There is a science in creating an edgy title for a game. Despite its simplicity, I’m positive that a lot of thought went into the name for Black. It’s a first person shooter with big guns and destructable environments – definitely appealing to the average gamer. Well, the ones that didn’t already play Red Faction anyway. Developers Criterion needed to keep it short and simple, so that no one will forget it easily. Like Halo. Except they have to make it darker sounding, because this game is about killing and blowing shit up. So what’s a dark word? Blood. It’s already taken. Sin. Nope, that’s gone too. Wait a second – Black. What’s darker than “Black”? I mean it’s black – darkness in a word. The shade of gunmetal. The heart of a mercenary. Perfect!

Now, about the actual game.

The Xbox version was pretty easy to pick up and play, because the control scheme is an exact duplicate of Halo. The demo I played dropped me into the middle of a building on a decimated city block. Shattered glass exploded all around me with the sound of gunfire drawing closer. I blew open the door with my shotgun and ran out into the street. I must have surprised my enemies because they didn’t fire at first; though don’t think I was able to get the drop on everyone. Bullets ejected from windows on the upper levels of buildings nearby and peppered the street in front of me. I threw a grenade into a nearby wrecked car that someone was using for cover and it exploded in suitable movie-styled fashion, bringing down a nearby wall.

I then rushed headlong into the next group of enemies with my AK-47 blazing, the shell casings decorating the bottom half of the screen. All of the weapons so far felt substantial and responsive, with the accompanying sounds strengthening the effect. I felt tough. I felt untouchable. I was soon entranced by the dull roar of gunfire.

But what was I doing here? Was the objective simply “kill or be killed”? Are we really still at the point where that’s reason enough to keep playing a first person shooter?

From what I’ve read the game is one of the shortest in recent memory. Like the name. I guess the devs wanted to distract you until it was too late, to prevent you from thinking that the game you have been playing for the last 8 hours didn’t have a story. Or worse – that it was not anything of consequence in the genre.

Not being the owner of an Xbox, I can’t say I was especially excited about the release of Fable and its promise of an RPG redefined. Like Halo before it, Fable is the latest big name genre title meant to convince people why they got an XBox in the first place. Not to say the the ‘cube is any better; both platforms seem to get the short end of the third-party stick when it comes to RPGs. So when I was invited to a gathering to play Fable, I took it as an opportunity to see what all the Xbox-humping was about.

Because Chris was too damn impatient to wait, he had already purchased his copy and played for a short time before the “Fable Summit”, firing off an unexpected three word review of “holy fucking shit”. Naturally I became excited at this point and was ready to see what Mr. Molyneux had for us after his critically lauded Black and White. Since Chris already had a go at it, and Tony preferred to uh…watch, I was left holding the controller and taking my first steps to becoming a renowned hero in the land of Albion.

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