Lionhead’s Fable games tend to be quite over hyped, and Peter Moleneux spent quite a while promoting and pimping up Fable 3 before its release, where it almost appeared that the new RPG would redefine the genre and take things to a new level. Does it live up to its hype? Not really. But it’s still a fun game to play, and something Fable fans will appreciate.

In Fable 3, you play as a prince (or princess), who is set to rule the kingdom, which is ruled by your evil brother, who runs everything with an iron fist. It’s your job to rise to the top and overthrow him, becoming king, and then deciding whether you want to be a good king or a bad one. If you’re familiar with Fable, you’ll certainly appreciate the huge world, lots of quests and stuff to do, and a lot of characters to meet, talk to, engage in combat and so on. It’s one of the richest worlds ever created, and its visuals, while not technically the best, offers a great look of a nation in the industrial age, not to manage all the fun and interesting characters you can interact with.

Combat and gameplay is straightforward, and has been streamlined to the point where everything is simple and accessible. While the open world offers your to be good or evil, and lots of side quests, you still have several key quest to complete before the finish. However, combat is sometimes a hit or miss, while it’s simple to use, it tends to be a bit too simplistic, because you only use one button and often times, it’ll simply be about button-mashing, the lowest form of combat. There are also a few bugs and glitches both in gameplay and game mechanics and quests. Luckily, you can also go through the campaign with a friend over Xbox Live, which is a great addition. However, one things remains great and consistent throughout the game, and that’s its wonderful British humor.

Overall, Fable 3 is an improvement over Fable 2, and while it doesn’t live up to the great hype, if offers a lot of interesting gameplay, has a great art-style and humor, and despite the few bugs and glitches (and some repetitive gameplay), it’s a worthy addition to the Fable franchise.

The Good:
Great, open world
Art-style and visuals
Wonderful humor

The Bad:
A few too many bugs
Visuals are a bit dated
Combat is uninspiring and too simpistic

Overall score: 7/10

Microsoft has announced record earnings for the first quarter of the 2011 fiscal year, where it raked in $16.2 billion in revenue and made over $5 billion in profits. Its Xbox division saw a 33 percent increase in revenue, to $400 million, where 2.8 million consoles were sold during the quarter. Software wise, Microsoft revealed that Halo Reach brought in $350 million in revenue.

When games are shipped, usually the development teams are cut substantially because there’s no more project and no upcoming projects to work on, which means each year around the holidays season, when many games ship, many developers are laid off as well. EA has announced that they’ll be letting off a lot of workforce on their NBA and Skate teams in EA Canada. EA has made these cuts each year for the past few years.

Steam has having another one of their famous Steam sales, this time, a Steam Halloween sale, where certain games are 50% to 75% off. For instance, you can have Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2 for just $15, or Team Fortress 2 for $10, or Bioshock for $5. Check out the full deal and list of game here. We’re especially fond of the STALKER deal, which for $10 gives you STALKER plus STALKER Call of Pripyat.

Nintendo just released some of its sales numbers, and a few things popped out, like DS sales, which are down considerably. In the first half of 2009, Nintendo sold 11.7 million DS units worldwide, while for the same period in 2010, Nintendo only sold 6.7 million — almost half as much. Wii sales are down as well, but not as significant as the DS. The slow sales have contributed to a 33% lower net income to Nintendo and 48% lower operating income.

A few weeks ago, Valve ported Left 4 Dead 2 on the Mac, joining Counter Strike, Half Life 2 and Team Fortress 2 on the Mac. But they also promised to deliver the original Left 4 Dead on the Mac, and so they have done now, as the game is available for download on Mac. If you have it on the PC, like other Steam games, you can play if for free on the Mac as well. Oh, and the game is on sale for today for $10, and Left 4 Dead 2 for just $15.

Dead Rising 2 has become somewhat of a hit, even surprising Capcom, which has announced that Dead Rising 2 has shipped 2 million copies. Shipped doesn’t mean that it sold as many copies, but it’s an indication of how much demand there is for the game. Dead Rising 2 has received great reviews and has been well received by fans as well — you can check out our Dead Rising 2 review here.

According to BusinessWeek and SharesPost Inc., Zynga has risen so much in value over the past year that it is now more worth than EA. According to them, Zynga is worth $5.51 billion, wheres EA’s market-cap on Nasdaq is $5.22 billion at the moment. As you know, EA is the second largest games publisher in the world, and employs some 10,000 people, whereas Zynga has roughly 1,000 employees. Analysts estimate that Zynga will earn $1.5 billion in revenue this year, a number which will jump to $3.5 billion in 2013.

Pokemon is huge in Japan, but that’s of no surprise, it’s huge everywhere. But unlike the rest of the world, Nintendo has dedicated Pokemon centers in Japan, shops where it’s all about Pokemon. And now, they’ve announced the largest center yet, a 9,000 square foot space in Tokyo where there will be over 2,500 Pokemon items to buy, and dedicated areas where players can play.

Ahh, the Home Shopping Network, for the absolutely lazy ones willing to pay a premium after being convinced by possibly the worst salesmen in the world. Check out how they deal with selling the new Xbox 360 Kinect. Yes, it’s okay to find it hilarious. Or just lame.