Molyneux: There are low spots in Fable II

[Zeus]

In what can only be deemed as a surprising admission, Peter Molyneux has confirmed that there are low spots in the game. He commented the lip synch is quite bad and the navigation can be dodgy but there is a whole lot to this game and he doesn't think it will affect things too much. If only more developers displayed such honesty then we'd all be better off as gamers.


Molyneux made the surprising admission during our exclusive interview with him at a recent London press event.

"There's low spots in the game," Molyneux explains. "It's no one's fault that these low spots are there, it's just there's a lot to this game."

He then explains other gripes he has with Fable II. "I think the lip-sync is pretty bad, you know, the quality of the animation falls off, you know, quite a lot, I think the navigation can be a bit dodgy sometimes, I think the dog can... get a bit fractured sometimes."


News Source: <A href="http://www.oxm.co.uk/article.php?id=6182" target="_blank">OXM</a>

[RichieUA]

Admitting problems before release is fine.


Admitting problems before release and keeping in those problems is not fine.

[crypysmoker]

So..
A game theyve been working on for... years..
Now when its close to coming out they say that the controls arent up to par and the voice syncing, one of the easiest things to do, isnt on??

So.. maybe work on it some more?
Whats the point in rushing an unfinished game out if they can finish it and get better sales?
Strange how these companies still wonder why we download their games

[ShoreDev]

This is pure proof that Fable II is going to be as crappy as the rubbish original Fable :(

[WickedSkin]

Still he promises lots and lots of gold and green forests. We end up by half of it and those things still doesn't work as he said. Half decent is the word for anything this man has ever been involved in.

Edit:
Mind you he is a cocky bastard hyping his games crazy, we all know that. At least he has guts and I appreciate that. But in the end it's still the final product we care about. Many are hyped well over the line of what is acceptable for this game (it happens a lot, with many games) so still those flaws won't mean anything to them.

Hype can do a lot of things to you.. yes you and everyone else.

Many seem to think lip-sync isn't a big problem. Yes it's not a big problem. But bad controls can rly make you crazy.

[pezjono]

I will take an honest quote from a dev any day over a "high horse" one. Too many times nowadays do we see devs hyping up their games thinking it's the sh!t to only have it released and be disappointing (doesn't happen with every game, but surely the majority).

I am really looking forward to Fable 2 even if the voice animations are not great. Nothing I have not seen and played through before...

[ronaldospet]

i lol'd at the easiest bit to do comment above as how is it the majority of games lip movements looks good but is always out of time and sync so it must be real simple then.

nice honesty wouldn't have minded them not bieng a problem but they are deal with it, i'd rather have a really good game with out of sync lips and 'dodgy' nav and dog sometimes rather than a boring as hell game that is trying to hard to look perfect and not concentrating on graphics and perfect facial features, if your that anal that it bothers you that they aint moving at the same time maybe you should realise that they aint moving at all as it aint real and if you can't play a game because of that or down it because of it maybe you've got the problem not the game.

still can't wait for this game.

also maybe if game designers were honest like this i wouldn't have wasted money on half the games iv'e bought as i would have known the problems before hand, like with a lot of the ps3 games ive had have been over hyped and quite a few not to name but kane and lynch and things like that.

Thing is do these things really put people off as it doesn't me and probably to most real gamers that dont just take graphics and polish as bieng the be all and end all, but actually care about features and story and playability not lip movements and flawless game mechanics most games have shoddy game mechanics in places but they won't admit it.

I like the man he didn't dissapoint me with the first i've played it through loads of times and still play it which is wierd as i dont really like fantasy games besides oblivion, so there obviously did something right. In my opinion all i want from number 2 is it to be built on a in next gen graphics with new story as even with just that it would be a damn sight better than most games to come out this gen.

[yutaro]

I love it how you all suddenly are experts on game production and how simply because of some bad lip-syncing the game is no longer going to live up to expectations.

"Oh yeah lip-syncing is easy, why even bother prioritizing on the difficult parts first?"
Unless your name is Blizzard or Valve you're not going to have the freedom to work on your games for as long as you want. These guys are constantly dealing with deadlines but still are generous enough to point out what they would've liked to improve if only their financiers had let them.

Such is the typical nature of most gamers, spoiled, uninformed and unrespectful. Because money is never an issue when making games, am i rite?

You're doing a great job Molyneux. Keep it up.

[crypysmoker]

I keep forgeting that you have to type out specificaly what you mean or the trolls will get you.

When I say the lip syncing part as easy.. I meant it should be the easiet part of the development. Next to the coding, and testing, and more coding.... Syncing someone talking to lips moving on the screen and long as the frame rate stays constant, should not be any problem.
Most of the time in games you see sync problems is due to either bad translations, or because the disc spinning and spitting out the volume goes faster/slower the the movements on the screen, which is the consoles problem not the game.


I just think its sad in the gaming industry now a days.
YEs, there is more difficult equipment to use to make the games, But throughout the years before Disc based games how many times did we have to worry about tiny little things severely delaying a game?
OR a developer getting to a point where they just dont want to do anymore polish on the code because of the way the development kits operate or the hardware they hae to make it for.


People are getting lazy, plain and simple. the fact that they know there is problems and dont want to work on them is just blah.

[Yomoska]

Anyone remember the demo that he showed and at the very end he would complained along the lines "I don't think this setting, there is something wrong" even though it looked fine to most people? He's probably just really trying to go for perfection and that we won't really notice these problems.

[ronaldospet]

what i was thinking to as he i saying it from a game designers point of view where his aim is perfection not that of a gamers where they only see so much as they havent designed it.

also how has anyone been a troll apart form you in this topic youre the one complaining and taking out of context what he's said, firtly he's a game designer he sees problems where others do not as he knows ever little bit and notices them, secondly he says it drops off sometimes which is like any game and probably due to the disk as he never states its the game that does so as it is running on the 360 so of course it will suffer from that anyway if it has catch up problems, and thirdly you keep saying its easy and you tried to redifine it but you still make out as if its simple, if thats so why is it pretty much every game despite a few of them suffer from this where they look spot on movements but are out of time.

Not trying to argue with you but this news is out of context as you have to see its him saying it not a gamer or reviewer.

[yutaro]

I meant it should be the easiet part of the development. Next to the coding, and testing, and more coding....
Yeah you think it should alright.
So how many games have you made? How many games have you been a project lead in? Just how much about game development do you really know?
You make some bold statements for someone who's only seen a tiny bit of the spectrum, which when it all comes down to it, is nothing but a pretty little picture on your TV.

People are getting lazy, plain and simple. the fact that they know there is problems and dont want to work on them is just blah.So you didn't really understand what I said back there.
Developers want nothing more than to make great games, perfect games, legendary games but in the end they can't due to time constraints and publishers who just want to release the games according to schedule.
Cut the devs some slack. If you want to complain go complain to Microsoft, it's ultimately their call when the game is going to ship, finished, polished, bug-free or not.

They guys at Lionhead are at least being honest with what they think they've been able to achieve with the game.

[spookydonkey]

Yeah you think it should alright.
So how many games have you made? How many games have you been a project lead in? Just how much about game development do you really know?
You make some bold statements for someone who's only seen a tiny bit of the spectrum, which when it all comes down to it, is nothing but a pretty little picture on your TV.

So you didn't really understand what I said back there.
Developers want nothing more than to make great games, perfect games, legendary games but in the end they can't due to time constraints and publishers who just want to release the games according to schedule.
Cut the devs some slack. If you want to complain go complain to Microsoft, it's ultimately their call when the game is going to ship, finished, polished, bug-free or not.

They guys at Lionhead are at least being honest with what they think they've been able to achieve with the game.

That's crap and you know it. The Wii is a perfect example of devs just trying to make a quick buck on the 'casual' gamer that may not be as cool as us talking about this crap over the internets. Hell, there was just a post on this site about a wii game about making sandcastles. What a perfect, legendary game. And about the time constraints that's bull too. This has been the worst gen for delays and games just disappearing to TBA 2009 and on.

And did we forget about all the promises the first Fable was supposed to accomplish? It was like Zelda on rails minus the cool stuff to not make it another clone. I understand the fact that he's coming clean now, but he shouldn't put his foot in his mouth before the game is far in development.

[NewBeginning]

Some of you may not like it because it's not your thing or whatever, but even after these admissions, does anyone doubt that this will be an awesome/quality game?

[ronaldospet]

my point exactly will this stop yo from buying it if it will then whatever you have a problem if what looks like an amazing game is ruined to you due to bad lip sync which is probably mor the consoles problem than game and a few tiny glitchy moments on navigation and the dog.

i dont think i could buy it after that(sarcsm)