The first Fable was a damn good RPG, with lovable features that we never saw before it's release. It's major flaw, however, was that it was one of the shortest RPG's ever made. It had about 10-15 hours, minusing the other kinds activities you'd choose to do at the side. This game looks promising as it's previous one, and all I really ask for is a longer experience.

The video goes through the gameplay, as well as some actions with the 360 controller. Click Launch Player to view it on a larger scale.

We're back again from day two of E3 proper and this afternoon we spent a merry half hour in the company of Lionhead legend Peter Molyneux, who demoed a whole lot of Fable 2 goodness for us.

Now normally we might spend a couple of thousand words telling you all about it, but thanks to the joys of our patented wobbly cam, we don't have to, since you can see the entire presentation for yourself on the movie player to your right.

Two especial points of interest emerged: first up is Fable's combat system, which uses just a single button (the blue X) for hand-to-hand combat (with magic and ranged weapons on the red and green). What's interesting though is how it's moved on since the original Fable, so that although you can play it as a simple button masher, more advanced players will be able to use a combo of rhythmic taps to pull off much more sophisticated melee moves or 'hold' to block and charge up power moves. Check out the movie for the full details.

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Secondly Molyneux also revealed Fable 2's rather unique approach to death, which was inspired by the knackers-beating scene from Casino Royale. He believes death requires a complete re-invention in Fable 2, so instead of kicking the bucket and then reverting to the last checkpoint when you go die, your opponents will be able to administer a right good kicking, leaving your hapless body scarred and broken.

Doesn't sound like much of a penalty? Ah but those scars are permanent and in-game NPCs will react to your battered visage - what happens when you go back to your in-game missus and she says "what's happened to your face?"

Molyneux said that in 29 out of 30 cases the people they've tested it on chose to pay a hefty experience point penalty rather than have their character scarred for life. Interesting stuff, but check out the movie and let us know whether you think Fable 2's approach to combat and death is the way forward in the comments field below.

Storm via computerandvideogames.com »