Avoid PC Version

[Uki]

TLDR at bottom.

I'm generally not the type of person to advise others how to spend their money, but this time I truly feel compelled. The PC version of this game is without a doubt the worst port I've ever had the displeasure of playing. This is not due to the content of the game (story, etc) but instead due to the glaring and blatant technical issues stemming from a shameful port.

After 3 dreadful hours, I barely made it through the introduction. For starters, bad port means poor optimization. My computer is capable of running the game at 80 FPS with maxed graphical settings. This doesn't mean the game runs smoothly, however. Even with 80 FPS, the game stutters every few seconds for no apparent reason. Vertical sync is not a solution for this, as the developers decided the proper framerate cap for a computer game is 30. Needless to say, this is not the case, and lead to a severe headache.

So, I tried lowering the graphical settings. Great, no more stuttering and I'm running the game at 150 FPS. Sounds good, right? Well, it was, until the intro ended. Once I got to the first real zone, more problems arose. At random times, for no apparent reason, my framerate would crash to 30 and remain locked there (as if v-sync had been turned on). This would occur every half minute or so, and the only solution was to alt-tab out of the game for a moment. It wouldn't have been a big deal if it was a rare happening, but as I said, this framerate crash happened extremely often.

Second issue is a small gripe, but still one that I feel the need to bring up. The mouse/keyboard support for the game is very lackluster. Everything about it screams "bad port!". Instead of being able to select conversation actions with your mouse, the game requires you to use the numbers on your keyboard (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, etc). Not a big deal, but it's clear the devs were being lazy and doing as little work as possible when porting this game to PC.

Lastly, Games for Windows Live (GFWL). Lots of PC gamers hate this, and I'm beginning to see why. The support is absolutely terrible. The way DLC and other downloads are handled is absolutely horrid. Once I cleared the intro and reached the player's hub of sorts (trophy room, dressing room, etc), I had a chance to redeem free DLC packs for the game. This included free weapons, hair packs, etc. Great, free stuff is always good. So, I clicked on the items to claim them...

GFWL pops up and prompts me to begin a download process. That makes sense, let's do this. 250 MB for a couple free weapons... That's weird. Let's see how big the hair pack is... 250 MB. Tattoos? 250 MB. Sigh. As it turns out, even the seemingly small DLC packs are going to take up a large portion of space on my drive. This is in addition to the 12 GB the game itself took (the Steam size of 7 GB is a bit misleading, wouldn't you say?). I realize this isn't a big deal to most people, but I live in a rural area and my download speeds aren't the best. In order to download all of the free DLCs, it would have taken me about two hours.

Beyond the large download sizes for small content packs, attempting to redeem the buyable DLC packs was an even worse experience. Suffice it to say, I wasn't able to redeem and download anything other than the free packs. Whenever I tried to redeem the DLC codes, I was told that I needed to verify my account (why? I have no idea). So I went along with it. A couple pages and security codes later, I was... signing up for Xbox Live? What? How did this happen? I closed the page, and restarted the process.

Click DLC, redeem code.... Account verification needed... Check email, acquire code, enter code... Xbox Live.

That's when I gave up on the game. It is simply not worth the effort in my opinion. I loved the previous Fable games and have always been a fan of the series. I have no doubt that Fable III would've been enjoyable, had it not been for the terrible port and GFWL aspects.

If you still want to play Fable III, get it for a console... The PC version isn't worth the hassle.



TLDR.

1) Bad port = terrible optimization. Game stutters even at high FPS.

2) V-sync not a viable option. Capped at 30. Not acceptable for PC games due to how frames are buffered. Leads to headache.

3) Random framerate crashes. From 150 to 30 in my experience. Framerate gets locked to 30 until you alt-tab out. Occurs every 30 seconds or so.

4) Mouse support is lackluster. Forced to use 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, etc to navigate menus and conversations. Stems from lazy port.

5) Games for Windows Live. Annoying enough by itself, but the handling of downloads makes it even worse. Free item packs, free hair packs, etc. were 250 MB each despite having very small amounts of content added. Game size was 12 GB despite being stated as 7 GB by Steam.

6) Wasn't able to redeem purchased DLC at all. Attempts resulted in me having to verify my account and ended with an Xbox Live subscription page.

Please note that my points have nothing to do with the content of the game itself, only the technical aspects of it. If you want to buy this game, I suggest getting it for console, because the PC version is nothing short of an unplayable pile of garbage.

[Soapi]

Did you try rebooting your computer? :o

[Elvis Prime]

I'm fine with your points. I like them, I think they are valuable for me.

I will say however, that it does mention the Games for Windows Live implementation on the Steam page. It does not describe it very well, but GFWL does require creating an account (much like steam) to do anything requiring DLC/Online implementation. It sucks, but thats the one point I find not relevent.

I don't mean to start an argument, or tell you that what you said was wrong. Just for the sake of clarity, for you and others, I thought I should say something.

Thanks for the heads up on all those issues. I have not tried to play/install my copy yet, and all these points are concerning :/

[supafly07]

All those 250MB DLC packs are actually the same download, which includes the Understone Quest pack. Once you download one, you have them all. As for downloading the DLC, just sign in to your windows live id (I went through XBox.com) and redeem the code on the "my account" page. It's rather simple. As for playing the PC version, I just downloaded and installed everything, so I can't say if it's one way or the other.

[Uki]

Originally posted by supafly07:

All those 250MB DLC packs are actually the same download, which includes the Understone Quest pack. Once you download one, you have them all. As for downloading the DLC, just sign in to your windows live id (I went through XBox.com) and redeem the code on the "my account" page. It's rather simple. As for playing the PC version, I just downloaded and installed everything, so I can't say if it's one way or the other.

Ah. That's good to know. It's odd, however, after downloading the 250 MB file a couple times, it was still prompting me to download the others. Thanks for pointing that out. :)