Bethesda Softworks confirmed that it will be releasing a brand new action game called Dishonored for the PC, Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. Reviews are predicting a violent and fun, yet different type of game.

The game is set for release in 2012 and its development is coming under Arkane Studio. This makes Dishonored its first venture since ZeniMax obtained the studio in 2010. Harvey Smith (lead designer on Deus Ex) and Raphael Colatonio (lead designer on Arx Fatalis) are the co-creative directors, which is exciting news due to their reputations. These two guys bring strong leadership and high expectations given their more than flourishing design backgrounds. Smith in 2006 won the Game Designer’s Challenge: Nobel Peace Prize at the Game Developers Conference. Colatonio has contributed to enormously successful games such as Bioshock 2 and Call of Duty: World At War.

Details of the game have not been openly talked about for all who have been searching. There are only vague signs and clues such as the layout being a first person game with extensive depth and decision-making. The gameplay and story line has to do with the judgments and decisions in the heart of the gamer. Many choices will have to be made. You the user have the power to continue through the game evasively without ever having to kill anyone, or you are given the choice to slaughter numerous people, while destroying everything in your way. Yes, you can go absolutely crazy if you want, which is always a great option. However, it is encouraged to be careful when making these powerful decisions throughout the story. The choices you make will affect the events to come later in the game, and how the people respond around you. Actions and decisions that are made will have consequences, so be cautious or not, it is all on you.

Dishonored is due out next year.

We have a another freebie for you over here at Blast.

This time we have a Brink poster from Bethesda Softworks. It comes in a cool kit with military markings. It comes with a credit card-sized flash drive with a Brink video inside.

We’re also throwing in a Blast desk calendar and other freebies.

You just have to be a registered Blast user and be a legal US resident 18 or older. Void where prohibited, of course.

Leave a comment on this article, and we’ll pick one lucky sucker.

We liked Wet at E3. We liked it a lot. We recognized it as a gutsy project back then, and that’s just what it was. The unfortunate thing about gutsy projects is that they sometimes don’t turn out as you like. The Wet we played at E3 — and the demo, released last month — felt like an arcade game. The action started immediately. You shot and stabbed people, and then you shot and stabbed more people. A little story was mixed in, but the emphasis was the shooting and the slicing. By and large, this is how Wet does start out. However, when you’re actually playing through a poorly designed level with non-intuitive navigation, it’s harder to appreciate that action.

Beyond the navigational issues, the first “level,” of Wet is fun, and it really brings you into the game, leaving you wanting more–then it all stops. Instead of continuing the action, getting bloodied up, and listening to Eliza Dushku, the voice of Rubi,‚  tell some Asian cowboy to suck his own [this is a coarse and vulgar game, mom] we’re thrust head first into … an hour-long tutorial, in Rubi’s “boneyard hideaway,” made up of “challenges” like an obstacle course. There are some serious ADHD issues going on here. The game spends the first 10 minutes teaching you how to perform Rubi Malone’s acrobatic moves. Then you get 15-20 solid minutes of action. Then an hour of boredom. Then the game starts up again, and it really seems to get good again when Rubi makes a cargo plane blow up midair and is falling to the ground. But you’ll spend another hour, or about 50 of your unlimited “lives” trying to navigate through a maze of plane parts, boxes, and miscellany, because if anything hits you, you die. Considering this is kind of a short game with a sliver of story as is, that seems like time wasted.

The game is about a gun-for-hire who agrees to find a wealthy man’s son, but when he finds the son and brings him back, he kills the son and sends a sword-swinging goon to kill you.

The game has diversity. The acrobatic moves are edgy, and there’s a good mix of swordplay and shooting. There’s a great mix of gameplay styles — walking/fighting, jumping, acrobatics, vehicles and even the aforementioned free fall from the sky. The pace picks up with “rage mode” where everything goes red and Rubi starts killing everything in sight. The problem with “rage mode,” however, is that it’s much harder to navigate through the already puzzling levels with the screen all red. And you don’t get any additional health. You die just the same as you would normally. The “rage mode” we played at E3 put Rubi in a more enclosed space where she just went nuts and started swinging the sword, killing dozens of baddies like they were nothing. It felt more like a bonus level at E3, but it’s actually a much more difficult gameplay style in the actual game.

The cinematic elements are good. The game’s post-modern feel is matched perfectly with cutscenes featuring 50s drive-in “let’s go to the refreshment stand” montages.

But essence isn’t the problem. Neither are the graphics or the voice acting, also featuring actors Malcolm McDowell and Alan Cumming. It’s straight gameplay that hurts Wet, nothing more.

The game should be more intuitive. The acrobatic moves are fun, and it’s awesome to slide down a ladder shooting baddies in slow motion. It’s even more awesome to jump from moving car to moving car on a freeway while shooting baddies in slow motion. It’s wicked awesome to slide under a pipe and catch a baddie with an uppercut of your sword. But the acrobatic nature of the game means you’re going to fall a lot, but rather than die and wait for the load screen to start the checkpoint over, the developer should shoot you right back to where you fell from and let you keep playing. Nothing kills momentum and fun like bad platforming, and Wet has its share of that.

The game gets lost in bursts of fun, followed by waiting, followed by more bursts.

The Blast Factor: The frustrations don’t always outpace the fun. Wet is a good game that’s fun to play in moderation, but the sum of the its parts just isn’t enough to make you want to keep playing for long.

WET is available on the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 for a retail price of $59.99

Well, it’s officially summer and you know what that means: carnival time!

However, in the video game world, mainly in the Fallout universe, it doesn’t mean just any carnival.‚  Remember, this is Fallout 3, where only the creepiest of carnival settings will suffice.

Welcome to Point Lookout, the newest addition to Fallout 3′s downloadable content.

Point Lookout takes the Lone Wanderer on a foggy, swamp filled adventure to the previously-unknown-to-me bayous of Maryland’s marsh country. In this DLC, players will encounter interesting quests, interesting characters and one very cool psychedelic drug trip.

Like most of Fallout 3′s DLCs, Point Lookout begins when the Lone Wanderer receives a radio transmission indicating that a ferryboat called the Duchess Gambit has docked at the Riverboat Landing location in the Capital Wasteland.‚  Upon arrival, you meet two non-player characters named Catherine and Tobar. Catherine reveals that her daughter, Nadine, recently stowed away on a ship to travel to the mysterious settlement of Point Lookout and begs for you to find and return her.‚  Tobar, a coastal trader and owner of the Duchess Gambit, provides safe transit to Point Lookout for the price of a ticket”¦ running at $330 a piece.

Still, even with the hefty price tag, traveling to Point Lookout is well worth the cost, as the action begins right away. As you travel to Point Lookout for the first time, you watch a cinematic cut-scene (a medium I feel is underused in Fallout 3), which shows smoke rising from a mansion, later revealed to be a major location in the DLCs main quest. Once landed on the docks at Point Lookout, the Lone Wanderer talks to Tobar and the adventure begins.

Point Lookout has no lack of intrigue within its storyline. Once the Lone Wanderer lands at Point Lookout, he finds himself in the middle of a conflict between a surly ghoul named Desmond Lockheart and the native people of the region called Tribals. From there, players are called upon to complete quests for both sides, eventually evolving the storyline into one of the most morally gray adventures available in the world of Fallout.

One of my favorite moments in this DLC is when the Lone Wanderer goes on an incredibly bizarre hallucination after collecting the seeds from a giant plant. In this psychedelic trip, the Lone Wanderer walks through the mysterious swamplands of Point Lookout, having strange and sadistic visions of some familiar faces of his past. The environment is turned upside-down (literally) in this short offshoot in the plot, creating an important time of reflection for both the Lone Wanderer and the player himself.

There is no lack of side quests in Point Lookout either. In fact, some may argue that some of the side quests are actually more fun than Point Lookout’s main quest. Though I wouldn’t necessarily agree, I do feel that Bethesda really went above and beyond when it came to writing the plot for this DLC.

Point Lookout is unique in that it has a very unique ambiance when compared to the other available DLCs. There is a certain old Louisiana feel to the environments, full of haze, swampland and, of course, mutated hillbillies. The NPCs have a different crusty flavor to them, delightfully contrasting themselves from your basic Fallout Waster.

The folks living in the tattered carnival region of Point Lookout are as diverse as the services they offer. In the belly of the swamp, on the other hand, is where a few new breeds of characters reside. Some of the most interesting and unique enemies you will find are called the Swampfolk. These radiated marsh dwellers resemble your classic country bumpkin stereotype, complete with buckteeth and aggressive behavior. Whether or not they are inbred is still unknown (take a look at an attacking Scrapper in the screenshot below). Also, keep an eye out for the previously mentioned Tribals: a group dedicated to the growth and preservation of Punga Fruit, a crop with precious healing properties that is exclusive to the region.

The variety does not end at the citizens’ local flavor, however. Point Lookout also offers an abundance of new weaponry as well. Basic arms, such as the double-barreled shotgun, axe, and lever-action rifle add to the already strong country feel to the game. Unique items like moonshine, fishing poles, and workman’s coveralls will make you feel like you are a real backwoodsman.

Blast Factor: Point Lookout’s plot is as interesting as it is different. Along with the diverse characters, weapons, and environments, Point Lookout is definitely one of the most creative DLCs available. With that said, however, I couldn’t help but ask myself how necessary this add-on was to the overall Fallout 3 storyline. With the base Fallout 3 game combined with Broken Steel (my favorite of the DLCs, which extends the level-cap from 20 to 30), there are definitely enough quests to get to level 30 without spending another dime. All things considered, Point Lookout is a fun addition to Fallout 3, but should only be downloaded by those who have already bought Broken Steel and are ready for some new, exciting content.

Point Lookout is available first on the Xbox Live Marketplace and Windows PC for 800 Points.

LOS ANGELES — Bethesda Softworks’ Brink is an immersive action shooter that blends single-player, co-op, and multiplayer into a video game experience that finally blurs the line between the single player offline experience and the often rabid online shooter world.

The game is under development by Splash Damage, the studio behind the Enemy Territory games.

Brink has RPG elements that require you to build up your player from the clothing and gear he wears to the missions he decides to go on, to which side of a civil war he chooses to fight for.

You’re on a man made city called Ark — a complex of hundreds of islands seen as the last visage of hope for humanity. It was originally one of those “Bio-Dome” green habitats until Earth’s oceans started to rise, making the Ark a refuge instead of a paradise. After 25 uneasy years, the residents of the Ark reached their breaking point. War breaks out.

The game has beautifully stylized visual elements and scenery. It also has an interesting control scheme with a “smart button” that lets you target a ledge or point on the map that your character will vault, leap, climb or fall to automatically. The game understands where you’re trying to go and interacts with the environment around you.

The game is set for a Spring 2010 release, and it wasn’t playable at E3 this year. Though, the demo we were shown looks wonderful.

Blast did get to sit down with the game’s Creative Director, Splash Damage’s Richard Ham. Ham is a powerful name in video games. He invented Syphon Filter and just finished a stint with Microsoft working on Fable II. Ham told us there’s a message behind Brink and other types of post-apocalyptic games, as video game developers, like movie directors and television producers, engage in social commentary with their mediums.

BLAST: What do you hope to add to this project? What’s your vision for Brink?

Richard Ham: When I actually went in to interview with Splash Damage I was actually a little bit nervous thinking “gosh I don’t really have a lot of multiplayer shooter experience.” I mean Syphon 2 had a little bit of a deathmatch game, and that was kind of nice. Fable has a little bit but not very much, and Paul (Wedgwood), the owner, said “that’s perfect. That’s exactly what we want because I’ve got a whole team full of guys who have been doing nothing for the last decade but make kick ass multiplayer shooters and that’s what they’ll continue to do.”

But now that they’re moving over to console, they really do want to kind of bridge a gap, and what I tend to think we’re actually going to accomplish here bringing all this together is with Brink I tend to think it’s almost a gateway drug in that players like me who traditionally don’t play a lot of online shooters — I mean, I love Call of Duty. I play them all, but I get to the end of the story, and then I shelve it, and I never go online because “that’s a dangerous place” it’s a nasty place and it’s a real shame, because for all these years I’ve been missing out on these great experiences. So a big, big push for Brink is creating a great multiplayer experience, but then making it open and accessible so players who would have thought twice about going online actually have a reason to and will find that “wow we’ve really been missing out.”

BLAST What design elements did you immediately want to bring to Brink?

RH: Probably the number one thing for me, the biggest thing that I wanted to push, was the notion of having dynamic objectives. It’s actually something I did a long time ago going back to Syphon Filter 1. You’re going through a mission and all of a sudden “oh a new objective will happen,” based on the preset storyline of the game and of the level you’re in.

We’re going the complete opposite way in that every mission you’re going to go on has a clear set of objectives you are to go through and pretty much plays by the book. …

But your personal story is radically different depending on what class you’re playing, what body type you have, what type of player you are, what level you’re at. Because in the game there’s this kind of invisible commander running the whole show, running your team, who knows what’s going on, knows who’s doing what and can basically give out orders, optional orders, to everybody.

We will bribe you as a player to do these things. “We need somebody to turn into an engineer to repair the crane. First guy that does it, 300 experience points.” That’s the equivalent of killing 30 guys. Why would you not do it? We’ll do it just to get you to change, just to try. Even if you don’t make it, we’ll reward you.

That’s a really big push. All these dynamic objectives are coming up. It’s one of the reasons I think it’s an accessible game. A first person shooter online is a pretty hardcore place. You go in there; everybody’s been playing for days and months, and they know every square inch of that level and you’re like “I don’t know what to do.”

The worst experience I ever had playing an online shooter was the first time I played a capture the flag match, and I got the flag, and I was like “What do I do? Where do I go? Everyone wants to kill me. My team wants to kill me. This is terrible!” You want to kill yourself just to drop the damn thing. You’re completely helpless. In Brink, at any given time there’s always a lot of missions you can take. You can be on the front line where all the hardcore guys are, whooping it up. If that’s not going to work for you, look at that objective wheel that comes up. There’s always going to be lots of options, whether it takes you behind enemy lines to do some sneaking around, whether it’s all about rescuing civilians, capturing enemy command posts.

BLAST: There are a lot of shooters and a lot of online multiplayer shooters. There have also been a lot of lofty multiplayer games — M.A.G. for instance. What specifically about Brink do you feel will turn on players?

RH: Well there’s a standard answer, but the big one is that mission inside a mission. But there’s other things too. Splash Damage, you go back to the Enemy Territory Games, it was the first online shooter that actually had experience points and leveling up, even before Battlefield. So, they’ve been doing this for a long time, and it’s now kind of become en vogue. With Call of Duty’s perks, people go “oh wow this is really exciting.” Killzone has a really deep system. Resistance had one as well. But these guys have been doing it for a long time.

We’re all big fans of MMOs back at the office. I think players when they finally see all the RPG options that are available so they can really customize themselves and create the perfect guy for them that’s going to be really refreshing.

The entire storyline of Brink is the outbreak of the civil war on this remote man made island, kind of the last refuge of humanity — or so they think — it’s a civil war and there are two sides. The important thing is you choose up front whether you fight on the side of “the man” of security, keep the peace or do you go on the other side and play as Resistance. The important thing is on your side, you’re clearly in the right. When you get to that mission on the other side of the fence, it’s a completely different story and there’s a completely different set of things going on. That’s a really key element in the game is this kind of two sides of the same coin and you don’t know the whole thing until you’ve seen it all.

BLAST: The post-apocalyptic genre has exploded recently. Do you see parallels to modern society with these games?

RH: We’re actually trying to use this platform to actually say something. I’ll be honest; I turned 40 this year. I’ve been doing this for 15 years, and I’m getting to the point where I actually want to say something. I don’t just want this to be about cheap thrills, and I know it has to be. It has to be fun, but when you look at the setting and what’s going on with the two sides, I’ll be honest we’re definitely trying to put parallels into whats going on in our world today, particularly Palestine and Israel.

You look at that situation, and it seems completely intractable. If you look at it from one side or the other, well everything’s entirely justified or justifiable. It’s been in a stalemate forever. We can use a setting like this, because obviously nobody wants to play a shooter set in modern day Palestine. Nobody would want that.

It’s like Star Trek back in the 60s. “Well we can’ really do anything about race relations on network television, so let’s paint a guy with half his face white and half his face black and have him have an internal struggle.” It was a way for them to actually do stuff, and that’s kind of what we’re trying to do as well.

The setting really just kind of comes out of that naturally.

LOS ANGELES — Bethesda Softworks has a lot of money to develop new games right now. Everything they touch is gold. Oblivion was huge. Fallout 3 is legendary. Video gaming is up in a down economy.

So Bethesda Softworks can bring in Mr. SEAL Team Six, Richard Marcinko and the voice of Mickey Rourke to put you in the boots of a real American badass.

But there’s more to this than just action and explosions. The SEALS have a special meaning to guys in their 20s. It’s the only reason Steven Segal had a career. We all watched Michael Biehn, Charlie Sheen, Bill Paxton and Rick Rossovich in “Navy Seals.” It’s an awful movie, but it’s the stuff of legends. We love that shit.

Enter Bethesda’s Rogue Warrior, which we saw up close at E3. Playing as Marcinko, you go behind the iron curtain to disrupt a suspected North Korean ballistic missile program, uncovering a conspiracy that could turn the Cold War in the commies’ favor. Death and destruction follow.

On your black ops, you’ll mix stealth and assault to infiltrate communist strongholds, swearing like a true sailor along the way.

In the hands off demo, done by Bethesda producer Charles Harribey, the best part of combat were any of the 25 different “brutal kills” moves you can perform by sneaking up on an unsuspecting bad guy, like throwing him off a ledge or stabbing him in the face. Yeah. Brutal.

This is a single player game with multiplayer combat modes. It’s very story driven, and it’s not a Solid Snake type stealth game. There’s a ton of overt combat as well.

The graphics and sounds are beautiful, and this will be a winner when it comes out in the fall for Xbox 360, PC and PlayStation 3.

LOS ANGELES – Oh hell yes.

The Electronic Entertainment Expo is back. It’s better. It’s … over. Damn.

While it still wasn’t the spectacle of the 90s, the conference was easily three times bigger than it was last year, and there was some actual news this time.

Here’s what we took away from the conference this time around:

BEST GAME
Uncharted 2

The first Uncharted is still one of the best games on the Playstation 3, and that’s not a knock on the console’s library either. This sequel looks to improve on the gameplay of the fantastic original, while also including a brand new multiplayer mode–one we will have impressions of for you in the near future.

BEST WII GAME
Super Mario Bros. Wii
Nintendo
Q4 2009

Mario is back. This new four-player side scroller is the first game to remind us of the good old days since the good old days, except now, with that multiplayer involved, it gives you a reason to want to punch your friends in the face.

BEST XBOX 360 GAME
Mass Effect 2

Bioware is promising a darker, more developed game than the first, which is saying something considering how well-done the original was. We’ll need to see it for ourselves, but what we saw was impressive.

BEST PLAYSTATION 3 GAME
Heavy Rain
Sony/Quantic Dream

This is a sleeper, but IGN also recognized the potential for Heavy Rain by nominating it for Best of E3/Best PlayStation 3 game. Blast got to play a demo, and we were thoroughly impressed by the control, decision-making abilities, dialog, and visuals. This is an excellent-looking game.

BEST MULTIPLATFORM GAME
Rogue Warrior
Bethesda Softworks
PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Fall 2009

Rogue Warrior looked great in a demo, and nothing is cooler than getting to play out the experiences of a real life badass navy seal voiced by Mickey Rourke. This game is full of pure action, explosions, and a great mix of stealth and offensive firepower.

BEST SPORTS GAME
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 Wii with MotionPlus
EA Sports
Nintendo Wii
June 8

Wii MotionPlus adds an amazing new dimension of reality to games, but nowhere was it more noticeable than in the latest Tiger Woods game. You have to position your wrists straight and do a full swing with follow-through. The MotionPlus makes you get off your couch and actually do stuff, and where better than at a virtual Bethpage?

BEST MUSIC GAME
The Beatles Rock Band
Harmonix/MTV Games
Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii
Fall

With The Beatles Rock Band, Harmonix officially takes back the music game genre, eclipsing Guitar Hero and coming out from its shadow. Beatles Rock Band will feature the most recognizable songs in history from the most recognizable band in history.

BEST PC GAME OR MMO
Star Wars: The Old Republic
Lucas Arts

This ambitious massively multiplayer game promises all voice acting and no text dialog — thousands and thousands of lines of voice acting. And it’s Star Wars.

BEST PERIPHERAL
Mad Catz Rock Band Wireless Wooden Fender Stratocaster
$299
September 2009

Mad Catz had Fender build them a real guitar, and instead of strings, they wired buttons into it and unleashed it for Xbox 360. It uses no dongle — it’s compatible with Xbox 360 wireless technology. It’s a real guitar, with wood and a shiny finish. If you like to play fake guitar, this is as close to real as it gets.

GUTSIEST PROJECTS

Heavy Rain
Sony/Quantic Dream
PlayStation 3

We’ve been looking forward to this one for a long time. From the same team that put together Indigo Prophecy comes Heavy Rain, a psychological thriller adventure that’s more about story and drawing you in than it is about shooting endless bad guys.

Wet
Bethesda Softworks
Xbox 360, PlayStation 3

Eliza Dushku is awesome.

M.A.G. Massive Action Game, 256 player online multiplayer
Zipper Interactive/Sony
PlayStation 3
TBA

Second year in a row for M.A.G. on the gutsiest projects list, and it still stands. This game is either going to be huge or a huge disappointment.

James Cameron’s Avatar: The Game
Ubisoft
December

This is one of the first video games from a movie that stands on its own merits.

Biggest letdown: Atari. Where were you this year? One word kids: Ghostbusters. Or is that two words? Either way, with the failure of some recent releases, it’s the best chance for Atari to impress this generation. Despite a hell of a showing over the past year, the company hasn’t been able to blow up. Ghostbusters should sell millions, given it’s on every console, so let’s hope that’s a step in the right direction.

Marc Normandin and Bradley Ouellette of the Blast staff contributed to this report.

Role playing game giant Bethesda Softworks, the group responsible for the Oblivion and Fallout series, announced and announcement today for an upcoming Wii title and spoke to what it takes to enter the Wii market and truly succeed.

In an interview with GamesIndustry, Sean Brennar of Bethesda Europe when questioned regarding the viability of a Bethesda product on the Wii scene, responded as such:

“Is there space in the Wii market for that? I think there is, but again, it’ all about finding out how big that is. Is it 5 per cent? If it’s five per cent of the market and you can own that space it’s worth doing because you can achieve volume. If you can’t own it at five per cent, it’s not worth doing, quite frankly.”

The Wii market is massive, no one is debating that, and Bethesda surely knows it. ‚ But what Mr. Brennar revealed next should really get Wii RPG fans thirsty for something other than Zelda giddy with excitement.

“We are going to make an announcement on a really big Wii game this year, we’ve got a couple of other things in the pipeline, and it’s a format we’re really looking at with the right approach.”

Got that? Not just a Wii game.‚  A “really big” Wii game.‚  Bethesda knows all about expansive and altogether massive environments, storylines, and game-play elements, so the emphasis on the largeness of the title should not go underappreciated.

Brennar left the interview on a singeing note by calling out other studios in their approach to the Wii market.

“We’re not going to establish a new range and call if ‘My Girly Game Range’ or whatever these other companies are doing, it’s so me-too and boring.”

I do not care for this current trend of announcements of announcements, and I damn sure hope Bethesda drops something official to look at or read very, very soon.

What do you think?‚  Does a Bethesda title stand a chance in the Wii market?

via GamesIndsutry

War never changes.

However, according to its most recently released downloadable content, Fallout 3′s ending does.

Bethesda Softworks, creators of the most recent installment of the Fallout series, has released the final of three Fallout 3 DLCs to be released this year.‚  This DLC, named Broken Steel, was highly anticipated due to the exclusive quests, items and, of course, the raised level-cap which will allow characters to go to all the way to level 30, significantly higher than the traditional 20.

However, will Broken Steel live up to the hype that surrounds it?‚  Or will Bethesda once again fall into their bad habit of releasing borked DLCs?‚  Let’s take a look.

Broken Steel takes place after the main quest is completed.‚  Though the Lone Wanderer actually dies at the end of the main quest, Broken Steel allows the Brotherhood to conveniently revive you.‚  This allows you to complete all of the Broken Steel and incomplete traditional quests without having to deal with that whole “being dead” thing.

The story starts with the Lone Wanderer waking up after being unconscious for two weeks.‚  Elder Lyons, the leader of the Brotherhood, greets you when you wake.‚  He informs you that the Enclave, though significantly weakened, is still running rampant throughout the Wasteland.‚  According to Lyons, it is up to you to finish what the Brotherhood of Steel has started.

Your first quest, called Death From Above, involves the Lone Wanderer to travel with a small Brotherhood taskforce in order to destroy a small Enclave outpost.‚  Armed with powerful weapons and Liberty Prime, the giant Communist-crushing pacification robot that many players will remember from the quest Take It Back!, you and your team must suppress the Enclave soldiers and retrieve intel regarding their communication methods.

Unfortunately, the mission ends up being a bit of a failure.‚  The Enclave turn out to be a little tougher than you and your team anticipates, as your rivals have gotten their hands on some heavy-duty missile technology.‚  Your company is almost completely wiped out and Liberty Prime is damaged beyond repair, setting the Brotherhood back “years!”‚  From this point on, it is your job to do some very intense reconnaissance missions for the Brotherhood.

Broken Steel offers a ton of new weapons to the Lone Wanderer, though most of them are of the “heavy” variety.‚  Items such as the Heavy Incinerator and the Slo-Burn Flamer are sure to whet the appetite of any character who likes a slow kill.‚  Likewise, the (very) cool Tesla Cannon is sure to satisfy those who are looking to quickly annihilate their opposition.‚  The DLC offers some very good armor as well.‚  Tired of those pesky fire-based attacks from the enemy?‚  Then try Enclave Hellfire Armor on for size.‚  Looking for something special to wear for a night with Nova?‚  Then let the All-Nighter Nightwear set the mood.

There is no lack of new enemies in Broken Steel, either.‚  Keep an eye out for some nasty creatures such as the Albino Radscorpion, the Feral Ghoul Reaver and the Super Mutant Overlord.‚  Each of these critters are significantly tougher than their traditional counterparts (for example, the Albino Radscorpion has three times as much health as a Deathclaw).‚  The Enclave has improved their infantry, too.‚  The Lone Wanderer will surely encounter the Hellfire Trooper and Sigma Leader, which will give every user more trouble than they bargained for.‚  Each of these enemies provides a challenge that is unmatched in the other DLC’s, making Broken Steel very satisfying in that aspect.

However, the best part about Broken Steel is the fact that it wasn’t broken (well, for Xbox 360 users at least).‚  For those who haven’t heard, Bethesda has had some issues regarding the bugginess of their DLC releases.‚  Their DLC’s, most notably the first and second release of The Pitt, have been frustratingly glitchy.‚  There have also been horror stories of players had their 100-hour campaign file corrupted by these DLC’s.‚  Luckily, Broken Steel has been perfect for Xbox 360, which is very refreshing.

The only real problem with Broken Steel was its difficulty.‚  I can’t imagine many beginning players who could beat the majority of this DLC without dying an obscene amount of times.‚  Pro-tip: use the expanded level-cap to your advantage.‚  Try not to beat the traditional main quest until you are at least level 16.‚  Otherwise, you will probably just be in for a world of frustration.

That said, Broken Steel was probably my favorite of the three released DLCs for Fallout 3.‚  None of the other releases even came close to the depth and intensity of Broken Steel’s quests.‚  Also, Broken Steel had many more interesting weapons and armor than its sister DLCs.‚  Along with the extended level-cap and bug-free functionality, Broken Steel is far and beyond the best $10 investment a Fallout 3 player can make.

Bethesda Softworks has released three new screenshots for the upcoming Fallout 3 DLC, named The Pitt.‚ ‚ The new screenshots include pictures named Trog, Steel Mill and Courtyard. ‚ Steel Mill and Courtyard show the new environments and areas. ‚ Trog is a picture of one of the many new types of enemies you will encounter in The Pitt.

The Pitt is based in the city of Pittsburgh years after a nuclear attack.‚  The Pitt, not unlike how Washington D.C. is portrayed in the basic version of Fallout 3, is full of mystery, danger and new areas to discover.‚  Your character will be posed with a quest to solve the burgeoning conflict between the Raiders and their slaves, dealing with “morally grey choices” along the way.

The Pitt will be available to Xbox 360 and Windows PC users for download later this month for 800 points / $10.‚  These are the second wave of screenshots of The Pitt that have been made available to fans.‚  You can see the other screenshots here.

The world of Fallout 3 will be getting a little bigger in 2009.

Bethesda Softworks has released new downloadable content for Fallout 3 called Operation: Anchorage.‚  The DLC will be available for both Xbox 360 and PC versions of the game.

Operation: Anchorage puts you and your character in a brand new quest to help the Brotherhood Outcasts.‚  The Brotherhood Outcasts need your help to get into a vault containing advanced military technology.‚  However, the only way to get into the vault is to complete a “tactical simulation that only you can enter”.‚  This simulation will put you in the action of the Battle of Anchorage, the oft fabled liberation of the American state, fighting and surviving against the Chinese Communists.

Through the simulation, you will be able to collect unique items found only in Operation: Anchorage.‚  You will also be able to use strike teams and test new and old weapon technologies with nearly unlimited ammo at your disposal.‚  However, even with these advantages, the Chinese will not be easy to defeat… especially when they have Ninjas.‚  Yes, Ninjas.‚  See the picture gallery for details.

Look for the review of Operation: Anchorage in the next issue of Blast Magazine!

From Bethesda Softworks:
PUBLISHER: ‚ ‚  ‚ Bethesda Softworks

DEVELOPER: ‚ ‚  ‚ Bethesda Game Studios

PLATFORM: ‚ ‚ ‚  ‚ Xbox 360TM and Games for Windows‚®

RELEASE DATE: January 27, 2009

DESCRIPTION: ‚ ‚  ‚ Operation: Anchorage. Enter a military simulation and fight in one of the greatest battles of the Fallout universe “" the liberation of Anchorage, Alaska from its Chinese Communist invaders. Gain access to unique armor, weapons, and exotic gadgets while you build and command interactive Strike Teams to win the battle and defeat the Chinese base.

STORY: ‚ ‚  ‚ The Brotherhood Outcasts are trying to acquire advanced military technology, and the only way to open the vault containing these relics is by completing a tactical simulation only you can enter. In Operation: Anchorage you will re-live the epic Battle of Anchorage from Fallout lore. Find your way into the simulation, stripped of resources, and survive within the rules set up by the simulation’s creators. The Chinese red army is everywhere, so secure the surrounding mountain side and fight your way into the Chinese base.

KEY FEATURES:

“¢‚ ‚  ‚ Enter a top-secret battle simulator which allows you to test and use both new and old weaponry, with nearly unlimited amounts of ammo at your disposal!
“¢‚ ‚  ‚ Adds hours of extended gameplay to explore the Alaskan tundra with a new or existing character.
“¢‚ ‚  ‚ Gain access to new weapons, exotic armor, and items”¦even a Chinese Stealth Suit!
“¢‚ ‚  ‚ Chose your strike team to help you through your quest.
“¢‚ ‚  ‚ Exclusive new perks and achievements!

Bethesda Softworks announced Tuesday that an update is available for Fallout 3 for Xbox 360, PS3, and PC.

It will be up today on Xbox Live and PlayStation Network and the PC patch can be found on the official Web site, and will also be up on Games for Windows Live as well.

You also can download the patch FREE from Blast.

The patch is required to play the downloadable content coming to Xbox 360 and Games for Windows. The first DLC for Fallout 3, Operation: Anchorage, is scheduled to be released January 27 via Xbox Live and Games for Windows Live for 800 points.

A full list of patch fixes is on page 2.

Bethesda Softworks released three new screenshots from the upcoming Operation Anchorage expansion for Fallout 3.

In Operation Anchorage we get to relive the much talked about liberation of Anchorage that was hinted to throughout the game.

To maintain continuity, you will play out the 200-years-in-the-past battle by entering a simulation like the one you have to complete in a vault to find your father in the main quest.

Operation Anchorage is focused mainly on battle/fighting/shooting and less on the verbose storyline of the rest of the game.

The download will be available for Xbox 360 and Games for Windows later this month for 800 points/$9.99. Fallout 3 downloads are exclusive to the 360 and Windows, as Bethesda announced at E3.

Minor spoiler warning. We’re not giving away anything vital.

Every once in a while, a game comes along that plays out like so:

You sit down at 5:30 in the afternoon to play the game. You open a box of Cheez-Its. You figure on playing the game for an hour or two and eating a few handfuls of crackers.

Suddenly the sun is coming up, the box is empty, and you’ve just gotten started in the game.

This caloric description doesn’t even begin to do justice to Fallout 3. Not only is Fallout 3 the best game of the year, but it’s one of the best games ever made.

That’s a lofty statement, but you’re reading a magazine that has a track record of telling the truth. So listen up.

The game takes place in post nuclear apocalyptic Washington D.C., and you’re one of the lucky few that got to live in the secure Vault 101, free from the radiation, deadly super mutants and certain death in the barren wasteland outside.

You begin Fallout 3 at the moment of your character (male or female) is born, and you age through the game in quick chapters until you one day when you wake up to discover your father, a scientist and doctor, has inexplicably left the Vault – a big no-no. Now the Vault director is after you, and your life is in danger.

Right from the start, Bethesda shows you the sheer volume of choices, side-quests, and adventures in Fallout 3. As you’re escaping the authorities, you’ll find that an infestation of giant radioactive cockroaches has swarmed the vault. You’ll run into a childhood bully begging you for help because his alcoholic mother is being attacked by the roaches, and he’s too scared to do anything about it. You’ll find that your father’s assistant – who was like an uncle to you – has been murdered for information about dad’s disappearance. Seeking revenge, you’ll find the vault director, but wait, he’s the father of your potential love interest and childhood best friend.

And that’s all before the game really even starts.

Leaving the vault, you’ll then spend the next, oh, month of your life exploring and re-exploring a visual masterpiece. Washington D.C., the surrounding area, and all the monuments have been reconstructed and then devastated by nuclear war. It’s eye-popping to walk through this virtual world and see the Washington Monument in ruins as you approach it and the museums of the Smithsonian in various stages of decay, squatters taking up shelter in their strong construction. It’s not just up-close either. From far in the distance, you can see the Washington Monument or the Capital Building, and it’s eerie.

Let me tell you what else is eerie: listening to the radio stations in the background. From the start, you’ll have your choice of Enclave Radio, the propaganda channel for a faction that claims to be the resurrected United States Government, and the rebel free radio wasteland station and its eccentric disc jockey, Three Dog.

You have the choice to be good or bad. You can be a hero, defending the helpless, saving cities and having townsfolk shower you with gifts (that does happen). You can walk into the slave trader’s village and kill all the slavers. Or you can be an asshole. You can exploit children, beat up women, destroy towns. You can be evil, corrupt, and terrifying.

That all starts when you’re a kid or when you’re escaping the vault. Your best friend steals a gun from her father to “aid” in your escape. When the childhood bully begs you for help, you can help him, save his mother and be the hero.

Or you can shoot him in the head and put two in the mother for good measure.

These are your choices, and don’t let emotion get in the way — yes, it’s just a video game, but we’ve all been there.

Even your own health is a series of carefully balanced choices. If your hit points are low, you can drink water from a stream or sink or even down a soda from a vending machine, but this increases your radiation level, which is bad for you in the long run.

You will also encounter a variety of drugs and chemicals that will raise HP or boost your abilities temporarily, but if you take too much, you’ll get addicted and dependent on the drug. If you run out, you’ll go through withdrawal and lose abilities.

The game is bloody, gory, violent, and full of sexually suggestive and explicit dialog. But the game doesn’t include swears in the same way that Kane and Lynch did — just for the hell of it. Fallout 3′s dialogue is tactfully woven together.

There are a lot of little things that I would have liked to have seen built up more, like sitting at a bar and ordering a drink, settling up two lovebirds and then going to the wedding, going to restaurants. These features all happen, but could have been a bit better designed. You don’t have food delivered to you or a drink poured for you; you just buy it and it appears in your inventory.

The game’s inventory system works exactly like Bethesda’s Elder Scrolls titles. You can carry items up to your strength limit, and then you have to drop stuff strategically.

The game world is massive. It takes many, many hours to go through it, and you can bet that expansion packs and downloadable content is coming.

Now, I’ll admit, I’m a little biased in favor of the post apocalyptic genre. I grew up playing and reading Shadowrun for Genesis, Super Nintendo and tabletop — still have all the books. I number Blade Runner, Escape from New York and Escape from L.A. in my list of favorite movies.

But forget about the genre for a bit. The visuals are unparalleled and the audio is sublime. Walking down a bombed out road in Washington is that much creepier when “America the Beautiful” is playing in the background, seriously. The controls are intuitive and can be inverted or adjusted for sensitivity. The plot is complex and gripping.

When I discovered Interplay’s Wasteland in the early 1990s, this was how I imagined the game would look in real life. Technically Fallout 3 is the fourth installment in the franchise. Interplay made Wasteland and then Fallout 1 and 2, as technical sequels. They also made two spin-offs: the combat-heavy Fallout: Tactics on the PC in 2001 and Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel (the first console Fallout title) in 2004. Interplay started making Fallout 3, (see Van Buren) but they were broke and struggling. Bethesda scooped up the Fallout franchise last year for just under $6 million. Bethesda completely threw out Interplay’s work and built this game from scratch.

It does use the same gameplay engine as The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion.

Fallout 3 is artistic and timely. It has a message to it — a frightening message. But unlike other games with a social context, Fallout 3 doesn’t push these factors down your throat.

It is, however, a quiet indictment of corrupt politics, unscrupulous foreign policy and an increasingly insular American populace.

Blast tested the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions of the game. Joe Sinicki and Terri Schwartz of the Blast Magazine staff contributed to this report.

Fallout 3, one of the year’s most anticipated games has officially gone gold. The apocalyptic shooter from Bethesda Game Studios, most famous for 2006 Game Of The Year The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion will be available for the XBox 360, PlayStation 3 and Windows PC on October 28 in North America, with the Europe and UK releases just days after.

“Fallout 3 has been the biggest project we’ve ever undertaken,” said Todd Howard, game director for Fallout 3. “It’s been a long journey and we’re really happy with how it turned out. We can’t wait for everyone to get a chance to play it.”

Fallout 3 was Blast’s Best Game of E3 2008.

Rated M by the ESRB, Fallout 3 tells the story of a post apocalyptic United States, with the player assuming the role of a member of Vault 101 — a Washington DC based shelter in search of his father. The game features open-ended and customizable gameplay — including an estimated 200 versions of the end cutscene.

For more information on Fallout 3, visit the game’s official sites at http://fallout.bethsoft.com and http://www.prepareforthefuture.com. Stay with Blast as the game release comes closer for more coverage.

Bethesda has busted out a new Fallout 3 website, PrepareForTheFuture.com, which is full of vids, clips, art and info on the upcoming probable game of the year.

Jimmy and The Fatman

VATS

That’s Right Abe

Blast’s “Best Game fo E3” will be released October 28, Bethesda Softworks confirmed Wednesday.

“We are very excited to let gamers get their hands on Fallout 3, the latest chapter in this beloved and highly acclaimed franchise,” said Vlatko Andonov, president of Bethesda Softworks, in a statement. “To meet the huge demand for this title by our fans worldwide, we are planning one of the biggest launches of any game released this year.”

Bethesda is the powerhouse behind the mega-award-winning Elder Scrolls franchise.

Motorbike racing sims have been a staple of video gaming culture for years. From Road Rash to MotoGP to Super Hang-On — heck, Excitebike — the motorcycle is fun to virtually race.

Enter Ducati Moto from Bethesda Softworks. In the 1960s, the Ducati bike became the fastest 250 cc bike in the world. They are sick bikes, indeed worthy of their own video game.

And Ducati Moto goes the legend some justice. First, it’s a relatively simple game, but there’s a lot packed into the small DS package including 11 bikes and five play styles including time trials and stunt challenges. Really though, especially with WiFi multiplayer, this is a game you can just pick up and play.

The game has basic graphics with some bells and whistles like street and dessert scenes (see screen shots). It does kinda feel like an old arcade racer. Simple controls let you push the gas and go without worrying as much about turns and braking.

Overall, Ducati is a good little game. It doesn’t try to do too much, but it does just enough to keep players occupied.

LOS ANGELES — They knew a good deal when they saw one in 2004, when they bought “Fallout” from its failing creator, Interplay

After years of development, Bethesda Softworks, makers of the hugely successful "Elder Scrolls" series, is at the E3 Media and Business Summit at the Los Angeles Convention Center this week to show off "Fallout 3," the latest chapter in the post-Nuclear apocalypse role playing franchise, due on shelves in the fall.

Interplay’s release of "Fallout" in 1997 was a breath of fresh air to an otherwise depleted RPG game gene pool during a lackluster several years for RPG’s. Then, in came this real world, guns and rockets departure from dungeons, dragons, wizards, and elves.

That kind of history will give "Fallout 3" momentum, but Bethesda has sometimes been looked at as a step-parent to Fallout since buying it for $5,750,000. They completely remade the game, throwing out the work Interplay had done on its own version of "Fallout 3" before selling it off.

The company’s other titles have been mixed. It’s "Elder Scrolls" games and expansion packs for those games have sold millions of copies, won countless awards, and enjoyed nearly unanimous critical approval. That success has carried them despite less successful titles like the "Pirates of the Caribbean" movie games; semi-failures like their half dozen or so Star Trek titles; and miserable failures like the 2006 "IHRA Drag Racing" simulation game.

Still, Bethesda likes to gamble, and it usually pays off.

"We took a lot of risks with ‘[Elder Scrolls:] Oblivion’ and learned a lot doing such a massive game," said Todd Howard, executive producer for Bethesda, during Microsoft’s E3 briefing Monday. "We’ve learned a lot."

Bethesda hopes to market the game to hardcore and casual gamers — a very fashionable trend in the video game world today.

"Lots of people want an experience that is fun and well-executed. So that group is everyone from the most hardcore to casual gamers who buy 1 or 2 games a year," said Pete Hines, vice president of public relations and marketing for Bethesda, in an interview Monday. "Our marketing strategy is to hit those consumers in a lot of different ways, at different times."

Fallout 3 will be available for Windows, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 this fall.

ZeniMax Media Inc., the parent company of Bethesda Softworks, announced Mnday that it has begun direct publishing operations in Asia with the establishment of its Tokyo-based subsidiary, ZeniMax Asia K.K. ZeniMax Asia will be publishing titles throughout Asian territories under the Bethesda Softworks brand.

“This office will publish games in Japan from Bethesda — Star Trek: Conquest, Star Trek: Legacy, and Fallout 3 — as well as games from other publishers, including Bully (PS2), Bully SE (Xbox 360), and Major League Baseball 2K8 (PS3/PS2/PSP/X360),” said Pete Hines, spokesman for Bethesda.

“Establishing operations in Asia is very important to us as we continue to expand our presence in markets outside of North America,” said Robert Altman, ZeniMax CEO. “In addition to ZeniMax Europe Ltd., our direct relationships throughout Asia allow us to bring exciting titles like Fallout 3 to gamers across the globe.”

The Asian operations of the Company will be headed by Tetsu Takahashi, General Manager, ZeniMax Asia KK. “We are happy to be part of the ZeniMax family,” said Tetsu. “Extending their direct reach throughout Asia is an exciting, new phase in the Company’s expansion and we look forward to building upon their excellent reputation.”

Interplay announced Monday that four of its Sega Genesis titles are slated to appear on the Nintendo Wii Virtual Console later this year

Earthworm Jim, Earthworm Jim 2, Boogerman and Clayfighter will be available for download in the coming months, confirmed Luke Haase, spokesman for the game developer. Haase could not confirm a release date on the games.

Interplay is on the verge of a comeback. They are one of the oldest operational video game developers. They ran into serious financial troubles in 2004 and stopped developing games shortly afterward. In November, they announced that they would use the proceeds from selling off their property, Fallout, to Bethesda Softworks — of Elder Scrolls fame.

On April 8, Interplay confirmed it was working on sequels to Dark Alliance, Earthworm Jim, Descent and MDK.

Interplay is responsible for not only those titles in video game history but also Baldur’s Gate, Battlechess, Descent and Alone in the Dark.

Nintendo’s Virtual Console makes games from NES, SNES, N64, NEOGEO, Sega Genesis and TurboGrafx 16 titles available for cheap download and play on the Wii.