Well the "Big" announcement is finally here, and really, it's not all that big.  Lionhead has announced a premium DLC pack called Knothole Island that unlocks new quests, armor, weapons and areas to explore and gain.  The download is set to come out December 12th for a price of 800 MS Points, which seems to be the standard run of the mill pricing for DLC these days.

From what I gather if someone purchases the DLC, you won't be able to play the content co-op unless you purchase it yourself.  In fact, if they purchase it and you don't download the free "co-op enhancement pack" you won't be able to play with them AT ALL.

Umm...really?   Maybe I'm misunderstanding something here, but why wouldn't this just be included in a title update?  Speaking of which  - where's the update to fix some of the outstanding bugs Lionhead?  

False alarm folks.  The Fable 2 news of the news that we previously reported as news?  Yeah, not gonna happen this week.  According to the Official Lionhead Blog, Microsoft said - no, you may not tell the world your awesome little secret...yet.   Ok, so they didn't say exactly that, but that's more or less the jist of it.

Lionhead assures us the announcement WILL take place on November 24th.  So take this news post as news of the news that was canceled but will be news again on November 24th.  Got it?  Good.

Until then, enjoy the NXE and check out the new Fable 2 theme...total hotness.

[Found via Joystiq]

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Normally, we don't like to tease too much.

Neither us, Sam, but heck, you just couldn't resist, could you?

Fable II developer Lionhead Studios has posted on their dev blog that a "big" announcement is coming next week.

Now, I can't think of anything that would certainly make the fan base happier than a co-op update, if for no other reason than because the fans weren't very pleased about the half-hearted launch effort that became this season's biggest adverse surprise among co-op gamers.

This bit of news comes just in time to remind you of our Fable II Co-Op Night November 13th (Thursday).

Click this link to read more about our November Co-Op Night, and click the "Read More" link to see the rest of what Lionhead's Sam had to say about the announcement.

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Despite our quarrels with the co-op mode of Fable 2, there is some fun to be had.  This month's Xbox Live Co-Op night is going to take place on November 13th and feature the aforementioned action RPG.  Want to know how to join up?  Read on.

Billy here lost his Fable 2 Collector's Edition code card.  You see, his copy of the game seems to have misplaced it.  Don't worry Billy, Microsoft has come to the rescue. 

Simply hit up this support site and fill in the required information, and you should have your CE code available shortly!  Master Chief Armor and a Special Dungeon will be all yours within 10 working days.   And for those of you with a slightly evil demeanor, you can try to get the codes if you wish, but there may be consequences!

It's been a long time coming, and Fable 2's promised revolutionary co-op is finally here.  But is it really revolutionary?  Read on to find out. 

Most games these days have bugs, glitches or problems.  So it should come as no surprise that a game as open and varied as Fable 2 has its fair share.  There are two major bugs in the game which can impede your ability to even complete it, and there are two glitches which help you become more rich and powerful.

The first bug is during the Abbot's quest when visiting the Temple of Light in Oakvale.  If during the quest speech you walk away from the Abbot, you'll be unable to actually achieve the quest and therefore unable to complete the main story line.  The second bug occurs during local co-op play.  If you join a game during the childhood phase and select an already existing save to base the henchman off of, your save will lose all XP and Gold.  Ouch!  Both bugs are known and Lionhead is working diligently to correctly both issues.

As for glitches, well there are two of these also.  The first one is simple and obvious; and it will yield you a TON of gold.  All that is required is that you invest in a few shops and properties.  Save your game, go to your system preference and change your clock to something far in the future.  Go back into the game and presto - mucho coinage.   The second glitch involves co-op play, and will yield you infinite experience.  During a local co-op game bring a henchman in without being assigned to a profile.  Then go to the henchman's abilities and discard them all.  Immediately have that player leave and all that experience gets transfered to the hero character.

Poor Billy.  He's looking for a co-op partner in Fable 2.  You see, his friend's list is empty - so he has no fancy orbs floating around.  For shame.  But you fine Co-Optimus readers can help him.  Despite any issues we have with what state the co-op play is in, the bottom line is the Fable 2 is still a damn fine game, and the cooperative play is tons of fun.  

So what we have here is one copy of the game to giveaway to one of our lucky readers.  How do you win?  Simply leave a comment and let us know - are you good or are you evil?  Bonus points if you tell us a good or an evil act that you will do with your co-op buddy Billy.

The winner will be drawn this Thursday at noon Eastern.  Good luck!

For a AAA title on release day, Fable 2 isn't doing too well.  Despite being really well received by critics, the fans are up in arms about several things.  Now there's one more thing to be pissed about.  It seems that some collectors editions, ones that were already gimped, are missing the included card with the codes required to download the extra content.  This includes a new dungeon and the much anticipated Master Chief costume.

If you've received a CE that doesn't have any codes in it, hit up this offical XBox.com Page for more details.  It sounds like you'll have to wait till October 28th to get at that content.

The good news is that some of the previous cut content, the above picture Fate Cards, are now available to download for EVERYONE in a convenient PDF format.  After looking at these, I gotta say they are absolutely gorgeous, and it's a sin they aren't created in a proper physical format.  

Here's hoping this is the last Fable 2 post for the day.  At least... the last "evil" one.

The official Fable 2 forums are ablaze with angry co-op gamers, as it appears most of us have been misled as to exactly what the cooperative mode entails.  The main gripe people are having is that your Fable 2 character does not transfer over to any form of co-op.  This applies to both the online and the offline mode.  What you do get is to become a henchmen, something we already knew, but we didn't know how literal the term was.  

When Lionhead used the term "henchman" in our interview, they actually meant a henchman character - not a henchmen role.  This mean that character you've worked so hard to customize, including weapons, armor, scars, and other markings all are NOT visible in your friend's game when joining.  On top of this, any items you gain while in a friend's game will not transfer back to your character.  The only thing that transfers is gold, experience and renown.  

Unfortunately that's not the end of the issue list.  Players are complaining about a wonky camera system, tethering players together in both local and co-op play.   There's also a glitch when joining someone's game while they are in childhood that could affect and corrupt your own save.  So be careful they are past the introduction stage.

At this point we can only hope for a proper co-op patch to allow your character in other player's games, or your friends character in your game.  This seems to happen far to often when a developer gets this close to getting co-op play done right; to only have it missing a key piece of the equation.  

Note to developers - Stripping features out of the co-op experience that you have in single player is never a good thing.