September 17th 2012 6:00 am PT

Demo: Fable: The Journey

Content: Fable: The Journey Demo
Availability: Check availability in your Xbox LIVE region
Dash Text: Built from the ground up for Kinect for Xbox 360, Fable: The Journey is a whole new way to experience the deep storyline, heart-pounding action, and picturesque world of Albion that fans have come to know and love in the beloved Fable franchise. Wield magic as a deadly weapon as you defend yourself and your trusty steed in combat against dangerous enemies, engage in hair-raising chases, solve perplexing puzzles, and interact with humorous characters in this action-packed adventure journey to becoming a hero.

Add the demo to your Xbox 360 download queue

Like the demo? Purchase the full game

Note: You’ll need a Kinect sensor to play this demo

Demo, Marketplace By Larry Hryb, Xbox LIVE's Major Nelson

permalink: http://majornelson.com/2012/09/17/demo-fable-the-journey/

http://twitter.com/Navarin Buster Wolf

*shrug*
- Lee Rayson
  
  Your The top commenter and thats all you could say? so sad
  Anyway ill try the demo at least thought im not expecting anything amazing from it
  - http://twitter.com/Navarin Buster Wolf
    
    I’ve run out of things to say and have had to resort to gestures and grunts.
    
    Okay, I’ll elaborate. From what I’ve seen of this game I’m unimpressed, Fable’s track record has gotten ever worse and Kinect just does not impress me.
    It’s nice to seem them trying to make a hardcore Kinect experience, but “trying” seem to be the operative word.
    
    So, Fable? Kinect? *shrug*
    - Brian Kvalheim
      
      You should try the game once, it’s freakin awesome.
      - Darth Vargi
        
        This is true. Most of the people who downvote (and will downvote me as well) don’t have a Kinect and will never try this game. I love that about the people on the Internet. Such experts to take others opinions and never try it themselves. However if someone is of the opinion that it is good (I always see this with Nintendo and Kinect games) they are instantly downvoted by those that will never even try said game.
      - Russell Gorall
        
        I tried it, and it isn’t that good and doesn’t really register well enough with tracking to not be tedious. Just because it plays a bit better than terrible Kinect shovelware games doesn’t make it the cat’s bootysauce.
      - Darth Vargi
        
        I hate how people downvoted your comment because although I had the exact opposite experience personally, it’s good to hear varying opinions/experiences.
        
        That is one interesting thing about the Kinect, I seem to have a lot less issues than others. For instance I have almost no problem playing Steel Battalion but obviously I may be in the minority based on reviews.
        
        For this game I really recommend you follow the directions at the beginning with that intro video. Then when calibrating put your hand over the enemy that you are shooting. I found you do not have to have much lighting (outside of your TV being on obviously) and you can sit about 4 feet from the sensor if it is mounted on your TV. Kinect doesn’t track by lighting in general anyway, a majority of it is through IR Tracking. The concept of needing light came from the PS2′s Eyetoy which was very dependent on it since it used a single VGA lens to track you.
        
        If you still have problems you may have to recalibrate the Kinect with that card that came with Kinect Adventures. I’ve found that it does some magic with your play environment (But what exactly it does is beyond me).
    - Lee Rayson
      
      Now see that was a much better response, i have not got any kinect core games(mainly fitness stuff) but i do always try the demos at the least
      - http://twitter.com/Navarin Buster Wolf
        
        I want Crimson Dragon already, it missed the June release window and there was a public apology for that, but no reason given as to why and no info since.
        
        I’m thinking it’s either controller support being added (please!) or the franchise being upgraded to retail status. Massive potential there, Crimson Dragon Side Story on WP is pretty damn good.
  - http://twitter.com/GreenMistt Miller
    
    Not sure how that makes it “so sad”. I’d say your brown nosing skills are far sadder. I know you’ll comment saying something along the lines of “No, you trolling is far sadder” but honestly, brown nosing just let’s people walk all over you so, eh. Grow some balls.
    - Lee Rayson
      
      Far from the truth, you see what makes you sad is you troll every comment i put an you “vote down” thats what you to with your time, as for brown nosing ur the one having to defend someone else comments eventhough he has already responded seems like you like to back ppl sh$% up so you must like the brown.
      An once again you troll without adding anything to the topic nob cheese
Russell Gorall

Sounds rad!
http://jdwohlever.tumblr.com JD Wohlever

Requires Kinect? Way to ruin another franchise.
- Lee Rayson
  
  This aint fable 4 but rather like a spin off game
  - Z4M0
    
    truth to be said, this isn’t even a game, it’s just a demo… but people still complain.
- Z4M0
  
  so is this what ruined Fable franchise ? I thought it was FLABLE 3 !
Ales84

The kinect has bored everyone.
Why ruin Fable with kinect??
We want exclusive AAA for pad!!!!
- Z4M0
  
  why not trying to pull out AAA for kinect? Anyone have not tried it yet… there’s plenty of pad titles, but a handful of kinect titles after its release, not to speak about REAL games.
  
  BTW, more AAA pad games, does it make any sense ? I’d sure love to see great exclusives like when XBOX 360 came out but again, why ? In the end people just play COD, BF, Halo, GoW and FIFA and quickly refuse everything else.
Darth Vargi

So apparently I can’t post a video of me playing. However if anybody is interested in seeing the demo with picture in picture gameplay (although I did record off the TV) go to Youtube and lookup Darthvargi16.

I liked the demo, infact I was shocked how good it is. I wish it wasn’t on rails, why couldn’t they have used a control system similar to Rise of Nightmares. I’d rather stand and be in control of where I am rather than sitting and just using my arms.

Complaint aside, once you calibrate properly where you are sending your hands, it works really well. I love that it’s not like Diabolical pitch and it forces you to aim and be careful. It’s pretty decent and I like the Unreal Engine 3 graphics although they are a bit overdone this late in the generation.

I’m definitely excited, and am curious to see how the moral choices will be integrated into the game.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_E3VLAZF3FBRGBRYFGYI24S7SGU Joe. S

The game must suck pretty hard since microsoft isn’t marketing AT all for it…
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_E3VLAZF3FBRGBRYFGYI24S7SGU Joe. S

The game must suck pretty hard since microsoft isn’t marketing AT all for it…
- Adinnieken
  
  The game isn’t released yet. It won’t be released until October 9th (NA) 12th (EU). So you’re unlikely to see much advertisement for it until it is released.
- Corellianrogue
  
  So E3, Comic-Con & PAX presentations, a couple of new trailers, pre-order ads, a prequel book and a playable demo on Xbox LIVE for a game that isn’t out yet isn’t marketing at all?? Plus there are plenty of great games that unfortunately weren’t marketed properly, marketing has absolutely nothing to do with the quality of a game.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_E3VLAZF3FBRGBRYFGYI24S7SGU Joe. S

kinect 2 better have 1080p cameras, wider lens, better put extra power in the xbox 720 or give it open power source. Kinect could been something great…
- Russell Gorall
  
  Unless you can use it to make porn, sounds useless.
  
  I wish Microsoft would put out some sort of video suite so you can at least make vids. Unless there is one? Seems like they want to sell the unit and reasons for getting the unit, yet can’t come up with anything logical for you to want to use the unit after two weeks.
Russell Gorall

While this plays better than something like Steel Battallion, you still really need immaculate lighting in order for anything close to proper response. I noticed the right hand forward fireball whatnot spell could not be detected as going in an upwards motion when you get to the aftertouch part. I couldn’t get past that part, which may be important?

That said, this is a better direction than previous stuff, though it still just doesn’t work like it should for me. A little tired of trying to only use Kinect during the day, or just as a camera for a posedown after working out.

If it is true a newer Kinect is being bundled with the next Xbox, I am afraid.
- Corellianrogue
  
  That’s a load of rubbish, you can play Kinect in the dark. (Unless it’s a game that requires the use of the video cam part of Kinect obviously.) In fact I currently can’t even play Kinect with the light on since we have low ceilings and the light hangs down to a height just above my head and since it’s in front of me, between me and the Kinect, it totally messes up Kinect if it’s switched on. (Kinect projects hundreds of thousands of IR dots for its IR sensor to track so if there’s strong light between Kinect and the player, or light shining directly at Kinect, it blasts out the IR light so Kinect can’t track it.) I have to get around to sorting out new lighting since because of that I can’t use Kinect ID, I’ll give you that. (But it’s no big deal, just a bit annoying when in Kinect Star Wars for example I have to keep signing in my profile manually after most sections as it seems to use Kinect ID to keep checking the player’s profile.)
  
  As far as Kinect 2 goes it’s obviously going to be even better (probably loads better) than Kinect 1, it’s called technological progress, look up Moore’s Law for example. Just look at an upcoming PC motion controller called the Leap to see how the technology has progressed, but that can only track a small area above whatever it’s placed on so is more for tracking hands whereas Kinect 2 will probably be a lot like it but be definitely able to track full bodies and still have accurate hand & finger tracking.
  
  Plus Kinect is the future of videogames so I seriously hope Kinect 2 WILL be bundled with every next-gen Xbox. I’m not being a fanboy so I’ll put it another way, devices that do full-body-tracking in 3D space are the future of videogames and their (currently talking about Kinect 1) potential has barely even been hinted at so far unfortunately, except for a few games and “Kinect hacks” which show what current full-body-tracking systems (e.g. Kinect 1) are capable of, let alone future ones.
  
  There really are too many luddites (and people claiming to be “hardcore gamers” yet don’t have the skill
  to do anything except “flail” about when trying to play Kinect games
  then blame Kinect and its games, such as Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor, for their lack of skill!) with very little imagination around who can’t figure out what amazing games can be (and some have been) made with Kinect . I can say that because I have actually given detailed examples of games I’ve thought of, including making a video simulatiion, and have many more flying around in my head!
  - Darth Vargi
    
    I totally agree. A lot of the bologna about the proper lighting came from the PS EyeToy on the PS2. It did need proper lighting and so does the Eye for the PS3 if you’re playing an Eye only game (Kung Fu Live for instance). However the Kinect as you know is a different beast and outside of Augmented Reality games, lighting isn’t that important at all (and as you mentioned oddly enough too much light causes more problems).
    
    The flailing drives me nuts. I believe it is a result of the early Waggle games on the Wii. Now the Wii has also matured control wise and so did PS Move and Kinect. There is no reason to flail like an idiot in any game. If you do flail, why you would expect any tangible result from the game is beyond me. Of course it can’t read mad human flailing, it won’t work and of course it wouldn’t, flailing doesn’t work in real life either. I saw someone playing this on Youtube the other day not following a single direction and just pushing their arms like crazy. They of course didn’t calibrate it properly and therefore declared that it is broken. The double standard of flailing and button smashing is startling. If I smash my square playing God of War 3 fifty times it won’t respond all of the time because he is doing a canned animation. It’s the same with swinging my arms like an idiot in Kinect Star Wars (it was the way the game was designed, but in Kinect Adventures for instance it will pick it up). Why it’s ok in one and not in the other doesn’t make much sense.
    
    Advanced Kinect games like Steel Battalion require you to learn how to play, I don’t want to hear that Angry Joe couldn’t play it so therefore it is broken, if you don’t learn to play and set up your environment as instructed some games won’t work. However if you follow very simple instructions, the Kinect can offer some very immersive gameplay that really has me excited for the future.
    - Z4M0
      
      I had a great time with Steel Battalion indeed.
      
      Sure stressful combat situations may result in players acting crazy and thus not getting a damn thing done propperly (plus the game has its flaws also,truth to be said) but the game can be pretty enjoyable if players put time into it.
      
      I have to agree with complainers that kinect has been a flop this gen, yet not due to poor performance or hardware issues but for lack of quality and auantity of titles. Years later its release and what we got ? 2 kinect sports, gunstringer, R.o.Nigmares, Steel Battalion, Sonic free riders and a couple of decent arcade. The rest (about 10 games) are shovelware minigame collections or dancing/fitness stuff.
      
      So much kinect integration could’ve been done ( tilt in pinball games, insult the referee in sport games… ) but nowadays it’s like full kiect control or nothing, when hybrid controls would be ace.
      
      In the end Kinect still feels like an experiment we paid (a lot) for… while waiting for the real thing (kinect 2) IMHO.
      
      Oh, and if you were guessing I’m defending your points, but kinda sour on MS lack of REAL support to kinect.
      - Darth Vargi
        
        Nah I’m right there with you. I personally feel I got my $150 worth but I can’t say by a lot. I’m more interested in the hacks than a lot of the software that came out in terms of games (the original reason I bought it). There haven’t been a lot of games released for the device that really differentiate themselves from shovelware.
        
        Don’t get me wrong I liked Disneyland Adventures, Kinect Sports, Dance Central, Rise of Nightmares, Power Up Heroes, Kung Fu High Impact, Child of Eden, and even Star Wars Kinect (along with Steel Battalion which btw I agree had some issues with game design). However that’s about it, I’m sure I’m missing one or two games (Wreckateer and Fruit Ninja come to mind) but I mean a lot of the games are derivative of one another. How many more dance games can there be? There are a ton of unique games that could be released and for whatever reason we get a lot of “me toos.”
        
        Even with the Kinect games I’m looking forward to, after October 9th, it’s pretty much it. Crimson Dragon and Ryse look good but I mean where are they? I suspect they are next gen now but who knows.
      - Corellianrogue
        
        I’m hoping Ryse hasn’t been moved to the next-gen Xbox, Microsoft said it’s still an Xbox 360 game just a couple of months ago so I’m sure it still is.
        
        As for Crimson Dragon, I see absolutely no reason for it to be delayed until the next generation as it was only delayed literally a few days before it was going to be released and people who played it at shows prior to the original release date had no issues with it and said it was great so I don’t think it could be a controls or quality issue. I can’t work out why it was delayed but I really hope it comes out this year. Maybe XBLA Kinect games aren’t selling well enough so they’re adding even more content to make it a disc-based game instead?
      - Z4M0
        
        Isn’t Crimson Dragon already avaliable in Japan ? If so, can’t imagine they releasing it as RETAIL outside Asia,unless they consider they still have too few retail kinect games (wich is true indeed) and moved it to on-disc game in the likes of gunstringer and joyride.
      - Corellianrogue
        
        No, it’s not available anywhere yet, like I said it was delayed just days before release. It was a pretty big game already (22 levels with light RPG elements like levelling-up, multiple dragons to collect and taking care of your dragons between levels) so I was surprised it was an XBLA game in the first place, so I don’t think adding extra content and releasing it on disc would be out of the question. But then again Microsoft have been pushing loads of big, high quality XBLA games recently.
  - Russell Gorall
    
    Okay, it isn’t the lighting, Kinect just doesn’t work period?
    
    Not sure what you want me to do, run some hand-eye coordination training for a few months to play a kids game? If it doesn’t work for me, it doesn’t work. Not sure what to tell you.
    - Corellianrogue
      
      If it works for other people then it clearly DOES work. I obviously know this since I have a Kinect and it works for me, but if anybody needs any proof just look at Kinect games being played (properly) on YouTube where you can see both the person playiing and the game. Or are you going to claim every single one of those are fake?
      
      Why is this “a kids game”? Children can play it but it’s not specifically aimed at them. In fact Gary Carr said they had to remove some sexual humour to avoid getting an adult rating.
      
      And are you expecting to not require any skill to play videogames? So you’re an ultra-casual gamer then? Maybe you should just stick to something like Double Fine Happy Action Theatre or give up playing videogames altogether, lol!
      - Russell Gorall
        
        You have spoken to everyone who has played it.
        
        I played the demo, I couldn’t get past a certain part as my movements weren’t recognized. I don’t know, it is just a camera and a demo, not really my concern.
Russell Gorall

You seem to be promoting your youtube site, whether you don’t get market income from it or not. I would imagine if everybody wanted to post vids and links the spambots would have a field day. You can just mention keywords for the youtube video you did, I haven’t been using youtube as the downloader I was using for Chrome isn’t working recently.
Jdrm03

I seriously hope you guys aren’t going to focus so much in kinect next gen and release a weak console hoping a gimmick sells it….
- Jdrm03
  
  haha at the down votes. face it. kinect is a pos for gaming. worst gaming peripheral this gen. It’s a better media controller then gaming peripheral.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Ronan-Berthelot/567079469 Ronan Berthelot

It’s on rails, Peter…
- Lee Rayson
  
  Peter M, Left lionhead Studios but yes like always he lies
- Corellianrogue
  
  The on-foot sections weren’t on-rails when Peter Molyneus said they weren’t, Lionhead changed the controls since then. (Possibly after Peter Molyneux left?) Originally you walked around by leaning your body in different directions, but now travelling around (on-foot) is automatic and you can only strafe left & right by leaning left & right during combat and when dodging obstacles like the boulders in the tutorial and objects in the underground stream in the demo. Go read/watch interviews with Gary Carr, I think it may have been his decision to change it.
  
  Also the horse & cart parts of the game are still NOT on-rails luckily and they’re obviously a big part of the game. Before anyone says “Yes they are, they’re on roads.” so are a lot of racing games but nobody calls them on-rails do they? On-rails means that the player has no control over the travelling progression of the game, like when the character is walking around on-foot as seen in the demo. Since you can steer the horse (and interact with it in various other ways), speed up, slow down and even stop (like controlling a car in a racing game) plus still use magic (as far as I know that’s not been changed) while riding the cart it’s therefore NOT on-rails.
AdrianJNYC

So, is the demo worth downloading?
- Russell Gorall
  
  Not in my opinion. You will spend way too much time just doing tutorials. I got stuck about five minutes in, after doing what should have been done in about fifteen seconds.
  
  Others like it, though.

September 17th 2012 6:00 am PT

Demo: Fable: The Journey

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