One of the main talking points over the last few days is the leaked achievement list for Fable 2. The list, which originally comes from the 360GameSaves forum, was posted on the forums of achievement website Xbox 360 Achievements on Sunday 10th August where Fable fanatics have been flooding in order to view the list. In this article, I will discuss the main points in proving the list’s is genuine.
When I first laid eyes on the image, I immediately checked the GamerTags (YumYumDonuts and X Dark Seraph X) and couldn’t find any record of either. The person who leaked the list – Dark Seraph – claims the user YumYumDonuts used a debug console, a console that developers send content to for the owner to use, test and trial pre-release game code. They are normally owned by top gaming websites (though surprisingly we don’t have one) and with using such a console YumYumDonuts managed to get hold of the source code for Fable 2, more than two months before its release. Dark Seraph has yet to confirm how the source code was obtained so early.
Now I’ll move onto the list itself. At first glance, the list seems very plausible and Fable-like. Quite surprisingly, I was amazed at how well the list fits in with Lionhead’s blog post “Achievements, What Achievements?”, in which Mike West, Lead Scripter of Fable 2, gave a few points of what the achievement list would contain. Firstly, Mike said the list would contain no secret achievements. Check. Number of story mode-related achievements. Check. Combat achievements. Check. Simulation achievements. Check. Collector’s achievements. Check. The list even contains some stupid achievements such as playing “fetch with your dog”, and finally there seems to be a few morality achievements. So overall, the leaked achievement list matches all seven points made by Mike West. There’s no denying the list contains some of the Lionhead Studio humour. I doubt many of you weren’t laughing out loud after reading down the list.
On Monday 11th August, Mike posted a blog entry where he said he isn’t “confirming or denying that the list is accurate,” it seems rather awkward to not come out and say whether the list is a fake or not – which sways me into thinking the list is in fact real. So we’ve had official word on the leaked list and it still hasn’t given us any idea of the genuinity of the list. I’m sure all will be revealed in the foreseeable future.
Do you think the list is genuine? Leave us a your views in the comments.
