World of Warcraft players certainly don’t mind that 7-Eleven has been dabbling in the field of selling videogames. Thanks to the apparent disregard for street dates, WoW players were able to secure early copies (albeit not early access) of Wrath of the Lich King. The retail chain has announced that its recent sales of games like WoW, Halo, and Madden isn’t a temporary holiday cash-in — they’re planning on permanently adding videogames to their inventory (via Joystiq).

“This is not just a holiday promotion for us,” explained 7-Eleven category manager for gaming and electronics, “but a brand new product line-up that will be available year-round. We may not be a total entertainment destination … yet, but we’re hoping to expand our selection beyond the high-dollar, hot-selling games to include options for all budgets, like value-priced video games as well as DVD movies. For consumers wanting convenient one-stop shopping for at-home entertainment along with groceries and gas or who just want to avoid big-store shopping inconveniences, their local 7-Eleven store is open and ready.”

In addition to Wrath of the Lich King, 7-Eleven is planning on selling the Guitar Hero World Tour band kit, Fallout 3, Quantum of Solace, Gears of War 2, WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2009, and Call of Duty: World at War. They’ll also begin selling subscription cards for around 20 games and services ranging from Xbox Live to City of Heroes to Runescape.

Picking up a game at 7-Eleven seems to be more of a convenience rather than an alternative, at least at this point. Unless you’ve got one closer to home than any other retailer, will gamers really opt to go there instead of GameStop, Best Buy, or Walmart? But if they decided to throw in a free Slurpee with the purchase of any full-priced game, that might just give them the edge that makes it the premiere destination for picking up big-name games. It would for me, at least.

No Mutants Allowed is leading the charge for Fallout 3 related content. This should surprise no one who knows how dedicated this community is to the Fallout series, even if they did/do have strong objections to Bethesda’s interpretation.

Community Leader Brother None has gathered together the links on the NMA Forum so fans can find an interactive map and locations page which can guide you to all the Fat Mans, mini-nukes and other goodies. Other resources include an info page on recruitable NPCs and mods including one from Fallout 3 Nexus that puts killable children back into the game.

Other notable mods include:

• Max Tael’s MTUI is another interface overhaul mod designed for ease-of-use on higher-resolution PCs.
• Mikael Grizzly’s Fo3 Original Combat Armour is a texture mod that changes the look of combat armor.
• Mimezu’s texture pack + addons is a package of improved and sharpened texture for great optical pleasure.
• Hmudaa’s T-51B as default BoS power armor switches the armor models so the standard BoS model is the T-51b.
• lexo1000’s An Ultimate Fallout 3 Music Mod is an easy-to-implement huge file that puts all the old Fallout 1/2 tracks over the Fallout 3 ones.

For the latest on Fallout 3 and NMA visit the NMA forums.

Microsoft has given Fallout 3 the honor of being the first title to offer DLC on Games for Windows LIVE Marketplace. In case you missed the initial announcement, Games for Windows LIVE Marketplace is exactly what it sounds like… an Xbox LIVE Marketplace for the PC. It will even allow you to use your 360 controller hooked up to your gaming rig.

According to Videogamer.com, Bethesda Softworks’ Pete Hines, vice president of public relations and marketing, had this to say about Games for Windows:

“Games for Windows LIVE helps us expand the Fallout 3 universe and bring the full experience directly to gamers. Through the Marketplace we now have a no-nonsense way to deliver updates and great downloadable content. It’s really a complete package, and a great fit for Fallout 3.”

Other Games for Windows friendly titles are Battlestations: Pacific, Grand Theft Auto IV, Quantum of Solace, Red Faction: Guerrilla and Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II.

The gaming community knew it was only a matter of time until Yahtzee got around to giving his take on Fallout 3. His no holds barred style is well known as is his “love” for RPGs. Yes that second statement is dripping with sarcasm. Here’s the Zero Punctuation Fallout fans have been dreading waiting for via The Escapist.

No Mutants Allowed is one of the most infamous fan communities around. Their dedication to Fallout is as stalwart as their objections to Bethesda producing Fallout 3. I expected a review from the infamous Vince D. Weller to be highly critical to say the least.

I wasn’t disappointed. What I didn’t expect is to agree with him on several points including his estimation of the VATS system although I enjoy it immensely. The system results in some incredible displays of chunky death.

Before you get the idea that Weller’s review is too biased to be fair, you should read the Fallout 3 review in its entirety. Weller doesn’t spare the weaknesses but also spotlights the strengths of the game.

“Compared to the first two Fallout games, Fallout 3 is a pale imitation that may anger many fans of the original games. However, comparing Fallout 3 to similar games like Morrowind, Oblivion, Gothic, Two Worlds, Assassins Creed, etc presents a much more favourable reaction. I think that it’s the best game Bethesda have produced since the Daggerfall days and that really says something about the game. The most important feature of the game is the promise of great things to come from Bethesda in the future… God knows, it’s been long overdue.”

It appears that Bethesda taking over the Fallout reins was a good thing, for the company at least, because today the sales figures for Fallout 3 were announced and they are definitely nothing to sneeze at. During the first week of availability, 4.7 million copies of the game were sold between the U.S. and the UK amounting to a very nice profit of $300 million. These figures represent PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 sales, and while no exact figures for each port were given at the time of this writing you can expect that knowledge to be forthcoming relatively soon when the NPD numbers are released.

Despite Elder Scrolls-type issues while playing the game on all platforms ranging from freezing, crashing to the desktop, texture slowdown, lagging, and other annoying occurrences, high marks are being given all around for the return to the post-apocalyptic world of Fallout. Who knows, it may even win the illustrious Game of the Year title providing Bethesda can fix some of the gameplay problems, but despite its problems the numbers do not lie– and the game has not even been released in Japan yet so when December 4 rolls around expect the sales figures to go up. Add to this the number of people who may be getting the game for Christmas and Fallout 3 may just shatter another record in the process.

If perchance you have not had the time or inclination to play Fallout 3, you can check out Demian Linn’s review of it here on 1UP and while you are at it answer me this: Why in the world would Bethesda give a player the option of drinking out of a toilet in a game? I mean seriously, yuk.

With the release of Fallout 3 rapidly approaching, gamers have a few choices to make if they haven’t already pre-ordered.

Valve’s Steam News has announced Fallout 3 is now available for pre-order on its Steam digital download service. If you need the PC version and didn’t want all the swag that is coming with other pre-order bundles this would be a good way to go. The price is a straight $49.99.

Best Buy is hosting Midnight Launch parties Monday, October 27, 2008 at twelve stores across the U.S. The lines start forming at 3:00pm local time for those of you who want to practice for the Black Friday Christmas Holiday kick off. Parties are being held at stores in these locations:

Washington, DC area

• Rockville, MD – 1200 Rockville Pike
• Tysons Corner, VA – 8449 Leesburg Pike

New York Area

• New York, NY – 44th And 5th
• Westbury, NY – 1100 Old Country Rd.

Los Angeles area

• Glendale, CA – 2909 Los Feliz Blvd.
• Pasadena, CA – 3415 E. Foothill Blvd.

Chicago area

• Chicago, IL. – 1000 W. North Ave.
• Downers Grove, IL – 1432 Butterfield Rd

Dallas area

• Plano, TX – 2800 N. Central Expy.
• Fort Worth, TX – 6750 West Fwy.

Minneapolis area

• Roseville, MN – 1643 Country Rd. B2
• Richfield, MN – 1000 W. 78th St.

If one of these stores isn’t in your area or you just detest waiting in lines for several hours, Game Stop has also announced Fallout 3 Midnight Launch parties. There are 1,600 stores participating nationwide with the festivities begining at 10:00pm local time. Check www.gamestop.com to see if your local store is one of the chosen.

If you own a PlayStation 3, there’s a good chance you were ready to buy Little Big Planet this Tuesday. But after the unfortunate delay we learned of earlier today, come next week, you’ll be walking home from the videogame retailer of your choice with one less game than you were planning.

Had the game come out this Tuesday as expected, it would’ve faced some stiff competition — although it seems unlikely that the inevitably huge sales of LBP would have taken much of a hit (and, if anything, these other games should be sighing with relief). With that in mind, here’s what big releases remain for you to come home with next week:

• Far Cry 2 (PC, 360, PS3)
• Fable 2 (360)
• Rock Band 2 (PS3)
• Wii Music (Wii)
• BioShock (PS3)
• Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia (DS)
• Spider-Man: Web of Shadows (PC, 360, PS3, PSP, DS, Wii, PS2)
• Eternal Sonata (PS3)
• Midnight Club: Los Angeles (360, PS3)

If you also happened to come home with a copy of Petz Rescue: Wildlife Vet for Wii, I wouldn’t have judged you. That might not be entirely true, but what is true is that, with Little Big Planet now scheduled for release on October 27 (although with stingy retailers, that likely means Tuesday, October 28), gamers with multiple consoles are looking at another hard week on the wallet. Here’s what you might be picking up along with your copy of LBP:

• Fallout 3 (PC, 360, PS3)
• Guitar Hero World Tour (PC, 360, PS3, Wii, PS2)
• MotorStorm Pacific Rift (PS3)
• Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 (PC)
• SingStar: Vol. 2 (PS3)
• MotoGP 08 (PC, 360, PS3, PSP, Wii, PS2)
• Scene It Box Office Smash (360)

It’s truly going to be one of the most wallet-busting stretches in gaming history over the course of the next several weeks. We should probably be thankful there aren’t any new consoles releasing — unless you plan on picking up the new PSP 3000s or importing a DSi next month.And — tempted as you might be — selling an arm on the black market isn’t as great an idea as it might seem. If nothing else, it’ll make playing that shiny new game of yours much more difficult.

That certainly didn’t take long. Less than 24 hours after it was announced that Fallout 3 had gone gold, a number of torrent sites apparently started showing copies of the game for download. Of course, this is the Xbox 360 version of the game, meaning a modded console would be needed to play it; but that hasn’t deterred thousands of people from already downloading their illegal copy. Gamasutra theorizes that the leak might have come from the manufacturing plant, while commenters say it’s listed as a review copy and could have come from elsewhere.

It’s not unusual for full games to show up online before their release date, but that was still pretty darn quick. There’s a greater issue at hand here than the loss of sales for the publisher though: thousands of people out there are playing this awesome game right now, while the rest of us law-abiding gamers have to wait almost three weeks to get our hands on it. Where’s the justice?

Bethesda announced today that Fallout 3, has gone gold for all formats and will be arriving on store shelves and online October 28 in North America, October 30 in Europe and Australia, and just in time for trick or treat on October 31 in the UK.

At lot of attention has been given to the DLC for the game, what with only the PC and Xbox 360 versions expected to get downloadable goodies in the future, and in the long run that may deter people from purchasing the PS3 version. However, considering the the fact that Fallout 3 is going to be hundreds of hours long, that may be enough to pacify some gamers.

Additionally, Bethesda has revealed the PC specs for their highly anticipated post-apocalyptic RPG. The required specs are pretty standard and even the recommended specs aren’t all that onerous because dual core is pretty much ubiquitous these days; therefore, anyone who wants the game for the PC should have no issues installing and running it. Plus, Pete Hines himself states that the dev team’s goal was for the game to run at 30 frames a second, which means that even your local library’s PC will be able to hang with the rest.

Minimum System Requirements:

• Windows XP/Vista
• 1GB System RAM (XP)/ 2GB System RAM (Vista)
• 2.4 Ghz Intel Pentium 4 or equivalent processor
• Direct X 9.0c compliant video card with 256MB RAM (NVIDIA 6800 or better/ATI X850 or better)

Recommended System Requirements:

• Intel Core 2 Duo processor
• 2 GB System RAM
• Direct X 9.0c compliant video card with 512MB RAM (NVIDIA 8800 series, ATI 3800 series)
• Supported Video Card Chipsets:
  • NVIDIA GeForce 200 and 9800 to 6800 series
  • ATI HD 4800 series to 2400 series
  • ATI X1900 series to 300 series
  • ATI X850 series