Life is all about choices. Every time you make a decision, even one that you might consider insignificant, there are consequences you must face. For instance: your decision to read this preview might make you decide to buy this game. If you go to the store to buy the game, you might meet the mate of your dreams. They may love you forever, or they could break your heart, driving you to seek salvation at the bottom of a bottle. This, of course, could lead to liver failure and an early death. So, are you going to continue to read? It's your choice.

Freedom of choice is the driving element behind Fable, the new RPG from Peter Molyneux, the creator of groundbreaking games like Black & White and Populous. Molyneux has set out to make the most ambitious RPG ever designed, with everything in the game world evolving through the actions of the player. As the old saying goes, life is what you make of it, and this holds true in the game.

The game starts when you are a child. Your parents have been kidnapped, and you get taken in by the Heroes Guild. This group teaches you swordplay, archery, magic, and, most importantly, what it means to be a hero. So, after your training, you set off into the world to find your parents. At this point, your character is pretty generic, but his appearance will change in many ways as the game goes along. You can go to the local barbershop to get a haircut, get tattoos, and you can get bigger and stronger by doing more work (or fighting more).

Above all, your hero changes as he begins to lean towards the good or bad side. This is reminiscent of the differences between the light and dark side dwellers in Bioware's Knights of the Old Republic. If your character does lots of good deeds for people, he will become more handsome and people will look up to him and respect him. The opposite happens when you do evil things like kill entire villages or kick people's chickens (and yes, you can actually do that). Your character will start to scowl, attract flies, and little horns will even poke through the skin on his forehead.

Since the game is focused on choice, interactions between your character and NPCs is very important. You can talk to just about anyone in the game, and there are contextual options when dealing with people. If you approach a pretty young lady, you can flirt with her, give her flowers and presents, and eventually ask her to marry you. If you are the type of person who pulled the hair of your first crush, you can give her the finger, belch in her face, and set her on fire. This isn't likely to make her want to spend much time with you though.

Even the missions are open ended. There are all sorts of conflicts going on in the Fable universe, and you can pick sides or play one group against the other. Missions can be assigned in the towns, and many of them involve escorting traders or killing bandits. Of course, if you decide to be bad, you can simply kill all of the traders and take their loot.