You know sometimes when you start thinking back to games that you have played and how fantastic they were? Well since my little sister is currently "babysitting" my xbox 360 I decided to buy her a few old classics that made my gaming experience all tingly and magical. My memory Lane games are those games that need to be reminisced about as you forget everything you didn't like about the game. Today's game is fable 2

Fable 2 (contains spoilers!)
Coming out of Lionhead studios came one of the few games for the last gen consoles that I actually preordered. The preorder is the highest commendation I can give to a game, If i preordered it then I thought so highly of it I spent money on something I wouldn't even get for weeks.
Anyway after picking up the first fable game and deciding it was one of the best games at the time and was slightly confused about how I had left it long enough that I was able to play it for the first time out the bargain bin. However after that first fable game and the irritating sound of that dudes voice constantly saying "your health is low, do you have any potions, or food" which to this day is ingrained into my soul, i looked out for the second installment. After a while teasing little screenshots started littering the internet and I could not get enough, and the graphics were something else entirely. At least 478 of the youtube trailer views were mine and thats when I knew I was obsessed.
After the realisation that I was obsessing about a game that at the time didnt even have an official release date I moved on to other games somewhat begrudgingly. This was until I received the amazon email of wonderfulness that said that the game I had forcibly stopped myself druelling over had been released more or less at the same time it thumped onto my welcome mat. this was an amazing surprise at the time bearing in mind that I had preordered it some time ago and had completely forgotten about it after that.
Life wasnt the same after that, I played for days... straight days.

The game itself would still stand up today from a story point of view with a pretty rudimental hero story with the choice to be who you want to be. this coupled with a classic silent protagonist and a faithful (and I mean this sincerely) not even remotely annoying dog.
Lets focus on the dog just a minute I don't know about you but this was the first time in video gaming when you actually get a useful and reliable companion that you actually get attached too. After the suicidal scientists of half life it was some relief. The dog was one of the biggest areas of contention however and lots of people didn't like the idea of the four legged furry friend following you. But I guess they also had the half life suicide scientist squad in the forefront of their mind.

the gameplay itself was just straight up fun with a simple button layout and everything you needed to terrorize villagers and make a character that reflected your personal tastes. My character was a straight up troll complete with bald head, half naked, horns, bright red eyes and a club the same size he was. Many an hour was spent clocking werewolves in the noggin.
Ok so I have made this sound almost angelicly good now but there were some issues (I say through gritted teeth) the loading times were pretty hardcore and the fact that it was built as like a few open world spaces with loading screens between. This system cam directly from the first game and for its day wasn't that bad but I can't help remembering that assassins creed had come out the previous year and had massively bigger spaces to explore even if it wasn't as good overall.
The good/evil thing was pretty god even though it was way easier to be evil and you had to work hard or pay through the nose to be good or get out of the evil slump that you had inevitably fallen into.
All in all even now I would give it a 7/10
even if then it would have been a 10/10
Brought to you by Mad Flavour Gamer