New Fable III art shows Bowerstone

By Robert Purchese Published 4 November, 2009

A dark, smoggy, industrialised city.

Peter Molyneux's Lionhead Studios has offered an artist's impression of Bowerstone in Fable III.

Gone are the bright, sunny alleys, replaced by the smoggy streets of an industrialised city. Burning barrels provide canal-side light as chimneys puff smoke onto the scene.

Fable III is due out next year and will revisit the Albion of Fable II. This time, however, you'll be king or queen, changing the land according to the set of morals you live by.

Among the ambitious features earmarked for the game are Natal support and micro-transactions.

'New Fable III art shows Bowerstone' Screenshot bws

Check out our early preview for an idea of what Peter Molyneux hopes to conjure.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

You may also like...

Comments (25) Latest comment 2 years ago

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

  • Pastici #1 2 years ago

    I want steam powered weapons and things. Wonder how much will be hyped and let down in this one though. Too early to say but worth a moan, why else do we post!

  • Digital_Forge #2 2 years ago

    Really hope the SteamPunk style filters through quite a lot of the game and not just patched in here and there.

    Can we get a steam engine in the shape of a dog? There could be a "shovel coal" mini game to make him run faster, you can decide where it goes.
    Edited by 1 at 04/11/09 @ 13:30

  • Eraysor #3 2 years ago

    I want steampunkish bionic enhancements for my character.

  • Scimarad #4 2 years ago

    Awesome!

    Just hope there's a bit more game and and bit less of the stupid forced moral choices this time.

  • Altrezia #5 2 years ago

    That looks freakin' awesome. I can't wait for this :D

  • madgerald Verified Studio Head of PR & Marketing, Colossal Games LTD #6 2 years ago

    Ahhhhh my vision of a victorian GTA style game has been realised :) - I'd like small chimney sweeps please and a dog on a rope. Not forgetting the open sewer system which conveniently runs into the local river.

  • TravisTouchdown #7 2 years ago

    Oh good: they've taken one of 360's most fantastical realms ... and made it bland-FPS-grey.

  • JayKwon #8 2 years ago

    I hope bigger cities. Love the Fable franchise, but give me bigger cities.

  • Korpers #9 2 years ago

    Maybe Lionhead is gonna charge us for in game tins of brightly coloured paint to slap everywhere?

    That Peter is clearly a friggin genius - in game paint 20p a tin (50p for gold or silver) and then you use Natal and an included roller to spruce the place up!

    Finish work / go home / have tea / turn on 360 / paint Bowerstone.

    Kill me please.

  • Rodriguez #10 2 years ago

    "Among the ambitious features earmarked for the game are Natal support and micro-transactions."

    That last bit I'm not looking forward too... Please Mr. Molyneux, we don't want to pay £1 for a better sword or £5 for some armour for our dog, just let us earn rewards through progression in the game by, you know, playing it!!
    Other than that I've enjoyed the last two Fable games and will look forward to a third, it will be interesting to see how they go about integrating Natal and whether it will be a revolutionary game changing experience, or rather less spectacularly, just the ability to 'stroke' your pet dog or something...

  • madgerald Verified Studio Head of PR & Marketing, Colossal Games LTD #11 2 years ago

    Just thinking about the natal implemenation - i'm guessing the in-game actions would work with itl.. arm-pumping, dancing, farting, mooning etc etc. Anyone who has a lute at home will be sorted.

  • chukcyQ #12 2 years ago

    I looked at that picture, and felt like, well... I don't want to go there.

  • miiiguel #13 2 years ago

    Fable reached that status where it is as important to say "I don't want to play it" as "I'm interested in this game".
    Edited by 1 at 04/11/09 @ 15:23

  • Dizzy #14 2 years ago

    >I looked at that picture, and felt like, well... I don't want to go there.

    I think that is the idea... they want to make it bleak so you can bring some good times to the world again (or even more smoke and fog if you are evil)

  • SheffieldSteel #15 2 years ago

    Well, as someone who played Fable II about 1.5 times and is unlikely to touch it again, I am not sure what to think of this anymore.
    Natal support doesn't interest me in the slightest, and micro-transactions are frankly offputting. So currently I'm not sure I will want to buy this game... at that unspecified point in the future when the concept art has become an actual game - something capable of delivering on the hype. Speaking of which, for all I know I'll be too busy playing Dragon Age, still, to even look at this, so it may be a moot point.

  • Britesparc Verified Creative, ITV #16 2 years ago

    Wasn't one of the ideas that, as king, you can increase industrial development at the expense of the countryside, or favour nature at the expense of economic growth?

  • hiddenranbir #17 2 years ago

    STEAMPUNK WOO!

  • metalangel #18 2 years ago

    Perhaps you'll be able to buy in-game gold with microtransactions? Spend hours pulling pints while that smug tosser says 'That's a perfect pint' after EACH FUCKING ONE, or hurl a fiver at Molyneux and go and buy decent stuff right away.

  • SheffieldSteel #19 2 years ago

    If they're spending development money on features that don't interest me, then it makes sense that the game is going to provide me with less value than it would some other player. I'm not saying it will be evil incarnate, just not interesting to me.

  • Simian #20 2 years ago

    I'm very much liking this new victorian-steampunkery going on here, though there better be some nice blue skies as well as the smoggy ones :)

  • butler` #21 2 years ago

    As we're all wanting, I want a faster input reponse time for the controls.

    Playing Fable 2 after CoD4 makes you feel drunk.

  • ronuds #22 2 years ago

    I'm outraged at a picture from a game!!!!

  • Leolian #23 2 years ago

    Does a piece of concept art really warrant its own news article? Slow news day perchance?

  • Leolian #24 2 years ago

    Than again, I clicked on it :/

  • Nova1977 #25 2 years ago

    I'd like this game to take on a more caricatured style but only slightly in a similar vein as those found at the end credits of Fable2. I'd like some hydrolic/ steam powered rickity looking weapons as well. and please LESS GLOW! I literally played with sun glasses on in some sections. I miss the dog.