So I finished the Thieves Guild, and have started the Dark Brotherhood quests. Having the Cowl of Nocturnal is cool and everything, but according to the strategy guide, I should actually be able to pay of the Gray Fox 500 bounty, but no one like Armand even offers me the choice to pay it off. The guide even says that I can bribe guards to pay off my bounty. What BULL! Is that a PC exclusive feature or something? I play on the 360 version. Here it is quoted from the guide.

"The Cowl is also a second identity, look at the stats page- the one that shows your bounty, fame, and infamy. Now look at it again with the cowl in place. The cowl gives you an instant infamy of 100 and an instant bounty of 500 gold. (You can pay this off and halve it by going to Christophe or S'krivva, but you reacquire the bounty when you put on the cowl again."

Second quote from the strategy guide.

"Without a bounty on your head, guards recognize you as the Gray Fox but they say they'll look the other way this time. With a bounty, they confront you fiercely but won't follow through unless you resist arrest, (You can also bribe the guard for the full amount of your bounty. Paying it off legitimately or going to jail is not an option.)

Lies. You can't do ANY of what the guide says you can do. Now unless I'm missing something in the game or whatever, I have never heard such blatant lies, and misinformation from an official strategy guide before. I mean is it a PC exclusive feature? Such false information is unacceptable. From what I've seen, you CAN'T pay off the Gray Fox bounty, and you certainly can't bribe the guards, they try and kill you each and every single time. This, "false" version of playing as the Gray Fox was something I was really looking forward to.

Most of this topic should be in hints and spoilers section. Some dangerous stuff here.

But yeah, a lot of that Prima guide information is off the mark. I am not sure if the guide is to blame or Beth changed the game in the last 12 months prior to release. Watch any e3 2005 video and you will see just how much the game was watered down to match the specs of the 360. A very sad day indeed...

Many things in the guide do not match the game. The fun with the goblins is the stand out one.

Back to the Gray Fox-

The answer is "no."