Recent reviews by Gareth Green

I've spent quite a few hours playing this game and can safely say that it's good. Although I was apprehensive at first, mainly since it is a turn-based game and I've had bad experiences with these (namely Final Fantasy, which grew boring after some hours), the characters' different moves and optional dialogue choices interested me greatly. Ludin and Hakon became my favourite characters quickly, and I adore the fantasy aspect of creating the varl people within the Viking legends.

I played the game throughout on normal, and the only tough battle I came to was the end, as I couldn't work out that you only had to take down it's defences before then shooting it with a special attack. But I attained the 'normal' achievement eventually :) Another problem I spotted is that there are mistakes in the dialogue. I took screenshots, and, although this game has fighting elemets, it is essentially a dialogue-choice game, which made the discovery of the sentences that lacked proper endings all the more irritating. Further, unlike a visual novel game, you can't skip any text you've already read. Once you've completed this game, you will have to go through all the text again to replay it, which takes extra time.

But in any case, if you're looking for a Viking game with endings that differ depending on the choices you make, then you've made an all right choice. Despite that you can't skip already read text, the sentence mistakes in dialogue, and it being a turn-based game, interesting doesn't even begin to decribe the game. You travel across a wintry wasteland, deciding whom you should attack whilst paying attention to your party and resources, and your decisions can ultimately cost people their lives!

Personally, I adored this game - and I've taken far too many screenshots of chairs! ;) Amazingly humorous, the female veggie dragon was every inch a breath of fresh air, with her character presenting the modern image of a dragon that wasn't 'terrifying'. More so, she was a dragon whom had become lost in a world of mindless carrying work and was now looking to take on the stereotypical image of the viscious, male dragon. Although now that I think upon it, she did seem like something similar to twilight (a vampire who's not a vampire; a dragon who's not a dragon; do you get the picture, eh?), but her character was certainly amusing enough to ignore this increasingly occuring character aspect in now modern culture.

My favourite characters were Nate and Wilbur, I have to say. Nate appealed to me at first because of his rouge appearance and Wibur...well, who isn't intrigued by cute little gnomes with grandpa's. The graphics were simply amazing (from characters' outfits to cutscenes), and I can't fault that one bit. Guillivar's character was particularly entertaining, I found.

Honestly, I entirely loved the game - minotaurs are not often represented enough today in culture and, as expressed, although there are some cliches (weeping women, dragon's not being dragons, etc), it was truly a breath of fresh air to play. The ending was perhaps a tad abrupt and could have been made longer, but it was clearly done to leave an opening for a sequel.

So, in any case, after playing as Guybrush Threepwood for many, many years, I was looking to experience a new point-and-click, adventure game and I believe I found it :) I can only hope that the sequel that's being planned comes out soon. After all, I want Wilbur's family and that dwarf bartender to see his new outfit ;)

Even now, Spy Fox still remains one of my most favourite foxes on the block. But seriously, the game has great voice acting, amazing animations and graphics, dramatic background music and effect noises to entice all ages and make the scenes better, and enough gameplay (dialogue and games included within) to keep a person occupied for about 3 hours long.

Considering this is a children's game and over 10 years old, it is more than worth the few pounds on Steam. However, to be fair as a reviewer, although this game in the Spy Fox series is the longest one made, it is likely that you will remember how to solve most of the puzzles after one playthrough. Nonetheless, the major puzzles (i.e. codes on blocks, hairdo's, etc) change with every playthrough, keeping the game interesting once you've completed it once.

Overall, I would highly recommend this game. It'll keep a child interested, mainly through Spy Fox's laughable humour and the interesting puzzling solving, whilst it's dramatic sound effects and plot are detailed enough to keep an adult intrigued as well. Besides, who wouldn't enjoy seeing a humorous fox in a dandy suit ;)

Bought this during a steam deal, but I had admittedly wanted to try it out for a while, being that it looked like an all right card game and seemed amusing enough to enjoy.

The plus side is that it's based during the feminst period and during a school situation, and any bf's the girls (your cards) gain act as shields and nothing more. No emotional ties, and once you lose a game against someone they take the beating and hit the road. Well, I found it funny.

Anyway, there is a main story to this; and depending on how good you are at the card games here, the quicker and easier you'll find it to get information out of people. The girls all have different personalities, so it's vital you mix and match to battle other students, teachers, and others alike. A really good game if you've got time to waste and have a thing for playing cards.

Two words: it is amazing! Okay, that's three words, but it's seriously a good game as opposed to its prior Morrowind, which I've only ever played for about an hour or so. I've played more hours on here with mates than I care to bother counting and, admittedly, I still haven't completed it.

The main quest is interesting, with yourself being tasked to find a new ruler as well as stop the return of a daedric lord (I shan't give any more away, as this is only a review); the side-quests are interesting, with there being numerous Guilds to join and side-quests, which in fact do retain some mearning as they can affect your character background (vampirism, wealth, and just general improving skills); and finally, there are a great number of NPCs that differ from one another and whom you must either help or ignore, which makes it so that you've an actual choice in the gameplay. There are also so many mods avaliable for this game to enhance your experience, so that you can continue even when you've completed it a bunch of times.

My only faults with the game is that there are still some glitches with it. I can recall that, not even two months ago, I was attempting to fulfill the side-quest of the White Lodge and couldn't find the NPC that you and the Knight-orc are required to kill. Eventually, after searching the web, I found a solution and completed the quest, but having to search for ages killed the entertainment of completing that quest for me.

Also, another fault is that, although the game world is large and diverse, it still remains a tad linear, with the main quest requiring you to aid the Prince against the dadric. Although you've a choice in how to kill (bow, magic, etc) and whether you allow your comrades to die or restart and attempt to make them live, the actual quest still remains with you helping. Seriously, no becoming a vampire or dadric ruler above all for you.

So, all in all, it is a brilliant game. It kept me intrigued for hours, from rumaging through caves killing vampires and mages to visiting the Prince of Madness (a quest that I adore completing). If you're looking to waste hours on a fun game, with differing races to meet and Guilds to become involved in, then all I can say is: prepare to be amazed ;)

Avaliable only on computer, unlike it's follow-ups, this PC game is still as good. My only faults are: that it was made in the dark ages of gaming when nearly all games had male protagonists, so there isn't any female option to play as; and that the people are fairly boring (none of the NPCs have as much character background as those in Fable 2 and 3, and you've no dog as a companion). The NPCs also follow you around with simple interactions and have hearts over their heads to indicate romanceable or not. It's not Fable 3 bad, but it's certainly not as good as Fable 2. Finally, clothing is fairly limited in this game unlike its successors, as the outfits of Knight, bandit, etc, do not have dye options. Plus, it also seems like a carry-on in the series; you're required to attain a bandit outfit from boxes in order to gain entry into the bandits' camp, which is very similar to Fable 3. However, to be fair, in Fable 3 you have the options of dying the outfit and changing your hairstyle more. Plus, you never actually meet any Knights in this game, or in the others for that matter, so that outfit is made practically meaningless. Basically, Fable 1 therefore mostly just has showy outfits for the player.

However, if you're a fan and want to find out how it began (I played 3, 2, and then 1), then this would be a good choice. The story-line is interesting, if a tad cliche, with the main character's family being separated by a bandit attack; you still have moral choices (good or bad actions, skinny or tubby, etc); there is certainly more information in Fable 1, as on the menu you can find how many houses you own to whether you're defined as hetro/homosexual through your interactions (information that isn't present in Fable 2 and 3!); you're more likely to gain scars and die during the battles in this one, as the gameplay is more difficult; and the graphics are quite good for a game this old.

Further, with the release of Fable 1 Anniversary on xbox360, the graphics are even further improved if you're more inclined to spend a little more and play on the console. The pixels are more noticeably defined on the console, but there are known glitches and the developers didn't add anything to the series. You would literally be spending your money on just lighter graphics. This PC version is just as good. In fact, it's better because it has more of a history.

So, all in all, the PC Fable 1: Lost chapters is a good game if you're looking for an intro into playing the later series or you're in want of playing a humorous game (the quests certainly do fit that bill).