A beautifully rendered Richard Ayoade popped up in the first trailer for Playground Games’ new Fable title.
We’ve known that UK studio Playground Games has been working on a new entry in the Fable franchise for a while now, but last night we got to see the first fruits of their efforts. And surprisingly, that included IT Crowd star Richard Ayoade.
Ayoade – in all his fully rendered glory – was introduced as ‘Dave, vegetable enthusiast’, and he goes on to bemoan heroes and their tiresome antics, before delivering the memorable line: “I’m not here to slay legendary beasts, I’m here to conquer the vegetable. Not a euphemism.”
However, it soon turns out that Ayoade is actually a giant in the game, and he goes on to fight the hero shown in the trailer – with seemingly tragic consequences for the BAFTA-award-winning actor.
The Xbox showcase trailer confirmed that the name of the new Fable entry is simply 'Fable', and not Fable 4 as some were expecting, and there’s currently no indication of whether it will be a reboot of the original or a new entry in the franchise. The game was first announced back in 2020, but it still doesn’t have a release date attached. The trailer apparently showed ‘in-game footage’, but all of it appeared to be cinematics rather than gameplay footage, so we’ll have to wait a bit longer to see how this one actually plays.
Playground Games is best known for its work on the Forza Horizon games, so Fable marks a real change of direction for the team. Although it seems they’ve already nailed the distinctly British humour of the original Fable, as evidenced by the clear highlight of the trailer – someone in the crowd shouting out ‘wanker’, much to the hero’s displeasure.
It very much brings to mind the legendary ‘bus wankers’ scene from another classic British sitcom, The Inbetweeners. Could they end up making a cameo appearance too? Let’s hope so.
