultimately the side quests boiled down to 'goto area on map, kill everything' or 'goto area on map, follow dog, dig' with few exceptions (and I completed a fair few of the side quests). I may give it a spin being bad, but if I do, I don't anticipate finishing it a second time.

  • busboy33 #42 2 years ago

    @Ashen-Shugar:

    To be fair, all of those quests involve you being somewhere on the map, so there is some form of "going" involved. And once you get somewhere, you usually have to do "something".

    So really, they are completely 100% identical.

    Oh! and all the sidequests involve the controller in some way. Totally identical.

  • mrmonkey1980 #43 2 years ago

    if you want to boil all games down to such simplicity then every game in the world is a repetitive jab of buttons.

    My only real problems with Fable 2 were the length (huge problem) and travelling through the linear world. I get fed up of passing the exact same spots and the exact same group of bandits "surprise " attacking me. How lame.