The sense of freedom became apparent in the early stages of the game during the tutorial. There was no fighter, mage or rogue class; the player simply trained in archery, melee combat and spellcraft. How these skills developed was based on what approach was used in battle and doing successful combos with any of them would multiply the gained experience. The experience was divided into the three combat categories along with general experience that could be distributed as desired. Personal experience seemed that mastering consistently high combat multipliers with the bow was tricky, but by halfway through the game the character would easily be a formidable magic using tank. Bandits, balverines and trolls quickly changed from dangerous enemies to cannon fodder.

Another big improvement is that of the interfaces. The previous ones were rough even in 2004, seeming basic enough to be more at home with PS1-era games. Thankfully, they've been completely overhauled for this release, matching up better with the subsequent Fable games. Navigation-wise, they’re a bit too clumsy. The triggers, shoulders buttons and analog sticks all come into play when scrolling around, resulting in a learning curve that shouldn’t exist for menus. Still, there’s only so much that can be done and at least the old interface wasn't simply re-skinned.

As we mentioned in our previous video, " Movies You Didn't Know Were Shaped By Video Games ", Crank is modelled after the insanity of games like Grand Theft Auto . In turn, Grand Theft Auto was heavily influenced by classic crime movies like Heat , Scarface and Goodfellas . So why not keep the cycle going by making a Grand Theft Auto movie, complete with all of the violence, satire and gleeful immorality that made the video game series such a hit. With a dream director like Michael Mann, Martin Scorsese or Robert Rodriguez behind the wheel, Grand Theft Auto could take over movie theaters as successfully as it took over games conso

NPC reactions is an area where Fable probably could have benefited from some more tweaking, since early on in the game no one takes the hero seriously, but after playing a few hours the player is likely either the most beloved or feared resident of Albion. The citizens of Albion are superficial as once the fame came in so did the opportunity to take on a spouse or three. Fable was progressive in terms of marriage, allowing the player to take a spouse of the same gender and engage in polygamy. Well, maybe polygamy wasn't accepted in Albion since there could only be one spouse per town, so these multiple partners weren't exactly legit. They ended up leaving me anyway since I never spent any time with them or gave them gifts, but considering how difficult and time consuming it was to actually take a spouse to bed, they seemed to be more trouble than they were worth. The main purpose spouses served in Fable was when playing as an evil character, killing them would net so many evil alignment points.

Of course, it’s no secret that Fable is a great game, so the most important aspects of this release is if it's aged well (read above) and the quality of the port. Simply put, the result is leaps and bounds above the original. Fidelity, special effects and lighting have all improved and it’s clear to see the differences in almost every area. Upgrades to characters and building exteriors are the most noticeable, with faces seeming more realistic and less pixelated and buildings revealing never-before-seen nuances. Even trees in the backgrounds and leaves on the pathways of villages are more detailed. Everything has a smooth look which gives it a nice overall aesthetic comparable to other Xbox 360 games. The only flaw in the new look is that sometimes things can be a bit too smoothed over and come across a little smeary. Sometimes the sharp edges of the original helped to keep objects separated, something that can sometimes be a problem here. The other continually noticeable boost is the lighting, with plenty of new shadow effects and nuances between different lighting situations, where as before things were basically light or dark. Overall, while it’s not perfect and hampered by the fact that practically every Xbox 360 game now looks long in the tooth, it’s certainly the preferable way to experience the game — nostalgia or not.

There were many secrets to discover in Albion, which was necessary to pad out the Adventure Game Cheats. The main story campaign was short by RPG standards, so having optional side quests and secrets added value to the title. Demon doors would have treasures such as legendary weapons if you could solve the riddle to open them and there were many silver keys scattered across the land they were needed to open silver treasure boxes. They may have have fixed this in the subsequent reissues of Fable, but in the original Xbox version there was a glitch to get unlimited silver keys. This worked by getting a key, doing a hero save but not a world save and then load the file. The character will have the key in their inventory and the key will be waiting to be collected in its original spot.