HD Capture, a Knob, and Stealing the Beast

My HD capable capture card arrived in the post today!
For the geeks out there, it’s a Blackmagic Intensity Pro HDMI and Analog HD/SD Editing Card.. for me, it means decent-quality screenshots and maybe the odd video, from the 360, PS3 and possibly the Wii.

Well, it would.. but the card absolutely refuses to work in my PC.  Tim spent most of the evening trying to force it to work, as some incompatibility means that it fails to upgrade the firmware, and without the firmware it won’t allow capture. 🙁

In between reboots, Tim also fixed the tension in my exercise bike.. turns out that as it wasn’t set properly, I had been using it on max difficulty.  Hmm, no wonder I thought it was a bit too hard!  The replacement knob came in the post today, so I can now use it as a proper cross-trainer too.

Eventually Tim tried the capture card in his PC (“The Beast”), hoping that would force the firmware upgrade through.. and we found the card works in that.  So this weekend, I’m stealing the Beast so I can capture screens and videos, and Tim is going back to his old pc.. doesn’t seem fair..

Fable III

My current options for 360 and PS3 games are playing via an old PC with an old capture card (low quality image), or playing on the TV in the lounge (noisy for Tim, and no contact with my friends who are on the PC).

I’d been trying to resist starting on Fable III until I had a HDMI capture card in my PC.. however, the lure was too strong..  I absolutely loved Fable II, as I had the Black & White games, also from Lionhead Studios, so I knew I would love playing this one too.. even if it meant taking over the lounge!

As with the other games, you are given a choice when responding to quests.. allowing you to become good or evil as you wish.  Your morality affects your appearance, with NPCs you come across reacting to you with either greetings or.. well, I’ve not played an evil character long enough to see them yet 😉

Abilities are upgraded through Guild Seals, which you earn for completing quests, defeating enemies and interacting with NPCs.  The seals can be then used to purchase the abilities you want in the “The Road to Rule”; a ghostly path where we meet the awesomely voiced Blind Seer from Fable II.

So.. I start off as a princess, wandering around the castle gardens, grabbing people by the hand and making them run along with me, just because it’s funny to see.. then I find out that my older brother, Logan, is up to no good.

People across Albion are starving, and some of them have decided to protest.. Logan has decided that this will be solved by killing some of the protestors.  I’m supposed to try to convince him to play nice, but Logan forces me to choose between my childhood sweetheart, Elliot, and the protesting villagers.  I save the villagers (Sorry Elliot, but it was never going to work..), then flee the castle with the assistance of my loyal friends; Sir Walter, and the butler, Jasper.

We need to take Logan out, but first we need support, and we start off in a freezing camp in the mountains, where we’re tasked with finding an artifact to prove my Hero status, getting rid of Saker, the leader of a band of mercenaries, and getting neighbouring Brightwall to send food.

In addition to completing quests, support can be gained by making the people in each area like you.. if you were evil, I suppose this would require people to fear you.  Unlike in Fable II, you can only impress one person at a time, by interacting with them and choosing the relevant action.. after a while they will ask you to run an errand for them; if you do it, they will then be your friend.

Once you have made friends with an NPC, you can also take it a bit further.. I appear to have attracted the attentions of Alice the Housewife, who wants me to take her on a date..
As you have to build up your relationship with an NPC before further options appear, I think this means there will be no repeat of my accidental cheating on one of my Fable II husbands, which happened when I clicked on the wrong NPC to follow me to bed.. my Fable II character was a bigamist slut! 😉

Although running errands takes up time running to one location only to run back again, it does provide you with Guild Seals and presents from those NPCs you have made friends with.  To save time, you can always teleport into the Sanctuary to use the map for fast travel.  You’ll also want to visit the Sanctuary to open your presents, or to mess around with your clothing and such, although Jasper will nudge you towards the DLC from time to time.  Some of the DLC is free, which would gain Lionhead some brownie points if not for the fact that some of the paid DLC was on the disk at launch.. that’s a topic for another time, though.

Shops close at night, and tonight this got me into trouble while befriending a shopkeeper at closing-time.. a guard came in, demanding that I leave.. by the time my rather long interaction finished, he had run out of patience and charged me with trespassing 🙁

When convicted of a crime you have two options: community service or resisting arrest.
As I’m a good girl, I chose to do community service and ended up making pies.. one of the various little mini-game jobs you can do around most towns.  Making pies consists of hitting A and X when prompted, while your character rolls out pastry and sticks it on the top of a pie.. the other jobs are blacksmithing and lute playing, which also attracts a crowd of people who cheer along while you play, but boo if you mis-click.

Screenshots will be added once I have my HDMI capture card 😉