On Saturday we attended The Gathering 07, an event arranged by Microsoft for members of the XCN, as well as being able to get hands on with some of the biggest games to be released this year, we also had the pleasure of listening to some incredible guest speakers, one of which was Peter Molyneux who spoke about Fable 2.

Peter arrived on stage and aided by a Lcd Tv and Xbox 360 Debug unit, started to explain why he feels Fable 2 could be one of the greatest games to grace the Xbox 360. Peter, with a Xbox 360 controller in his hand said that he "wants users to feel a sense of wonder and that this will be achieved by Lionhead creating a truly unique experience which has never been done before ", adding that "anyone should be able to pick up Fable 2 and feel good about it, whether they are beginners or hardcore gamers."

Being suitably impressed by Peter’s obvious passion for this creation, we couldn’t help feel excited when he began to load up the demo in order to explain why he feels this game will be so different. The first demo Peter used was a barebones version showing the games combat system, however you could still see how much work had gone into the game even at this early stage, the way the characters act in combat situations seems very impressive, for example at one point one of the main characters was surrounded by three enemies, but rather than all jumping in at once to try and defeat him instead they circle around him to try and find the best position for attack. As well as being shown how these characters react in combat we were also shown how they react with the environment around them, Peter explained this by saying that "each stage is build for interaction" before proceeding to show us on screen how this works, he done this by using the character to pick up a brick and throw it directly at the enemy and following this up by smashing his face off a wall.

While this all seemed very impressive the best was definitely yet to come as Peter loaded up the next demo in order to explain more about interactivity with the environments during combat, this demo looked very impressive indeed and showed us just how stunning the game could look when finished, the interaction with the environments in combat is particularly impressive as you can use almost any element of the scenery as a weapon, however it’s not only the graphics which stand out as you can also conduct the music with your sword while slaying people down, Peter explained that "there is a rhythm to the combat" what this means is that while you are swinging your sword the beat of the music increases.

Fable 2 won’t all be serious stuff though as Lionhead are keen to add some humor to the game, one example of this is when a bard you meet asks to adventure with you, if you allow him to tag along he will then write songs of your adventures, however should you run away during a battle you will soon find that he has wrote a song about what a coward your are and performed it in front of everyone in the local tavern, however as Peter says "you can always kill him".

While the bard may not be the perfect traveling companion you do have one that will be a lot more reliable, this one comes not in the form of a human but a dog, Peter told us that he is an incredible companion and that it really feels like he is alive, however he was unable to elaborate further than this.

Finally Peter couldn’t resist letting slip one secret about the game by saying "wouldn’t it be great if you could share this experience with someone?" what this means we can only speculate, however wouldn’t it be great if he meant that Fable 2 will include a two player co-op mode or Xbox Live co-op?

Peter Molyneux speaks with such passion about Fable 2, a passion that makes you feel good about the games industry, it’s nice to know that there are people out there that care this much about making a product unique and special, the way Peter speaks there is no doubt that Fable 2 is going to be an incredible game and we can’t wait for it’s release, can you?

We will be bringing you one article everyday from our time at The Gathering 07, tommorrow’s article is from our hands on with the amazing Call of Duty 4 single player mode, so please make sure you check back tommorrow evening for this.