14 DAY TRIAL // Fable III, one of the biggest Xbox 360 exclusive titles to appear this fall season, owes a lot to two of the biggest titles made exclusively for the Xbox's biggest rival, the PlayStation 3, in the form of Heavy Rain and Uncharted 2: Among Thieves.
The console wars are always being waged by people representing each side, with developers that exclusively make games for one specific platform criticizing the other ones.
We've already seen it with Sucker Punch, who is working on Infamous 2 for the PlayStation 3, but it seems that one Microsoft-owned studio, Lionhead, has a few praises for rival games.
According to Lionhead's senior design director, Josh Atkins, the studio's next game, Fable III, has borrowed quite a lot of things from PlayStation 3 exclusives Heavy Rain and Uncharted 2, created by Quantic Dream and Naughty Dog, respectively.
"Interestingly, we were all very involved with and all played Heavy Rain," he said. "We all have a lot of respect for David Cage and the guys at Quantic Dream. It's a very unique experience and a very compelling story - and there's a lot of deep gameplay there."
"Another one we talk a lot about is Uncharted 2. That blend of cinema and great gameplay was something we were certainly very influenced by."
While Heavy Rain inspired the team to incorporate more features into its decision-making system, Uncharted 2 got them to add more cinematic moments and really polish up the voice acting.
"The weaving of decision and story in Heavy Rain is another one. You saw the beginnings of that with Farrenheit, and they've taken it much further.
"With Uncharted, it really comes down to the blend of gameplay, cinema and acting - particularly the superb voice acting in that game."
Besides the two PlayStation 3 exclusives, Atkins also admitted that his team wants to incorporate puzzles elements and the addiction factor of puzzle game Peggle, which he says that the whole team was playing during development.
Fable III will appear on the Xbox 360 on October 26 in North America and October 29 in Europe, and in December for the PC.