I don't usually play gambling games at all, but three months ahead of the release of Fable II in late 2008, Carbonated Games released Fable II Pub Games. There were a few compelling reasons to get it. One, it was free for those who had pre-ordered Fable II, and second, cash and prizes won in the game would transfer to one's Fable II character once the game came out.
I was at first put off by the unfamiliarity of the games and the complexity of their rules, so I only played it a little during the wait for Fable II. Recognizing the need to start the game with some money, though, I eventually dug in and earned a nice sum.
The three games are basically a card game, a dice game, and slots. The card game (Fortune's Tower) and the dice game (Keystone) required a little strategy and a lot of luck, whereas their slot game (Spinnerbox) was pure luck. So I dove in, gambled cautiously, and did well. I also picked up a few achievements along the way.
Fable II arrived and was a great game with a big scope, and by the time I had beaten it, I was pretty rich. There were a few DLC chapters added later, as well, adding to my fortune. Returning to Fable II Pub Games after beating the campaign allowed me to enter the pub with said fortune, as well as get a zero point achievement.
Over the years, I fired up the pub games a few more times, even getting another achievement in 2015. Recently, though, I was looking at my achievements and noticed that I only had four left to get for the game, and thought "Why not get them?" as in doing so would require unlocking everything, getting a jackpot in one of the games, and placing in the top five in every tournament, all of which for my campaign-oriented playstyle counts as beating the game.
So I looked up ancient guides that told me what I basically already knew - getting these achievements would take a lot more luck and tedium than skill. To unlock all the games, for example, just means getting points, which thanks to a loading screen tip, I knew I would acquire win or lose. With my in-game fortune this was just a matter of spending time and money grinding through them.
Next up was beating all 5 tournaments for each of the 3 games, for a total of 15 tournaments. One achievement dropped for beating just one tournament, so that was easy enough. Just as that achievement unlocked, my old ass XBox 360 decided it was no longer connected to the internet, resulting in the timestamp for the achievement being glitched when reviewed later over on the XBox One or in the app:
Strategies online recommended playing it safe in terms of betting in these tournaments and that seemed to work, as my computer opponents were more aggressive in their betting and would usually dig themselves a little hole, even if they would win big occasionally.
This worked for Fortune's Tower and Keystone pretty well, with only a few failures on the way to the top five. For Spinnerbox, though, it was a matter of luck and grinding since it is a slot machine type of game. In it, the player is up against 19 computer controlled gamblers to get the highest score in a hundred spins. On the second of the five tournaments I was very unlucky and failed to break the top five in about a dozen tries. After that, it only took a few tries for each one. In the last one, I got a huge jackpot halfway through which carried me to number one in that tournament, unlocking the achievement.
The final achievement required getting a jackpot in Keystone by either rolling three ones or three sixes in the very first turn. Failure meant cashing out, going back to the main menu, and starting the game over. I dug in and expected that to take weeks, but it took about fifteen minutes.
It was a fun diversion and something different to play, and the satisfaction in beating such a game after fifteen years is pretty strong. I may have to see if my old Fable II save is still there, so I can check out all the items I unlocked playing those tournaments. This was an "unfinished business" game that was fun to finish.
