I find it extremely interesting to scroll down through the giant collage, seeing what other players have done with the main character from the game. Through the course of Fable II, the hero you create becomes a part of the game, to the point that when someone talks about the title you're picturing your own hero in your head. Looking at what other people have created is almost like looking through windows into alternate realities.

Plus, it's an excellent place to steal other peoples' ideas and make them your own. I am totally recreating my hero to look like the Tim Schafer angel in the middle there.

Big Hero Gathering #4 [Fable II Development Blog]

A post by Sam Van Tilburgh on the Fable II development blog this morning reveals that Fable II avatar clothes are coming soon to an Xbox 360 near you. A package of Fable II clothing will be made available for purchase later this month, featuring various articles of game-related clothing you can purchase for "a few Microsoft points." You can actually see a bit more of the Fable II gear in our post on Xbox 360 clothes and toys from last month.

A lot of people have been asking us in recent months about Fable II clothes for their Xbox360 avatar. Well, you'll be happy to learn that we've got something coming your way! It's not going to be a single shirt but a whole package of clothing! It will be available for a few Microsoft points from Marketplace at some stage this month... We've got one teaser image showing you a shirt, but there are boots, shirts and hats! No underwear though...

That's okay Sam, we don't wear underwear anyway.

Fable II Avatar Clothes are coming! [Fable 2 Development Blog]

I say if you get lucky, because one of the thirteen new achievements requires that the player "make love" twenty-five times, which for some of us represents many more times than in real life, depending on your definition of making love. For those of you who would rather stick to the path of purity, Lionhead has you covered. As long as you watch another hero making love twenty-five times you get the achievement as well. Pervert.

Luckily there are plenty of achievements on the list that don't require doing the dirty, such as The Nutcracker, which simply requires you score twenty-five groin shots. Check out the full list below, containing several achievements that have nothing to do with the groin area whatsoever.

The Nutcracker 10
Score 25 groin shots, or see another Hero do so.

The Paramour 10
Make love 25 times, or see another Hero do so.

The Concierge 30
Open all the Demon Doors in Albion, or see another Hero do so.

The Visionary 50
Take a look into the future, or see another Hero do so.

The Con Artist 25
Find all 10 of Murgo's statuettes, or see another Hero do so.

The Howler 10
Scare five people while dressed as a balverine, or see another Hero do so.

The Ghastly Jester 10
Make five people laugh while dressed as a hobbe, or see another Hero do so.

The Repugnant 10
Disgust five people while dressed as a hollow man, or see another Hero do so.

The Gladiator 30
Score a total high score of 20,000 points or more in the Colosseum, or see another Hero do so.

The Multiplicator 20
Achieve a multiplier of 10 or more in the Colosseum, or see another Hero do so.

The Combatant 20
Defeat the necromancer in the Colosseum, or see another Hero do so.

The Fowl Player 10
Dress as a chicken and kick five chickens during the Colosseum battles, or see another Hero do so.

The Colourist 15
Collect the dyes hidden in Murgo's magical items, or see another Hero do so.

Fable II Updated to 1350 [Xbox360Achievements.Org via the Fable II Development Blog]

Lionhead has assembled more than 70 images posted on their forums into one giant scrolling tribute to their mighty morphing main character. From the most nefarious evil to the purest good; the manliest women to the girliest men, Fable II fans go great lengths to make the character they portray in the game their own. Almost as great a length as the huge, multi-part image you can find over at the development blog, of which you only see a very small portion of here.

This is actually the second time Lionhead has posted a Hero Gathering, and with the new clothing and hair styles coming in the See the Future downloadable content, I highly doubt it will be the last.

Big Hero Gathering #2 [Fable II Development Blog]

The new content will cost you 800 Microsoft Points and 500+ megs of hard disk space, but considering yesterday's news there's no way I can possibly avoid picking up Knothole Island. I've missed that little furry bastard far too much.

No, that's not a spoiler. I call everybody furry little bastard.

Before you continue on, I warn you....this post could very well ruin the ending of Fable II for you, but it wouldn't be my fault. Blame Sam Van Tilburgh over at the Fable 2 Development blog, who name checks us in the post where he draws readers' attentions towards one particular bullet point on the Knothole Island page. "Unravel the mystical secrets of the resurrection shrine." Now what could that possibly mean, Sam?

Now I'm not going to spoil Knothole Island for you either, so while I can't really say a thing (or the infamous PR police will hunt me down and kill me to death), I think it'd be fair to say that you won't be playing Knothole Island without a trusty friend on four legs....

I actually shed real tears of joy just now. Damn you, Molyneux.

The resurrection shrine in Knothole [Fable 2 Dev Blog]

In a way it is somewhat difficult to be really critical of a game which at least tries to implement a reasonably fleshed out moral system. Molyneux: “[In] Fable 2 there is much more colour to those choices: purity versus corruption, cruelty versus kindness, greed versus generosity. And then we play around with those moral choices. We want people to play as themselves rather than deciding to be good or evil.” The choices made are reflected in the player’s, the dog’s appearance, the world design and the way in which NPCs react to the main character. However, and this is my main problem with the game, it is not clear which ingame actions result in any of the world’s/NPC’s reactions .... Because there is a mix of major and minor moral decisions, it is not clear what the results of my actions are. My guess is that I took the game’s “good path”, because the city’s inhabitants seem to like me. But what made them like me? I don’t know. I raised prices 40 percent on all goods, I stole a lot of their stuff, I kicked a bunch of chickens all over the city square, and I married two women at the same time from the same town (one being a prostitute).

He goes on to offer three potential design decisions that would mitigate what he calls 'gamer guilt' — the desire to get through and really understand a game, without having to necessarily play through two campaigns. It's a nice analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the morality system of Fable 2 and worth a read.

Morality and “Gamer Guilt” in Fable 2 [Valuable Games]

Have Lionhead been able to make good or bad of the Xbox 360 exclusive sequel? Our nearly epic journey of love and hatred tells the tale.

Loved
Puts The 'R' And 'P' In RPG: Fable II's core story line may not be as memorable as other, more traditional role-playing games — it's rather forgettable over the course of the journey — but it's the tertiary activities, interactions and experiences that make your first (and second) play-through such a treat. During my first slog through, I stuck to my habitual good-guy guns, keeping my purity high and my hands clean, making lifestyle choices similar to my own. On the second? I was a prick, hassling villagers, raising prices on goods, aligning myself with gypsies, thieves and bandits. The actual playing is fun, with a simple, mostly intuitive combat mechanic.

Have 'A' Button, Will Travel: Getting around Albion is a breeze. Jumping from quest to job to whatever sale may be running can be accomplished by quickly teleporting to your desired location. The helpful golden breadcrumb trail that leads to your destination ensures you're almost never lost.

If 'X', Then 'Y': Fable II feels less like your playing a numbers game, managing an Excel spreadsheet or rolling the dice. When you have moments of doing bad, meaning to lead an honorable existence, you'll feel the effects. Some of the more averse effects may be puzzling though — even though I'm running hundreds of miles and battling scores of hobbes and bandits, a couple of pies a week make me a fat-ass? Really?

Man's BFF: Your ever present canine companion is a welcome aid, locating hidden treasure, fighting alongside you in battle, ever present throughout the decades-long journey. Not once does the pup ever utter a grating "Hey! Listen!!" but rarely did I ever feel any of the much touted attachment to the beast.

EZ Money: Earning gold through the buying up of real estate and businesses makes experimenting with new equipment and keeping your supplies well stocked painless. Even the more mundane jobs, like chopping wood or tending bar, have high pay outs. On top of that, they're unusually addictive.

Hated
Sluggish Interface, Useless Maps: Fable II's menu interface for using items and upgrading your hero is slow to load and sluggish to navigate. Dealing with quests is easy enough, but It makes upgrading your skills and your dog's abilities frustrating. In-game, interacting with characters and signs can be annoying. Furthermore, regional maps are difficult to decipher and border on useless, thanks to Fable II's other navigation options.

Emotional Detachment: Finding a spouse involves little more than a chain of dancing, flexing and farting in front of the Albionite of your choice. As long as you have a decent ring and a bed, you'll be the proud owner of a "loving" family. There's no depth to the characters closest to you and little emotional investment in anything other your dog.

-10% Attractiveness: An aversion to the deformed, knobby caricature stylings of Fable II may simply be personal preference. Being unable to make out what exactly it is I'm fighting much of the time due to enemy and environment design? Not so much.

All The Small Things: Lionhead may have created a massive world rife with possibilities, but there's a noticeable lack of polish applied to Fable II. Clipping, frequent loading and save screens, interrupted audio and an unstable frame rate all serve to hamper the experience. We might've been better off without the clumsy cooperative modes altogether.

There's an astounding amount of stuff to do in Fable II, one of the reasons it's so hard to put the controller down after an all-night session of adventuring. The constant drip of new experience, new items, new side quests, new characters to interact with makes the game feel massive in its depth. At times, Fable II may even feel like its out-pacing the player, as the heaping pile of options, while gently stacked upon you, quickly becomes mountainous.

What Fable II does manage to get right is its balance of action, adventure and role-playing, all of which is presented to the player in a manner that should appeal to those of us who may not be fans of console-style role-playing games. Fable II feels like a game where Lionhead may have bitten off more than it could ever possibly chew, yet again. Regardless of the promises made, Fable II is still a feast for the player.

Fable II was developed by Lionhead Studios, published by Microsoft Game Studios and released on Oct. 21 for Xbox 360. Retails for $59.99 USD. Completed single-player story, tested coop, and later revisited the game to play through with alternate choices.

Confused by our reviews? Read our review FAQ.

Several users - both in our tips@kotaku.com inbox and the official Lionhead Forums - say that Fable II has been 'freezing' or locking up at various stages.

"as soon as I got into my adult stage in the gypsy camp it froze," said Lionhead Forum member 'Sansight', "Strange freeze too, loud buzzing noise for about a second, then the screen gets all sorts of weird artifacts."

There has been some speculation that the recent co-op patch may be the cause of the issues.

These are still early reports, though, and it is unclear if there is actually a fault with the game or if this is just a few unlucky gamers with a hardware problem. Please let us know in comments if you have been affected.

Lionhead has been contacted for comment.

Problems with freezing... [Lionhead Forums]

We have identified that some copies of the "Fable II" Limited Collector's Edition are missing the downloadable content (DLC) cards, which give access to in-game bonus content. This represents a small fraction of the total number of "Fable II" games shipped and sold, and is contained to the Limited Collector's Edition of the game in North America. We are currently investigating the scope of this situation and regardless the outcome of the investigation, we are implementing a plan to address it. We will have a means to deliver replacement codes by Oct 28th so please check back then. We apologize for the inconvenience.

It represents a small fraction, yet they are currently investigating the scope of the situation? So how do they know it's a small fraction if they are still investigating? Good old doublespeak. Anyway, salvation hopefully comes on the 28th.

Some copies of Fable II Limited Collector's Edition missing downloadable content cards [Xbox.com - Thanks Nicky!]

That content, which requires Xbox Live, featured the following.
• “The Hall of the Dead” Dungeon
• “The Wreckager” Legendary Cutlass Weapon
• Spartan armor and energy sword

If what we heard is true, some of you may not even get that.

According to the report, GameStop corporate has already informed stores that "the majority of Fable II LEs have shipped without the DLC cards inside the case." Allegedly, that's due to two different manufacturing plants.

"Gamestop has told stores that cases WITH an orange '48 hours of live' sticker includes the content, whereas the copies of the game without said sticker do not have the card," the reader wrote. "I can vouch for the missing DLC because I have my copy in hand and it does not include it."

We've checked in with Microsoft PR to verify if this information is true or not, and, if so, how they plan on distributing the content to buyers of Fable II's Collector's Edition. Consider this rumor for now, but to be on the safe side, you might want to make sure your copy has one of those fancy orange stickers on it.

An employee of games packaging specialists Technicolor has been arrested in connection with the theft of 100 unreleased copies of Gears of War 2 and Fable 2.

An investigation into the theft led Memphis police detectives to follow security guard Rodney Gray when he left his apartment on Thursday. After pulling him over for outstanding driving offences he was found to have a number of games in a bag he was carrying. A search of his apartment revealed games and DVDs valued at over $100,000.

More than 900 Xbox discs, DVDs recovered [Commercial Appeal - thanks CyborgMatt]

Gameplay: The first 10 minutes Fable 2 [polygamia.pl. Here is the original Polish version of the page]

Playing through it while sticking to the more virtuous decisions netted me a three-piece chicken costume. Playing through again on evil got me a nasty expression book and a vial of pink dye. Hit the link and let us know what prizes you come up with. Together we'll collect the whole set!

Fable II Storybook Game [Xbox.com - Thanks Jose!]

Remember a couple of days ago (or was it a week) where on a blog it was mentioned that Fable II would be shipping 'without' Online Co-op? And remember we said we were busting our balls to get it ready in time for a 'Day One' release? Well - G o o d [Good] news folks! It looks like we've done it...for all of you who are connected to Xbox Live, when starting up your copy of Fable II (on 21st October in USA, 24th October in Europe and 18th December in Japan).

Yes! Sam does go on to warn that they still have to pass certification, but come on...Microsoft wouldn't hold this baby back, even if it came out horribly deformed!

Looks like Day One Patch [Fable II Dev Blog - Thanks Tim!]

I think of all the games I've made, I think I'm probably more excited about the launch of Fable 2 than I've been about any game really. Because everybody who's played it — the majority of which are the team members themselves, so this is going to sound strange, but they're always the toughest audience to please — has said it's fantastic. That's a wonderful feeling

Ever notice that Peter Molyneux is most excited about his latest game? That's why he's Peter Molyneux and you and I are not. Simple as that.

Peter Molyneux - Part Two [Games Industry]

It is always one or two games which define a platform — it's the same for the Wii, and the PlayStation 2... I think the PlayStation 3 is still waiting for that definition title that represents the platform - and I think that's what hardware manufacturers need to do, find that defining title... Nintendo did a brilliant job of doing that at launch with games like Wii Sports and Wii Play — maybe Fable 2 is a defining title. But you are talking to the proud father of this game, so you can't ask me to be tremendously objective.

No, of course not.

PS3 still waiting for its defining games - Molyneux [GamesIndustry]

Hit the jump to check out six possibilities.