Another game from one of Microsoft’s internal game studios, Lionhead, is the upcoming third game in Lionhead honcho Peter Molyneaux’s Fable rpg series. This rpg series has been one of the big guns in Microsoft’s exclusive 1st-party titles since the Xbox and now the Xbox 360. It is also the one game franchise which has polarized the gaming community into hardcore supporters and vehement detractors. This major extreme split is due to the fact that Molyneaux has had the tendency to overhype the greatness of each game in the franchise as game-changers for the industry. While each game has been great and fun they all fail to live up to the most extreme boasts by Molyneaux which the franchise’s detractors like to point out with relish.

I’ve been a supporter of the franchise right from the beginning and while I am disappointed that the games never really live up to the rose-colored heights Molyneaux hypes them to be, in the end the games when given a chance to stand on their own merits are some of the best action-rpgs and actually bring new things to the table. IF one was to ignore the hyperbolic rantings of the studio’s head honcho then the games really stand great on their own merits.

This third game (hopefully won’t be the final one in the series) continues the storyline from the two previous games but advances the setting several hundred years into the future. The first game was based in a medieval-type fantasy world while the second game jumped ahead to a Renaissance-type fantasy setting. This third game, if one was to base their observations from the trailer, looks to have the series jump forward to an Imperial Age-type of fantasy setting. Just think of it as 17th to 19th century alternate universe.

The game looks to continue with the series excellent use of morality-based decision making affecting the world around the player, but this time around not just whether a player decides to be hero or villain, but benevolent ruler or despotic tyrant. I like this progression in the series as it should bring new kinds of moral decisions which could affect hundreds of thousands and actually end or cause wars.

While the trailer doesn’t really show pure gameplay scenes it does look to be using the game engine to craft the trailer (something Lionhead has done in the past so no pre-rendered scenes). This is one title for 2010 that I am very excited to purchasing and playing.