Lionhead Studios: Fable 4 Jobs For Next-Gen

Welcome to the first day of Game Rant's E3 2010 coverage. The first big event of the show, Microsoft's press conference, is scheduled to begin at 10:30 AM Pacific Time. No doubt there will be a ton of information on the newly named Kinect . But what else? Will we see the rumored Xbox 360 Slim ? Any new news on Halo: Reach or Gears of War 3 ? And what surprises are in st


It's hard to say that the Fable franchise was left on the best footing by 2012's Fable: The Journey . Released last October, punctuating the Peter Molyneux era at Lionhead Studios , the game's reception was mixed at best, with many reviews like ours highlighting some demonstrable Kinect-based gameplay flaws despite an intriguing storytelling prem


The nominations were decided by all 9 of the Game Rant staff in attendance at E3 and are based upon our previews, demos and hands-on experiences with all of the available titles at the event this year. Share your thoughts on the picks and tell us what you believe deserves to win each category! - Follow me on Twitter @ rob_key


Online is an integral part of video games in the modern age. For better or for worse, the last generation of console was dominated by online gaming with competitive matchmaking becoming a norm for most AAA game titles, helping make the eSports culture more mainstream. The popularity of series such as Halo , Call of Duty and FIFA meant that for many gamers, online play was the main reason to keep playing a game. The consequences of this were that several publishers became slaves to the trend, putting (forcing?) in needless multiplayer modes that took away from certain game as a wh

First, we have the Natal imagined by Cirque de Soleil debut which, if you weren’t there, was not very "hardcore" and did focus on Kinect. Wireless, controller free game demos, which many believe were pre-rendered, saturated the performance. The next thing the world saw from Microsoft at the world's biggest trade event was the Microsoft Press Conference, meant to focus mainly on Xbox 360 and its exclusive lineup, or so we thought. This showing could not have been too substantial for hardcore revealed to gamers very little because most of the content was already speculated or announced by MS themselves before hand. We knew we would hear from three of the Xbox's ONLY _ exclusive secret weapons; _Fable III, Gears of War III and Halo: Reach . Therefore, their presence brought very little excitem


That criteria is consonant with a Lionhead job listing which surfaced last year, brimming with suggestive language related to next-gen engine/graphical design. There are some curious distinctions, however, present in the animation director description that point directly toward work on the Fable franch


Fable: The Journey is expected to be released this year, so it's certainly possible that Molyneux's work on the game is mostly complete - as the title, presumably, is in the hands of department designers and no longer requires larger visioning or shaping. That said, it's much more likely that development on the inevitable (yet unannounced) Fable 4 will take the biggest hit (not to mention the recently announced Fable Money Guide|Https://Fablechronicle.Com/: Heroes ) - given how involved Molyneux has been with the previous full-scale Fable adventu


While development on the inevitable Fable 4 will surely be affected, the developer has agreed to stay on as a creative consultant for the studio's Kinect/ Fable mash-up Fable: The Journey - which, like many Lionhead games, has already enjoyed a lengthy development cy


The comment is an odd one as thus far, Fable Legends looks like it has a very direct approach to online play allowing you to set up games with friends, while both Journey and Dark Souls had more passive systems that limited interaction with other players. They were powerful multiplayer experiences though, and if Fable Legends can figure out a way to incorporate some of their elements into the game, it could be a great compliment the co-op heavy gamep


Given the new 22 Cans venture, it's unclear how involved Molyneux will actually be as a "creative consultant" and it's hard not to speculate that title is more of a PR move than an actual indication that the designer will be very involved in the completion of the project. The "creative consultant" position is becoming a go-to move for developers lately, as major figure-heads leave fan-favoite studios in the midst of oft-delayed projects, since the situation is especially reminiscent of the recent Fumito Ueda/Team Ico change-


Following the initial Kotaku report, Molyneux took to Twitter (for the first time since November 16th) to chat it up with fans and other industry icons ( Minecraft creator, Notch plus the aforementioned Cliffy B) - as well as reveal his plans for the fut


COMMERCIAL IMAGE In this photograph taken by AP Images for Xbox, Microsoft unveiled Kinect for Xbox 360 at the World Premiere Experience imagined by Cirque du Soleil on Sunday, June 13, 2010 in Los Angeles. Kinect makes you the controller; when you move your Avatar moves. (Casey Rodgers/AP Images for X