My first impressions of Fable III

Well, it's been sort of like a bag of jelly beans...the majority of them are delicious, with a few flavors that just twist the tongue a bit. This is very much a Fable game, that's for sure. All of the quintessentially British charm, wit and humour is there in spades. The voice work deserves special mention as it is uniformly fantastic throughout what I've played so far. The graphics, while not the most stellar around, are handled well and the art direction makes up for much of the technical limitations. Thankfully the characters actually have much better faces this time around, as opposed to the hot mess they were before. 
 
My issues really are mostly of the technical/game design variety. Fable II wasn't exactly a bug-free game and the tradition of that engine carries through into Fable III. Some minor slowdown aside it's not all that bad, but the potential for random, game-save ending glitches is still very real. Of the new systems, I feel they may have gone a bit too far in the simplification. The sanctuary is a joy for the most part, although why we couldn't have an options menu on the back button or a way to check specific inventory is a bit mind-boggling. I have to agree with Brad on the sporadic d-pad menu. It would have been nice to just be able to assign it items/spells like previous entries that would stay static.  
 
Combat has received a bit of a spit and polish as well being a bit smoother and quicker than Fable II. The extra emphasis on flourishes is very welcome, although I still take issue with blocking in melee (an issue I had with Fable II as well) being the same button as hit as well as flourish. The only real disappointment is the limitation on magic. Sure it's lovely to be able to weave spells to devastating effect, but only having access to one spell (or one woven spell) at a time without being able to swap on the fly in battle is a bit of a downgrade from Fable II. Sure the system in II wasn't perfect, but I definitely felt like magic had a lot more variety and power than it does now. It's become a glorified range attack in it's current implementation, which isn't game-breaking by any means, but just makes my hero feel a bit more lackluster than before. Maybe I just really miss my Assassin's Rush ability.  
 
The expressions have a similar neutering in my opinion. Sure the expression wheel could get a bit unwieldy, but I liked being able to have control over what expression I wanted to use at any given time. Now if I want to shake someone's hand, but it shows me Dance instead, then I end up waltzing with some old codger. I understand their reasons for the oversimplification, but I just can't help but wish there was an advanced expressions menu for those who wanted it. Speaking of expressions, the touch system is a bit underwhelming. Sure it's nice to hold my girlfriend's hand and walk around the garden with her, but do I really need to hold the sweaty, hairy hand of some trader just to lead him to town safely? Why can't he just follow me?
  
If it seems like I'm harping on about things that aren't impressing me that's because the rest of the game is so good that these things stand out more. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't enjoying my return to Albion immensely even in light of the things I've highlighted. There are still a lot of things I haven't yet had the chance to delve into (property management, marriage and children, weapon morphing, collectibles, etc) and I will be sure to post a full review once I've spent some more time with the game and finished the story.