Never played the 1st so I'll be picking this up

While Russell Shaw did most of the orchestral score it was Danny Elfman's theme that made Fable and TLC for me and he won't be available for any sort of rewrite. I doubt he'll object to it's use here though as he must be just rolling in it. Abandoning the theme, much like BioWare/EA replaced the Vangelis/Blade Runner feel of ME1 with that awful Flash Gordonesque keyboard for ME2's action sequences, was a huge disappointment. Granted the music for the Suicide Mission was excellent. Fable 2 barely refrained the original theme other than a few partial bars and a deliberately pitiful reinterpretation in the music box piece. Russell Shaw may be a tremendous talent but he's no Danny Elfman. Search DEs creds. Incredible. The accents made Shaw sound just like Shore would in a plummy uppercrust Brit. Woke me up. That would be a coup.

I almost turned this off when they talked about adding the Fab 2 spell delivery system. I think Fable had one of the best systems ever made for consoles. You could customise 8 three spell combos for undergrounds or particular enemies and flip to them almost effortlessly. Replacing it with the one button crappola of 2 and 3 was made necessary by the inclusion of guns, I believe and may be the worst I've used. To get the higher spell strengths you had to stand there getting pounded and changing spells was a PITA. There are other ways to make a game seem more difficult than that sort of handicapping. At least they're not forcing you to switch. It's just shocking to hear them talking about one of their biggest mistakes as though it was a revolutionary breakthough. Puhlease. Do Lionhead get no feedback at all?

The ability to set the cam at any distance behind your character and adjust it mid-scrap with the analogs was another plus for me and yet another feature abandoned as they progressed through the alleged evolution of Sir Peter's three-part fartfest.

Lastly, (yeah, yaaayy) Is the actual player aware he has to manually collect those orbs to advance skills? Not a concern in a brief demo but wouln't anyone who had played the game do so automatically? He seemed kind of hack. Spent a lot of time on his back and never used any interesting spells, not even the basics that I saw. Another two-hander in heavy armour just bashing away. Ho hum.

I'll get this at maybe $30 for the improved visuals and because the 360 emulator neglected some sound effects that always bothered me but I literally replayed TLC start to finish last month. If they had launched with the extra content and about half PMs unrealistic promotion even the internet would have had to admit what an enjoyable romp this game really was. Can't imagine it selling very well at this point.

Thanks for this Ns. Glad you're back. What a ridiculous ban. We should change the S in SDF to E for Ethomaz the Unbelievable, font of goodness, light and technical wisdom now apparently.

Looks good, I didn't play the original so Ill pick this up.