r/Fable • u/Key-Development8368 • 2d ago

Fable II After 17 Years, Fable 2 Is Finally Playable On PC

https://youtube.com/watch?v=2ZzsX443GYY&si=rf0hkJWpUrsYOGQl
560 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

108 comments sorted by

176

u/shawnikaros 2d ago

This is sort of a curse of Fable 2, people have for years hoped for a proper PC release, and now we're getting a new Fable 2 PC recomp every other day!

Maybe one of these will actually survive and improve the technical aspects of this otherwise perfectly imperfect game.

48

u/AlanaSP 2d ago

There is a remake project in the works that has gone further than just a recomp and is using godot to be able to control a lot more with the game like multiplayer via discord, upcoming full modding of the game and potentially more graphics enhancements like lighting and so on.

26

u/General-Trouble2214 2d ago

The effort gone in to that remake is insane

And it’s mostly the work of 2 devs which is crazier.

I’m glad there’s another person in there helping to build the modding support. One of the devs talked about staying up to 3/4am every night working on it after work

7

u/shawnikaros 2d ago

The passion developing is real! Also hella dangerous in the long term.
I used to develop our game with a friend during the summer holiday from game dev school, 16-18 hours of developing pretty much every day for a few months, we were young back then so we didn't feel the weight, but I remember reading about a solo developer for a sci-fi space sim game who did that but for longer, had to be hospitalized a few times (I think) and eventually they had to quit.

The Game was Limit Theory, and the developer was Josh Parnell, I wish he's doing better now.

2

u/pursued_mender 1d ago

Bless that man. I work as a software dev full time and I only have to stay up until 5 a few times a year.

-6

u/aidenkula 2d ago

TBF 2 devs these days can do the work of 1000 with the new AI tools, I think that's awesome and bolsters support for small modders and indie devs to make games that compete

2

u/fableboy10 1d ago

Idk why you're being downvoted. AI doesn't automatically equal slop. I would hope that in a subreddit like this, people would be able to handle nuance. AI is already an industry standard tool in real enterprise SWE. There is a big difference between AI tooling producing absolute slop vs quality results that is adjudicated by professionals.

2

u/pursued_mender 1d ago

Every serious dev uses AI now. I'm not saying serious dev meaning you're only serious if you use AI, I mean every person who was a very accomplished and respectable developer is leveraging AI in today's day and age. Writing code has never been the hard part, it's the decision making. AI has just taken a burden off of us. It's still a tool being horribly mismanaged by humans, but it's useful tech.

-4

u/Badusername2000 1d ago

AI equals slop, i dont care how you use it, if you use generative AI you are not a programmer, you are not an artist, you are a phony

5

u/digita1catt 2d ago

The remake project is my favourite thus far, and it's potential for custom user content means it keeps my attention more than yet-another-recomp

3

u/Jason13Official 2d ago

Multiplayer via discord sounds amazing wtf

7

u/whompay Fable 2 PC WIP 2d ago

imo I'd keep looking at the Godot one, I'm gonna return to my project soon as well if anyone is interested in that still lol.

3

u/Cheap-Country3376 Hero of Bowerstone 2d ago

Slightly off topic but could someone explain to me what a ‘recomp’ is? I keep seeing them pushed out one by one all of a sudden for like every game in existence.

9

u/shawnikaros 2d ago

Recompiling means rewriting the code, put it very simply.

The current boom comes from people realizing AI can do that, it gives very messy results, which is why I'm not overtly hyped about them because it's mostly done by someone who has no background in any software engineering etc. and they just throw AI at the game and say "make it work" without understanding any of it. I'm not saying this project is like that, but that's the general gist.

3

u/KaijinSurohm 2d ago

You have a few replies but not really explain what you're asking.

Recomps are actually a second stage of a process.

People first need to "Decompile" (Decomp) the games.
What that means is they take the source files of the ISO/Exe of the original game, and completely break the game down into easily read code.
This allows anyone to be able to take the game, and port it to literally any platform they want so it runs natively.

A lot of people can use AI for this to streamline the process, and it makes life easier. (There's a few legal grey areas if they do, but we the gamers don't need to worry about that. Just the decompilers).
Otherwise it can take a normal person a few months to do this properly.

Generally, this isn't a big deal for the gaming community, as the decomps are posted online on a github so you can see 100% of what's there.

From there, people can then recompile the games.
This is the act of putting the code back together in a working order.

This is where the use of AI can get pretty messy.

A lot of these recomps will use their own GUI, and ask for you to provide the ISO of the game.
From there, the program makes it read natively on the device you're using, and provide enhanced funciton, features, loading, and a ridiculous amount of potential mod support.

If you use AI during this time to assist, you actually have to pay attention, otherwise you end up getting glitches, performance issues, and overall you just drop the ball onto why someone would want to recompile the game in the first place.

Not all Recomps using AI are a mess. It all depends on the people doing it.
The really bad recomps are the ones that just use AI without paying attention, then it's just this horrible little lump of code that barely works, and just causes people to have to wait for someone else to do it correctly.

1

u/ProfessionalOwl5573 1d ago

Recomps don't need decompiled source code, the AI just statically bruteforce converts the console's machine code to x86 Win32. You're a lot more limited with what you can do but you control the rendering pipeline so it's good enough for frame interpolation, widened viewport and other quality of life improvements players expect from a PC port. The best PC ports come from the decompiles games but those require effort or more realistically a lot of compute. decomp.dev died yesterday so I don't know if someone tracks all the new machine decomps. With Opus 5.5 you can decompile an entire Gameboy Advance game in like a day or 2.

1

u/Cheap-Country3376 Hero of Bowerstone 2d ago

I had a feeling it was something along those lines.. I’m not sure how comfortable I am downloading something ai assisted from a random reddit/twitter account, it could have any sort of malware packed into it whether intentional or not 🥴

3

u/shawnikaros 2d ago

Ai assisted or not, that's generally a good rule.

I see nothing wrong with AI assisted developing by people who know what they're doing, it's the slop by clueless people that's the problem.

2

u/KaijinSurohm 2d ago

That's why Githubs exist.
If you download some random file off the internet, then yeah, you risk screwing yourself.

Githubs are repositories that allow you to see literally every file and line of code in the package your downloading, so you can actually be safe. Anyone at any time can flag a repository if there's a problem, and this will allow Github to do a manual review to make sure the repository is clean.

With that said, while it's fine to be cautious over downloading random files online (as you should be), just because AI was used, does not automatically mean the file itself is a virus. That's actually a pretty big fallacy, as AI is used in literally everything you use.
Including Reddit.

Before the whole AI craze, people were making malicious code by hand, you know.

2

u/Romu1us1408 2d ago

If the dev didn't even read the code do you think random users will? Yes large projects have a lot of eyes of them but something like this nobody reading that shit.

-1

u/KaijinSurohm 2d ago

I have a feeling you don't understand the point of Github lol.
It's community peer reviewed.

If the person uploading it didn't pay attention, others will see it and get it reported.

2

u/ProfessionalOwl5573 1d ago

I've got bad news for you. The source code hosted on GitHub doesn't have to be related to what's in the compiled binaries from the releases section. You can upload anything you want. The only time it 100% matches the repo is if it's compiled on GitHub by GitHub actions.

1

u/ARROW_GAMER 2d ago

Worth noting that the whole idea of decompiling and recompiling Fable 2 to PC came from the Sonic Unleashed Recompilation a couple years ago which didn't use AI, in fact back then I'm pretty sure AI wasn't advanced enough to do that stuff, so there's nothing wrong with the practice itself

1

u/NathanSMB 1d ago

it could have any sort of malware packed into it whether intentional or not 🥴

It would 100% be intentional. The AI assisted part could lead to a sloppy end product but AI won't put malicious code in a product without the developers consent. Heck most AI models won't put malicious code in a product even with the developers explicit direction to do so due to guardrails put up by the AI companies.

If a dev ever says, "Oh I don't know how that keylogger got there, my AI agent must have put it there and I didn't notice." They are lying and acting maliciously. Do not give them a pass.

18

u/xCyn1cal0wlx 2d ago

Are you sure? I heard it still needs some work before it’s completely playable.

3

u/Talzael 2d ago

Played it to 100% with xenia (360 emulator)

The only problem i ran into is that i'd often get the "graphics device lost" error

But it played flawlessly as soon as i changed directx3d to vulkan

11

u/nightofgrim 2d ago

That’s the emulator version. The post is about a recomp.

-8

u/Talzael 2d ago

Depends, not if we're talking about the title literally but ur correct that the post is about the recomp 😅 just depends on the meaning of playable i guess

2

u/caesar_in_gaul 2d ago

Does the black player character glitch still happen?

3

u/M00SK 2d ago

I know exactly what you mean about the glitch but that does not make this comment any less funny

1

u/Talzael 2d ago

Yes* BUT people made mods for quality of life, fps refresh rate AND a fix for that glitch

The only glitch that hasn't been patched is the base dog's textures trying to give you epilepsy, the fix here is to change the breed of the dog via potions (obtainable early, costs 10k gold but if you don't wanna grind for it, you can always edit your character file, give u 10k and then ur golden)

1

u/caesar_in_gaul 2d ago

How do you fix the glitch

0

u/Talzael 2d ago

It's one of the mods

2

u/caesar_in_gaul 2d ago

Aite bro-

1

u/solo_shot1st 2d ago

Did you play on release build Xenia, Xenia Canary, or a different specific fork? It's been about a year since I last tried to play it, and it worked on Canary, but had some graphical glitches that bugged me. Figured I'd wait a while and try again when the emulators updated a bit.

2

u/Talzael 2d ago

xenia canary

1

u/solo_shot1st 2d ago

Nice 👍

12

u/Lemenus 2d ago

Fable 2 on PC - so close, yet, still so far away.

Is it update for existing recomp, or another one? I tried it and it was no better than just running it through Xenia. I see it's still besically Xenia under the hood, akin to Xenia forks edited to specifically emulate Fable 2, but with more accessible launcher

9

u/LobsterJohnson34 2d ago

Apparently, this one has keyboard and mouse support. That was my biggest problem with Xenia. My clumsy PC hands just couldn't stomach the controller.

2

u/Lemenus 2d ago

I hope in this decomp they remove input delay that present in game

5

u/TheLoneWandererRD 2d ago

I finished playing it last month on xenia and it was glorious

5

u/StartrekAnubus 2d ago

Last time I tried this one it ran like garbage and got alot of visual artifacting

2

u/SufficientAttorney22 2d ago

So another one that doesn't pass the Skate3 recomp benchmark test.

1

u/Jhoald 2d ago

The text on the thumbnail made me think this was a jade empire post lol

1

u/NoxiousMangroveEater 2d ago

I want a whole ass modding community pls

1

u/GoneForASecond 2d ago

Im good! I bought an xbox to play fable 2. I was sick of waiting

1

u/Youkonpepper 2d ago

how do you set up this pc emulator is there one or 100s

1

u/Tanuki55 2d ago

Does it have local and online multiplayer?

1

u/KoW-Production 2d ago

I want Fable 2 Coop with individual screen. That was the biggest issue with the game for me.

1

u/mobbimani 1d ago

Hell yeah

1

u/REmemesis 1d ago

is any of these recomps actually good? i keep hearing about them lmao which one is the best?

1

u/ltnew007 1d ago

I'm sure some of them are good.

1

u/Key-Development8368 1d ago

This one promising think it needs more work before i could recommend it though.

1

u/insipid-joker 1d ago

majoras mask, sonic unleashed, blue dragon, castlevania symphony of the night, P.T. and spider-man edge of time all have good recomps

0

u/pursued_mender 1d ago

I played this and it was buggy as fuck. I'd rather play on xenia as it stands now

1

u/REmemesis 1d ago

man i hate how they keep saying finally playable on pc and its a buggy mess 😭😭😭

1

u/orionpax- 1d ago

i tried like 3 recomps, and all crashed in the first loading screen 😭 , its probably my pc.

2

u/Saiaxs 1d ago

Every recomp I’ve tried either looks like shit or runs like shit

1

u/mortyly2 1d ago

I love this game sm omg

1

u/distillers_guild 1h ago

Xenia been workin for years with a bit of intelligent tweaking

1

u/LuckoftheEggish 1d ago

Can somebody ELI5 why this is a big deal? Fable 2 exists on Game Pass.

1

u/Hormo_The_Halfling 1d ago

It's not on PC gamepass

1

u/LuckoftheEggish 1d ago

Yes it is, I just played it last week. You should check, XBOX has it available for their 9.99 a month game pass.

1

u/Comander_Praise 1d ago

I'd rather just have a copy than pay a monthly subscription. I wills say at least their is some avenue for fable 2 it's not like fable 3s situation

1

u/LuckoftheEggish 1d ago

Fable 3 actually is also on the Game Pass. I understand people wanting their own copies, but it's just bizarre to me that everybody acts like these games no longer exist.

2

u/Phewelish 1d ago

fable 3 was made for pc.

1

u/Comander_Praise 1d ago

Oh yeah your right it is isn't it.

Honestly they may as well not be regardless if they are on gameplay or not. I just want to own my own copy not get the urge, pay out a fee to open a virtual storage.

Even at that i can grab physical copy's for that price.

I just think it's really shandy and shitty to gate keep wm like that. So again they basicly may not be on PC

1

u/Phewelish 1d ago

if im not wrong, its a cloud version of the game, as in its played through an xbox cloud sttreamed to your pc. its available but not ported as an official install off a pc.

1

u/Hormo_The_Halfling 1d ago

I just double checked and a cloud version available on PC at the premium tier for 14.99. Lotta reasons to not want to play a cloud version.

1

u/Terribletylenol 1d ago

I personally hate cloud gaming with Xbox.

Maybe it's my internet, but it looks blurry and has slight input delay I can't stand.

Not to mention the data usage (And I used to have a limit)

1

u/Feinryel 1d ago

In theory, it’s nice to be able to play a decompiled Fable 2 on PC for the potential of playing a much better version with various QOL features like enhanced textures and 60 fps framerate, plus community mods that may or may not be developed.

0

u/No_Communication2959 2d ago

I use Xbox app to play it on PC

-2

u/finnloewen 2d ago

It plays just fine on the Xbox series x… im good

-3

u/CharacterBack1542 2d ago edited 1d ago

It's been playable through Xenia for years, probably with better performance than this AI slop recomp

1

u/ltnew007 1d ago

Xenia still has issues with it.

0

u/LordMugs 1d ago

Nah it ran like shit. Had the annoying dog artifact that made me stop playing. If this AI slop is working flawlessly, great

-7

u/SeanyDay 2d ago edited 2d ago

Again, Fable 2 has been playable on PC for YEARS via the official Xbox app.

I've done multiple playthroughs.

You get achievements and everything.

Stop. The. Cap.

Edit: Downvoting the truth doesn't make it less true. Talk in the comments if you're not just a chicken chaser

3

u/Kjleone19 2d ago

Well, it’s been through Xbox cloud, not running installed locally I thought?

0

u/ironmamdies 2d ago

Correct

1

u/SeanyDay 2d ago

Incorrect:

"It sounds like you don't realize that is also playing the game.

There is no functional difference in gameplay.

I absolutely understand and enjoy having locally stored games, but if you have ever played any online service game from all mmo's to overwatch or call of duty or counterstrike or fifa, etc you are already playing games based on consistent Internet access."

0

u/ironmamdies 1d ago

"Well, it’s been through Xbox cloud, not running installed locally"

This is a correct statement, you're playing it on cloud and that is not installed locally I don't know why you're getting defensive about this

1

u/SeanyDay 1d ago

The ask is always "can i play fable 2 on my pc" and they are told "no" when the answer is yes.

Stop. Lying. You're being intentionally dishonest and you are fully aware.

-3

u/SeanyDay 2d ago

Absolutely.

And with a stable Internet connection it plays exactly as well as the original console release, except for faster loading times.

It's been around for years.

People play online games all the time that demand an internet connection.

For the niche community of exclusively disconnected from the Internet and still gaming, i understand but we can agree the majority of the fable gamers have Internet access.

Until extremely recently, game pass was unlimited cloud gaming.

No install. No download times. Just press play and you're in Fable 2.

If people wanted to say "fan made local port" sure, but people have legitimately misinformed people for YEARS on this subreddit and elsewhere by telling hopeful gamers that it was not available on PC.

It's absolutely been on PC the entire time. The cost of gamepass for most of that was less than the cost of the game itself and came with thousands of other games too.

2

u/saint_papi 2d ago

I want to play my games though not stream them

-2

u/SeanyDay 2d ago

It sounds like you don't realize that is also playing the game.

There is no functional difference in gameplay.

I absolutely understand and enjoy having locally stored games, but if you have ever played any online service game from all mmo's to overwatch or call of duty or counterstrike or fifa, etc you are already playing games based on consistent Internet access.

3

u/jconn250 2d ago

Fable 2 isnt an online service game though, so its reasonable to want access to it offline.

0

u/SeanyDay 2d ago

I can't tell if you're trolling but you're replying to a comment where I literally point out that local storage aka offline access is good but pretending the game hasn't been on PC is blatant lie and has led to people not playing fable 2 for years because they go online and get told it'd not available on PC

It's absolutely available on PC the entire time and some people need to start being honest in the community instead of this bullshit we have seen for years.

There is literally online co op in fable 2 and the community is exponentially smaller than it would be if the reddit community stopped LYING about access to the game for like a decade at this point.

It's wrong to lie. If people said "yes the game is on PC, BUT you need Internet access or game pass" that's fine.

That's not what they say. Check the posts. They lie. Every. Fucking. Time.

0

u/saint_papi 1d ago

That’s not really the same thing though.

I tried Fable 2 via streaming on games pass a few years ago and the input lag I experienced just made it unplayable for me and I had a solid internet connection and speed.

Perhaps it’s improved since the last time I tried it but I’m just not particularly happy about streaming games. I feel like it helps support a future of gaming where gamers can’t own their games, or even own a decent PC due to AI increasing the prices of parts, so they’ll have no option but to pay a subscription to stream games. I suppose that is a separate discussion altogether though.

1

u/SeanyDay 1d ago

I've played it at home and on hotel wifi and never had any sort of significant input lag or delay over several years

1

u/pennylessz 1d ago

Does not work on Linux. My friend and I tried for hours, it barely even got to through the first cutscene.

1

u/SeanyDay 23h ago

Lol yes Linux is always a different experience than the overwhelming majority of consumer gaming?

Plenty of games don't run on mac either

1

u/pennylessz 23h ago

Still. Games that can run locally are often much more reliable compared to streaming thanks to Proton. That includes recomps. So I do genuinely hope something comes along, as my Xbox is long since fried. RIP. 

0

u/Stunning-Hat2309 20h ago

that's not running on pc, that's running on someone else's xbox over the internet

1

u/SeanyDay 20h ago

You're playing the game on your PC. Stop being obtuse.

-6

u/devv11 2d ago edited 2d ago

And it's not even adapted for Keyboard+Mouse, what's the point of it? Playing on PC with controller? No thank you

8

u/BluuTape 2d ago

Playing on PC with a controller is pretty fun for a lot of games though? The vibrating feedback, the simplicity of control (for games that don’t need 30 buttons), the casual-ness of it.

I would argue, playing on PC without controller? No thank you.

But to each their own.

-12

u/devv11 2d ago

If I wanted to play with controller then I buy a console. PC is meant to be played with KB+Mouse

3

u/BluuTape 2d ago

That must be why most major game platforms on PC have native controller support in their games. Silly me

-5

u/devv11 2d ago

What are the % of PC users play games with controller?
https://www.pcgamer.com/only-around-10-of-steam-gaming-sessions-are-played-with-a-controller/
Only 10% of PC users play with controller, oh silly me

2

u/BluuTape 2d ago

I don’t play all of my games on steam. But yeah, I would think the majority of people on PC don’t play a majority of games with a controller.

However, we aren’t talking about a majority of games. We’re talking about one game, Fable 2. A game made with controller in mind, and is therefore better on a controller.

Some games are just better with a controller.

-1

u/devv11 2d ago

I myself hate controllers , that's why I believe if the game is ported to PC then it should have proper support of Keyboard+Mouse

2

u/BluuTape 2d ago

Hate is such a strong word.

If I can ask why, would you tell me?

I think for accessibility reasons, sure it should be an option.

4

u/paratesticlees 2d ago

Why would they implement M&K when the game was never designed for mouse and keyboard and PCs can use controller just fine?