With the amount of debt I have, I won’t be able to pay it fully back until about 2 months from now. I’m $5,000 in debt and living off the remaining $4,000 I have in my credit card cap. I’m praying no major bills pop up in these next two months. I was originally $8,000 in debt but put $3,000 down already with my new paycheck. Fable 2 money cheat discovered and the secret to infinite experience. Fable 2 for Xbox 360Here’s a cheat to make easy money in Fable 2 using the internal clock glitch. First, buy a property like a house, or a food stand. Something that will accrue you money every five minutes, even when you’re not playing the game.

• Fable 2 Gambling Debt Advice
• Fable 2 Gambling Locations
• Fable 2 Gambling Debt Statute Of Limitations
• Fable 2 Pub Games
• Fable 2 Gambling Debt Advice

Platform: Xbox 360
Reviewed on Xbox 360

Anyone could end up a hero, from the most powerful mage to a starving urchin. But in most role-playing games, players tend to start off as the urchin. That's certainly the case in Fable II, a game in which players start as a child, grow to become a powerful hero (or villain), ultimately exploring the wide-open world of Albion to become one of the most powerful individuals to pass the time belching and acting out sock-puppet shows since the fall of the Hero's Guild.

Peter Molyneux said I would fall in love with my dog in Fable II. Then again, Molyneux also created a timing-based mini-game for farting in Fable II, so perhaps our tastes don't exactly overlap. As much as we might differ over flatulence jokes, Molyneux and Lionhead Studios made a game that nearly everyone can love with Fable II. And while I didn't love the dog in Fable II, he's cute, plays fetch and sniffs out treasure, which is damn impressive for a virtual pooch. Besides, the tremendous breadth of the dog's abilities are representative of Fable II as a game – Fable II offers a huge variety of activities, but not as extensive a plot as I've come to expect from role-playing games. That said, there are so many options in Fable II that they can keep all styles of players entertained, and they demand replay with different types of characters.

The main storyline of Fable II is actually fairly short, and while entertaining, isn't really the main point of playing. Anyone who simply rushes through the central plot is missing most of what Fable II has to offer. The world of Albion is an excellent example of an open-world game – not a game in which players can do anything, but a world in which most things players might want to do have been deeply fleshed out by the developers. There are tons of side quests, people all over the world to interact with, hidden treasure and collectibles, the ability to pursue real estate acquisition or make a living as a trader, and even the possibility of dating or marrying the inhabitants of Albion. The secondary activities are so compelling that after 10 years of brutal, undercover servitude, when I should have been venturing forth to stop a madman from possibly destroying the world, I took the time out to arrange a blind date for a farmer's in-the-closet son.

The game doesn't end after completing the main story, just as the fun has really only begun. The only issue with such a design is that it's very difficult to balance character power with quest difficulty in a world where you can do anything, in nearly any order. The main quest is balanced for those who would power straight through, but anyone who does a few side missions, or sits around having sculptures carved in their honor, will find combat to be a cinch. Similarly, it's easy to own so much property that money just keeps rolling in every few minutes. This means that most items are quickly and easily within reach. At the same time, some quests only become available when very expensive properties are purchased, so this is all part of a greater scheme.

Fable II is meant to be accessible for casual players, but that doesn't significantly decrease the entertainment factor for experienced role-playing game fans. The nods to casual players come down to two things: The hero never dies. (Death just causes a small experience loss – there's plenty of experience to go around – and leaves the hero with scars that permanently diminish his attractiveness.) And combat is extremely simplified.

Experience (gained from combat and potions) comes in four flavors. There is general experience, and then experience linked to strength, skill and will. Strength experience lets players use more melee moves, do more damage and gain more health. Stronger characters look bulkier. Skill lets players shoot faster, do more damage, aim firearms better and look taller. Will improves the player's portfolio of spells for use in combat (and makes you character glow in a funny way). There are a few dodges and flourishes that can be executed, but mostly each type of combat (melee, ranged and magic) requires the press of a single button. Combat is fun at first, but so simple that it becomes repetitive. For example, I initially relied on magic, and came up with a sequence of spells that I used the same way every time. The same was true of melee and ranged attacks. Combat could have been deeper, but it would have been at the expense of alienating casual players, so Lionhead made a good choice, even if it falls short of expectations for certain players.

One disappointment with Fable II comes from the way in which it interacts with the Fable II Pub Games. By purchasing and playing the gambling games from Fable II on Xbox Live Arcade prior to the release of Fable II, players could unlock items and earn cash that could be used in Fable II. In the process of reviewing the Fable II Pub Games, I racked up some debt and unlocked a variety of items. To see how things would work out, I merged my Fable II character with the data from the Fable II Pub Games.

What I didn't realize was that the reward items from the Fable II Pub Games weren't particularly valuable, and I had racked up debt equivalent to the mortgage on a large pub in a major city. Also, Fable II uses a single save slot, so progress can't be undone. So, in this era of major, real-world economic meltdown, my virtual character that I play for fun was burdened with so much debt that I was regularly arrested for the non-payment of debt, and faced with the option of permanently becoming a foul criminal or literally spending hours chopping wood, bartending and forging iron blades to pay off my debt.

The gambling issue speaks to a larger issue in Fable II that is the game's biggest weakness. In an effort to create a living, breathing world, sometimes Lionhead Studios has gone too far in replicating reality. It's really a question of the balance between fun and realism. For example, it makes sense that if players want to play landlord, they should be able to purchase and manage as much property as they have the patience to acquire. However, certain tasks like taking a job just don't have rewards commensurate with the amount of work required. By pressing a button thousands of times, one can become experienced enough to make working a job rewarding, but initially it's just absurd busy work. Other tasks, like maintaining a family or trading, seem similarly too labor intensive to be fun. Better for such tasks to be like keeping your dog, where playing fetch is entertaining, and entirely optional.

As you play Fable II, your character's actions align your character on an axis of Purity vs. Corruption, or Good vs. Evil. The Purity vs. Corruption dichotomy isn't particularly interesting. Objects like pie can confer useful experience, but make your character corrupt and fat. Hard work will render your character pure and more attractive, just as eating celery will make your character slender. It mostly comes down to corruption is convenient, and purity makes your character attractive to others.

The Good vs. Evil dichotomy is more interesting. Do you protect the innocent or sacrifice your own spouse to dark gods? The choices are meaningful and different enough to make it easily worth replaying the game. The dilemma here is that evil is just so much easier. It takes more effort to remain good, and it's very easy to accidentally frighten villagers while trying to protect them from monsters. So players interested in keeping on the good side of Albion's inhabitants will have to work harder than those who are content to bully shopkeepers and scare children.

Fable II suffers from a few irritating glitches. For example, it's easy to start stealing from a cash register when you only intend to speak with a shopkeeper. To deal with this, the developers have made it so that you have to hold a button down for a few seconds to perform most actions, but that delay can be irritating. Similarly, the D-Pad usually has context sensitive actions designed to make it easier to quickly do whatever you might want. Sadly, because those actions can change so quickly, I found myself accidentally eating a pie and getting fat when I only meant to pet my dog. Also, the much-hyped co-operative play isn't particularly interesting in a world that casts one person as the central hero of an era. Fortunately, these minor issues are more than offset by the great voice acting and amusing dialog that helps carry the game for many, many hours.

Ultimately, the main storyline of Fable II isn't as engaging as it could be, but the world of Albion is so rich and filled with possible activities, collectibles and quests that it's hard to depart after the main quest has ended, and I often found it difficult to motivate myself to continue the main quest with so much else to do. Still, whether you pursue the fable itself, it's easy to recommend Fable II as many hours of fun for anyone. I may not have fallen in love with the dog, but I certainly fell in love with the potential of Albion.

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Fable II Pub Games is an Xbox Live Arcade title that includes three pub game-styled minigames called Keystone, Fortune's Tower and Spinnerbox for the Xbox 360, developed by Carbonated Games under the supervision of Lionhead Studios, which all share functionality with Fable II.^[3] The games are included in both editions of Fable II. Fable II Pub Games was free for those who pre-ordered Fable II from participating retailers.^[2]

Fable II[edit]

The Pub Games offer players a chance to win money and items for their Fable II character, to be given to them once their character has reached adulthood. For every piece of gold won in the tournament section of Pub Games, a piece of gold is added to the Fable II character's wallet, giving players a chance to have a rich character from the start of the game. Conversely, if the player accumulates debt in the Pub Games, negative consequences will befall their character. Fifteen unique items can also be won in the Pub Games' tournaments, ranging from weapons to clothing or tattoos that can be used by their Fable II character.^[4]

Gameplay[edit]

Pub Games consists of three different casino-style games, of which only low-stakes versions can be played from the start. For every piece of gold the player bets on these games, they earn experience points that can be used to unlock higher-stakes versions and Fable II concept art. Tournaments for these games are also unlocked, giving players an opportunity to win items by competing with computer-controlled opponents.^[4]

Fortune's Tower[edit]

Fable 2 Gambling Debt Advice

Fortune's Tower is a card game utilizing a deck with multiples of the number one through seven. After players make an ante of a multiple of fifteen, they are dealt one face down 'Gate' card and two face up cards on top of it. The player can choose to take the sum value of the row of two cards, or be dealt three new cards on top of the other two. The cycle repeats until an eighth row is created, at which point the player automatically receives a payout. If the player chooses to end the game before then the game automatically deals the rest of the cards to see what the outcome would have been. A pay multiplier can be activated if all the cards in a row are the same number (called a 'Set'), which multiplies the bet by the number of cards in the row (a row of two threes causes the bet to double). Multiple Sets are not cumulative - the highest multiplier counts alone.

If a card is dealt atop a card of the same value, a game-ending condition known as 'Misfortune' occurs. There are three 'saves' that may avert a game ending with Misfortune: the Gate card will automatically replace the first Misfortune—if the Gate card is not the same number as the card it replaces, and there are no other Misfortunes in the current row of cards, the game can continue, one of four 'Hero' cards may be dealt during the course of the game, which saves all cards in the row it is dealt to from Misfortune, and a Set will remove any Misfortunes as well.

If the player completes the Tower without using a Gate card, the player receives a Jackpot, which gives him the total of all the rows, which is then multiplied if a Set is present.^[2]

Keystone[edit]

Keystone is described by Peter Molyneux as 'a bit of a cross between Roulette and Crappes'.^[5] Rather than a spinning wheel, the player throws three six-sided dice, and makes bets prior to the throw on what the outcome will be, as in Roulette, picking the exact total, the range of the score, and so forth. The more uncommon the roll, the higher the payout (i.e. 3 and 18 pay the highest.)

The major departure from Roulette is that the game is based around a stone arch composed of tiles from 3 to 18, with the 3, 10, 11, and 18 tiles being 'Archstones'. When dice are rolled, a tile to its corresponding result removes the tile. If either both the 10 and 11 Keystones or just one of the base (3 or 18) stones are removed, the game ends. The player must initially make an arch-bet (a bet on a Keystone) which remains throughout the game. If the die is rolled a value matching a removed stone, it removes the stone adjacent to it, based on its position (lower if it is 10 or less, higher if it is 11 or higher.) If the first roll of the game is a 3 or 18, it is declared a Jackpot and all arch-bets automatically win; the game still ends.^[4]

A variation of the game is 'Bloodstones' which features opposite rules, in which the player is betting against the die rolls.

Spinnerbox[edit]

Spinnerbox is a slot machine game, where players bet gold and spin anywhere from three to six different slots. The player wins payouts on 'chains' (symbols connected adjacently), with each themed spinner having its own bonus rules. For example, 'Cow and Corset' features a bonus fourth spinner if the player gets a three of a kind; the fourth spinner pays as if it were a three of a kind for whatever it reveals.^[4]

Fable 2 Gambling Locations

Reception[edit]

References[edit]

Fable 2 Gambling Debt Statute Of Limitations

1. ^Xav de Matos (2008-02-20). 'GDC08: Fable 2 co-op and XBLA tie-in revealed'. Xbox360Fanboy.com. Archived from the original on 2008-08-18. Retrieved 2008-08-10.
2. ^ ^abcSara Nicholson (2008-08-07). 'Fable II : Pub Games - August 13th'. Gamerscore Blog. Microsoft. Archived from the original on 2008-08-13.
3. ^Chris Hicks (2008-03-19). 'Three Fable 2-compatible games coming to XBLA'. CVG.
4. ^ ^abcdHilary Goldstein (2008-07-07). 'Pre-E3 2008: Fable II Pub Games Hands-On'. IGN. Archived from the original on 2008-08-17. Retrieved 2008-08-18.
5. ^Ludwig Kietzmann (2008-02-20). 'Joystiq live from the Microsoft GDC keynote'. Joystiq. Weblogs.
6. ^'Fable II Pub Games for Xbox 360 Reviews'. Metacritic. Retrieved 2012-03-06.

Fable 2 Pub Games

External links[edit]

Fable 2 Gambling Debt Advice

• Fable II Pub Games at MobyGames