The last release – titled Mothership Zeta will add some new weapons to the game as well as new alien adversaries. Those unfamiliar with the previous games in the series may not realize that Aliens and Fallout go way back – including a mention and random crash site location in the first game and a ray gun that make obliterating enemies that much more fun.

I’ve included the full details as well as some newly released screen shots after the jump.

Overview:
Defy hostile alien abductors and fight your way off of the massive Mothership Zeta, orbiting Earth miles above the Capital Wasteland. Mothership Zeta takes Fallout 3 in an entirely new direction – outer space. Meet new characters and join with them in a desperate bid to escape the Aliens’ clutches. To do so, you’ll wield powerful new weapons, like the Alien Atomizer, Alien Disintegrator, and Drone Cannon, and deck yourself out in brand new outfits, like the Gemini-Era Spacesuit and even Samurai Armor.

Story:
A strange Alien signal is being broadcast throughout the Capital Wasteland, originating from a crashed UFO. Is it a distress call, or something far more sinister? That question is answered when you find yourself beamed aboard an enormous Alien spacecraft, with only one alternative – to fight your way to the bridge of the ship and secure your escape.

Key Features:

• Find and exploit new and destructive alien technology, like the Alien Atomizer and Drone Cannon.
• Explore the vast Mothership and learn the secrets of the Aliens’ master plan.
• Thwart the Aliens’ attempt to stop your escape, and take over the Alien ship before it wreaks havoc on the unsuspecting Earth below.
• Fight against the Alien Invaders, their robot drones, and turn their own horrible experiments against them.
• Ally yourself with an unexpected array of characters, both from the Capital Wasteland and from Earth ’s past.

Fallout 3

The latest expansion, Point Lookout, concerns a rural Maryland area in the post apocalyptic world and invites the players to uncover a smaller scale story surrounding some swamp dwellers, cultists and even a steamboat. While the overview for the expansion sounds a bit “Call of Cthulhu” like, another licensed world Bethesda has played around with in the past, one of the most striking thing is the encroachment of more plants and trees into the Fallout 3 setting. Joel Burgess and Nathan Purkeypile, the add-on’s Lead Designer and Lead Artist respectively detailed the evolution of the Point Lookout concept in a recent blog post on the official Fallout website.

With Point Lookout, one of our primary goals was not to create just a quest, but a whole new region for players to explore. Straight away we knew that we wanted to focus on what we felt was one of the great strengths of Fallout 3 –a world too full of stories and surprises, ripe for exploration and adventure.  For us, the world is a main character, and choosing our location was intrinsically tied to the tone of the content.

We knew what kind of geographical features we wanted to showcase, and began scouting real-world locations. We stumbled across the perfect place: Point Lookout, MD. This rural location is situated on the southern tip of Maryland where the Potomac River meets the Chesapeake Bay. The coastal lowland offered the setting that we wanted, and the area has a rich history that we were able to pull inspiration from. The founders of Maryland landed here, a Civil War camp held over 50,000 confederate prisoners, and the Point Lookout Lighthouse is purported to be one of the most haunted places in Maryland.  All this just down the Potomac River, which runs through the Capital Wasteland.

I’ve included some of the recently released screenshots and frankly while Broken Steel might have been about expanding the ending of the game, Point Lookout seems to promise an interesting side trek with some content aside from generic feral ghouls and armored Enclave drones.

You can check out the shots after the jump.

Bethesda announced today that they are bringing all the current and upcoming Fallout 3 DLC to the PS3. Operation Anchorage is slated to hit the PlayStation Store sometime in June, with The Pitt and Broken Steel following along at 4-6 week intervals.

In addition to the existing DLC, PS3 owners can look forward to the two new DLC packs that were announced as well. First up is Point Lookout, a massive swampland full of new quests. Point Lookout is scheduled to hit XBox Live and Games for Windows Live in June, and on the Playstation Store after the first three DLC packs are available.

More DLC information, as well as a retail Fallout 3 announcement, after the break

Bethesda’s giving you a month to finish up Point Lookout, then out comes Mothership Zeta in late July. This DLC will feature the return of aliens, who will abduct you. No word yet on the possibility of needing to avoid an anal probe. Mothership Zeta will hit PS3 after Point Lookout.

Both new DLC packs will cost 800 Microsoft Points, or $9.99.

Additionally, all the DLC will be appearing in retail stores as well. Next week, the Fallout 3 Game Add-On Pack #1 will hit stores, bringing The Pitt and Operation Anchorage to 360 and PC owners. Add-On Pack #2 will follow in August, and will contain Broken Steel and Point Lookout. No game add-on packs are planned for PS3.

If you’re one of the few who hasn’t picked up Fallout 3 yet, you might want to wait a few more months. A Fallout 3 Game of the Year Edition is planned for release in October, and it will contain the original game and all 5 add-ons for $59.99 on 360 and PS3, and $49.99 on PC.

Let’s just hope that the new DLC avoids the same issues that Fallout 3 DLC has experienced so far.

Gamesindustry.biz recently conducted an interview with gaming industry vet and managing director of Bethesda Europe, Sean Brennan. The interview, a first of many, discusses their (Zenimax/Bethesda’s) notable success in marketing Fallout 3 in the UK. While bragging about how awesome Fallout 3 did, Sean also took liberty at poking fun at some (at the time) competing EA titles that did not fair as well in that region.

Sean also unveiled Zenimax/Bethesda’s diabolical plan to dig its tendrils deep within the remaining European territories with assurances of eventual world domination… and, oh yeah, assurances that “we’re still going to focus on what we’re doing best, which is 360, PS3 and PC, triple-A products aimed at a more mature market place” (Although, Sean hinted that Wii titles were not out of question).

The most exciting part of the interview was Sean’s teasing us with news of Splash Damage’s next title:

We’ve signed the Splash Damage deal, and its first title with us is going to be shown at E3. We’re not announcing the name yet, but it’s a first-person shooter. That’s a product that we believe is a genre-breaker, it’s a real killer app. From a quality perspective we’re pitching that along the same lines as Fallout 3. We’ve kept it under lock and key, there are so many innovative features in there we don’t want to reveal them too soon. We’ve spent significant resources developing the title. And that’s a great example of our European work.

For those not in-the-know, Splash Damage developed ET:Quake Wars. I salivate when I think of the RPG elements of Fallout 3 thrown into a 32+ player FPS like ET:QW. A match made in heaven?

You can read the whole interview here.

This is a rough time for the guys in Maryland and it seems they can’t catch a break with the Fallout downloads but oddly these sorts of issues didn’t really creep up during the Oblivion expansions so we’ve seen that the Bethesda of the past can handle digital releases.

Fans of Fallout 3, like myself, have been anxiously waiting for this update to the core game. Unlike the previous two releases – Operation: Anchorage and The Pitt, Broken Steel is meant to remove the hard story-based ending of the original Fallout 3 and adds new continued quests featuring the Brotherhood of Steel, new weapons, a new level cap increase, new perks and achievements as well.

Update: Apparently this seems to be an issue with Games for Windows Live!’s DRM functions though there are now sporadic reports of 360 owners experiencing a different Broken Steel issue. Bethesda won’t catch a break even if it is a Microsoft issue.. after its their game on the front line of this and The Pitt left a bad taste in many people’s mouths.

You can watch the Fallout 3: Broken Steel trailer after the jump.

Now that G.E.C.K. has been out a while, No Mutants Allowed has issued an update of its growing inventory of Fallout 3 mods. The biggest changes are to the popular The Fallout 3 Compendium mod which has had a huge update to v 0.6.0.2. The Item Description mod also continues to go and is up to v 1.15.

There are also several new mods in the NMA Fallout 3 stable:

• Medicine And Edibles Revamped – changes drug effects and addictions to suit the originals more closely
• Unique Zhu-Rong v418 Pistol – retextures and modifies a unique weapon
• Obedient Dogmeat mod – modifies interfacing with Dogmeat and makes him a lot smarter

New mods are also available on Fallout 3 Nexus. For all the details visit the NMA Fallout 3 forum.

The PS3 is getting a Fallout 3 patch which adds trophy support. Update (v1.10) also fixes a number of troublesome issues like problems with Friend Notification. Fallout 3 will prompt you to download the update the next time you log on. It’s only 24MB so it shouldn’t take too much time out of your gaming schedule.

The update is only approved for the English language version of Fallout 3 in the U.K. and U.S. but Bethesda expects additional language patches to be ready to go soon. Updates for the PC and Xbox 360 are also on their way.

There are a couple of other instructional videos and a G.E.C.K. wiki to get you started. Just stop in to the Bethesda Blog for the rest of the videos on how to use G.E.C.K..

If you’re ready to try your hand at modding Fallout 3, head over to FileFront proper to download the Garden of Eden Creation Kit for yourself.

“Operation: Anchorage”, the first downloadable content for Fallout 3 will be making its way to the Xbox 360 in January and the four to five hours of gameplay it contains will cost gamers 800 Microsoft Points ($10.00).

Gamers playing the DLC will participate in the liberation of Anchorage from the Chinese Red Army via a virtual reality simulator and focuses mainly on combat and stealth. The new content will include interactive Strike Teams for you to command and new achievements, armor, a covert ops perk and weapons.

The second DLC pack coming in February is titled “The Pitt” which will be set in Pittsburgh, where the inhabitants have escaped the nuclear annihilation prevalent throughout the game. However, the city is not in pristine shape, because the water is radioactive and it has had a strong effect on those that inhabit the areas near it.

Lastly, the third DLC pack coming in March, “Broken Steel”, not only allow players to continue exploring the wasteland after completion, but it will also increase the level cap and add new perks and monsters.

No exact dates were given as to when any of the content will arrive, but as soon as we get some concrete release dates we will be sure to let you know.

(Thanks Shacknews)

Electronic Arts is being targeted by another class-action law suit over the DRM included with Spore, SecuROM. This time, California resident Alex McQuown is hoping to use Spore to take down SecuROM once and for all.

The grievances listed in Alex McQuown’s class-action suit against EA are much the same as the other suits with three big differences. His lawyers at Finkelstein Thompson claim that SecuROM damages computers costing consumer time and money to repair the havoc caused by its installation. The suit also asserts that EA has needlessly caused its customers grief. The figures prove that piracy of games that carry SecuROM has risen dramatically. The biggest difference in McQuown’s suit is that he invites every U.S. citizen that has purchased an EA product with SecuROM to join the class.

SecuROM comes with many of the most popular titles recently released including EA’s Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 and Dead Space; Ascaron’s Sacred 2; Bethesda’s Fallout 3; BioWare’s Mass Effect published by Microsoft; Ubisoft’s Far Cry 2 and Take 2’s Grand Theft Auto IV for the PC. Of course none of these games or companies have provoked as much protest as EA and Spore. I guess its not always a good thing to be high profile. You make a bigger target.

Read the New Spore Class-Action Targets EA SecuROM As a Whole for further details and a link to the original PDF of class-action suit submitted by Finkelstein Thompson on GameCyte.
thanks to Penny Arcade for explaining SecuROM so well.

Despite reservations about Bethesda’s interpretation of Fallout 3, the No Mutants Allowed community is diving in and making the game its own. Without the use of the the upcoming Garden of Eden Creation Kit (G.E.C.K.) due out this month, industrious modders have created MTUI mods, game guides and mods that bring Fallout 3 close to the style seen in Fallout and Fallout 2.

A full list of NMA and Fallout 3 Nexus links for new game guides and the most popular mods follows the break.

NMA has been updating its Fallout 3 info ever since slightly before the game’s release. Polish aside, we are now more or less done, and can offer the following:
A basic character stats guide http://www.nma-fallout.com/content.php?page=fo3-char

A Fallout 3 world map: http://www.nma-fallout.com/content.php?page=fo3-maps
An interactive Flash-based Fallout 3 world map complete with secondary locations: http://www.nma-fallout.com/content.php?page=fo3-maps-interactive
Interesting item/NPC locations: http://www.nma-fallout.com/content.php?page=fo3-maps-locations

A detailed recruitable followers guide with stats, items and instructions: http://www.nma-fallout.com/content.php?page=fo3-npc

A complete items list: http://www.nma-fallout.com/content.php?page=fo3-items
Includes locations for rare/unique items, including long information lists for books http://www.nma-fallout.com/content.php?page=fo3-items-books
As well as a list of interesting items to keep: http://www.nma-fallout.com/content.php?page=fo3-quest-freeform#list

A quest guide, consisting of a main quest guide: http://www.nma-fallout.com/content.php?page=fo3-quest
Including all the possible ending configurations. Technically, the configurations add up to more than 200, but it’s not particularly convincing.

Optional quest guide: http://www.nma-fallout.com/content.php?page=fo3-quest-optional
These are all quests listed in your PipBoy, achievements on the 360.

Freeform quest guide: http://www.nma-fallout.com/content.php?page=fo3-quest-freeform
These are quests not listed in the PipBoy but still interesting, from search quests to fetch quests to trade quests.

—

As per usual, while NMA lists and sorts essentials, all Fallout 3 info you’ll ever need can be found on the Vault: http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Fallout_Wiki
They have a mass of details, bug lists and fixes and little tidbits and discussions

—

Fallout 3 modding has started off well even before the SDK is out.

There are some Fallout 3 mods over at NMA: http://www.nma-fallout.com/forum/dload.php?action=category&cat_id=66
Of interesting being MTUI interface overhaul mod: http://www.nma-fallout.com/forum/dload.php?action=file&file_id=1199
The item descriptions mod that adds descriptions in the style of Fallout 1/2: http://www.nma-fallout.com/forum/dload.php?action=file&file_id=1204
The Fallout 3 Compendium mod which is an amalgamate of different mods: http://www.nma-fallout.com/forum/dload.php?action=file&file_id=1210

But the real core Fallout 3 modding action has been on Fallout 3 Nexus: http://www.fallout3nexus.com/
Just a grab out of the massive barrel of smaller and bigger tweaks:
Balance Overhaul: http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=334
Killable Children: http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=376
SagersFallout 3: http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=122
Level Cap increaser: http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=121

Bethesda has sent out word that new DLC will be out soon for Fallout 3. Modders should be thrilled that there’s also a new creation kit on the way, which will make their work much easier.

The Garden of Eden Creation Kit (G.E.C.K.) is the official Fallout 3 editor. Although mods have already started to surface, the amount and variety mods should exponentially increase with the release of the editor. The G.E.C.K. tool kit will be available in December.

“We’ve always seen the original world of Fallout 3 as a foundation for even more content. Some created by us, and a lot more created by users,” said Todd Howard, game director for Fallout 3. “It’s fun to create your own character, but it can be equally fun to create your own adventures. We can’t wait to see what the community does with the G.E.C.K.”

For Xbox 360 players, exclusive DLC kicks off in January with more coming in February and March. Here’s the line up of Fallout 3 mods for Xbox and Games for Windows from the press release.

• 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. An action-packed battle scheduled for release in January.
• The Pitt. Journey to the industrial raider town called The Pitt, located in the remains of Pittsburgh. Choose your side. Scheduled for release in February.
• Broken Steel. Join the ranks of the Brotherhood of Steel and rid the Capital Wasteland of the Enclave remnants once and for all. Continues the adventure past the main quest. Scheduled for release in March.

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.

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.

Steam in its current form — a PC game store and Xbox Live-esque community service — does a lot of what Microsoft talked about doing years ago. But like the Live Anywhere concept, Games for Windows Live has largely drifted by the wayside. Yesterday, Microsoft released an update to GFW Live to improve upon the lackluster interface that has, so far, not come to be the unified PC gaming platform Microsoft hoped it to be. According to Shacknews, Microsoft will be releasing another update in the next few weeks that will add support for downloads of demos, videos, and DLC through a true GFW Live Marketplace application.

Microsoft has more in store than just that, though, as we learned in an interview that Shacknews had with GFW Live GM Chris Early. He said:

When we get to the place where we do distribute games digitally, will we have a digital rights management system? Maybe. Or maybe we’ll just continue to support the industry leaders in that. Because it is a hard thing to do. You talk to any of those companies, and that is their whole company, is doing digital rights management.

Asked about that first bit — regarding when Microsoft begins distributing games digitally — Early admitted, “Clearly it’s on our road map.” That initiative will come once they’ve fully rolled out their plans for allowing DLC through the Marketplace.Early believes this was the right order to release things in, claiming “this is something that you can’t do today on a PC, right? You can buy digitally through a bunch of places.” While that’s not entirely true — just look at Bethesda, who has offered DLC for games through its website — a unified place for DLC on PC isn’t a half-bad idea. Whether this means we’ll begin seeing more premium DLC on PC is unclear, but we can hope that the mod community will manage to keep that in check or, at the very least, make sure we don’t see any companies trying to sell us a set of horse armor.

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.

American McGee’s Grimm Volume 2 launches today on GameTap, and what better way to make your Halloween deliciously nasty than to play around with Grimm as he pees, butt stomps and vomits all over the land of fairy tales?

Free to play today and all through October 31, Episode 1–The Master Thief– tells the sordid tale of a thief who is challenged to steal three unobtainable items. He must use every trick in his repertoire to covet these items and save his life, yet things may not turn out so well if the nasty and horrendously vile Grimm has anything to say about it.

Next week on November 6, GameTap subscribers will see the release of Episode 2, The Singing Bone. In this deliciously craven tale of sibling rivalry gone horribly wrong, a man has murdered his brother in order to gain the hand of the princess in marriage. His plan goes awry though because his brother’s disembodied skull sings like a canary of the treachery that befell him; thus angering the King with such horrible truths. How will Grimm make this any more foul and maniacal? Play to find out.

Subscribers to GameTap can also play the recently added Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel. Released in 2001, this was a departure from the RPG-style Fallouts of yore and is instead a squad-based tactical RPG, where the player controls a team that tries to recruit outsiders to aide them on combat-heavy missions.

If you are not currently a Gold Member of GameTap, you can still play The Master Thief free for the next two days, along with 144 other free PC games. All you have to do is sign up on the official website. The full release schedule for Grimm Volume 2 can be found here, and remember that each episode is free to play for the first 24-hours of release.

If you’ve ever dreamed of having a Brotherhood of Steel soldier watching over you at night, then you may be interested in one of the newer items to hit the online auction house at Sam’s Club. Right now, bidding is open for a life-sized statue of a member of The Wasteland’s most notorious faction; one of dozens Bethesda had made used to promote Fallout 3. As you can see, he comes fully equipped with the Brotherhood’s signature power armor and helmet, as well as a laser rifle; making probably the coolest piece of Fallout 3 schwag available to the public. Of course, something this fancy won’t come cheap. Bidding at this time has reached $300, which is twice what it was before; and there’s still almost two weeks left for fans to bid on it.

I just wish he were poseable, so I could sit him on the couch next to me as I actually play the game and steal the power armor right off his dead comrades.

Image via BethBlog