Fable 2 has been doing the rounds pretty heavily since GDC earlier in the year. As with every game that Peter Molyneux is involved with, it promises a lot and the early glimpses we've seen indicate that there's a chance it will deliver. Fable was hugely popular and the sequel is looking like it will build well on the original with a bunch of big new features, so it's unlikely to do a Black and White on us, is what I'm saying here.

A few neat chunks of the game were demonstrated, showing some of the depth available. We saw what happens if you injure someone in the presence of a guard - they'll come after you and if they catch you (assuming you don't kill them) they can punish you with a fine or community service. You can resist arrest, but bear in mind every action will have a reaction - if you do this too often you'll get a reputation as a troublemaker and will run into more problems along the way.

While that seems like a simple thing to lead with, it really highlights the fundamental choice you'll have to make in Fable 2 - Good, or Evil. You have almost unlimited freedom in the game: you can kill whoever the hell you feel like, rob from the poor, get married and beat your wife - Molyneux has reportedly said you can even have unprotected sex with multiple partners and spread disease. Of course, there's no doubt there'll be a bunch of nice things you can do with all this freedom, but what sort of sicko would want to?

A quick quest was demonstrated - a sobbing grandmother comes up to you asking you to help find her lost grandson. This was just a sideline quest, not part of the main game - you can accept it or do it later, or, of course, not do it at all. Once accepting the quest, a golden trail appears on the ground, leading you to your destination (this is a helpful GUI feature which integrates nicely into the game and takes a lot of the guesswork about where you should be heading).

The game-world is, of course, massive and open, with brilliant colours everywhere. The run speed looks nice and fast, which was refreshing to see, giving you a feeling that getting around isn't going to be a long, boring process.

If you're sick of games that only offer a few hours of enjoyment for your hard-earned duckets, then Fable 2 is probably worth a gander. There's 38 hours of recorded dialogue - comprising over 370,000 words, from more than 50 actors aged eight to 80. That's just dialogue, not gameplay. The hugely flexible nature of the game means almost unlimited replay potential - each time you play can be a totally different experience. I must confess I actually found some of the dialogue a bit on the drawn out, over the top side, but I am a chronic dialogue/cut scene skipper.

The big new feature in Fable 2 is the jump-in co-operative play. A lot of thought has gone into this component of the game; it's not something that was just dropped in. You can bring your own characters in to your friend's game, and they can control how much XP and loot you get - if they're nice they might opt for a 50/50 split, but if they're jerks they can opt for a bigger cut, which should make for some pretty interesting co-op sessions.

Fable 2 is looking very polished already and looks like a worthy sequel. RPG fans will almost certainly want to check this out - even if you didn't play the original Fable, the depth of gameplay offered by the huge amounts of freedom combined with the sweet multiplayer opportunities are hugely attractive.