How can you see Fable in this?

Risen (and Gothic series) isn't like Fable at all. It's an open world, medieval fantasy, hardcore-RPG like The Elder Scrolls.

@ Slimebeast )

I don't think comparing it to The Elder Scrolls (or better Oblivion, as that is the only TES game I really played) does Gothic justice.
The aim of TES devs is to create an open world in which you make your game yourself like (the story is just there out of necessity) "i want to be at the top of that guild" etc. (I'd call it a sandbox game), while in Gothic the main focus is on it's story and it's characters, although you do have a certain degree of freedom and a good amount of side-quests.

You are right. Elder Scrolls is on the other extreme, while Gothic/Risen is in the middle. But even if they're story driven, many other RPGs are too (Baldur's gate, Neverwinter Nights etc), so thanks to the open-world thingy I think they're closer to Elder Scrolls than Fable. Especially Gothic 3 was quite close to Oblivion.

But yes, the unique thing about Elder Scrolls, including Oblivion, is that not only is it open world, it's even 'sandbox open world'.
Which is so damn great. ^^

Actually, your 'I want to be at the top of that guild'-line was a great reminder of how incredible Oblivion is.

I mean, in my book it's already the best game ever made, but I want to keep it fresh in my memory all the reasons why it's so amazing. ^^

I hope Risen and Two Worlds II will have some of these type of features, not only being open world (which is great enough), but more sandbox/real freedom elements like joining guilds and stuff.

Risen looks very promosing but so did Two Worlds and that didnt turn out too great, luckily there are a lot more openworld WRPG comming out so atleast one should be good, here is a small list:

Risen (Late 2009, pC/360) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IFsIXGi9i4&feature=related

Sacred 2 (Already released, PC/360/PS3) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GV1elRez35o

Divinity 2 (Summer 2009, PC/360) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDN_j48jenQ&feature=related

Two Worlds II (TBA, PC/360) - http://www.twoworlds2.com/

Gothic 4 (Late 2009, PC/360/PS3) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0PIlQtThgg

Pirates of the Carribean: Army of the damned (2010, PC/360/PS3) - http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/986/986415p1.html 

The Precursors (TBA, PC/360) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPUSVg2wYXM&feature=related

Dragon Age (Fall 2009, PC/360/PS3) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNWppHev3ZA

And ofcourse Mass Effect 2 (Early 2010, PC/360) even though it isn't a true openworld RPG the developers have said that the freeroaming on side quest planets has been greatly improved. - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCpK2XnIaeI

I'm currently playing Sacred 2, it didn't look as interesting as the other ones before release and it's not that amazing but it's a long game and it will definatly keep you busy till one of the other games is released. And if they are as big as the developers claim they are then together they'll keep you busy till the next Elder Scrolls is released.

I know, I've made my own definitions for ''openworld'' and ''freeroaming'' and I'm contradicting myself with this list but I thought I'd keep it simple. There are a lot more WRPG comming out (such as Elvion) and I didn't feel like naming them al so I limited myself to those that have some sort of ''openworld''.  I'm not sure about Divinity 2 and Dragon Age but Sacred 2 does have an openworld (but not nearly as open as Oblivion ofcourse). Sure you can't climb mountains or swim in the water but the landmass is compleetly open for freeroaming. There is even a freeroam gameplay mode in which you don't have to unlock the next chapter (and area), in this mode you can go to whatever place you want from the start. It's basicly as open as WoW (except for the swimming).

Cool. We need more open world gameplay fans on this site. (and more WRPG lovers too) ^^

What's your personal defintions of 'freeroaming' and open world then?

And what do you think about Lafiel's idea above that open world and sandbox should be used as different terms?

@ Grey21 )

I think you shouldn't call "Arcania - A Gothic tale" Gothic 4, because about everything will be different than in Gothic 1-3.
The publisher JoWood still holds the rights of the "Gothic" franchise, but as anyone can see "Risen" (by the former Gothic devs) looks way more like a sequal to Gothic, than Arcania does.

@ Slimebeast )

As far as I know Pyranha Bytes said they want Risen to be more like Gothic1+2 than like 3, so they'll have more of a focus on story than on open world/freedom aspects.
From my view that's the correct way as Gothic always was more about story and I loved the first 2 parts for that (never played part 3. I bought it day1 .. but my PC wouldn't start it). Personally I couldn't get into TES Oblivion (atleast I played it longer than Morrowind, which I never started again after trying the full game for ~30min.), although I know what it's fans appreciate about that series.

rising on ps3.