Let’s be honest, many of us are excited for the release of Final Fantasy XIII and God of War III (fingers crossed that they both come out this year). But does anyone else get woozy thinking about them — like our very own Brendan Fraser Gavin Carter:

“I’m most looking forward to the coming installments of PlayStation series that haven’t seen a true next generation debut – namely God of War and Final Fantasy. Everything I’ve seen on the new Final Fantasy games has looked fantastic, and I feel faint when I think of the potential of a PS3 God of War game.”

Ladies love Gavin Carter. Gavin Carter loves Kratos.

Gavin Carter | 1 Comment

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Here’s two ongoing contests that I thought you might want to enter.

At Games for Windows, their currently running a “Connect and Win” competition, which you can easily enter if you’ve got the GFW release of Fallout 3. The name pretty much says it all. If you’re playing Fallout 3 while logged into Games for Windows LIVE, you’re eligible to win. This week they’re giving out daily prizes of 4000 Microsoft points (points that could be used towards Operation: Anchorage and future Fallout 3 DLC releases). Next week their competition concludes with Survival Editions of Fallout 3 being given out daily.  The contest is for residents in the US, UK, Germany and France. For more details, visit here.

Elsewhere, MTV UK is currently running a Fallout 3 contest on their site. In addition to being able to win a 360 copy of the game, you have a chance at winning an Xbox 360 Pro, as well as some fun Fallout 3 schwag.

Good luck.

Contests, Fallout 3, Games for Windows Live, PC, Xbox 360 | Comment

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Happy New Year from Bethblog! We look forward to sharing the latest news about our games and what we’re up to in 2009. It should be a fun year.

While we were away, here’s some new awards Fallout 3 earned. We begin at UGO, who gave the game their top honor saying, “Fallout 3 grabs you by the collar and doesn’t let go for about 50 hours. It is one of the most complete, satisfying and enjoyable games in years.”

The game has also taken GOTY awards at GamesRadar (image above), 411Mania, Philly.com, GayGaymer, Xbox360Achievements, Next Gen Player, and Voodoo Extreme.

At both Gamervision and SoftPedia, the game recently received honors as the top RPG of the 2008. TGR handed out two awards for the game — Best PC Game and Studio of the Year.

Last but not least, the game was also acknowledged as one of the top games of 2008 at ABC News, Variety, The New York Daily News, and Joystiq. Here’s a snippet from the latter:

“There are so many things you’ll miss if you don’t get out and explore. We’d never have gathered up parts and made a railway rifle that pinned enemies to walls, or a flaming sword from a lawnmower blade. Or become obsessed with tracking down every last Vault Boy bobblehead, pre-war book, human finger … or any of the myriad items that seem pointless, yet have a purpose.”

To see some of the other awards, head to the Fallout 3 Official Website.

Around the Web, Awards, Fallout 3, Game of the Year | Comment

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Well, we’ve reached the end of 2008, and what a great year it’s been for playing games. Like many other sites out there, we thought we’d share our favorites. Because we might have a little bit of a bias as to what our favorite game was, you’ll find no mention of Fallout 3 below.

Looking through the list, there’s definitely some differing opinions on what game was best. If you look at the #1 picks, Dead Space and Left 4 Dead appear to be amongst the favorites. I guess we’ve got a thing for games with severed hands on the cover.

After reading our list, be sure to let us know which games topped your list.

Happy New Year!

Cory Dornbusch, QA Tester: 10) Ninja Town, 9) Fable 2, 8 ) World of Goo, 7) Boom Blox, 6) Prince of Persia, 5) Far Cry 2, 4)Fracture , 3) Left 4 Dead, 2) Persona 4, 1) Dead Space.

Liz Beetem: 5) No More Heroes, 4) King’s Bounty: The Legend, 3) Fable 2, 2) Dead Space, and 1) Left 4 Dead.

Jonathan Bilodeau: 5) Fable II, 4) GTA IV, 3) Braid, 2) The Last Remnant, and 1) Tales of Vesperia.

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At the Office, Developers, Game of the Year, What We're Playing | 15 Comments

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This week we’re checking in with Sam Mangham, otherwise known as TheTalkieToaster within our forums. Sam is a 21-year-old student at the University of Bath in, where else, Bath, England. When he’s not modding or studying Physics and Chemistry, he spends his time walking, seeing movies, and baking cakes.

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Community, Fallout 3, Modding, Morrowind, Oblivion, The Elder Scrolls | 3 Comments

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Welcome back for another edition of Around the Web.

We’ll start today at 1Up, where they’ve got an Afterthoughts interview with Emil. In it, Emil discusses design decisions, inspirations, as well as some things you might not have known about the game.  Here’s an excerpt:

1UP: The first time you played the game all the way through, what kind of character build did you use?

Emil: I’ve played the game at the office so many times, with so many different characters, at so many different stages of development, that I honestly can’t remember the first! But I do remember one of my favorites. I’d made this guy with Tag Skills in Science, Energy Weapons, and Speech. And every time I hit a option in dialogue, I would take it. It actually took me several hours of play before I looked at my character — and his suave little moustache — and then it hit me…I’d inadvertently created Tony Stark. I’d been playing the whole game in the role of Tony Stark, and hadn’t even realized it.

In Emil’s interview, there are a few references to the upcoming DLC. For more DLC discussion, check out WonderWallWeb, where there’s a new interview with Jeff Gardiner. Here’s a quick preview:

Can you tell us a little about the experience players will have in Operation Anchorage and what situations they will find themselves in?

Jeff Gardiner: The player will be tasked with taking the main Chinese stronghold outside of Anchorage.  Along the way they’ll pick up new weaponry, and even get to command a small strike force of their choosing.  They’ll be able to pick what type of team they’d like to create, and then how to utilize them in succeeding in their objective.

Speaking of Operation: Anchorage, it appears news of the DLC has made its way to Alaska by way of the Anchorage Daily News. I have to wonder what some residents of the Land of Midnight Sun had to think when they read the introduction.

More news after the break…

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Around the Web, Developers, Emil Pagliarulo, Fallout 3, Game of the Year, Interview, Matt Firor, Modding, Morrowind, Operation Anchorage, ZeniMax Online | 2 Comments

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In the last edition of Community Scrapbook, a few of you made suggestions on a theme for this go around. Looking over the ideas, it sounds like you’re looking for something a little more gruesome. So this time around, send us an email with your favorite screenshots taken while using VATS.

This should be fun.

Community, Community Scrapbook, Fallout 3, Screenshots | 1 Comment

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From the team here at Bethesda Softworks, we’d like to wish everyone a Happy Holiday! Hopefully Mr. Handy hasn’t opened all your presents already.

Happy Holidays | 14 Comments

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A few more year end awards have been announced for both Fallout 3 and Bethesda Game Studios over the weekend.

Up first, GameSpy concluded their year end awards — with Fallout 3 taking home the award for Overall Game of the Year and winning the Gamers’ Choice awards for Xbox 360 and PC. It’s a great honor anytime we get awards like these — especially when it comes from fans.

On Friday night IGN announced their Best of 2008 awards for Xbox 360, with Fallout 3 taking awards for Best RPG, Best Use of Sound, and Game of the Year. Here’s an excerpt from what they had to say on the game winning GOTY:

“The sense of immersion in this twisted, yet somehow believable, world is fantastic, but it’s the freedom and memorable moments that put Fallout 3 on top. The VATS combat is fantastic. The role-playing and decision making is top notch. Just about everything Fallout 3 does is special. You could (and should) play Fallout 3 for dozens and dozens of hours and still turn it on the next day and find something new and exciting.”

In other news, GamaSutra included Bethesda Game Studios in their list of the Top 5 Developers in 2008.

Around the Web, Awards, Developers, Fallout 3, Xbox 360 | 5 Comments

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With Christmas and New Year’s (and the always important Celebration of Gstaff Day) coming up, many of us are taking time off and celebrating the holiday season. Of course, that means many of us will get to spend some extended time playing games.

Here’s a rundown of some of the games we’ll be playing.

Michael Lattanzia, QA: Warhammer Online (Woo, Keg End event!), Left 4 Dead, Gears of War 2, Persona 3 FES, Animal Crossing: Wild World, Chrono Trigger DS, Dead Rising… whew, trying to catch up on some games finally.

Chris Esko, Gameplay Programmer: Trying to finish all the games I haven’t had time for. Fallout 3, Left 4 Dead, Gears of War 2, Prince of Persia, Rock Band 2, Kings Bounty, and getting sucked back into WoW with the Lich King expansion.

Orin Tresnjak, Graphics Programmer: King’s Bounty: The Legend, World of Warcraft, Prince of Persia.

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Developers, Happy Holidays, What We're Playing | 8 Comments

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