Fable 2 unfolding this holiday

At this year's Game Developers Conference Lionhead's founder Peter Molyneux teased attendees by asking his publicist, "Can we reveal the date? No? Sorry, we can't." According to posts on the official Fable 2 forums, Molyneux implied an autumn release by saying that the game would arrive "when the leaves turn brown."

However, today Microsoft offered a more concrete release window for Fable 2, albeit not one as solid as for the long-delayed Too Human. The company announced that the game would ship "this holiday," suggesting a pre-Christmas launch window.

The first Fable game was released on the original Xbox in 2004, and gamers took on the role of a young boy whose village was destroyed and parents murdered by bandits. The game gave players the option to choose between good and evil actions whilst building the boy's character. After being ported to the PC and Macintosh in 2005 alongside its Lost Chapters expansion on Xbox, Fable was also available last year as an Xbox Original download from Xbox Live.

Fable 2 is the sequel, and promises a gameplay world which will be 10 times the size of the original, a faithful companion in the form of a dog, and more difficulty in making moral choices. Players will be able to be a male or female character this time, and can marry and have children within the gameworld, along with buying any building within it. The game will also have interactivity with several Xbox Live Arcade games, which will allow players to earn money they can spend in Fable 2 proper.