Too many games forget to be playful. All too often they're over-serious, po-faced, or just don't get the joke. They're the kind of game that it's easy to laugh at behind its back. Come to think of it, they're quite often the games that lead us to bash the fantasy genre unfairly: because they really don't get why we find them pompous and embarrassing.

But a few games are a lot more self-aware, and Fable is one of them. It's a bit more likely to be one of your mates, and take joy in its antics. It'll have a laugh with you, and let you muck around. In fact, that's pretty much what Fable is about: messing around in fantasyland.