Look, I love Skyrim as much as the next guy, but there’s no denying it would be better with a bit of madness. In the above video, a modder replaced the dragon in the game with a weird half-dragon, half Macho Man Randy Savage creature. Yes, it’s as cool as it sounds, and its good to know that the former World Champion is gone but not forgotten.

Starting next month, PC Skyrim players will have access to the exact same tools the team at Bethesda did to create the massive title.  I’ll let that sink in for a minute.

“We want to thank everyone reading this for playing our game and supporting all it tries to do,” according to the post on the official Bethesda Blog. “We wouldn’t have this success without you, and we want you to know we’re committed to making your Skyrim experience even better. And not just in the short term, but over the life of the game.”

Bethesda also plans to release a set of wikis and how-t0-videos along with the creation set in an effort to maximize the possibility of user mods. The creation suite will be tied to the Steam workshop, meaning that users can view and rank any creation.

Bethesda also detailed a patch that will hit PC first and then consoles.

“We all know this is a huge game, and everyone has a different experience. We’ll continue to do everything we can to make the game better and better for as many people as possible every day. We’ve also realized that with the millions upon millions of people playing Skyrim, we need to treat our updates with greater care. If we get too aggressive trying to fix a minor issue, we run a risk of breaking something larger in a game like this.”

On Friday, November 11, Eric and Megan Kellermeyer welcomed a brand new baby boy into their lives — they chose to name him Dovahkiin. For those unaware, Dovahkiin translates into “dragonborn” in the world of Skyrim, the hugely anticipated and money making RPG from Bethesda, which also released on 11-11-11.

Bethesda had previously offered to send the first set of parents who give their child the name a lifetime supply of games and it was posted on the Bethesda blog that the Kellermeyers were the winners.”Be it the real world or the game worlds we create, we wish young Dovahkiin the best in all his adventures.”

A game like Skyrim poses a serious question to how game reviewers do their job. In general, we follow a pretty rigid schedule; start game, play game, finish game, write about game. But what happens when a game never ends?  The answer in short – one of the best experiences I’ve ever had with a video game.

From its gripping opening scene, to the adventures your quests will bring you, all the way to the game’s climactic finale, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is unlike any other game you’ve played before. Its level of depth, dedication to storytelling and details both big and small combine to make one hell of a package.  Say goodbye to the sun, Skyrim is here and it’s about to rule your life.

Skyrim is less of a sequel to 2006’s Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, as much as it’s a new chapter in an ever expanding book. Set 200 years after the events of the last game, tensions are high in Skyrim as civil war rages along the countryside. The game opens with your as-of-yet-unnamed character being sent to be beheaded, but then the dragon shows up. Long thought to be extinct, the slithering beast begins wrecking havoc on the town, prompting your escape. It’s here that you really start to get a feel for Skyrim, and where your quest actually starts.

It’s here, where you create your character, and here that you’ll get your first look at the depth that Skyrim packs. The character creation tool is an impressive one, giving you the freedom to choose everything from your appearance (you can get incredibly in-depth if you want to) to your race and characteristics.  You can of course, change the majority of these throughout your journey, but a few of your choices do stay with you from the beginning.

The depth of Skyrim’s character creator assures for a wide variety of characters between separate games. I myself created a battle-worn, older grunt type character, complete with war paint, hobo bears and scars who specialized in heavy weaponry and elemental energies. To me, it’s what gives me the best chance in any given fight throughout Skyrim. Of course, this is an Elder Scrolls game and the choices you make, combined with the way your game plays out with have a direct impact on your style.

Like any Elder Scrolls game, Skyrim is a game that believes that getting there is half the fun. Sure, you could escape the village where you nearly lost your life and go right on with the main quest, but you’ll be missing a good portion of what makes Skyrim such a remarkable feat. Instead, go somewhere – anywhere. Wander through the game’s vast fields and gigantic mountain ranges, see what the world Bethesda has so lovingly created has to offer you. Pick the plants, talk with the locales, find some bandit hideouts.

There’s truly so much to do within Skyrim that it’s likely you won’t take on an actual quest for quite some time.  I strongly believe that one of the most impressive moments in any open world adventure is the first time you’re given a real look at just what goes in within the game’s world, and that’s a feeling that happened countless times as I found new areas of Skyrim. What’s most impressive about the world of Skyrim is just how detailed everything really is.

There’s a strict set of rules that govern the world of Skyrim, that makes the game’s ecology work. My first few moments being let loose in Skyrim, I found, stalked and hunted a moose and it made me feel incredibly powerful. As I kept traveling, I came across other animals, like bears and wild boars, and while these fights tested my unproven warrior, it made me level up faster and become comfortable to take on the game’s main attraction, the dragons. When you do eventually defeat a dragon and stand over the beast’s defeated body, it’s extremely rewarding and feels like nothing else in gaming. Just don’t get too ahead of yourself like I did and think “I took down a Dragon, a mammoth should be no problem!” Just a word of advice, the majority of the game’s mammoth population is controlled by Skyrim’s race of giants – and you don’t want to mess with them.

As of this writing, I’m more than sixty hours into Skyrim, and I still don’t feel like I’ve even scratched the surface of just what the game is and what it can do. Now, to be fair, that’s because I have been doing so much wandering and not paying a whole lot of attention to the actual events of Skyrim, but that’s still a testament to just how impressively immersive the game is.  The game’s impressive visuals serve as a testament to this – in most cases.  The sweeping vistas and lush scenery is impressive, but close-up, especially on consoles, the textures can became blurry and create some pretty strikingly ugly scenes. For the best results, play on PC with an Xbox 360 controller. Seriously, don’t laugh, give it a try.

I wonder if he's friendly...

The Blast Factor: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim continues a long standing tradition of excellence for Bethesda’s role playing series. Though it retains the depth and strategic elements of the previous games, it’s also the series most accessible title, making it a great jumping on point for fans new to the series. With all of its exploration and content, you’re going to be playing Skyrim for a long time, but that’s okay, you didn’t like sunlight anyways did you?

The Elderscrolls V: Skyrim may not release until this coming Friday, but that hasn’t stopped Bethesda’s Todd Howard from talking about the game’s upcoming DLC. Speaking to Wired, Howard said that DLC is already being worked on and that it’s “substantial.”

“Very quick DLC might sell well,” says Howard, “but that’s not our priority … Our high-level thinking is that there’ll be not as many [pieces of DLC], but they’ll be bigger and more substantial. The goal overall is not necessarily to put out more content, but to make the game better.”

Blast has been running loose in Skyrim for the last week — look for our review soon.

The Elderscrolls V: Skyrim launches next week Friday, and to be honest, Blast couldn’t be more excited. Just take a look at this trailer, which showcases how the game’s original concept art was transformed into the stunning environments you’ll see on 11-11-11. By the way, we’ve got the game in the Blast offices, and will have out review to you as soon as we can.

The apocalypse fascinates us. Tales of a grim future of desert wastelands, horrible mutations, and rampant violence have long proven to be a successful formula for movies, novels, and, especially, games. Id Software’s long-awaited Rage certainly seems to have been crafted with an exacting eye for wasteland standards. It’s a game that definitely succeeds on a technical level, but from a design and gameplay perspective might require players to lower their expectations.

Rage opens in a familiar manner. Just before a giant meteor strikes Earth, a select few are given a reprieve in the form of cryogenic status chambers in protective “Arks”. Fast forward a hundred years, and it’s clear this plan wasn’t bullet proof. The player awakes from cold storage to find themselves the only survivor of their ark, and is immediately thrust into a violent world of dusty landscapes, burned out structures, and well-armed buggies.

Comparisons between Rage and other wasteland games like Borderlands and Fallout 3 are inevitable. How Rage distinguishes itself however, is that it is undoubtedly an Id-made game. There are no role-playing elements here and no greater strategy beyond kill-or-be-killed.Anyone expecting another Fallout will be disappointed by the sheer shallowness of the gameplay.

Rage also lacks the deeper cooperative play experience of Borderlands and the sense of humor of either game. It seems to be a game that takes itself too seriously, even though players will be hard pressed to discern why. There’s no cliché left unturned and despite the initial appearance of an open world, even this is merely an illusion.

Players have no control over even the basics of character development. You can’t change the look, gender, or any physical aspect of the ark survivor, and the only real commodities in the game are money and race tickets. Both of these currencies are used to buy weapons, equipment, ammo, and vehicle parts.

Rage is divided between two distinct play styles. The standard first-person shooting elements will make veteran gamers feel right at home. The indoor levels have a distinct Doom feel to them, with tight corridors and much the same imagery and design techniques used in the developer’s past games. Even the horror elements are cribbed from so many other sci-fi horror games. Despite the apocalyptic mutant theme, the game throws in the whole growing biomass cliché that makes little sense in such an environment.
The driving portions will delight fans of arcade-style combat racing. The physics are over-the-top with an eye for fast action not realism. So, you can still steer in the air, for instance, and there’s a decided focus on making crazy jumps. There’s plenty of opportunity for extra points by destroying objects in mid-air and skillfully dispatching foes.

So long as you understand exactly what kind of game Rage is, however, there’s no denying that it’s fun to play. The whole game is just one errand run after another. Talking to the various non-combative denizens of the wasteland frequently leads to a new task (usually either a fetchin’ or killin’ mission), which you just go and do. It’s not deep, creative, or complex, but this formula provides plenty of action, which has always been Id’s design focus.

Enemies have decent AI and tactics, with excellent movement abilities. Bandits and mutants will use free-running skills to leap over things, run along walls, and be generally hard to hit—frequently too hard to hit, since the game’s auto-assist is suspect. There’s a wide array of bad things to shoot, including some impressively large boss creatures.  Bandits are divided into themed tribes. There are redneck cannibals, technologically-advanced soldiers, and British punk-rocker wannabes. Ultimately, their specific look and dialogue is irrelevant, since outside of the few “safe” towns, everyone is merely fodder for your guns.

Beyond bandits, there’s the so-called “authority” that make life in the wasteland a nightmare for anyone who crosses them. To go along with these tyrannical would-be rulers, there’s also the pre-requisite resistance for the player to join. The story is just there to service the shoot ‘em gameplay though, and it’s clear that the minimum amount of effort was put into the writing and non-shooting and driving mechanics.
Thankfully, as expected, the shooting and driving is satisfyingly entertaining. There are enough missions to occupy hours of violence and, for action lovers, that’s a fine reason to enjoy this romp through the wasteland. The other major draw is the multiplayer, which brings multiplayer car combat front and center.

Id definitely has a handle on great death matching and Rage’s vehicle-centric online play is terrific. Totally ignoring the first-person shooter elements, the competitive play is fast-paced and well-designed. There are a handful of entertaining game modes fought in superb and spacious arenas. The downside of the multiplayer is the four-player limit, which is too small given the expansive scope of the maps. There are also two-player cooperative “legend” missions, which are fun, if shallow, but not really a replacement being able to play the main single-player game with a friend.

Id Software has always been known for their technology, and the latest iteration of their graphics engine takes the core visual style of Doom 3 and expands it to vast open spaces. Despite some graphic glitches on the console versions, Rage is a beautiful game with a solid frame rate and nice variety of indoor levels. The audio is also superb, with powerful surround effects, solid voice acting, and a decent musical score.

Blast Factor: Ultimately, the best way to sum up Rage is shallow, but fun. There’s virtually nothing here that hasn’t been seen before with more depth. Even when the game threatens to evolve beyond its own shallowness, it just can’t make it. Taken as a straight-forward, mission-based shooter, there’s plenty to like. Yet, after so long in development, the game has an almost half-baked feel. The presentation, the environment, the combat… almost all the parts are in place to make Rage an epic post-apocalypse adventure, but the sum total is ultimately less than these pieces.

Rage,the genre bending shooter from Id Software and Bethesda will reportedly ship on 3 discs on the Xbox 360, but PS3 owners; you’re not getting off so easy — the massive game will reportedly require an 8GB install on Sony’s console.

The size of the game was confirmed at this week’s Eurogamer expo by creative director Tim Willits, who praised the PS3 platform for being able to condense the game’s size to a more reasonable size.

“Sony was great. Kudos to Sony for letting us do that. They don’t allow every game to do that. So definitely, hats off,” he said. “What we were able to do is install all the textures to the highest level. What is nice about the PS3 platform is that it’s just one platform. Everyone has one Blu-ray drive, one hard drive, it’s all the same. Some of the other systems you have… should I install it on my 360? Should I not install it? So yes, it’s very nice.”

Willits doesn’t want Xbox 360 owners to feel discouraged though, as he urged users to install the game, if not the whole thing. “We recommend installing the game to the hard drive, but you don’t need to install all three discs,” he said. “If you don’t have the space available on your hard drive, don’t stress. Install the first disc, the first chapter, the first half of the game, then when you’re done, uninstall and install disc two. You don’t really need to install the multiplayer disc if you’re really tight on hard disk space.”

Blast is counting down the days until we can play it, as we really dug our time back with it during this year’s E3 show.

Hey, remember Prey? The 2006 shooter that featured Tommy, a native American mechanic turned bad ass alien killer? If you don’t, it’s not a problem, as Bethesda has officially announced that the game’s long anticipate sequel will hit stores in 2012 — just don’t expect it to resemble the original game much.

Reports are that Tommy is long gone from Prey 2 in favor of the character seen blasting off at the end of the original game. Apparently he’s a bounty hunter. Pretty bad ass.

Bethesda is working directly with Human Head games, the studio that created the original Prey to helm the sequel, and the team couldn’t be more excited.

“We are thrilled to be working with Bethesda on Prey 2,” said Chris Rhinehart, project lead. “Prey 2 will provide gamers the opportunity to explore a new facet of the Preyuniverse, one that offers fast-paced action in an open, alien world. We’re excited to show gamers the title we have been working on and hope they will be as excited by this title as we are.”

Further details on Prey 2 are to be revealed in the next issue of Official Xbox Magazine.

Here yo go folks, the first official, non teaser trailer for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, complete with actual in game footage. Try not to salivate too much.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim launches this November.

Just announced at the Spike TV Video Game Awards, The Elder Scrolls series continues with the long awaited fifth chapter in the franchise — The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

The game is reportedly a direct sequel to the highly acclaimed Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.

The trailer looked fantastic and the game launches on November 11 of next year.

We’ll have videos and pictures ASAP.

Naughty Bear wasn’t exactly the best game commercially or critically, but that won’t stop the folks at developer ?Behaviour from green lighting a sequel to this year’s lackluster title. The developer also announced a sequel to WET, the long since forgotten Bethesda shooter.

“Wet 2 (multi-platform), Naughty Bear 2 (multi-platform), Doritos Crash Course (XBLA) as well as Rango (multi-platform) … are all currently in development at Behaviour,” said senior vice president of business development, Jamie Leece.

No word yet on when the games will hit shelves, but expect them to hit the bargain bins shortly after.

In the two years since its release, Bethesda has kept Fallout 3 relevant thanks to a steady stream of downloadablecontent that expanded the game universe. Now however, it seems to be hurting the franchise more than anything else.

Fallout: New Vegas is a difficult beast to review. On the one hand, it adds to the experience first seen in Fallout 3 wonderfully, but on the other, that experience is nearly three years old.  The world is as massive and creative as ever, but playing through the latest chapter in the critically acclaimed franchise grows incredibly familiar and tiring all too quickly.

As you’d expect, New Vegas takes place in the year 2281 in a post apocalyptic Las Vegas, Nevada. Much like the Washington DC setting of Fallout 3, the map of New Vegas is incredibly large and impressive. In fact, the wasteland setting in New Vegas is easily one of the game’s best features. Actual landmarks like the Hoover Dam and the Helios Solar Energy Plant dot the landscape, which is tons of fun to explore. Playing through and exploring the world New Vegas presents is incredibly rewarding and the more you play, the more you’re sure to appreciate. Case in point – when you get to the actual Vegas area and see swing entertainers and the lights of the strip – it’s a truly awesome sight when you realize that up until this point you’ve been staring at a barren wasteland.

As a living  artificial world, Fallout 3 is nothing short of fascinating, but as an interactive experience, it’s a bit more thin. What worked so well before, often feels old hat here, and rather than feeling like you have complete control, it’s not uncommon to feel like the game is limiting what you can do.  Everything you’ve come to expect from the engine is here, just in a different form – while Fallout 3 began with you choosing your traits at birth, New Vegas does so after you regain consciousness after being brutally attacked and forced to dig your own grave.

While much of New Vegas’ gameplay is showing its age, the citizens of the wasteland are a different story altogether. In previous Fallout games, the factions were easy to navigate; one was good – one was bad – and so forth. Here, many of the factions come off as neutral forces, perpetuating ideas rather than stereotypical responses. This makes the game incredibly more fun to navigate, as you’ll have to really identify and choose which faction you want to align yourself with.

Each time I would get into the action of New Vegas, a technical glitch or troubling design choice halted any interest I had in the game. Several times, I had to restart my game as it caused the entire 360 to lock up. Furthermore, when the action starts to pick up, you’re left with a chugging framerate and some embarrassing textures. The worst aspect though by far is the game’s obscenely long load times. Even those wouldn’t be much of an issue if they didn’t happen so frequently. Going into a building? Load screen. Leaving a building? Load screen. It’s obviously annoying and has a tendency to take you out of the game, especially when your quest has you going through different buildings.

Those looking for more of a challenge with Fallout: New Vegas are pushed towards the new hardcore mode which severely amps up the difficulty and realism.  In Hardcore mode, stimpaks (the  game’s health system) heal over time rather than instantly, severe injuries require additional medical assistance and players must eat, drink and sleep to avoid starvation, dehydration and exhaustion. Yes, it’s as hard as it sounds, but it’s incredibly satisfying for dedicated Fallout players.

The Blast Factor: If Fallout: New Vegas were an expansion pack or DLC, it’d be instantly worth the money, but asking gamers to put down $60 for a title that adds almost nothing new, yet is chock full of technical issues is a bit much. Still, those who love The Fallout games are sure to find much to love in the Mojave Wasteland. Fallout: New Vegas isn’t the masterpiece many thought it would be, but fans are sure to enjoy one more romp with their pipboy.

If you need more fantasy, co-op and third-person action in your life, rejoice, as Bethesda and developer InXile announced an entirely new game today called “Hunted: The Demon’s Forge.”

The game will arrive for  Xbox 360, PS3 and PC whenever Bethesda says it’s ready.

Brian Fargo, Interplay founder and head of InXile Entertainment, said the game is a return to its noted past.

"We are thrilled to be working with Bethesda Softworks on this upcoming release that takes us back to our roots, Bethesda’s track record speaks for itself and the game we are developing for them is no exception."

"inXile has an extremely talented team and we couldn’t be more pleased to have them working on one of our upcoming titles," said Vlatko Andonov, President of Bethesda Softworks.  "We believe gamers will be really excited about what these guys have in store for them."

Nothing else was revealed concerning the game today besides the screenshots embedded below.

The first batch of screenshots for the upcoming Fallout: New Vegas hit the Internet today and besides a few featuring some spectacular beards and golf-club murder, we still don’t know much about the title.

The game is slated for a Fall 2010 release and if you missed its debut trailer, have a look at it right here.

Check out all the piping hot new screens in the gallery embedded below. Remember to click each to embiggen.

Source: Joystiq

Bethesda released a trailer for its upcoming RPG Fallout: New Vegas this morning and also dated the project for a general Fall 2010 release.

Developed by Obsidian, this game, from teaser-trailer alone, already gets me excited. It’s accompanied with the familiar phrase “war never changes” and we can’t really argue there.

Notable inclusions in the trailer are a California flag, a dude in a heavy military jacket, and a generally dark tone to the experience.

What’s also interesting is Obsidian handling development duties. Bethesda’s in-house studio is not working on it, leading us to believe Bethesda is working on projects simultaneously and one we have no idea about.

We’ll keep up-to-date with the story as it evolves. You watch the trailer below.

Bethesda released an intriguing teaser-trailer of sorts for its upcoming first-person-shooter Brink today and needless to say, the game will afford its users a multitude of options in terms of creation.

Want a chest decorated with ornate tattoo designs, three mohawks, and baggy jeans? If you can dream it, it can happen.

Take a look at video for evidence.

ZeniMax Media Inc., parent company of Bethesda and id Software today announced that they’ve picked up publishing rights for id Software’s RAGE, stealing them from Electronic Arts.

ZeniMax Media Inc. will market and sell the first-person shooter RAGE, and EA will get nothing, and have to be happy about it.

The press release issued this morning was a mere two sentences long, but noted that “the ongoing development of RAGE is unaffected by this development.”

No reason was given, as was expected, as to why publishers switched, only that they did.

A man-made floating city dubbed the Ark, built with purely scientific experimental intentions, is about to see bloodshed. The oceans have risen and the structure is now a refuge for humanity. But we all can’t be saved now can we?

Bethesda and Spash Damage hope to fuse single player, co-op, and multiplayer, into one seamless experience in their latest digital endeavor Brink. The first-person shooter is an ambitious project indeed, but from an art standpoint, we absolute love what we’ve been seeing so far.

Released today are these four glorious shots from the game, and needless to say, we’re excitied, but with a release date of only “TBD” we won’t be playing this one for a while.

The Lone Wanderer has saved Alaska, saved Pittsburgh, woke from the dead and visited Point Lookout; all in a span of a few months.

Now, Fallout 3′s protagonist has one more frontier to conquer: Space!

Mothership Zeta, Fallout 3′s fifth and final Downloadable Content, takes the Lone Wanderer on a galactic adventure filled with Aliens, spaceships and, best of all, advanced weapons.‚  However, with many other DLCs to compete with, how will Bethesda’s most recent Fallout 3 add-on stack up against the competition?

Mothership Zeta opens like most other DLCs; with a mysterious radio signal that ultimately reveals a new location on your map.‚  The location, aptly named Alien Crash Site, is where a small round ship called Recon Craft Theta had crash-landed in the Wasteland.‚  Upon arriving at the location, the Lone Wanderer will notice that there is fairly heavy radiation surrounding the ship.‚  Eventually, when players approach the ship, the Lone Wander is beamed up to Mothership Zeta.

Once the Lone Wander teleports to Zeta, players find themselves trapped (and stripped of all armor and weapons) in a holding cell with a Waster named Somah.‚  Somah doesn’t know much more than you when it comes to general information about the ship, but she has learned that your Alien captors would prefer to keep their human specimens alive.‚  With this in mind, Somah suggests that you should fight her, making the Aliens have to open the cell and break up the scuffle.‚  Once you agree to the plan, it is executed perfectly and the escape begins.

One of my favorite parts about Mothership Zeta is the unique cast of characters you meet during your attempt to escape.‚  First, the Alien enemies on the spacecraft were very cool.‚  Each Alien looks similar to what we all imagine an extraterrestrial would look like: small, green and with a big head.‚  Still, even with this classic interpretation of extra-terrestrials, the natives of Mothership Zeta are quite interesting because of their beautifully animated armor and masterfully recorded voices.‚  These aspects alone were probably two of the best things about this DLC.

Also, the Aliens of Mothership Zeta seem to have been in the abducting business for quite a while, judging by the types of folks you encounter.‚  The Aliens cryogenically froze many different types of NPCs, good and bad.‚  Some of the frozen enemies that are frozen (and possibly unfrozen) include Slavers, Super Mutants and those ever-pesky Feral Ghouls.‚  The allies you meet on Mothership Zeta are from Earth’s present and past.‚  Characters such as a cowboy, a little girl who survived the Great War (and is very helpful throughout the DLC) and a medic from the liberation of Alaska.‚  My favorite NPC was a cryo-frozen Samurai, complete with ancient Japanese armor and weaponry.

Speaking of weapons, the Aliens on Mothership Zeta really know how develop some tools of destruction.‚  In addition to the massive device called the Death Ray (useable only at the end of the DLC), the fallen Aliens usually leave behind impressive loot.‚  Items such as the Shock Baton and Electro-Suppressor serve as viable weapons for melee characters.‚  The Alien Atomizer and Disintegrator are found often throughout the DLC and do considerable damage against your extra-terrestrial adversaries.‚  My favorite weapon in Mothership Zeta was the Drone Cannon.‚  This weapon, which is found on the Aliens’ security robots, fire large spheres of energy that bounce around and eventually explode.‚  This was especially helpful when I wanted to eliminate enemies who were hiding around corners and behind objects.

Sadly, the characters and the weapons were the only things I really liked about the Mothership Zeta DLC.

The great thing about Fallout 3 is the fact that it is driven by such an interesting storyline.‚  Unfortunately, Mothership Zeta fails to provide anything resembling an intriguing plot.‚  I found myself becoming bored with this DLC very quickly, not caring about whom I talked to or what information I uncovered.‚  Instead, I seemed to just be playing Mothership Zeta so I could get my character to level 30 and be done with it.‚  Though I was able to get to that pinnacle level, I still wasn’t happy with the story that got me there.

Similar to the plot, the quests in Mothership Zeta were quite bland.‚  Many of the tasks that the Lone Wanderer must complete tended to be tedious and uninteresting.‚  There was no real problem solving during the quests.‚  Instead, the Lone Wanderer is forced run from one location to another, having no say in the way he or she completes the task.‚  Fallout 3 is all about making the right or wrong choice.‚  However, for the developers of Mothership Zeta, it seems that this DLC is all about making *their* choice.

Not helping the entertainment value of the quests was the confusing nature of the spacecraft’s environments.‚  Though each room and hallway on Mothership Zeta looked clean and futuristic, I found it very easy to get lost while trying to find important points of interest.‚  The use of teleportation pads came in handy quite often, but they often made things much more confusing than they needed to be.‚  I applaud the effort by Bethesda, but they just didn’t do anything for me.

Blast Factor: Overall, Mothership Zeta was a real letdown for me.‚  Though the characters and advanced weaponry in this DLC were a pleasure to interact with, important aspects such as the plot, quests and environments were either flawed or just plain boring.‚  If $10 means little to you, Mothership Zeta may be worth purchasing if you have all of the other Fallout 3 DLCs and would like to reach level 30.‚  However, if you’re still lacking any of the previous DLCs, I suggest you invest in those first.

Mothership Zeta is currently available exclusively on Xbox Live and Games for Windows for 800 Points / $9.99.

As if things weren’t strange enough in the post-apocalyptic world of Fallout 3, now you have to contend with a crashed UFO. The good news is that you can now exploit alien technology while you run around snooping through people’s drawers, stealing their beer and soaking up their radiation. If given the opportunity, I would vote yes at every developer meeting that involved a discussion of whether or not to include an Alien Deatomizer, Disentegrator, and Hive Cannon (I mean, Hive Cannon just sounds like it will make things blow up). It doesn’t hurt that Bethesda is also promising a few new sets of armor for you, like a Gemini-era Spacesuit and Samurai garb.

As you can see in the screens, stumbling upon this crashed spaceship grants you access to something much larger. We’ll have more info for you as Bethesda unveils it, and eventually a review of this latest batch of DLC.

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.

Bethesda Softworks and 2k Games today announced a partnership to bring two of the Xbox 360′s finest games, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and Bioshock to retail next month on Xbox 360 and PC.

Beginning July 7 the two games will hit retail as one mega-awesome-must-have bundle priced at $39.99 for Xbox 360, and $29.99 for PC gamers.

Together, over 80 game of the year awards have gone out to both titles, and in case you haven’t played either, in July you can’t go wrong with this new M rated bundle.

Oblivion and Bioshock currently retail for $29.99 and $19.99 respectively on Xbox 360, so you won’t be saving a ton, but every little bit counts if you’re like me.

While we’re on the subject of great bundled gaming, you might want to consider The Orange Box from Valve. Games included are Half Life 2, Half Life 2: Episode 1 and 2, Team Fortress 2, and Portal. That’s five games for $19.99 brand new. Wow.

LOS ANGELES — Blast got to chat with the one and only Eliza Dushku, star of the new Bethesda Softworks action title Wet. Dushku plays Rubi Malone, a hard-drinking, acrobatic hit woman.

Let’s get this out of the way right now: Eliza Dushku is so cool. She gives a firm handshake. She talks to everyone around her, even the burly security guard. And she gets really into watching people play her game.

Anyways, on with the beans we got her to spill.

BLAST: Is this your first video game?

ELIZA DUSHKU: No. I was in Buffy and and then the Yakuza game.

BLAST: What do you think of Wet so far?

ED: I’m into it, and I have a friend that came down to test out the game. He’s 14. His name is Kyle. He says it’s really good and I trust him.

BLAST: Is there a big difference between doing a video game voiceover and a movie voiceover and then just plain acting?

ED: Um. It depends. It’s just a whole different “" it’s you, but it’s not. It’s kind of like for this video game I didn’t do all the body muscle stuff. I knew she already sort of had a rhythm, and I felt in a way more like I was getting into her established character and trying to find the right fit, you know what I mean, to give her.

I actually decided that I should smoke a few cigarettes each time we did it. My friend was like “your voice is so low” and I was like “yeah that’s the cigarettes.” I quit smoking, but I was like “eh, it’s for work.”

BLAST: Have you had a chance to play through Wet and see yourself in action?

ED: Just a little bit. It’s awesome and I love, you know, that Tarantino, “Kill Bill” look to it “" the whole 70s, grainy, the music. I think it’s really sexy. It’s sexy and it’s exciting and she’s a real working class Lara Croft, Jack Daniels-confident, tough, hard as nails, she’s international. She’s in Hong Hong and the UK, and she’s going wherever she needs to go to take care of business.

BLAST: Actors oftentimes say they put a lot of themselves into their roles. Are you able to do that in a video game role?

ED: Yeah. Every time, you know, she’s crazy I got to get crazy and hit record. It was a great anger release.

BLAST: Do you see yourself doing more video game roles now that you’ve got this one done?

ED: I was sort of holding off after the first two and then this one came to me. I like the idea of seeing this one sort of go farther and go deeper. I definitely feel a real identification with [the character].

BLAST: Did you play video games growing up?

ED: Not as much as I wanted to, because I was a little sister. I liked Metroid, and I liked Mortal Kombat, and I liked the Mario Bros.

BLAST: I want to talk about Dollhouse a bit. What was the most challenging thing about season one?

ED: Well if you asked me like three weeks ago I’d say the Friday night time slot. Because, you know, it’s Friday night, the people weren’t necessarily showing up and seeing it on their TVs on a Friday night, but then when they woke up we were the most DVR’d show in history or something.

I started realizing how many people were watching. Now it’s just kind of gravy that we get to go back and do anther season. We don’t have to worry sort of about what the numbers coming in on Friday are. We’re reaching our audience, you know?

BLAST: Does your producer role change your relationship with Joss Whedon at all?

ED: Yes. We’re so serious. We’re so business oriented there’s no fun and games anymore. (laughs) Not even. I think I’m going to go back and bring them all pizza. He just texted me last night and said “we’re officially en fuego.”

BLAST: What’s been your favorite imprint so far?

ED: I had a lot of fun playing the assassin. I fought FBI agent Ballard in, what was it, (episode) six, “Man on the Steet.” That’s also the episode where the show really picked up and found its voice. That was like a high episode.

It’s also cool in the end, “Omega” where I played like 38 personalities at once.

BLAST: Do you ever feel that the show is too risque?

ED: No. I have three older brothers, and they saw the whole dominatrix opener one day and were like “really sis? Really?” but, you know, it’s part of the “we give the people what they want” on the show, and they want that.

BLAST: What are you looking forward to in season two?

ED: I feel like we really found a groove toward the end of the season and we just have so many stories that we want to tell and so many places we want to go and now we just get that chance and now we just get to make the show we want to make.

BLAST: Is there someplace new you want to go with the show in season two?

ED: There’s a little bit less of the dumbed-down doll and a little more of this young woman now being able to figure out what she’s going to do.

BLAST: So you’re filming in Boston soon. Boston’s trying to become this like Hollywood East. Do you like filming at home with us becoming more of a hub of the entertainment industry?

ED: I love it. Boston’s my favorite place on earth.

Eliza said she’s filming a psychological drama in Boston with Ben Barnes based on what she called “a really beautiful script.”

She is also dating somebody. No, she didn’t say who, but the Boston Herald announced today it is ex-Celtic Rick Fox, and we’re pretty sure we caught a glimpse of him playing Wet before the interview.

She currently owns a Nintendo Wii and is addicted to BrickBreaker on her Blackberry.

Blast Magazine staff writer Kellen Rice contributed to this report.

Fallout and Oblivion creator Bethesda Softworks took some time out of their E3 day today to reveal some details surrounding their upcoming collaboration project with Splash Damage, Brink.

Due out Spring 2010 for Xbox 360, PC, and PS3, Brink is an immersive first person shooter that somehow blends single-player, co-op, and multiplayer into one helluva game in which your character can be fine tuned throughout.

The story of Brink surrounds the fact that a‚  man-made floating city, made up of thousands of islands, dubbed the Ark is simply put, on the brink of war and preparing for the worst. After 25 years of social unrest, the people of the ark have had enough, and it is up to you and the character you decide to play, to determine the future of the city and its human race.

Compelling? Yes, especially given the fact that Bethesda is behind it.‚  The Fallout and Oblivion series’ were pretty well crafted if you ask me.

Take a look at the first screen shots from the game to be revealed and head on over to BrinkTheGame to learn more.

Bethesda released this teaser trailer (and by teaser I mean the kind of teaser where after you watch it you have more questions than before) early this morning on GameTrailers TV, confirming the rumored title and giving gamers a release date of spring 2010.

Brink is a product of collaboration between Bethesda and Splash Damage that was initially announced over a year ago, but even after watching this trailer we still have zero idea what the game is going to entail.

All we do know is that the artists on the job are fantastic, there will be shooting in one form or another, and that the game is due out Spring 2010 for Xbox 360, PS3, and PC.

No worries though because Bethesda has pulled an Honest Abe and promised juicy details at E3 concerning the mysterious title. Stay tuned for our E3 2009 coverage beginning Monday!

Bethesda happily announced plans today for Fallout 3 DLC on Playstation 3 as well as two brand new multi-platform expansions due out later this year.

No Sony fans, Bethesda did not forget you and your love of Fallout 3, they just had to wait until the right time to show that love…er something like that.

Operation Anchorage will release via the PlayStation Store next month in June followed by The Pitt and Broken Steel 4-6 weeks apart. ‚ ‚ As always, nothing is set in stone and Bethesda promises forthcoming details of the more solid nature.

Furthermore, Bethesda continues their barrage of DLC with Point Lookout and Mothership Zata arriving in late June and July respectively and exclusively for PC and Xbox 360 with the PS3 version inbound after all three previously unavailable packs become available.

All DLC opportunities are priced at $9.99/800 MS Points.‚  That Fallout love is starting to hurt the wallet yeah?

But wait, there’s more, kinda.

Fallout 3 Add-on Pack #1 (The Pitt, Operation: Anchorage) arrives on disc at retail May 26 and Pack #2 hits shelves in August with Broken Steel and Point Lookout inside.‚  Sadly, as Bethesda puts it, “retail versions of the game add-on packs for PS3 are not possible” and can only be purchases digitally.

However, come October,a Fallout 3: Game of the Year edition will arrive on retail shelves bearing a $59.99 price tag for Xbox 360 and PS3 ($49.99 on PC) and will contain all five DLC expansions.

Personally, the slew of DLC available for Fallout 3 is a tad intimidating, and with my birthday in October, that Game of the Year SKU sounds right up my alley.

Bethesda Softworks, creators of Fallout 3 have supplied a healthy dose of DLC since the critically acclaimed title released way back in the Halloween month of October, and this cinco de Mayo is again a day marked not only with tacos and enchiladas, but also Broken Steel.

No, Broken Steel is not the name of a new drink, or a taco topping, rather the third installment of DLC for the popular RPG that hit digital shelves today.

Available for 800 MS Points/$10, Broken Steel you play as the character you’ve so lovingly built as you work with the Brotherhood of Steel to destroy the Enclave for good! Hopefully.‚ ‚  Broken Steel also raises the level cap to a mighty 30, brings new weapons and the ability to revive your canine companion, and most interestingly extends the title to infinity and beyond removing any ending the title ever had.

Gamers take the good with the bad, and again, there is some bad to be had with Broken Steel.

According to Kotaku Bethesda has recognized the following error message PC Fallout fans have encountered and is promising a thorough and timely examination and ultimate fix of the issue.

“Not a cryptographic message or the cryptographic message is not formatted correctly. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x8009200D)”

No complaints regarding the Xbox 360 version however and your download can be started here (even if you’re at work or school) via the Xbox Live web marketplace.‚  Happy hunting!

WET, the uniquely innovate action game from developer Artificial Mind and Movement has finally found a publisher in the Maryland based Bethesda Softworks.

WET is a third-person-shooter featuring highly stylized animation that incorporates a myriad of ways to eliminate enemies.‚  Main character Rubi Malone, a gun-for-hire, incorporates acrobatics, gun-play, and the cold steel of swords-womanship into the experience.

The game-play will feature a blend of humor, over-the-top violence in a retro art style, and an interestingly chosen 70′s soundtrack.‚  WET is wading into the uncertain shooter-action waters and aims to resiliently make it safely to the other side.

Check out the screens to the right if the above made no sense to you.

Fans of Bethesda’s work are a dedicated group.‚  Completing any of the famed studios’ games is a thorny endeavor, with hours upon hours of time and effort spent towards meeting that end.‚  But what’s a fan to do in between games or for pure enjoyment?

Bethesda Softworks, creators of The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion today announced a partnership with Del Ray Books to publish and release two novels based on the fantasy worlds of The Elder Scrolls.

Greg Keyes, author of the New York Times bestselling Star Wars novels will handle the writing responsibilities for the original stories based on the video game.

“We’ve been big fans of Greg’s work for a long time, and we’re thrilled he agreed to bring his talents to The Elder Scrolls,” said Pete Hines, vice president of public relations and marketing for Bethesda Softworks. “We see these books as a natural extension of the franchise and think fans will love the stories and characters Greg has created.”

The first of the series to be released, “The Infernal City” is set after the events of The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion and places the citizens of Tamriel again in the center of an doubtful future.‚  Looming high above the land is a massive city that casts a shadow which in turn kills those it touches and turns them into the living dead.‚  The improbable duo of a seventeen year old girl named Annaig and the Emperor’s juvenile son Prince Attrebus are tasked with saving the kingdom from certain doom.‚  Along the lengthy and precarious quest, Attrebus and Annaig encounter elements from The Elder Scrolls universe and add to the already rich storytelling experience garnered in the video game.

No word on a release date for “The Infernal City” but Blast will keep you in the loop.

Not satisfied with the first two DLC packs for the dynamic, open world RPG Fallout 3?‚  If that sounds like you, or just want more Pipboy action, Bethesda Softworks recently announced Broken Steel, the third episodic add-on for the title, set to release in timely fashion on May 5^th.

Broken Steel comes exclusively to Xbox 360 and PC (sorry PS3 fans, you must smell bad or something), raises the level cap to 30, and eliminates the games’ ending.‚  Closure is overrated anyway.

Available for 800 MS Points, Broken Steel will introduce your character to an entirely new environment outside of the Wasteland and bring new weapons, enemies, and perks to the fray, one in particular that that allows for the summoning of your deceased canine companion.

Furthermore, Broken Steel drops you into the latter part of the title, changes the way the original title ends, and expands the storyline unendingly.

Speaking with Brian Crecente, managing editor of Kotaku.com, Pete Hines of Bethesda said “Broken Steel has no ending, there are no more endings, we got the message.”

As far as length is concerned, Hines stated that the total duration is a “bit longer than The Pitt, coming in at about four to five hours of gameplay, and that it also adds a bunch of sidequests which each take 30 minutes to an hour to complete.”

Now that we know Broken Steel ups the level cap to 30, what about more difficult enemies and the effort needed to reach the cap?

“Enemies are a lot tougher,” Hines said. “You start seeing new enemies at level 18.

“Advancement from 20 to 30 takes a ton of experience points.”

There you have it folks, Fallout 3′s latest DLC drops in two weeks, brings a slew of new features and quests to the experience, and eliminates any sense of conclusion.‚  Just what could Bethesda possibly do next? Oh that’s right, the company recently revealed Fallout Vegas with scant details. Let the hype begin!

via Kotaku

This Article Was Originally Published on March 27.

In the‚ beginning, Bethesda Softworks took gamers on an exciting adventure through the Nuclear Wastelands of Washington DC in Fallout 3. ‚ Next, Bethesda took patrons back in time to witness the liberation of Alaska from Chinese Communists in the Fallout 3 downloadable content pack Operation: Anchorage.

Now, the company that brought you these two exciting bits of content is now taking you‚ on an adventure in…

Pittsburgh?

Yes, Pittsburgh. ‚ Though it seems like an odd idea, The Pitt seemed to have the potential to be the most interesting and entertaining DLC for Fallout 3. ‚ The only question was: would it reach that potential?

The Pitt puts the Lone Wanderer in the middle of a skirmish between the large network of Slavers and their large slave population. ‚ From there, players are posed with morally ambiguous decisions while encountering numerous new characters, weapons (including the hyped AutoAxe) and enemies.

After downloading The Pitt, players will shortly find a message pop up in their HUD stating that there is a distress call being broadcasted on the radio. ‚ Soon after reading this message, a quest will be added as well as a marker designating the location where the message is being broadcasted.

At the broadcast station, you find a man named Werhner who has been ambushed by Slavers. Once you help him, he explains the message he broadcasted across the Wasteland’s airwaves. In short, Werhner says that he needs your assistance to help free the slaves (or “workers” as the leaders of The Pitt would say) and to remove the evil monarchy running what’s left of the war torn city.

The first step in the plan, as Werhner explains, is to, not surprisingly, enter The Pitt. To do this, you must look like a slave. This means that you must wear slave clothes. You also cannot have any of your weapons, armor or anything of value on you when you try and get into The Pitt. If you do try and smuggle your items into The Pitt, a less-than-charming Slaver name Mex takes all of your items (which you will eventually be able to recover later in the quest).

Once you actually get into The Pitt, you are told to meet with a slave named Midea. Midea, who is noticeably cleaner and more polite than many of the other NPC you will encounter in The Pitt, plays the role of a sort of leader and representative of the slaves. Once you tell her that you are the one who is helping Werhner, she tells you to work in the Steelyard. There, she explains, you will be able to blend in with the other slaves while also staying out of sight of the Slavers. However, she fails to tell you (well, initially anyway) that working in the Steelyard is actually the most dangerous job in The Pitt, putting the Lone Wanderer in the middle of a breeding ground of the Trogs, a demented once-human‚ life-form‚ looking to attack you at any moment.

From there, you slowly work your way up the slave/Slaver food chain, gaining more power and access around The Pitt as you go. How you use this power, however, is entirely up to you.

The Pitt is brilliant in it’s writing and the morally grey choices that it presents (including taking a page out of‚ Amalia Tabata’s book giving players a choice to kidnap a child). The DLC, unlike many that I’ve encountered in the past, did not seem forced into the overall storyline nor did it seem like it was made just for Bethesda to get some extra revenue. ‚ The attention to detail with the character models was superb. ‚ The slaves looked convincingly affected by the harsh working conditions and heavy radiation. ‚ The dialogue was also excellent.

In short, the Pitt had purpose and was fun at the same time. However, The Pitt had its shortcomings as well.

The first release of The Pitt, as you might have heard, was a bit of a disaster. Customers of version 1.0 reported terrible glitches and lagging within the game. Also, some users even had their entire saved game file corrupted, causing some completely lose upwards of 40 hours of work.

I, luckily, waited until Bethesda (who, to their credit, quickly took off and replaced the bad version) posted a new and improved version of The Pitt on Xbox Live. But, when I downloaded the DLC, I was still disappointed with how The Pitt ran.

The game was virtually glitch-free after the update. ‚ I was very satisfied with how well Bethesda cleaned up The Pitt in a relatively short time. ‚ Sure, it would have been nice if it worked correctly the first time, but I’d take a delayed-but-working game over a never-going-to-be-fixed glitchfest‚ any day.

However, beyond the quality of the game’s programming, some of the quests within The Pitt were flawed. Within The Pitt’s main quest, players will find themselves running back and forth between areas that were quite distant from each other to have very short conversations with other characters.

The Pitt, though flawed, still makes for a decent DLC. I’d say that this DLC beats Operation: Anchorage hands down. ‚ The Pitt will last for as many hours as it’s users want it to. With the decent number of side missions and moderately complex main quest, this DLC will last you somewhere between 3-8 hours. If you’ve got an Xbox 360, a copy of Fallout 3 and a spare $9.99, The Pitt will be a worthy investment.

Bethesda Softworks, creators of such superb titles as Oblivion and the Fallout series unveiled their plans for 2010 at a press conference in London today.

According to Kotaku, details on the new game are scant, but Bethesda’s Pete Hines confirmed that Obsidian Entertainment (KOTOR 2: Sith Lords) has partnered with the publisher to work on a new title, Fallout Vegas.

Fallout Vegas is not a sequel to the award winning Fallout 3 of 2009, and will embody the similar role-playing experience fans of the franchise admire.

Stay connected with Blast, and as more information surfaces we’ll be sure to bring you the gushy details.

You know you’ve won a prestigious award when the body of voters are the developers themselves.‚  Sales figures, cultural absorption, and other such factors matter not at the 9^th annual Game Developers Choice Awards, held last night in San Francisco.

Tim Schafer, legendary game designer hosted the event, as major titles Fallout 3, and LittleBigPlanet took home most of the hardware.

Media Molecule’s crazy-popular, user generated content oriented LittleBigPlanet took home four awards for Best Game Design, Best Technology, Best Debut Game and Innovation.

Bethesda Softworks received the Game of the Year and Best Writing awards for their latest post-apocalyptic endeavor, Fallout 3.

Not all the nods went to the games themselves as Hideo Kojima, creator of Metal Gear was presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award for his twenty years of dedication and work on the Metal Gear series and others.

Finally, Alex Rigopulos and Eran Egozy, co-developers of the Guitar Hero and Rock Band franchises accepted the Pioneer Award for their undying enthusiasm and dedication to their work.

Full list of winners at the Game Developers Choice Awards below.

Game of the Year
Fallout 3 (Bethesda Softworks)

Best Game Design:
LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule)

Best Writing:
Fallout 3 (Bethesda Softworks)

Best Technology:
LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule)

Best Visual Arts:
Prince of Persia (Ubisoft Montreal)

Best Debut Game:
LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule)

Best Handheld Game:
God Of War: Chains Of Olympus (Ready at Dawn)

Innovation Award:
LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule)

Best Audio:
Dead Space (EA Redwood Shores)

Best Downloadable Game:
World Of Goo (2D Boy)

Recipients for the evening’s special awards were:

Lifetime Achievement Award
Hideo Kojima

Pioneer Award
Alex Rigopulos and Eran Egozy

Ambassador Award
Tommy Tallarico

via GamaSutra.

Bethesda, legendary role playing game creators, most recently renowned for their epic Fallout 3, a deep, content rich post apocalyptic experience, continue to tease us with three new screens today from their latest DLC endeavor, The Pitt.

The Pitt allows your character to travel through the destroyed remains of Pittsburgh, ravaged by time, neglect, nuclear radiation, and moral degradation.‚  New weapons, enemies, shady NPC’s, and morally grey choices await you in Bethesda’s latest digital offering.

The trifectas of screens are Arena, Attacked, and Pittslave, each with unique and intriguing visual components.

All three are dark and ominous, as would be expected in such a desolate metropolis, and while Trog’s and hacksaws are great, Arena appropriates great lighting and texture elements scoring my vote.

The Pitt DLC hits Xbox 360 and PC March 24 costing you 800 golden Microsoft Points.

Since I first played it this past holiday season, I have often said that Fallout 3 may be one of the most complete single player titles of the last couple of years. Its use of elements of true RPG decision-making along with fun FPS gameplay makes its a great combination of strategy and war-style gaming.

Still, I have always thought that Fallout 3 was missing something”¦ I just could never put my finger on it. There was some element, some “Ëœthing’ that was keeping Fallout 3 from evolving from a very good game to a great game.

Enter Operation: Anchorage, the first downloadable content for Fallout 3, and the solution to the equation that has bothered me for the last month.

Operation Anchorage starts when you hear a distress signal from Defender Morill, a member of the Brotherhood Outcasts, the separated faction of the Brotherhood of Steel. Upon hearing the signal, the quest becomes available for you to pursue.

When you arrive at the Outcast Outpost, Defender Morill and Protector McGraw greet you, though with cautious hostility. However, eventually McGraw and Morill let you in on the Outcasts’ plans due to your character being the perfect subject for a certain simulation. Why, you ask? Because of the special device attached to your arm called the Pip-Boy 3000.

It is explained to you that the Outcasts would like to gain access into a secret vault. However, to get into the vault, the Outcasts need someone to complete a simulation of the rescuing of Alaska from Communist Chinese invaders AKA the Liberation of Anchorage. The Outcasts warn you that if you die in the simulation, you die in “real life”. However, if you complete the simulation successfully, you will be able to get a cut of whatever was inside of the vault.

After being jacked into the program, Sergeant Benjamin Montgomery greets you in “Alaska”. He leads you to see General Chase (probably one of the best-named characters in video game history). General Chase explains to you the operations you need to complete to finish the simulation. From there, you select from an array of military personnel to form your strike team (which turned out to be fairly useless) and head out.

As you start to fulfill your duties, fight various amounts of enemies, use many types of weapons, and visit some interesting locations, all of which are unique to the DLC. One of the coolest enemies were the Crimson Dragoons, invisible Chinese super soldiers who attack you in a variety of ways: sword, rifles or sniping. However, you’re not defenseless against the Dragoons. Within the simulation, you get to use the “old technology” of the time of the Liberation. Though you will often see classic firearms like the Silenced 10mm Pistol, you will also run into weapons such as Trench Knives and the always useful Gauss rifle. You also will have ammo and health replenishing machines that you will find along the way.

Overall, Operation: Alaska is a success. It achieves an experience that I could not find in the original content of Fallout 3. As a good karma character, I was able to kill almost everyone I saw with little to no consequences: a simple, but necessary pleasure in a FPS such as this.

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.

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 — Okay, so it wasn’t the most surprising, awe-inspiring E3 ever, but we had a great time and saw some amazing things.

We witnessed a revitalized Atari, a ballsy Electronic Arts and the peak of the music game fad.

Here’s what we took away from the conference:

BEST GAME
Fallout 3
Bethesda Softworks
Xbox 360/PlayStation 3
September

Bethesda built a winner from scratch with an amazing looking Fallout 3. Blast played this game, Blast loved this game. You won’t see a more visually and audibly appealing video game this year. This game is a massive project for any developer, but Bethesda, who saw huge success with "The Elder Scrolls" role playing game series, seems poised to release a game of the year candidate in the fall.

BEST ONLINE GAME
DC Universe Online
Sony Online Entertainment
PlayStation 3, PC
TBA

Comic book legend Jim Lee was the Executive Creative Director of the game and created the visual world DC Universe would be set in based on art from the entire history of DC comics. You get to team up with or fight against Superman and Batman. How cool is that?

BEST HANDHELD GAME
N+
Atari
Nintendo DS and Sony PSP
August 12

With 300 puzzling levels to explore, plus many hidden unlockable ones, N+, based on the hit Flash game, was the best handheld game at E3, and E3 agreed by giving it best in show in the DS and PSP categories. N+ led the charge for a revitalized Atari Inc.

GUARANTEED BEST SELLER/BEST PC GAME
Spore
Electronic Arts
PC
September 7

Within 18 days of the release of Spore Creature Creator, there were over 1.7 million "Spores" created. That’s more than the 1.589 million actual species known to exist on earth, Will Wright pointed out at the EA press conference Tuesday. And that says something about the anticipated impact "Spore" will have when it’s released in September.

BEST WII GAME
Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party
Ubisoft
November

First game you can play with your ass.

BEST MUSIC GAME
Rock Band 2
Harmonix/MTV Games
Xbox 360, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Wii
Fall

No real competition at E3. Guitar Hero: World Tour will be awesome too, but Activision wasn’t there this year.

GUTSIEST PROJECTS

Dead Space
Electronic Arts
Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC
October 21

Mirror’s Edge
Electronic Arts
Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC
Holiday season

Good work, EA. You managed to stretch your legs and come up with both a bloody horror flick and a FPS where you don’t have ever fire a gun. Both games will either be home runs or total flops (leaning toward an extra base hit) but they’re ballsy! Nice!

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

Another crap shoot. If Zipper does this game right, and we mean JUST RIGHT, M.A.G. could be one of the good ones.

MOST IMPROVED: Atari

BIGGEST LETDOWN: Nintendo

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.”