Veteran Gamer's Top Five Games of the Year

It's that time!  Time for my picks of the year.  Now, keep in mind that I'm only one guy, with a wife, and a kid.  So there's no way I can play all of the great games that were released this year.  So this is purely my "Top 5 Games I played this year" list, with the system I played it on in parenthesis.  The biggest caveat to this list that should be noted off the top.  I only own the 360 and PS3.  The Wii hasn't held my interest since launch, and I don't have a PC that is beefy enough to run anything worth playing.

So we're going to go a different direction at the start.  To kick things off, I'm going to throw in my "Why the heck was this game so popular?" game of the year.  So without further ado...

WTF Was This Game So Popular Game of the Year:  Bayonetta (Xbox 360)


I gave this game a chance.  Really I did.  I think a part of my dislike for this game has to do with my values as a Christian.  Let me preface this by saying that I'm not a Christian prude by any stretch.  But I've got a real problem when the premise of a game is that my character is opposed to my God.  I even gave that somewhat of a pass.  What I couldn't give a pass was the fact that Bayonetta seemed to be created by and for a horny 13 year old.  Couple that with the completely throw away sidekick and I was pretty disinterested from the start.  The combat didn't grab me at all, and after two hours of this, I just couldn't stomach it anymore.  Maybe it's one of those games that you have to get past a certain point before it starts getting good, but with no prior history or reason to try to get to that point, the eject button got an early press.

#5:  Final Fantasy XIII (PS3)


So I fully realize the irony in the fact that I just smashed a game for not grabbing you by the ears at the start and being a wild ride to the end, and that this game is firmly in that category.  The difference here is that Final Fantasy has a history of being a great franchise, and I personally was willing to wade through the first half (yes half) of the game to get to the worthwhile second half.  The story is completely convoluted and switching between the sets of characters is completely jarring, not allowing you to get really into any one character's story.  It's easy now to see what they were attempting to do in developing all the back stories of the characters so you can understand them once you're playing as all of them, but it just doesn't feel that way while you're doing it.  However, once you get to that point, you've unlocked all levels of the Crystarium, and can travel where you wish, the game opens up much more.  In addition, all the work done in building the story pays off wonderfully in the finale, and I don't feel as though the hours of time I poured into the game were wasted.  It still doesn't change the fact that most of the time I wanted to punch Vanille square in her sickeningly sugary sweet face, but that's another topic for a full review that you won't see from me.

#4:  God of War III (PS3)


The payoff to Sony Santa Monica's epic mythological trilogy was everything I'd hoped it would be.  It was more of angry Kratos, (which unlike many, I actually like) more epic battles, more brutal ways of dismembering and brutalizing your enemies, and more eye candy than you'll find anywhere on any game system.  Although the ending to the series was a little disheartening, the battle to get there was fully enjoyable.  While many of the weapons you're given are fairly useless when you have the Blades of Exile powered up to max, they're fun diversions to dismember your enemies in ever more creative ways, even if only for a little while.  This game is quite simply one of the most beautiful games currently available on a game console, as well as some of the best mindless fun you can have.

#3:  Fable III (Xbox 360)


While certainly not as good as the previous iteration of the series, this game is still firmly in my top five for this year.  The improvements to the game definitely help, but where the game falls short prevents it from being really anyone's game of the year.  Still though, this game retains enough of what made Fable II great to give you an enjoyable 30 hours of gameplay.  And that's before any DLC has been considered.  If you liked Fable II, you'll find Fable III worth your money.

#2:  Battlefield:  Bad Company 2 (PS3)


Let's get this out of the way first.  The single player story I'll fully admit is very forgettable.  There is no way I would recommend this game to anyone based solely upon the single player experience.  So if multiplayer isn't your bag, this game isn't for you.  However, if you are a multiplayer FPS junkie, this game in my opinion is the best experience released this year.  This is no slam on Call of Duty, as it is an excellent FPS as well, but these games are two different games.  Call of Duty in my opinion is more about an extremely quick death/respawn again gameplay, and is very much a lone wolf mentality game.  BFBC2 shines in its encouragement of teamwork.  You always have the ability to support your squadmates with health or ammo if you choose such a class, as well as the ability to spot enemies for all of your allies.  This is much the way I would envision a real military operation to be conducted.  Communication and teamwork are the order of the day, and BFBC2 absolutely excels in this department.  To me, there is no better FPS available on the market today.

Before I get to #1, here are some honorable mentions...

Honorable Mention:  Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit (Xbox 360)


This game *very nearly* made my top five.  Unfortunately, I don't have a key component that this game requires to have an optimal experience, and that is lots of friends who also have the game.  I currently have only one friend on my friends list (who I incidentally found randomly on Twitter while complaining about this fact) that has the game.  The best part of this game seems to be logging in to find that a friend has beaten one of your times and then going to best their time.  Without a few friends to compete against, I pretty much keep pounding the random friend any time he beats me and I go long swaths of time without having anything more to do.  Criterion did a nice job with the game, but it doesn't hold a candle to their previous work, Burnout Paradise.

Honorable Mention:  Heavy Rain (PS3)


Quantic Dream took a huge gamble with this game.  Not everyone will get it.  But if you grok this game, you'll believe it to be worth every penny of the price of admission.  This is one of the few games on my list that I still see is listed at full MSRP by Amazon.  To me, this says volumes that they don't feel the need to discount the game and they still sell plenty of copies almost a year after release.  While the voice acting can be more than a bit cheesy at times, it can be overlooked for a story that kept me wondering what would happen next and what sick thing the Origami Killer would have in store for me.  I was captivated pretty much from beginning to end, and applaud Quantic Dream's effort to bring what amounts to an interactive drama to the PS3.

Honorable Mention:  Borderlands (Xbox 360)


Oh the countless hours my gaming bud and I have poured into this game.  We've purchased every piece of DLC released (yes, even the less than stellar Mad Moxxi's Underdome) and have had loads of fun blasting our way through the world of Pandora and finding new and ever more powerful weapons, armor, and power combinations to use to effect this mayhem.  The downfall to this game to me is that it simply *must* be played co-operatively.  Single player is not where this game excels, and without the social aspect I've mused to some friends that it is merely an average FPS at best.  But throw two or three friends into the mix, and this game becomes great fun.

And now, Veteran Gamer's Game of the Year is...

Game of the Year:  Mass Effect 2 (Xbox 360)


Yes, Mass Effect 2 is far and away my game of the year.  With the best story in video gaming in 2010, coupled with the best combat in a single player game in 2010, Mass Effect 2 did so much right it made me want to go back and play the original game just so I had a renegade character that I could import in after I'd beat ME2 the first time with my imported paragon character.  Yes, I suffered through hours of Mako missions just so I could have a custom renegade character to play in this game.  I fully intend to play this game a third time before the third game of the series is released to ensure I can play a playthrough of the final game of the series to see what happens if Shepard doesn't make it through the suicide mission at the end of the game.  To play a 30+ hour RPG three times through, and not feel it a chore, firmly cements this game as my 2010 game of the year.

Thus closes my year in gaming for 2010.  I had a great year of gaming to be sure.  I played more games this year probably than in any year previous in my life.  The year was flooded with worthwhile RPG's, which made life extremely hard for me in choosing what to play.  The games I didn't get to which certainly could have been contenders for my top five were numerous.  Just to name a few, Red Dead Redemption, Fallout: New Vegas, Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, Alan Wake (which I actually own!), and the list I'm sure could go on.  I'm sure, sadly, I'll never get to some of these games.  But the games released in 2011 that take their place will certainly be worth it, as 2011 looks to be a great year ahead.  Thanks to those of you checking out this blog, and here's to a great 2011 of gaming!

Now Playing: 12/27 - 1/2

DaringOne's Playlist:
Your Shape: Fitness Evolved - Xbox 360 Kinect
Dance Central - Xbox 360 Kinect
Kinect Adventures - Xbox 360 Kinect
Kinect Sports - Xbox 360 Kinect
Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit - Xbox 360
Fable III - Xbox 360

Holy playlist Batman!  Well, I got Kinect and a truckload of stuff to go with it, so the PS3 is collecting some dust and it's time to put the Kinect thoroughly through its paces.

Your Shape: Fitness Evolved - So far, this "game" is as expected.  Get a good workout, and it's not perfect in telling you if you're right in doing whatever the exercise is.  I'll say this, this 31 year old body couldn't play it two days in a row.

Dance Central - Of all the games that should have video capture and share, this should be it.  Sadly, it doesn't.  I had a few people over recently, and I'm telling you that would have been some YouTube GOLD if it had been captured.  Fun, and you make an utter fool out of yourself.

Kinect Adventures - Solid pack-in game, nothing more, nothing less.  You'll have fun, and it will likely be the game you show everyone first if you bought the Kinect.

Kinect Sports - So of the group, this is the one that's not so hot.  Turns out my Kinect preview was more about the software I was playing than the hardware, as this is the game (the track and field event) that I played way back in August.  This is easily the laggiest of the Kinect games I've played so far, and the game suffers for it.  Were it not so laggy, this would be a respectable game.  As it stands, it takes 3rd among the "sports collection motion games" behind Sports Champions and Wii Sports respectively.

Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit - I've got quite a bit of time in this one, and am conflicted.  I love Criterion, but the more I play this game, the more I realize that it doesn't hold up for a long time in the way that Burnout Paradise did.  I'm glad I've got more time in this now, because it's actually going to change my review score.

Fable III - Pretty much finished here.  Have 870 of the 1,000 Achievement points, going back through with my evil character now to pick up the Cheevo for not being knocked out, as I ended up getting knocked out in a trivial battle because I wasn't paying close enough attention to what was happening.  Once I have that 50, I doubt I'll be playing it much more until the inevitable DLC comes out.

So yeah, how in the world do I balance all these games???  I'm only one guy, with a wife and a kid.  Answer, I don't.  One or more will certainly be getting neglected.

Review: Fable III

Fable III puts you in the shoes of the son of the Hero you played in the previous game.  Unfortunately for you, and for the rest of Albion, you also have a tyrant for an older brother that now has the throne.  The story follows you as you seek to overthrow your brother and make a better Albion for all.

Welcome to Fable II.V as I would put it.  Just enough has changed to not make you jump to the conclusion that this could easily have been put out as an expansion to Fable II.  Some things have changed for the better (Hooray for playable co-op!) and others not so much.  (Oh expression wheel, how I miss you)

So why do I want this game?

You want this game because it is certainly more of what made Fable II great.  A compelling story, an easy to learn combat system, and expansive fantasy environments with numerous side quests to explore carry on the torch for the Fable series.  The experience system has changed for the better, as those of you who are Fable II veterans will remember the frustration of needing "specific" experience in order to purchase upgrades for various attributes for your character.  This has been scrapped in favor of a straight forward system where you're collecting guild seals for defeating monsters, completing quests, and making friends with the townspeople.  It's a welcome change from the previous system in my opinion, and one of the changes that certainly needs to stick around for the inevitable Fable IV.

Another of the big changes, the magic system, I'm still not sure if I like or not even with 41.5 hours in the game.  Fable II allowed you to assign different levels of magic to your character.  The longer you held your magic button the more powerful the spell that you would eventually use.  You could slot these different levels of spells with whatever spell type you wanted.  So at every level, you could theoretically cast a different spell if you liked.  Like many features from Fable II, Fable III removes this ability and instead introduces the concept of spell weaving.  This is the ability to combine two spells to create various effects after you obtain this ability in the game.  It's a neat idea in concept, but in practice I found myself only ever using Fireball + Lightning to stun my enemies with the electrocution and torch them with the fireball.  No other combination seemed nearly as useful.  I get the feeling if the other combinations were more effective that I wouldn't miss the level system from the previous game.  Unfortunately, this is what we've got, and it seems like an idea that wasn't nearly as fleshed out as it should have been.

Fortunately what we did get is worthwhile co-op!  As someone who painfully completed the campaign for Fable II with someone co-operatively, I can tell you that the co-op this time around is vastly improved.  Gone is the generic "henchman" for the second player.  Instead you can bring your real character into the game and receive all the benefits from playing the game and take them back to your own.  The only downside, and this is something that should have been able to have been overcome, is that none of the game events are saved to your file.  While this is both a blessing (yay double experience for quests!) and a curse (I'm doing this quest again?) it's a shame that Lionhead couldn't find a way to save your progress even while playing with a friend in their world.  Borderlands found a way to do it, there's no reason we couldn't have seen it here as well.  In addition to this, probably the most glaring issue, the camera being tied to the host, has been fixed as well.  Though I can't seem to get the teleport function to work properly, I'll forgive that for having the ability to control my own camera.  Lionhead is nearly there, I'll expect Fable IV's co-op to be without issue.

The last of the major plusses for the game is the Sanctuary.  Instead of the standard pause menu and myriad levels of menus to wade through, Fable III allows you to handle all your needs in the Sanctuary.  When you press Start, you're fairly instantly teleported to the Sanctuary regardless of what is occurring on screen at the time.  The fact that there is nearly no load time here is quite impressive.  Here you can head to one of a few rooms to select new weapons, outfits, view achievements, view stats, or generally change any option in the game.  Believe it or not, the "virtual mall" approach is light years better than the previous menu system.  With outfits and weapons you can easily see what you're about to equip and decide if you really want them or not rather than have to page through even more menus as before.

So why don't I want this game?

Admittedly, this section is going to apply more to veterans of the series than someone who is picking up Fable III having never played either of the previous games.  These things don't matter as much if you don't know what you were missing in the previous games, as I think you're more likely to accept them if you don't know that there used to be something better.  That said...

First and foremost, the graphics engine looks as though it hasn't been touched since the previous game.  If this is a new game engine, it's a completely underwhelming rewrite.  While the game in most respects is beautiful, there are very glaring issues with texture pop-in, collision detection, and framerate problems in many circumstances.  None of them make the game unplayable, but they're very jarring.  I can count numerous occasions where you can see the game go almost from standard definition to high definition after finally loading the proper textures.  I've seen more than one occasion where while digging I'll plunge my shovel right through poor Cookie (Yes, named after my real dog) and have her see no ill effect.  In Fable II, this was forgivable.  It was the first outing on a new console from the series, and an overall great job despite these problems.  Now with a game under their belt and nearly two years to the day later, nothing has been done to improve the graphics engine.  This is outright lazy, and Lionhead needs to be taken to task for this.  If no work was done to improve the game engine, it stands to reason that the two years taken to develop this game were merely to create a new story, add the much balleyhooed ability to "touch" other characters, and remove a lot of features that players actually liked.

Speaking of removing things, I turn my critical eye toward what was left out.  Chief among these things is the expression wheel.  The new expression system, for the sake of streamlining the experience I suppose, allows for one "good" action, one "bad" action, and one miscellaneous action where context provides.  You have no ability to choose what actions will appear for you, you're just stuck with what apparently randomly appears.  So if you've chosen the prince, you quite possibly will receive "Dance" as your "good" expression even if talking to another guy.  While this is fine if you've chosen to play your character in that fashion, for those of us playing straight characters, it's a bit frustrating.  In a game that's supposed to be meant to be all about crafting your unique experience, not having the ability to use all the expressions at your disposal when you like is a step backward.

The dog, sadly, is another piece of the game that just isn't as good as the previous game.  In the previous game, you could find upgrades that allowed your dog to attack better, find better treasure, and perform various tricks just as in this game.  However, it just seems that the dog has very much lost his importance in the game, and after having him be so integral to the previous chapter of the game, it's both disappointing and baffling that this particular design decision was made.  It may be that I haven't played through my "evil" character far enough yet (only 3.5 hours) to see the changes, but before your dog's appearance was tied to your decisions, and at the moment, despite my slaughtering of entire towns of innocents, my dog appears none the worse for wear.  I seem to recall many more free available breeds as well, where only two come with the game this time.  This may have been added via DLC last time, I can't recall, but I'm certain that we weren't held up for 240 MS Points just for the privilege of adding a few more breeds.  A nice chunk of, you know, *game* came along with the MS Points spent for that DLC.  As much as I would love to change my dog to a Doberman, it goes against my principle of never buying virtual clothes, which for all intents and purposes is what this is.

The last of my complaints is the constant nagging from Jasper to buy things from the store.  A suggestion once in every 50 wouldn't be so bad, but it seems as though every other time I hit the Sanctuary he's telling me that new bits and bobs are available.

The Verdict


Despite problems that should have been fixed and features that should have been included, Fable III is still a great game.  Lionhead packed a boatload of content into the game, as evidenced by the 41.5 hours I've put into the game and still not having picked up all 1,000 achievement points.  While Fable veterans will certainly get the feeling that something is just not quite "right" about this game, newbies will know no difference, and even veterans won't be able to deny that the hallmarks of Fable, a good story, grand environments, and an overall good time are still in the package.

Pros:

• Grand environments with plenty to discover and side quests to complete
• Epic story drives the game and motivates the player to keep moving the story forward
• Worthwhile co-op
• Improved experience system

Cons:

• Graphics unchanged since Fable II, with the same pop-in, framerate, and collision detection issues present in the last game
• Magic system could have been improved to make more spell weaving combinations actually useful 
• Constant monetization attempts are very annoying... our $60 wasn't enough?

Score:  4 out of 5 stars - Worth Owning

Why Kinect Really Is Magical

Just so you don't think you're lost, or that some whacko has hacked my blog, yes, I am the same guy that just four months ago posted my less than stellar initial impressions of Kinect. However, being a tech enthusiast, gaming enthusiast, and heck, I'm a game blogger, and the fact that I stumbled into some money I didn't know I was going to get, I bought the thing. My impressions as a hardcore gamer of the experience will come later, but this post isn't about me. It's about my wife. You see, after setting it up last night, a truly magical thing happened.

My wife played a video game with me.

And had fun.

Now this is utterly stupefying because, God love my wife, she's not a gamer. The only games she plays well at all are Tetris and Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine. And it's been a secret desire of mine for a long long time that somehow, someway, it would click for her and we could share what is probably one of my biggest passions together. While I like those two games, I certainly yearned for a more "meaty" experience to share with Mrs. DaringOne. She just doesn't work a controller terribly well, and she is very obviously the Kinect demographic.

But I have to step back a bit to the first part of the night after I'd just set it up. I decided to check out Zune to play around with the voice commands. My wife was interested in this, and I showed her "Xbox, fast forward. Faster. Faster. Play." Then I handed her the keys and said, "Give it a shot. Just talk to it." So she went with, "Xbox, Pause." And so it did. And it was at that moment that I could see the magical *click* in her eyes that said "that's really cool". So after a little while we put in Kinect Adventures, and played a couple of games of Rally Ball together. We had a blast together, and laughed hysterically at a few of the pictures that it took while we were playing. It was at that point that a friend of mine who also just bought Kinect logged in and we checked out Video Kinect.

Video Kinect is great for the simple fact that anyone with a 360 and Kinect is afforded video chat abilities. Much like Apple's FaceTime, the power of convenience makes this application. My wife was ecstatic to be able to see her friend in Florida while we froze here in Ohio. We spent a good hour and a half talking with our friends in Florida before we finally went to bed.

My opinion of Kinect, as a hardcore gamer, hasn't changed much. It's a bit more responsive than the first time I played, but overall I still find it to be somewhat laggy but with potential in the hands of the right developer.

But I'm not the target demographic. When Kinect was announced at $149, I seriously had no idea what demographic they were shooting for. Clearly, my wife is the target demographic. The non-gaming, no real interest in games, never really played games, and doesn't ever want to hold a controller person, who has someone in their life that's a gamer is the demographic. Also, children, most certainly children are a big part of this demographic as well. Granted, this is apparently a small demographic, but when you think of the number of Xbox 360 consoles out there in homes, this isn't as small a demographic as you'd think. If they can extract another $150 from even a quarter of their install base, not to mention software sales and licensing, this thing will be a booming success.

Xbox Live Survey "Live", Earning Possibilities Detailed

Teehee. Couldn't resist. Anyhow, if you joined the Xbox Rewards Program like a good boy or girl, you can now head to the website and find a five question survey worth 20 MS Points. In addition, this appears to be a monthly occurrence, as the site has been updated to include what you can do to earn points, and how many you earn for each activity. Among the low hanging fruit, activate Netflix or buy any Marketplace content to pick up 100 points each. Also, much like Sony's offering, there do appear to be contests available to enter as well. Currently you can enter once per day to win a home theater upgrade.

All in all, sounds like a great start to a great program!

SPLODE AGAIN! Ms. Splosion Man Charring Scientists Soon

Joystiq reports that the Twisted Pixel crew is at work on a Splosion Man sequel of sorts.  Ms. Splosion Man, with a nod to Ms. Pac-Man, "carries on what we did with Splosion Man and adds more awesomeness" according to studio CCO Josh Bear.  Having sunk plenty of time into this game, and actually having "Donuts, Go Nuts!" on my iPod, I think that tells you the level of excitement I have for this game.  Unfortunately, no release window has been given yet.

UPDATE:  Fall 2011 is the date given for everyone to splode again.  Again, Joystiq has the coverage.  Also, check out the great trailer on the same page!

Microsoft Announces Xbox Live Rewards

Major Nelson announced today via his blog that Microsoft is rolling out the Xbox Live Rewards program. Very similar to Sony's program, Xbox Live will reward you with Microsoft points for playing new games, watching movies, buying content, and more. From the looks of the program, they one-up Sony simply by crediting back some of the thousands of points we continually spend rather than simply promising entries to contests, etc. The program is open today, so go sign up!

Now Playing: 11/29 - 12/5

DaringOne's Playlist:

Fable III - Xbox 360
Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit - Xbox 360

Fable III - Near the very end of this one.  Basically I can beat it any time I want, but am trying to finish up some side quests and grab the "Chest Master" achievement before progressing to the end.  I'll have a review up as soon as I complete the game.

Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit - I have to confess, I have had a love affair with Criterion Games ever since Burnout Paradise, which to this day is one of the best bang for your buck games on any current gen system.  Simply put, Paradise is one of the finest arcade racing games ever made.  Pretty, silky smooth, and heaps of content made it pretty much a lock that I would purchase their next outing.  That it is one of the premier racing franchises in all of gaming is just the cherry on top.  I've got barely any time in it, but what I've put in has been a joy.  I look forward to more time soon.

Amazon's Countdown to Black Friday Is On

Amazon preps for Black Friday with some nice deals for gamers. Not all of these deals are gaming deals, but most are. Have fun!

Fable III Impressions

I've had some time to sit down with Fable III, and though I certainly can't write a review on it yet, here are my initial impressions.

Second verse, same as the first

Other than changing the look and feel of the world, nothing changed from a technical standpoint since the last version of the game.  I don't know for sure if this is still the same game engine from Fable II, but if it isn't, Lionhead should be ashamed of the non-existent progress from the first iteration.  Everything from the pop-in to the choppy job minigames has moved right on in to Fable III.

You can do anything you want, as long as we let you

The most frustrating change from the last Fable that I've run into so far is that you have all these wonderful expressions at your disposal, but unlike the previous game, there is no expression wheel to let you pick the action of your choosing.  Instead, most instances give you one "good" expression and one "bad" expression.  So in my case while playing last night, it was either dance with a dude or belch in his face.  Comically, I wasn't paying attention to what the action was so when I started dancing with him, I got a wonderfully perplexed look from my (real life) wife.

Wizard needs food, badly!  Maybe.  I think?

The last of my frustration with the game is that you now no longer have a life meter.  After taking enough damage, your quick select items area will glow red and you'll get a warning message that you're low on health, but you never really have a finite indication of your health status.  You next breath may be your last, or you might be able to take 3 or 4 more hits... who knows?

It's not all bad though...

I've spent the first part of this piece pretty well hammering the game for its flaws, but it isn't as bad as it sounds.  The magic system has been tweaked slightly for the better.  No longer do you have to worry about the various orbs specific to certain types of kills.  All kills provide general purpose magic, which is now upgraded via the "Road to Rule", which is a nifty little way of showing your progress in the game as well as letting you upgrade your character. 

The battle system is mostly unchanged, though magic use has changed significantly.  Unlike Fable II, all magics are not available at all times depending upon the "slot" that you assign them to.  I'm still early on this one, but it appears that you have specific gauntlets to wear that allows you the type of magic contained therein.  There also appears to be a way to combine various gauntlets, but I've not reached this point of the game yet.  The basic premise is unchanged though.  You still get a button dedicated for melee, ranged, and magic, and they work exactly as they always have.

Multiplayer is worth playing!

I've played about three hours of local co-op multiplayer.  I can tell you it's loads better, though not perfect.  No longer do you get the generic hero if you're not the host, you can actually bring in your real character and get credit for all the loot and experience gained in the game.  The drawback is still that the game is still tied to the host's save file, and anything accomplished will not reflect in the save file for the character who joined.  This is really disappointing considering that Borderlands handled this with no problem.  However, this is the only complaint I have for the co-op.  It's nice to have the co-op feature that is worth playing in this one.  I say this even though I did complete Fable II in local co-op mode with a friend.  It was still frustrating to no end though.

More of the same isn't necessarily a bad thing

I'll have more to say about the gameplay and story in the full review.  But for now, suffice to say, if you enjoyed Fable II you'll want to pick up the latest and greatest.  As usual, Molyneaux has shot for the moon and missed, but still has managed to land among the stars.