Lionhead boss Peter Molyneux has said that the Fable: The Journey video reveal at Microsoft's E3 press conference was "a horrendous mistake".
"... I made a horrendous mistake on the press demo of taking out the navigation allowing players to move," he told our chums at OXM, as you can see in the video below. "I'll just state on record now that Fable: The Journey is definitely not on rails."
The demo in question showed how you can direct a horse using Kinect and cast magic using gestures.
Comments
23 comments so far...
zombiesinmyhead on 10 Jun '11 said:
Is this a new record, Molyneux apologising for a game that isn't even out yet? He usually waits at least a year or two before he gets all sorry.
MrPirtniw on 10 Jun '11 said:
THANK GOD FOR THAT. The Kinect spell casting still looked a little slow paced- but I'm glad it's not on rails. Of all games, Fable- where the whole point is to go and do what you want- being on rails is ridiculous.
Teelahead on 10 Jun '11 said:
Was this filmed in the back of a moving truck. Very rumbley.
Codename4p on 10 Jun '11 said:
He apologised, Blimey! well i am sad he didn't continue to apologise about why Fable 3 takes away everything Fable has been working on to be nothing more than a terrible waste of time and money!
MrPirtniw on 10 Jun '11 said:
I dunno- really got into Fable 3 recently. The only things that bother me are the lack of any proper map and the way the gold trail thing often disappears randonmly. Oh and the damp squib of an ending- other than that, it's really good.
Thinking about it, each of the fighting abilities (shooting, sword fighting and magic) could be implemented well with Kinect- still unsure as how they'll get you to move around if it's not on rails though. Oh, and the way the enemies were just standing around as fireballs were thrown at them wasn't particularly encouraging.
boskersrevenge on 10 Jun '11 said:
Shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up!
No more speaky from you! Someone, DO something!
chunkysatsuma on 10 Jun '11 said:
Peter Molyneuxs games start of as innovative, Dungeon Keeper, Black and White, Theme Park, The Movies, Fable etc would have been a shame if he resorted to an on the rails game to be honest.
KMakawa on 10 Jun '11 said:
He has made an horrible mistake, in detaching away from the normal mechanics of Fable. Personally, this is a step too far. They've spent all this time working on a new engine with Fable 2 & 3 only to remove pretty much all of that, and take it into FIRST PERSON?!
I dont care if it is on rails or not, this is not a fable game. And should not be released.
I dont know how many more times people will be able to follow Peter with Fable, and I dont know how many more times his loyal commnity can be burned like this. Fix it before you loose too many people.
BRING BACK THE OLD FABLE.
Moribundman on 10 Jun '11 said:
A reasonably received demo was a "horrendous mistake." Hmm. Who swapped his mood stabilisers for Tictacs this time?
I can see why Molyneux is always about karma, black and white, all this binary whatnot. He has two settings; orgasmic elation and suicidal mortification.
Bipolyneux.
(Stay away from my Dags y'hear?)
boskersrevenge on 10 Jun '11 said:
You're a genius, do you know that?
@ KMakawa - I agree 100% with that. They had the start of a cracking game in Fable and slowly changed the elements of it to reflect his bizarre ideas.
Coulson1990 on 10 Jun '11 said:
Awww sweet! still not buying it though...
Moribundman on 10 Jun '11 said:
It was morning in Molyneuxland.
Peter yawned, stretched, ate his breakfast, packed his briefcase and walked to work.
It was a mildly sunny day. "My goodness!" said Peter "It is just about the most fantastic day I believe I have ever, or WILL ever witness, even if I live to one hundred and ten!" and with that he took millions and millions of pounds out of the ATM and started tucking the crisp twenty pound notes into the breast pockets of every tramp and ne'er-do-well he passed.
Some time later, a little grey cloud moved ever so slowly across the sky, and for a brief moment, for the blink of an eye, the beaming sun was dimmed.
Peter stopped in his tracks, his jaw gaping. "Oh my word" he gasped "My day - nay, my DREAMS - have been irredeemably and irrevocably barbarised and shattered. Nevermore will I look upon this world with the warmth of innocence and the eyes of a child, nevermore will I experience the beauty of existance as it permeates creation. Why? Why? All this must end. Twas a good life. Farewell Molyneuxland..." and he produced a rusty, blunt carving knife and pressed it against his carotid artery - closer... closer...
And all of a sudden, the little cloud moved. The sun beamed once again, and Peter's face froze.
Peter blinked, coughed, dropped the knife, and registering the look of concern on the face of one of the tramps to whom he had been so kind, he gave a big, silly, beaming smile; "Goodness me life is simply amazing my good man!" said Peter "I've just had a great idea. I'm going to make an on the rails feel 'em up game with dogs and farting!"
And with a click of his heels he marched purposefully in the direction of Lionhead HQ.
mrlister on 10 Jun '11 said:
I'm not watching a 40 second video with a 30 second advert on principal. I'd rather spend 70 seconds complaining. There should be a lower time-limit for videos that get ads, or the ad should be no more than a small percentage of the total video time. That video should have had a single screen ad on it.
Imaduck on 10 Jun '11 said:
Glad to hear actually. I thought it waas kind of purdy, but it wasn't Fable. Good stuff, good for him having the balls to admit the mistake too.
groble on 10 Jun '11 said:
I think he really just needs to stop showing games before they're released.
stop talking about them, and hyping them up. and just put them on the shelf.
better to under sell and over deliver I say
alan666 on 10 Jun '11 said:
not buying a Lionhead game again after the shambles of Fable 3 & as for Molyneux well he is just a idiot imo.
Dapz on 10 Jun '11 said:
*sigh* This is classic Molyneux. He hypes up his game like it's gonna be the best thing since sliced luncheon meat, releases it, then rants about how crap it was when his next game is close to releasing and gushes about that one while he's at it (repeat process). The only difference this time is that he's got to the apologising bit much sooner!
Tom tom tom on 10 Jun '11 said:
Yeah I'm sure the whole company want to sell 1 copy but have the best game ever. "let's not advertise the game guys and keep it hidden until we ship it, let's aim to be bankrupt"
Ganja_Ninja on 10 Jun '11 said:
Want.. 256 player.. populous.
liveswired on 10 Jun '11 said:
I don't really care Molyneux - it'll be crap like the rest of your titles. Perhaps you should apologise for opening your mouth and releasing a constant stream of pretentious crap. Get your company to make decent games.
divinebeetle on 11 Jun '11 said:
^^^
This
Enjoyed Fable 1 and 2 as casual rpgs,
but don't care for their recent direction and can't say I'm even interested any more.
Obscure_Metaphor on 12 Jun '11 said:
stop faffing with orcs and turn milo and kate into a real game, and i may buy kinect. otherwise, all it really seems to do is take control out of my hands, both literally and metaphorically.
Moribundman on 12 Jun '11 said:
"Stop faffing around with Borderlands and just release Duke Nukem Forever" - look where that got us...