Game designer Peter Molyneux has labeled himself a "talentless b*stard" after admitting how he over-complicated Fable and Fable II. Of course, the designer thinks the third time's a charm, with Fable III going without a HUD and removing the RPG elements.

"There was this amazing moment when a piece of research came back [that showed us] more than half the people who played Fable 2 understood and used less than half the features in the game," Molyneux told CVG. "And as soon as you see that you think: "Oh my God. What a talentless b*stard I really am."

"How can I have made a game in which people actually understood less than half of its mechanics? It's like making a film that makes people think: 'It looks quite cool. I don't know what the hell is going on, but it seems quite cool.' You know, that's just wrong."

While speaking with the Telegraph last week at X10, game designer Peter Molyneux called on the UK government to support the games industry by giving tax breaks to local studios.

"It is just crazy that the British government does not recognize the games industry as a creative industry in the way it recognizes others," he said.

Canada recently passed up the United Kingdom as the third largest games industry in the world. Molyneux noted that many measures taken by Canada were "financially sensible."

"The UK has a great heritage of invention and creativity, it's just the rest of the world have a great heritage of recognizing that properly and it frustrates the hell out of me," the Lionhead boss concluded.

[via Joystiq]

Fable II had co-op, true, but it was pretty weak at best. Lionhead is listening to its fans this time around, adding a more fleshed out co-op experience in Fable III.

"I heard you all about co-op," Peter Molyneux told the 4Guys 1Up podcast. "You want to have your own hero come into the world. Okay, fine, you can have that definitely.

"When you come into my world, you come in as your hero, with your dog, with all your unique weapons, self-crafted weapons. I heard you -- you don't wanna be tied to my camera, you wanna go off and do your own thing in my world. Fine, fair enough."

Molyneux pointed out that players need to be careful who they invite though because "they can screw the whole thing up."

Fable III is releasing this fall.

[via Joystiq]

A couple months ago we ran a story about Peter Molyneux's career and the lessons he has learned. The game designer admitted that he had a tendency to over-hype his games, but that he was working on changing that. He also claimed that he would always specify if a feature will or will not be in a game. "...Whenever I talk about a game feature, I'm going to show it and be honest about it, and if it is an experiment, I'll call it an experiment," he said. "I won't call it a game feature."

Yesterday, Molyneux reiterated that he has "learnt" a lesson about over-promising. "I definitly [sic] have learnt my lesson about over promising," he tweeted. "There is a ton of work to do for sure, and the team are working hard. I truly believe."

[via Destructoid]

At X10 last week, Peter Molyneux showed off his latest creation, Fable III. He explained how the game will be without a HUD and how it's no longer an RPG. Molyneux also confirmed that Fable III will feature a whole new continent in addition to Albion, which is where both Fable and Fable II have taken place.

The new continent, called Arora, will be inhabited by new races, and it will be a "whole new environment," Molyneux explained.

Fable III will be releasing sometime this fall.

[via Inc Gamers]

Peter Molyneux no longer considers Fable III an RPG. Instead, he says it's "more like an action adventure." This comes after it was revealed the game would be without a HUD at X10.

"I'm not sure I even call Fable an RPG anymore," he said. "Certainly not a 1990s RPG, for sure. In a way, you could look at it and say it's like an action adventure. There's a lot of drama, there a lot of story, there's a lot of emotion in there -- but with levelling up. I love that levelling up.

"I'm not the sort of person that likes being given a pre-planned character and told "this is you no matter what."

[via CVG]

You know Fable III is getting imminently closer when Lionhead Studios starts to release its developer diaries. Yesterday during X10, the first diary went live, showing off the first ever gameplay footage of the game and giving us an inside look at it.

Fable III takes the concept of character morphing, or how your actions affect your character's appearance, and takes it further. Now your weapons will morph with you, Peter Molyneux explains. The game will also utilize Natal, which will allow players to "touch" things, pick objects up, and perform many other actions.

Fable III is set to release before the holidays this year.

Peter Molyneux has been talking up a storm about all the innovative features and gameplay elements Fable III is going to bring to the industry, and now Microsoft has gone ahead and released the first batch of screen shots for your viewing pleasure. There seems to be a darker, grittier feel to the game, full of fatherly pirates, guns, swords, and a possible return of your canine companion. Hit the jump for the full array of shots.

[via Joystiq]

At X10 this afternoon, Peter Molyneux confirmed that Fable III will have no heads-up display whatsoever. This news appears to be what the game designer expected people to get "pissed" about, although I don't see much harm in it.

Molyneux demoed the game, explaining how it will take cues from recent action titles that have environmental changes show how close a player is to death.

"Look at the screen!" Molyneux exclaimed. "It's completely clean! Why do we need the f**king health bar?"

The designer also explained how issues in Fable 1 and 2, what people saw as busywork, will now be better integrated into the game.

"The 2-D parts of Fable 1 and Fable 2 were rubbish," he told Wired. "That's why people didn't change their clothes or change their weapons." Those things, he adds, will now become "part of the game, which, I just realized, I'm not supposed to talk about."

Fable III will be releasing this November.

[image credit]

Fable III is set to be revealed at X10 later this week, and Peter Molyneux is already putting up his flameshield. According to him, there's some things in the game that might "upset people," even piss them off.

"There's some very, very big things happening in Fable," said Molyneux in a recent interview, "Bigger than you think, and it's going to really upset people.

"They're going to get super pissed off, they really are," he added.

Molyneux recently revealed that Fable III is in its final stage of editing, and it's expected to release this fall.

[via VG247]