Game Stooge

REVIEW: Fable II Pub Games (Xbox 360)

• Scribbled on August 13th, 2008 by Jonah Falcon
• Filed in Casual Gaming, Microsoft Xbox 360, Reviews, Xbox Live Arcade

Fable II Pub Games is a unique Xbox Live Arcade game in many ways. It’s the first casino game for Arcade, though Texas Hold’Em is the first betting game. It’s actually a collection of minigames from the full game, though with its own Achievements, with functionality with the main game; the winnings you have in Pub Games have an effect with your heros in the game. It will also be bundled with Fable II when it ships, but can be downloaded now for 800 Microsoft Points  or for free if one orders Fable II. You can even earn new equipment for your Hero with Pub Games.

The game consists of Fortune’s Tower, Spinnerbox, and Keystone. But are they worth the 800 MPS? No. Is it fun? Sure.

Well, at least it’s 2/3 fun. Spinnerbox is a basic slot machine game. You press A, it spins, you win or lose. That’s it. Oh, each Spinnerbox has its own flavor, but it’s all random. Tournaments can be done by pressing the A button 200 times (100 to start the spin, 100 to quickly have the spin result without waiting for it to stop.) It’s pure luck and a general bore, despite the pretty graphics.

Keystone is a combination of craps and roulette. You do all the usual roulette stuff - predict the results of a die result by betting on the number, even/odd, red/black, doubles, triples, and so forth, each with a payout equal to its rarity. The major change from roulette is the Archstone and Archbet. The board is ringed by “keystones”, which you make bets on prior to the beginning of the game. Every stone is removed as its number is rolled (if it’s already removed, it moves to the next Keystone) If the 10 and 11 Keystones are removed, or either the 3 or 18 Keystone are removed, the game ends. This is the easiest game to make money on, despite the randomness, but is difficult to make BIG money on.

Fortune’s Tower is the best game, with the most strategy. Though it’s nothing like it, it has the same feel as Pazaak, the card game found in the Knights of the Old Republic games. There’s a real “press your luck feel to it.” The rules are simple: you’re dealt a pyramid of 3 cards after putting up an ante, with the top one face down. Each row that’s uncovered is one card larger and below, with a value equal to the cards in that row. You can choose to take the money or go for another row. The trick is that if any cards of the new row touch a card above of the same value, you lose it all. You can be saved by one of two ways: either one of the 4 Hero cards in the deck are in the row, or the top card called the Gate card can replace the offending card; however, if the Gate card is the same card as the one its replacing, or there are two offending cards, you’re screwed anyway. It’s great fun.

There are also tournaments against the AI, and here is the biggest, most serious oversight. There’s no online multiplayer against humans, and it’s a crying shame. All casino tourneys are best against living, breathing (and swearing) human opponents. This game is in serious need for trash-talking and online smirking, and the AI just doesn’t give it.

So here’s the verdict: don’t buy it. Get Fable II either now via preorder to get the code to get a free copy of Pub Games, or just get Fable II when it comes out to get the copy included with it.

I’m going to give multiple scores for this game:

800 Microsoft Points

Free

If they patch the game and add online multiplayer tournaments, add a star and a half to both scores.