Fable 3 Announced for 2010, First Details

Lionhead leader Peter Molyneux today announced both Fable III (360) and an episodic version of Fable II during the Microsoft press conference at GamesCom.

Fable III will be set in a Napoleonic-styled period of Albion, and will allow players to take on a King-like role in influencing the world, according to Eurogamer.

"I think there's something fundamentally wrong with RPGs like Fable," said Molyneux. "It's a mechanic that's been there since the eighties. I'm going to take that foundation stone and throw it away."

Players will begin the game as the offspring of a hero from Albion's past, gradually becoming powerful enough to exert their will over the world.

Eventually, players can "use gold to build up a certain region, help poorer people, let people off taxes and so on," he said.

The game will take place some 50 years after the events of Fable II, and according to Molyneux, some characters from the previous game will return in Fable III.

Molyneux also tied the story in to the splash images of famous rulers recently seen on the Lionhead website.

"What promises are you going to make to become ruler, and then how many of those promises are you going to keep?" asked Molyneux. "You can see with Tony Blair and Obama that it's very easy to make promises and be a rebel. If Che Guevara had lived to deliver on his promises, if he had ruled, would he have been that wonderful amazing person? There's many examples in history of rebels who once they get power, they go bad a bit. This time in Fable, you're not a hero whose only power is in his sword. There's a certain point in the game where you have the power to rule, so how are you going to use that?"

"We've loosely chosen the Napoleonic period, and we've started to pull in a bit of Regency, a tiny bit of Victorian, and we're plugging in an early industrial age to Albion," said lead artist John McCormack. "It's a Napoleonic fairytale."

Added McCormack: "One of the main themes here is how the advancement of the new world is having an adverse effect on the beautiful lush environments of Albion. Industrialisation is changing Albion, and do you want to put a stop to that?"

Fable II will also soon be split into five downloadable episodes, all of which will be available on September 29. The first chapter will be free, with players having the choice to buy subsequent episodes after completing it. The episodes will be compatible with both the Knothole Island and See The Future DLC packs.

Fable III is set for a 2010 release, though not early in the year, according to Molyneux. Holiday sounds like a good bet.