I think that Fable's inclusion in this review is a little misguided.
For one, the game never assumes that you care about anything. Every quest, job, and other in game activity is always left up to the player as to whether or not they actually want to go through with it. Sure, you always have that option in any game with the convenience of the OFF button, but here the game accomidates the players tastes and doesn't impede their in-game experience with something that they don't give a rat's ass about.
Take the main quest. If you, being an apathetic shell of a man (hypothetically speaking), don't want to do it, you don't have to. You can run around and just kill every [adult] character in the game to try to get a rise of what moral character is left within the decrepit pit that use to be your humanity. The game will measure out the appropriate consiquences (AI's won't like you, horns grow out of head) but for such genocide the player can't be expecting any other kind of response. In this case, the game satisfies the player's blood lust with whatever the player could want out of their anti-social experience, even if it comes at the expense of the game's own story line.
So, rather than partonizing the player with a tuber on a stick, Fable treats you like a human and gives you the orange treat for doing what you want, not what game wants. Sure, it may be measured out in the usual action->reward scheme to create seeds of motivation, but you are never forcibly lead into those situations. Wives, property, equipment, items, experience, quests, they all have their benefits (including wives, despite how much Yatzee would have us believe to the contrary in his distaste of the concept) but those benefits are not absolutely required for your progression. They'll help, but if you don't care about those things the game isn't ging to think otherwise and expect emotions and motives where there is only apathy and laziness.
For one, the game never assumes that you care about anything. Every quest, job, and other in game activity is always left up to the player as to whether or not they actually want to go through with it. Sure, you always have that option in any game with the convenience of the OFF button, but here the game accomidates the players tastes and doesn't impede their in-game experience with something that they don't give a rat's ass about.
Take the main quest. If you, being an apathetic shell of a man (hypothetically speaking), don't want to do it, you don't have to. You can run around and just kill every [adult] character in the game to try to get a rise of what moral character is left within the decrepit pit that use to be your humanity. The game will measure out the appropriate consiquences (AI's won't like you, horns grow out of head) but for such genocide the player can't be expecting any other kind of response. In this case, the game satisfies the player's blood lust with whatever the player could want out of their anti-social experience, even if it comes at the expense of the game's own story line.
So, rather than partonizing the player with a tuber on a stick, Fable treats you like a human and gives you the orange treat for doing what you want, not what game wants. Sure, it may be measured out in the usual action->reward scheme to create seeds of motivation, but you are never forcibly lead into those situations. Wives, property, equipment, items, experience, quests, they all have their benefits (including wives, despite how much Yatzee would have us believe to the contrary in his distaste of the concept) but those benefits are not absolutely required for your progression. They'll help, but if you don't care about those things the game isn't ging to think otherwise and expect emotions and motives where there is only apathy and laziness.
