Fable has turned into an interesting franchise for Peter Molyneaux and his Lionhead Studios. Each game has come with unbelievable promises, and each—while still enjoyable for many players in terms of basic entertainment—has failed to live up to a lot of the overall hype.

That’s not stopping Molyneaux from continuing to try and reach beyond the stars for the next installment in the Fable franchise, however, with the not-so-surprising announcement of a Fable 4, more officially titled Fable: The Journey. The new game takes a major turn from its predecessors, and it’s this move that will see it gaining (and perhaps losing) many fans.

Be sure to continue reading to learn much more and to see not only the first cinematic trailer for Fable: The Journey, but to see a gameplay demo as well, so you can decide whether you’re in, out, or undecided.

Now, the very moments we first heard about Kinect (then called Project Natal), Molyneaux had a demo prepared showing off the possibilities of the new technology that featured a little boy named Milo. The demo blew people’s minds and got us all very excited about what was to come, but unfortunately all we’ve really seen since then are a bunch of glorified Wii games. I personally have said many, many times that one of the best games we could see using the Kinect would be a Fable game that mixed the interactions we saw in the Milo video and the gameplay we’re used to in Fable games. Well, as much as I doubted we would ever see such a thing, the next installment is along those lines…though, as a fan of the series, not so much how I hoped

See, this new Fable adventure takes place in a time “when heroes are no longer born—they must be made” where you’ll play as a Dweller. But the gameplay itself looks like it gets rid of the third-person perspective we’re so used to and goes into a new first-person mode. It also looks like the entire game could be played using only the Kinect and no controller whatsoever—something that was rumored for Fable III back in 2009.

We’ve only see the two small peeks you can watch below so far and there should be much more information coming soon, but as far as Microsoft and Lionhead’s assumption that the future of gaming has no controllers, this new Fable would certainly make sense if it is indeed all played on Kinect. The problem with that is that there’s a whole hell of a lot of people (myself very much included) who want nothing to do with “controller-less” gaming, and that could put Fable in a tough spot.

If there’s an option for those who don’t have Kinect or don’t want to play on Kinect, fine, that makes perfect sense. And hell, the game actually looks pretty awesome for those who enjoy motion gaming…it’s just impossible for me to get excited about a game I play touching nothing but air. It still feels like way too much of a novelty that won’t stick, much like 3D movies.

What about you? Watch the videos below and share what you think of this new Kinect-happy Fable game.

Videos