Pretty soon, we won't have to worry about games not living up to their hype.  If the Fable franchise were to lead the charge into the future, eventually, all games will just play themselves and let us watch.  Then, all the hype spewed by their creators can't be argued against.  Sounds like a plan to me.  Let's get into this.  

So who did ol' Pete Molyneux and the bros over at Lionhead make this game for? That's a tough one to answer.  The simple answer is "anyone who has enjoyed the Fable franchise up to this point."  The problem with this answer is that it's not comprehensive or even "right" really.  If you read the other 700 reviews for Fable 3 out on the cyberweb, the most common complaint you'll hear is that Fable 3 was a step back from Fable 2.  I agree with that.  I enjoyed Fable 2 a good deal.  But, Fable 2 was not without it's problems.  And honestly, Fable 3 did nothing to address them, and in some ways, made the problems worse.  

Problems?  Like What?  Well, the interface for starters.  Going to the living menu, or the "Sanctuary" as the game calls it, sounds intuitive and easy in concept.  However, it's a different story in execution.  Your weapons and clothes are organized in the order you receive them.  Doesn't sound too horrible at first.  But as you progress, if you want to change to a specific weapon, you may have to cycle thru 20+ screens to find the weapon you want.  It's more time consuming and tedious than just having a menu that shows you everything at once.  

What's this business about the game playing itself?  That was a bit of frustrated sarcasm.  But it's rooted in a grain of truth.  For example, there are no health bars in this game.  There is also no access to your healing items via the menu, sorry, "sanctuary."  The game tells YOU when you need/want to use this stuff.  It doesn't want you to be bothered with making a strategic decision.  It wants to hold your hand on the battlefield just in case you are too daft to know when using a potion is a good idea.  This wouldn't be so bad if you were 4yrs old and this was your first videogame.  I believe these new "immersion" characteristics do the exact opposite of their intent.  

Where am I supposed to be going again?  How 'bout next time, instead of enchanted pixie dust lighting my way, you give me a mini map that actually shows me what the terrain looks like and the location of my next objective.  Developers have been getting this right for over a decade now.  Let's not reinvent the wheel unless we need to.  

I swear I wanted to kill that barking dog at least 12 times.  Yes, the Dog that incessantly barks at you when you need to dig up your 57th useless item is back for Fable 3.  Maybe I was the only one that hated the dog Fable 2.  Who knows.  It doesn't help matters that the loot drops in treasure chests and dig sites are absolutely useless.

I get money.  It's entirely too easy to make money in Fable 3.  This wouldn't be so bad if they money actually benefitted you in some way during the first half of the game.  While you'll need upwards of $7mil for the second half of the game, the $26mil I was carrying up to that point did me no good whatsoever.  

I've heard this game can last up to 30hrs.  Is that true?  Only if you do all of the collection quests and horribly tedious sidequests.  On my second playthru, I think I made it from start to finish in 5+ hours.  If you want an adventure that lasts longer, I hope you love collection fetch quests.  

So they brought back the never-ending collection quests?  Yep.  And in Fable 3, they are even more drawn out and annoying than Fable 2.  The gargoyles have been replaced by gnomes.  There's still silver keys.  They also added 30 books you need to acquire and the bonus of having to find every article of clothing and every legendary weapon in the game.  The blessing here is that you can't get all of the weapons or clothes in a single playthru.  Much like the dolls and the dyes from Fable 2, you'll have to rely on your pals online to get all of the weapons you need.  And the interface problems I mentioned earlier make this a huge pain to accomplish.  Oh, and there are 50 of these stinking weapons to find.  You'll find around 25 on your own.

How about the story?  It's Fable.  That means it will be generic and telegraphed.  That said, there is one point of the story that was a nice twist.  Also, there are a handful of characters in the story that are likeable and make the story fun to watch at times.  Just don't expect the epic awesomeness that Molyneux has been promising from the jump.  

So what's the bottom line? Fable 3 is stripped and dumbed down way too far.  If you are considering a purchase, just wait until it hits the bargain bin.  Especially if you are an achievement junkie.  That way, many more people will have 100% the game and be able to help you get the items you won't feel like gaming for 100hrs to find on your own.