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.

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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.

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.

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