[edit] mouse posted while I was typing, so I didn't read his post before I posted this.
I've had my eyes on Fable for nearly 2 years now and I have to agree there are a lot of ups and downs with it.
At the core it sounds like a standard RPG with good and evil story-lines, it's most likely that there will only be only two or possibly three endings to the game. The first two being the good and evil ones, with a possible neutral ending as well. They may have even gone for 4 endings, pure evil, not so evil, not that good and saint. It's also very likely that the splits in the story between these endings are at specific points, such as the Jedi Knight and Jedi Academy games, regardless of how you play, the game ending is determined by your actions at a minority of points rather then being able to spin off at many points during the story. The story is definately one of the most important things for an RPG, but the gameplay is important as well. If anyone remember's Septerra Core, you'll know how poor gameplay can really screw up an excellent story.
What worries me is that the gameplay will be mission (or more appropriately, quest) based, where you get a job from someone and you can complete it in your own unique way. Problem is, the quests are the same everytime you play through, so as I said above, the good/evil thing will only come into real effect at particular points in the story and even then I doubt it'll diversify enough to make an 'evil' game really that different from a 'good' game. Look at Morrowind for an example, you can play as you like, you can be a noble thief, who only steals from wealthy people, or you could be an anti-hero, who only does good things when the pay is good enough. But when you play the game as a whole, it's the same quests and missions, from the same people, regardless of whether you're a cold hearted murderer, or an helpful saint for the people. The same can also be said about Neverwinter Nights.
One questionable thing about Fable is the family idea. Apparently you can get hitched and have some kids, which is one of the reasons why they scrapped the playable female character (they couldn't figure out how the gameplay would work for a pregnant woman) if it had been me making the game, I'd've scrapped the having children bit for the option of more diversity into the selection playable characters. I mean, how does having children affect the gameplay? Sort of like the Black & White creature or tamagochi idea? Does it really add that much to the gameplay to warrent it's inclusion? In all honesty, I doubt it. It's probably only a minor 'diversion' like the mini games in Shenmue, does nothing significant to the game.
The interaction with NPC's however is quite impressive, being able to walk into a pub and, buy your own drink and be quiet, start a fight, steal someone else's drink, spit in someone's drink (I don't think any games have allowed that before) and once the bralling begins picking up chairs, stools, mugs, etc. and beating people to death with them.
The character growth is very impressive, rather then a system where your stats improve randomly (most console RPG's like Shining Force and Golden Sun work like that) or where you pick what stats are improved (Diablo 2 and Morrowind) things improve based on how you use the character. Always fight with big heavy weapons and you'll get stronger, I've even heard you can watch your character's muscles grow over time. Stay out in the sun a lot and you'll get a tan, spend all your time sculking around at night and you'll go pale. Wounds turn into scars and scare little children away. You hair grows as well, and you can sculpt that as you like, but I'll bet you can't just let it continue to grow until it's down to your ankles! You can get tattoos as well, whether you can design your own is another question.
Heck, now I sound like I'm advertising the game!
All in all I'm looking forward to this game because it claims to do things no other RPG has done before, and those things are definately intriging, allowing much more divercity into just how you play your character. I've played a lot of RPG's, Diablo 1 & 2, Panzer Dragoon Saga, Divine Divinity, Morrowind, most of Sega' Shining games, Neverwinter Nights, just to name a handfull, and by the looks of it, Fable is going to be a good one, more for the unique gameplay aspects then the story.
Avan
If you don't like what you see on tv, then change the channel!