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> Results: Fable: The Lost Chapters
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In case you missed all of the hype surrounding the Xbox version of Fable last year, here are the basics. There was an RPG in development called 'Project Ego' that was going to shatter all notions of what an RPG could be by allowing total freedom of character development within an epic story world that grew alongside the character. By the time Fable was released, many features had been removed and the ensuing outcry threatened to overshadow the fact that the game itself was pretty good. It just wasn't the earth shattering RPG that the developers had been talking about for a few years.
Fable: The Lost Chapters is a PC version of the original Xbox game, with added quests and content. It is best described as an action role-playing game with a flexible character development and morality system. You start as a small boy, and as the game progresses you become a teenager, then an adult, and begin your adventures as a ﾑhero'. The story itself is quite linear and simple, but there is much to do outside of the main path. Numerous side-quests allow you to gain experience, gold, change your alignment towards good or evil, and feed your ﾑrenown', which is a measure of how well known you are. Renown is independent of alignment, so if you have an evil alignment and high renown you are feared throughout the land. One thing that is missing is side-stories. There are explanations attached to quests, but they begin and end with the quest, and your only role is to play hero and save the day. This is better than the FedEx? style quests in many action-RPG's, but is lacking compared to classic epic RPG's. For example, in Gothic 2 there is a character called ﾑConstantino' a loud-mouthed rich noble who hangs around the local bar and berates the townsfolk. You learn about him from a few different people, and then have the opportunity to ﾑteach him some manners' as part of an alchemist's experiment. Then you can discuss him with someone else and hand off his ring as a reward. The character is part of the living world, just passing through while on his quest. But in Fable everything plays as if the world begins and ends with you, which makes the world feel even less alive.  Since there are no time limits in the game, you are free to explore the world in between quests. This freedom provides some entertaining diversions. You can buy houses, get married, change your hairstyle and facial hair, and change your appearance by getting tattoos or by eating well or poorly. You will age, show scars from battle damage, and your character actually looks old and weary by the end of the game. Unfortunately, the people and world around you do not change. At age 65, the woman you married at 18 is still young and beautiful. Similarly, the saplings of your youth are the saplings of your caducity. The game features enhanced visuals that perform very well on a PC meeting the system requirements. The developers claim that the game is 30% larger, which seems about right. Unfortunately, being 30% larger than a very short game doesn't make for a very long one. At the end of the 'main game' I had spent 12.5 hours playing. When I completed the 'Lost Chapters' endgame, it was about 15.5 hours. Given that other recent RPG's like Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic lasted more than 40 hours, this game is just unacceptably short. Another problem is that while I don't know what side-quests were added for the ﾑLost Chapters', it is very clear where the original game ended. This isn't a problem, except that after completing the first endgame it is difficult to get back into the day to day life of Albion in the extra sections. Instead, you simply continue leveling up and taking the extra quests before entering the final endgame.  Fable: The Lost Chapters is a very good game, but throughout there are hints of how it could have been much more. That said, it is a tight package that would have suffered by artificially lengthening the story or adding menial quests. It gives you enough freedom and flexibility that replaying is an enjoyable role-playing experience, and the three combat modes are well balanced so that you can role-play different character archetypes effectively. For example, my first character was a heroic noble mage, and my second a cruel and power-hungry fallen Paladin. While the game is too short, it still provides many hours of satisfying gameplay. 
I had been playing the game for a while and was thinking that I had not seen anything that looked 'M-rated' to me. Then I was battling my way across a bridge, and having run out of mana, I was using my sword. My character killed the last enemy I faced by cutting off his head with a bloody flourish. This trend continued. In one quest I used an area-of-effect spell that killed three enemies with a single strike, decapitating them and causing blood to gush. I had previously cast a time slowing spell, so the scene looked like something Sam Peckinpah would be proud to call his own (or like something out of Kill Bill, for a more recent reference). Add to this the ability to get married multiple times, a fully functional bordello and various sexuality options, and you have all of the makings of an appropriately labeled 'M' game.
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