Molyneux: Fable III was not "up-to-date," IV should "amaze" gamers

On Wednesday, Peter Molyneux surprised and amused the industry when he apologized to developers for all the little lies he's told over the years to hype up Lionhead's games.  And today?  He's back to making bold claims, though to his credit, he hasn't delved into anything specific.

While Molyneux has since moved over to Microsoft Game Studios, he still works with Lionhead and maintains a keen interest in the success of Fable.  Molyneux stated during an interview that he takes the review scores of Fable III quite seriously; although the game did fairly well and accumulated an overall healthy reception from gamers and the press, average scores were lower than those of its predecessor. 

"I totally blame myself, not anyone upstairs, who all did a wonderful job," he said.  "[After Fable II's reception] my expectations were sky high. The planning was the problem. We had to look at the process."

Ultimately, Molyneux believes the third Fable simply wasn't "up-to-date" compared to other games on the market.  That said, he's confident in the uniqueness of the series, which no other game has so been able to emulate.

"I think we took Fable III and realised it wasn't quite up-to-date with [the best modern games] and that we need to go forward. But the great thing about Fable is there's nothing quite like it out there. There's nothing wrong with FPS games, but they are what they are - their currency is what they blow up. Our currency is this beautiful charming dramatic world that has different things in it every day."

So what should we spect for Fable IV?  Molyneux has made no mention of Kinect functionality or any other gameplay feature yet, but he is confident the quality "should amaze."

"I have a very clear idea where Fable will go in the future," he explained.  "Trying to be diplomatic, I think that whatever we do next with Fable, we should just amaze people with the quality.

"If we go on, we're not just going to make another Fable, we're going to make something that stands head and shoulders up with anybody else out there -- the best of the best -- in terms of its technology, its drama and its storytelling."

Hey, that actually sounds pretty good.  We do like good "drama and storytelling" way more than virtual real estate schemes and needy spouses.