Fable: The Lost Chapters Previews

GameSpot, IGN PC, and GameZone have all published previews of Lionhead Studios' Fable: The Lost Chapters, after spending some firsthand time with the RPG's expanded version. A snip from GameSpot's article:
The production values of Fable are certainly impressive, and it's undeniably a lush and colorful game. Microsoft dropped a bundle on the game's budget, right down to the impressive opening score by Hollywood composer Danny Elfman (Spider-Man, Men in Black, and Batman are among his many credits). Fable has a bright color palette (along with a large number of light bloom effects to give everything a warm look), a Disney-esque art style, and a fairly significant amount of voice acting. And, as expected, the PC version boasts higher-resolution textures, so everything looks better, as well as higher resolutions in general, so everything looks crisper. Another benefit of the PC version is much quicker load times, particularly when you transition from one area to another. On the downside, the PC version looks to keep the console-style save system, which automatically saves your progress as you reach certain checkpoints. There is no way, apparently, to manually save a game, so once you begin a quest, either complete it and wait for the next save point or be prepared to start the quest over again if you choose to quit out.

A snip from IGN PC's article:
Another nice thing is the intuitive control scheme. The major actions are all conveniently mapped around the WASD keys; anyone familiar with the World of Warcraft camera style will be at home with this 3rd-person RPG. Press Q to draw and sheath your sword. Press E to draw and lower your bow. Left-click to attack, middle-click to block with the sword, right-click to go to first-person with the bow, then the scroll wheel to zoom in and out. Space bar to lock onto a target (very handy with the bow), and hold down the left Shift key and left-click on the mouse to unleash magic attacks. While you can't activate a melee attack while simultaneously unleashing a lightening bolt, you can still have you sword out and ready to swing whenever you want.

And a snip from GameZone's article:
The game takes a cue from the consoles and is far from seamless, at this stage which means load times each time you access a different portion of the map. This also means that mobs respawn in familiar places as you progress anew into previously visited zones. Some of the monsters are quest mobs, and won't, but some are obstacles placements.