Keystone combines elements of roulette and craps both visually

There has always been a slight problem with gambling video games, in that they take a real-world vice and invariably remove the most important ingredient: the chance to win or lose large sums of cash. Without any sense of risk - or the chance to get rich quick - most games are reduced to a hollow experience that gets dull pretty quickly. Where is the thrill in hitting a royal flush in poker if your winnings are paid out in pretend money? It's not like you can blow it all on pretend hookers, pretend cocaine and pretend fast cars.

Fable II: Pub Games neatly sidesteps this problem; in fact, it turns the whole situation to its advantage. The title serves up three neat little gambling games with the idea being to accumulate gold and other prizes ahead of the release of the full-blown Fable II. Once that comes out, you'll be able to merge your Pub Games profile with your newly-created adventurer... and Hey Presto! Suddenly your hero will find his pockets stuffed with filthy lucre which can then be spent on hookers (possibly), cocaine (doubtful) and fast cars (definitely not).

It's a sly move indeed from Lionhead, who supervised the development team at Carbonated Games. People who would have bought Fable II anyway will enjoy the mini-games and get all fired up ahead of October's release, building anticipation for the launch. Meanwhile, undecided shoppers who give Pub Games a go will discover a powerful incentive to buy the full title - what else will you do with all that hoarded gold? And what about the magic apple pie you just won - don't you want to see what that will look like in-game?

In fairness to the developers, we'll wager that there will be far more people in the former category than in the latter. It's also worth pointing out that several retailers are giving away Pub Games for free to people who pre-order the main title. Happily, as we're about to explain, this is actually a pretty decent little set of diversions - so if you're definitely set on getting Fable II, it's worth ferreting out one of these deals.

Without further ado, let's talk about the Pub Games themselves. First we have Tower of Fortune, a card game that feels like a strange hybrid of blackjack and Deal or No Deal. The principle is that the player bets upon numbered cards laid in rows of increasing length, arranged in a pyramid shape. When a row has been revealed, the dealer will offer you a cash sum equivalent to the value of the cards shown. You can either take this and walk away, or hold out for another, longer row which is likely to give you a better total. The catch is that if any card matches the value of those directly above it - creating a vertical pair - then the game busts, and you get nothing.

Players are given a couple of lifelines to escape this result. The first vertical pair you draw is ignored, and each deck contains four special hero cards which make their row immune from a bust. As mentioned, your offer from the dealer tends to increase as the rows get longer - and if you can manage to get all the way down to eight rows without busting, you'll pick up a massive jackpot. The challenge is therefore to hold on for as long as you can, which can make for some tense moments.

The second game, Spinnerbox, is essentially a fruit machine in all but name. A series of discs are spun at random; if two or more matching symbols are revealed, it results in a payout. The player's only real input is to control the size of their bet, making this the least skilful - and therefore the least interesting - of the three games on offer.

Far more diverting is Keystone, a dice-based affair that blends elements of both craps and roulette. Here we are presented with a playing surface with two distinct areas: the outer section consists of a semi-circle of stones numbered 3 to 18, while the inner part has a selection of boxes relating to different bets available to the player. Three dice are then rolled, and the stone corresponding to their total is removed from play. This keeps going until either stones 10 and 11 have been removed, or until one of the end stones (3 or 18) go, ending the round. Players can bet on which stones will fall, or on a selection of other criteria relating to the numbers or the dice.

While Spinnerbox feels a bit aimless, Keystone and Tower of Fortune prove to be surprisingly addictive. Aside from the chance to win gold, dedicated playing unlocks concept art and access to more complicated variations of the three main games, through the levelling up of your gambler. You can also join tournaments against AI opponents in the hope of winning items that can be used to kit out your future Fable II hero. These prizes come in pretty weird shapes - from haircuts to new tricks for your pet dog - but there are some fairly tasty-looking special items at the higher levels.

There is one small flaw to these tournaments, in that those pitched at beginners are free to enter - in other words, they offer you a chance to win for nothing. This feature was presumably included to help people climb their way out of debt, but it seems unusually generous. The Spinnerbox tournament seems particularly problematic; spamming the A button is enough to get you through the whole event in a matter of minutes - and if you don't win anything, you can always have another go. While this will get boring very quickly, it's also a sure-fire way to hoard cash - never a good thing for a gambling game.

On the whole, however, this is a minor flaw in what is otherwise a polished package. Pub Games does exactly what it's supposed to do and it does it in a fairly charming way. The background music and the graphics are quietly stylish with the occasional flourish - the way the hero cards spring to life in Tower of Fortune is a neat touch - but it's thoughtful design that makes the games worthwhile. If you're not planning on buying Fable II then Pub Games is a questionable use of 800 Microsoft Points; if you are then it's certainly something to check out - especially if you can get it for free.

August 2008

I didn't think it would be possible to write such a full review of just 3 little gambling games and their variations, but I read every word and totally agree. I downloaded it this morning, think it's only the 2nd time in 2 years that I've bought anything off XBox Live's Marketplace.

If you're getting Fable II I think it's worth every penny, to buy everything in Fable II costs around 100 million gold according to Peter Molyneux and you could probably get a fair chunk of that beforehand just by continually mashing the A button during Spinnerbox Tournaments until October 24th.

On the other hand, if you're not getting Fable II... stay clear, unless you're desperate for all but one of the achievements. They craftily included one that you can only get if you buy the full game too.

Peter Molyneux wrote at 19:32 on 13 August 2008

Im totally psyched for Fable 2, who isn't, but how the hell do u take advantage of getting these pub games for free when u pre-order Fable 2 in the UK, at the mo ive pre-ordered special edition from GAME as i assumed it would fall to them to do the distributing of the special offer in the uk but there is no word on it and when i rang them i seemed to know more than them about it !!!!!!!!

Kite wrote at 08:42 on 20 August 2008

I have to disagree with the generous reviews of this game -- at best, it's unfair, and at worst it's impossible...

I don't expect them to hand over every single item to me at a drop of the hat... but after 57 hours of play... one would be nice.
The difficulty level of this game is insane, and it's been a long time playing and I haven't won even a single one of the items that this game offers...
The tournament system is the biggest and deepest flaw... It wouldn't hurt to give you a chance for the money this thing costs.

But as it stands, it's a waste of 800 xBox points if it was a waste of 8

August 2008

I'd disagree with impossible, but the Spinnerbox tournaments are definitely unfair (whoever decided mashing A a few hundred times to determine a random outcome was great gameplay needs to rethink).

To win them it's literally just a case of keep trying, you should, on average, win a tournament once every 4 attempts as you only need to place in the top 5 of 20 to proceed.

For Keystone Tournaments, much easier, most of the time the AI loses money unless they get really lucky with 3x same dice (Trips). Two strategies include:
Placing a minimum bet on one outside stone, nothing on the inside, then just rolling die until the 5 rounds are over and hoping everyone else lost.
Placing a minimum bet on one outside stone, a max bet on all the '3 of the same' squares, and just rolling die till you get 3 of a kind, then just sticking to the minimum outside bet from there on until the tournament is finished.
Fortune Tower Tournaments are the only ones that requires strategy, which basically means for me getting lucky with a few initial max bets and then keeping an eye on what your opponents are betting and making sure you bet enough so that if you lose you still don't end up with less than they do. Get past the first round and you place in the top 5 anyway, which counts as a win.

To get out of debt at the end of it all (or to make money generally) you have a few options:

Use the Fortune Tower glitch (Google is your friend here).
Play the free Tournaments (takes ages though).
Play strategically (and ride your luck).

I ended up with 178k after playing the game regularly to unlock everything, and now I just play randomly (mix of Tournaments and hi-stakes games) and seem to be doing ok. (5m and counting).

Jak wrote at 19:14 on 31 August 2008

Hey, does anyone think that the glitch in Fortune's Tower, which we all know was purposefully incorporated into the game, will cause anyone who uses this ill-gotten method to amass a huge amount of wealth to also inherit evil side attributes when they merge their winnings with their Hero after buying Fable II? Remeber everyone, there is a dealer on the table who is watching whether you see him or not!

September 2008

I'm not sure the glitch was purposefully incorporated into the game, according to one Lionhead community manager a patch is on the way to remove it.

The only real question is: will the patch remove just the glitch or will it do anything else? (Like remove glitched winnings which would place a lot of glitchers into massive debt, or reset the leaderboards completely, or ban tournament glitchers for exploiting an ingame bug to their advantage on the XBox Live leaderboards etc).