GOONL!NE

Today at GamesCom, Microsoft have announced the third game in the Fable series for Xbox 360.

Fable III is another step up in scale and attention to detail from Fable II, this time you’ll be the ruler of Albion. As with the games that preceded it it’ll all be about choice.

Peter Molyneux told of how you could choose to “eradicate poverty”  by giving money to the poor, or you can horde it for yourself and become quite the autocrat. Every choice you make will effect what happens in the game, every action will have a reaction.

Fable III will be begin with you being the offspring of the Hero from Fable II. The first half of the game will focus on you overthrowing the ruling King through a sort of coup d’état by gathering support in the form of uniting various in-game factions and other supporters.

Molyneux told crowds that “Ultimately you overthrow that terrible tyrant who rules Albion, but to do that you have to make some promises.”

You have to promise things to the people who follow you to progress through the game but the question you face is, do you keep your promises or do you forsake your supporters? You can use your gold in the game to build up a certain region, help poorer people, let people off taxes and so on. It was also shown that we’ll get to explore much more of Albion this time, as there was a slide shown of what looked like an arid desert region. Some characters from Fable II will also make returns.

New gameplay mechanics were spoke of, one being ‘Touch’. This allows you to fully interact with the major characters in the game, for example when you meet someone you can choose to either shake their hand or not to. This can lead upto more personal forms of physical contact, ranging from hugs to “a full passionate snog. [Molyneux wouldn't say] where it leads to, but you can use your imagination…”

‘Touch’ can also be extended to a concept called ‘Dynamic Touch’. The example given was if you were to hear the cries of a child in a house, you can go in and save the child. Where Fable III differs from previous incarnations is that instead of just hitting a button to save the child you can now pull the child out yourself.

Another new gameplay feature that was talked up was ‘judgments’. As King you can judge people and make them defend themselves, you are the one who ultimately makes decisions, which vary from petty theft to all-out war.

Microsoft’s released a PR for the Fable III in which they give the game a targeted release date of “holiday 2010.”