Lionhead chooses to keep quiet about Fable 2 glitches
For anyone that was around when Fable 1 was released they will remember very well how many promises Peter Molyneux made, and how many of them were mysteriously not found in the final product. He was on record saying things such as “you can get lost in the woods” or that you could grow trees with acorns. These statements, of course, were complete fabrications of things that he wished were in the game. The anger that ensued after the game’s release was because he never took back these remarks despite knowing fully well that they eventually were not true.
As someone who followed Fable 1’s release very closely, it could be said that I was naive to buy Fable 2 on day one. However, I trusted the reviews that came out giving the game scores ranging from an 8 to 10. According to these scores, the game should have been fantastic. But it’s important to note what is going on in reviews. They are well aware of the overwhelming swarm of hype that comes with some titles. This swarm of hype also generates “fanboys”, and these enthusiasts are the same people who constantly read their websites, read their magazines, etc… To displease these people could mean to lose business. In the reviews, they didn’t even mention the plethora of game-breaking bugs to be found. And my advice to those of you who buy the game soley on reviews: Don’t. Wait for the reaction from the public. Watch the reaction in forums.
And if there is any indicator of the incompleteness of Fable 2 it is on Lionhead’s very forums. After the game was released, there were numerous complaints about glitches, game breaking glitches and the like. Some of these include:
* If you join a co-op game with your hero while the other players is in childhood your stats and everything else will be swiped to zero. This is an indicator to me of sloppy programming. It appears they initialize all variables at the start of childhood regardless if it is a pre-existing hero. This is also an indicator, and not the only one, that co-op was hastily added on.
* If you walk around the start of the Abbot quest without listening to all of his conversation: You will not be able to progress through the main story. You will be stuck in Oakridge indefinitely. This glitch has also been reported at the start of other quests. This is a game-ending glitch.
* Cases of a game being indefinitely stuck in a “scene”. During conversations you cannot bring up your menu or anything else as it is declared as a “scene”. Many have reported that their game has somehow been indefinitely stuck in such a scene. Another game-ending glitch.
* Time stopping glitch. This is one I myself have ran into. At the end of my main quest suddenly my time wouldn’t move unless I traveled between regions. This had many negative effects upon my game and is one of the reasons I stopped playing. I cannot make a sacrifice to the Temple of Dark because it has become virtually impossible for me to arrive at 12am. Traveling back and forth between regions and then traveling to the Temple of Dark has only resulted in me arriving at 11pm for some reason. There is no way for me to arrive exactly at 12am.
There are many many more. But now let me talk about how Lionhead has responded to this ridiculous amount of game-ending glitches. They havn’t. At least, not honestly. They have only addressed The Abbot and the Co-Op one. They say these are “isolated” incidents, however, they clearly are not.
Also, developers such as “Sam” and “Woody” have responded to the complaints on the forums calling the people “whiners”. An example of one of Woody’s responses is this, quoted exactly:
”
handbags anyone?”
Their behavior has been largely immature, and may be a clear indicator of the mentality of many developers and why the resulting imperfection has happened. The developers obviously do not understand the implication of such game-ending bugs. There are customers who have paid $60 dollars and have logged hours upon hours into the game only to be stuck in a scene indefinitely. Or only to have their character’s stats wiped. Or only to be permanently stuck in an area unable to move on through the main story. The plummitting economy is a keen indicator on the struggle people are faced with and video games are supposed to be some type of escape from all of that. For $60, nonetheless, and it’s not a cheap price. The unprofessional attitude of the developers has not only been troubling, but so is Lionhead’s official response: Silence. It has not acknowledged the magnitude of the problem, and probably never will. They will most likely profit more from silencing the problem. But my advice is for people to spread the word about Lionhead. They are a company that should not be trusted anymore. They want to give us silence? Fine. Then we should also give the same to them: By not buying their games anymore.
