There were many things originally planned for the first Fable that didn't make it into the final product. One of these exciting features was co-op play. It was functional, playable and pretty damned cool at. Now Molyneux's original vision of an RPG you can play on the couch with your buddy is soon to become a reality. Cooperative play is alive and kicking in Fable 2 and is the third of (what has now become) four innovations in Lionhead Studios ' upcoming RPG.

In Fable 2 , you are the last hero of Albion. At least, the last person who seems to realize he (or she) is a hero. Your primary goal is to search the world for other heroes and recruit them to create a sort of medieval Avengers. Time is of the essence as a mysterious rival is assembling their own group of heroes (or villains). Whether or not this ties into online functionality for Fable 2 is unknown at this time. All Lionhead mastermind Peter Molyneux would talk about was the single-console co-op mode.Co-op is a simple setup where, at any time and at any point in the adventure, a friend can plug in a controller, hit start, and join your game world. This player is considered a henchman, who assists on your adventure. He can do anything he might do in his own game -- fart, kill Hobs, kick chickens -- and takes all his earned experience, gold and renown with him when he pops back off to his own version of Albion. The only thing he won't have is his own dog. In part because the team at Lionhead didn't want to create a butt-sniffing animation, but mainly due to framerate issues.In the demo, "The Molynator" had created a female character. This was our first good look at a heroine in Fable 2. Molyneux's lass was dressed in daisy dukes and a low-cut top. And yes, there are boob physics that allow a lady hero's fleshy parts to move independently with DOA-like bounciness. Hopping into the game was a hard-nosed male hero, who would serve as henchmen.Before entering the game, a menu screen allows the two players to negotiate a split of money, XP, and renown earned while in co-op. If you are having trouble beating an enemy, you can "hire" a henchman, promising him all the renown and gold to assists you while you snag the bulk of the XP. Or however else you want to set things up. This is certainly going to allow for some cheating, but hey, it's your game, Molyneux says. If you want to be the hero that cheats, so be it.About 5 years ago in Molyneux's game world, his heroine chatted up a bloke in a pub and took him home. "We had unprotected sex and I ended up pregnant," Molyneux admitted. His heroine has a five-year-old son whom she hasn't seen in nearly six months. It's off for a visit back home with the family.On the road, we had a chance to see how the "HUD-less interface" worked. As you may recall, the first innovation in Fable 2 is love in the form of a faithful dog. That dog acts as the HUD in most cases. If there is danger, he steps forward, looks in the direction of an enemy and snarls. This is in lieu of a radar. If you are near a quest item, you get a similar reaction alerting you. The same when you are around an important character and so on. It seems well-integrated and perfectly natural. It's a bit too soon to affirm Molyneux's claim that the dog in Fable 2 is the "most amazing AI in a game ever," but it's certainly slick.Just because your dog points something out doesn't mean you have to listen. Fable 2 is an open-world game that grants the freedom to choose your own path. Your dog will try and lead you towards your current objective, but you can go a different way and he'll follow. As Molyneux promises, "Every fence can be jumped over; every cliff can be jumped off."