I started playing Fable 2 Friday evening when I returned from a business trip.  I'm not even close to finishing the main story, but I have about 25 hours in the game (yeah, I played all night last night and was tired as heck this morning).  I can see how someone could play this straight through in about 10-12 hours by just focusing on getting loot by finding treasure, going from one quest to the next, etc., but that almost completely ignores most of the simulation potential of the game.  Let me explain.

I spent several hours working for the blacksmith, and as a woodcutter, maxing out my abilities (and how much I can earn) in each of those fields.  And there are other occupations available that I haven't even tried, yet.  I bought a cottage, wooed a barmaid, got married, but haven't had kids yet.  I own two street-vendor stalls for income to support upkeep of my house, but haven't yet gone to the furniture store in the main city to furnish the place (there are rooms full of each kind of item to be purchased).  I can buy houses, other businesses, customise my clothes, hair, etc., etc.

I'm just getting started from the simulation point of view.

I'm guessing I can get at least 200 hours out of this, but that wouldn't be the way everyone would play it.

I'm playing similar to you. I logged in this morning and before i knew it 3 1/2 hours had passed. I did some of the main quests, but most of the time I was searching for loot, doing jobs for $$, etc.

A lot of Western RPG's have been like this recently. You can do the main story in 10-15 hours, but if you take your time doing side quests, etc it can increase dramatically. Mass Effect was that way, Fallout 3 is like that according to the developers, as well as fable II

What the hell is this? Single player grinding? An MMORPG without other people? Why would you do this. I also sunk countless hours into maximising my Diablo2 amazon but seriously working as a woodcutter for hours urgh.

There are more jobs then that such as bartender, assassin (if you play on the bad side),etc. They helps you gain money, and other stuff along the way. You can they buy business's and houses in game. You don't have to spend the time doing it, if you don't want to. Every RPG has grinding elements of some kind. This is nothing new, and it's not required in that depth if you wish not to

about the "grinding", that could largely be said about any games from maxis. It's definitely not the playstyle for some people, but some of us really like the simulation in that regard.

Yeah, the whole is a LOT more interactive than the first fable, I love how open everything is in comparision. At my current rate I'll probably put 40+ hours into my first play through.

Of course true. You could argue that the whole Diablo series is one big example of grinding. But the point is normally games at least try to make the grinding fun. You make quests, kill monsters etc. I especially loved the Baldur's Gate series and all Black Isle games because they NEVER had (AFAIK) a generated quest like they are normal in Bethesda games (which have possibly a dozen different quest types, a couple hundred dungeons and lots of combinations)

But working as a blacksmith sounds too much. I mean I could buy a gardening game if I wanted to .

Kyros said: Every RPG has grinding elements of some kind. Of course true. You could argue that the whole Diablo series is one big example of grinding. But the point is normally games at least try to make the grinding fun. You make quests, kill monsters etc. I especially loved the Baldur's Gate series and all Black Isle games because they NEVER had (AFAIK) a generated quest like they are normal in Bethesda games (which have possibly a dozen different quest types, a couple hundred dungeons and lots of combinations) But working as a blacksmith sounds too much. I mean I could buy a gardening game if I wanted to .

 

Thats what makes RPG better than FPS and most other games,not every person is a carbon copy,Each person is different.

I love this game. I have spent about 25 hours on the game and am at Bloodsmith right now. I have accrued a ton of real estate and it is paying dividends as we speak. LOL. This game rocks.

Kyros said: Every RPG has grinding elements of some kind. Of course true. You could argue that the whole Diablo series is one big example of grinding. But the point is normally games at least try to make the grinding fun. You make quests, kill monsters etc. I especially loved the Baldur's Gate series and all Black Isle games because they NEVER had (AFAIK) a generated quest like they are normal in Bethesda games (which have possibly a dozen different quest types, a couple hundred dungeons and lots of combinations) But working as a blacksmith sounds too much. I mean I could buy a gardening game if I wanted to .

 

LOL!!

Too funny... but yeah, it's definitely not for everyone.  I've watched my brothers play the Sims for over an hour before I asked, "so, what exactly do you do in this game besides eat, sleep, watch TV, etc.?"  They looked at me like I had an eye in the center of my forehead and replied, "what do you mean?"