Fable II

Fable II (games for Xbox 360) begins more than 500 years after the events of the original. You don't have to know a thing about the first Fable to enjoy the sequel, but there are numerous references to the past. There are plenty of surprises waiting for those fond of the first Fable; consider it a reward for having played the original. In Fable II, you play as a new character – either male or female – who begins life as a street urchin and eventually becomes savior of Albion. The main story is brief and has little in the way of plot. It's about as basic a hero's tale as can be fashioned. It's the atmosphere and elements outside the main storyline that prove most rewarding.
Coming along for the journey is your dog. If you're a cat lover, this may not be the game for you. A dog is a hero's best friend, as we all know, and your dog is no exception. He loves you unconditionally. You can scold him all you want, leave his wounds unhealed, or never pay him any attention whatsoever. It doesn't matter. You are his master and he will always be on your side – even if you're a total jerk. Play with your dog or give him treats and you'll probably feel better about yourself. Either way, your dog is a welcome ally. He's your pathfinder, sniffing out treasure chests and hidden items, warning of approaching danger, and tearing at the throats of fallen enemies. You may never give him a single kindness, but by the end of Fable II, you'll have become completely reliant on his abilities.
he dog is a success. I can't say that you will fall in love with your dog and keep a special place in your heart for him even after the disc's stopped spinning in the drive, but some will. And the rest can at least appreciate a canine companion who is helpful and almost never gets in the way or acts as a nuisance. You never control the dog. It acts independently and wisely. And though, on occasion, you may see him walk through a closed door or witness the textures on his fur disappear, he is a well-crafted pet.
Your dog is not your only navigational tool. There is also a golden breadcrumb trail that (usually) points in the proper direction for your next quest. Instead of taking up a chunk of screen real-estate with a mini-map, the breadcrumb trail fits nicely into the scenery. It can be turned off, but that would be a mistake. The trail at first might seem like a lame gimmick, but it actually frees you up for exploration. Fable II's world is significantly larger than the original and is packed with secrets to discover. There are 50 silver keys to collect, 50 gargoyle statues to destroy, nine Demon Doors to be opened, and a half-dozen magical statues with mysteries to solve. Also, there are whores to screw.
If you take the time to explore, you'd discover Albion is an interesting world with some really odd characters in the mix to lend personality. Lionhead moved away from the storybook look of the original, settling on a grimmer world. While areas around Bowerstone are lush and beautiful, many of the later areas such as Wraithmarsh and Bloodstone are depressing. Even in Bowerstone, there is a distinctly Dickensian feel. Dickens, by the way, not the most uplifting of writers. The charm and whimsy of the original is lost in Fable II. Modernity encroaches on fantasy.
Fable II
ESRB rating: M (Mature)
Publisher: Microsoft
Developer: Big Blue Box Studios

Call of Juarez

Call of Juarez (XBOX 360) takes place in Texas in 1882. Billy is framed for the murder of his mother and stepfather, and his uncle Ray, a reverend (who oddly resembles the Saint of Killers from Garth Ennis' "Preacher"), takes off his collar, dusts off his six-shooters, and takes the good book out on the road in a quest to avenge his brother. How, you might ask, does a hardened man of the cloth suddenly run out with a Bible in one hand and a gun in the other and go on a killing spree? We're still trying to figure that one out ourselves.

Ultimately, you'll take on the roles of both Billy and Reverend Ray through fifteen levels of first-person, gun-blazing action. Each has his own different abilities; Reverend Ray can not only snap out quick-draw shots, but he can use the Holy Book to stun some of the opposition with his hellfire and brimstone sermons before he splatters their repentant feelings onto the terrain.

Billy has a whip and bow that he uses for stealthier missions. The whip also doubles as a means of traversing areas by swinging from trees, and the bow is a reusable weapon; after gory kills, he can reclaim arrows from outlaw corpses. While Reverend Ray's levels feel like straightforward FPS action (with more reloading and that weird Bible-stun, of course), it's in Billy's levels that CoJ really shows its flaws. Using the whip to traverse chasms tends to result in trial-by-death situations more often than it works; even the first episode of the game results in a great deal of frustration. Even riding a horse is unwieldy, annoying, and just not very much fun.

Eventually, as Billy fights to discover who killed his family, and Ray gets closer to hunting him down, new gameplay dynamics come into the fold. Both characters have Concentration Mode. The way it works is that you'll disarm yourself by hitting down on the D-pad, waiting for an icon in the lower-right to flash; next time your character unholsters his guns, the action will creep to a halt ala bullet time. It's a nice feature, but the issue is that Techland hasn't really hit the sweet spot with it. Were it too conservative, we'd gripe that it's not used enough. Unfortunately, the designers were a tad too liberal with it, and you really only need to disarm for a few seconds before you're shooting people in lots of ouch-worthy places via slo-mo. Billy's bow even has Concentration Mode built into it, which just feels too cheap. It's indicative of the problems that Call of Juarez faces; on one hand, gunplay is too easy, and on another, getting around certain obstacles is downright frustrating.
All's not a total wash, however. With Techland's emphasis on physics in the environment, you'll also get to do some fairly cool stuff, like shoot oil lamps to start fires. Indeed, one of CoJ's Achievements will find you setting outlaws ablaze around the midpoint of the game.
Call of Juarez
ESRB rating: M (Mature)
Publisher: Not Available
Developer: Techland (Poland)
Call of Juarez Also Available: PC
RPG

The Elder Scrolls IV | Oblivion

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Xbox360 rpg.
Bethesda's much-anticipated fantasy action RPG Oblivion is every bit the game it promised to be, with stunning visuals and vast amounts of engrossing, well-designed gameplay. Lovers of its predecessor Morrowind will be delighted; new addicts will find it as easy to play as it is to like. The only problem with Oblivion is putting it down.

If you played Morrowind, you'll find many aspects of Oblivion's character system familiar. Both at the game's start and throughout your character's development, you'll see the same themes -- Oblivion takes the flexible, level- and skills-based system from Morrowind, makes a few delicate cuts and simplifications, and delivers a streamlined system that's flexible and easy to grasp.

Taking your first steps into Oblivion's outside world, which you'll do about half an hour into the game, you could be forgiven for adopting a certain look of slack-jawed astonishment. Screenshots don't do this engine justice -- seeing it in motion will impress the most jaded of gamers. Sumptuously detailed and full of vivid, rich color, it puts even the most graphically detailed of FPSs to shame, let alone the rest of its typically drab genre. Even after many hours of play, you'll still find yourself looking around in awe at a particularly dramatic view, or captivated by a morning glory plant climbing a wall.
Although it's a staggering-looking game, nothing's perfect. Oblivion is a little heavy-handed on the bloom effect, which tends to underline the fact that the game's faces are decidedly on the ugly side. If you're really picky, you'll notice characters can't always move around each other and end up nudging each other with an unrealistic sliding motion. But out of doors it's nothing short of stunning. Oblivion shows off the 360's potential in a way that no other game has done.
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
ESRB rating: M (Mature)
Publisher: 2K Games
Developer: Bethesda Softworks
xbox 360 RPG games

Fallout 3| Xbox 360

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Fallout 3 nails its colors firmly to the mast. Fresh out of the vault where your family took shelter from a nuclear holocaust, you find your way to a small town, cobbled together from scrap and built around an unexploded nuke. The sheriff soon offers to pay you to disarm the bomb; moments later, a smartly-dressed stranger offers you considerably more to rig it to explode, wiping out the town and its residents. Either choice resonates throughout the rest of what's easily a 40-hour game. Which will it be?

Although it's firmly couched in its often tongue-in-cheek 1950s sci-fi mythos of a war-devastated D.C., Fallout 3, with its frontier towns, roaming bandits, and hostile environment, has a curious Wild West atmosphere. Its story, which sees you searching for your Liam Neeson-voiced father, is compelling, but plays second fiddle to the joy of just poking around the expansive wilderness in search of quests, the many convincing supporting characters, or scrap to assemble into improvised weapons.
One typical problem of games that offer such open-ended experiences is that when they break, they break badly, in a sort of Wizard of Oz moment that reveals the lever-puller behind the curtain in drastic fashion. Yup, Fallout drops the ball on occasion, and the beiges and grays of its shattered versions of the White House, Washington Monument and surrounding miles do wear on the eyes eventually.
The mere fact that that's a criticism speaks volumes about the game's staying power. Not only will you be glued to the game right up to the end, you'll go right back and play it through again just to see what consequences different choices will produce. Fallout 3 is a technical triumph, but more importantly, it's a beautiful piece of design, exploring the well-trodden video game ground of good vs. evil better than any other game to date. It's not so much a morality play as it is a morality playground, and in proud showbiz tradition, it just leaves us wanting more. If Fallout 3 is life after the apocalypse, then bring on the bombs.
Fallout 3 Also Available: PC, PC, PS3
ESRB rating: M (Mature)
Publisher: Bethesda Softworks

Developer: Bethesda Game Studios
Role-Playing games