PETA Names Fable II 2008's 'Most Animal-Friendly Game'

Animal rights group PETA calls Lionhead Studio’s Fable II 2008's "most animal-friendly video game", due to the rewards the game offers for maintaining a vegetarian lifestyle. As part of the group’s annual awards -- which also include other entertainment media, personal care products, foods and clothing -– the Xbox 360 exclusive was described as a "vegetarian’s dream come true". As the PETA website points out, characters that maintain a vegetarian diet in Fable II are given "purity" points, which help to make the in-game avatar appear more attractive and healthy. Eating large quantities of meat has the opposite effect, and contributes to the character taking on a more demonic form. PETA describes the game as "an effective tool that teaches gamers the real-life benefits of a vegetarian diet". No mention is made of the in-game canine companion, which became a key selling point of the game in many pre-release previews. The controversial rights group has recently taken increasing notice of the video games business, prompting Sega to pull an advert for Samba de Amigo on the Wii because it featured a trained chimpanzee. The group also launched a critical parody of Taito’s Cooking Mama, forcing North American publisher Majesco to defend the franchise.