Fallout 3's Fallout

Gamers should be thrilled that the crème de la crème of game developers are converging on Los Angeles--as you read this--for the E3 Media and Business Summit trade show, busy showing off their creations and mingling with retailers and the press. This fall's hotly anticipated titles are being paraded at the show, such as Gears of War 2, Rock Band 2, and Spore. No less than the likes of Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony hosted their own press conferences to show off upcoming titles for the XBox 360, Wii, and PS3 from a variety of developers.

One particular drool-worthy title demoed at the Microsoft press conference was the XBox 360 version of Bethesda Softworks' Fallout 3. And yes, the game will also be available for the Windows platform--in fact, there will exclusive download content for both the XBox and Windows platforms. The brains behind Fallout 3 is Todd Howard, who brought us the popular Elder Scrolls series. The last time we saw a Fallout title was ten years ago in 1998 with Fallout 2. (The original Fallout was released a year earlier in 1997.) While the Fallout games were very popular in their day, a whole new generation of gamers have grown up since then and it will be interesting to see if the nuances of this post-apocalyptic first-person shooter will still have same appeal.

Based on what's been shown so far, however, Fallout 3 (which Howard says features over a 100 hours of gameplay) looks like it will not disappoint. Here is a video of Howard's demo at the Microsoft press conference:

And if that doesn't whet your appetite enough, here is the official game trailer, which was just released yesterday:

Fallout 3 does not come without controversy, however. Last week "the Australian Office of Film and Literature Classification has already refused to classify the title, effectively banning it from sale in the country. The game [can] be resubmitted, with edits, in the hopes it meets the gudelines [sic] for MA15+ rating." It looks like the Aussies shouldn't be holding their breaths for a fall release of Fallout 3 down under. Oi, Oi, Oi! Or is that Oy vey, Oy vey, Oy vey?

The Windows, XBox 360, and PS3 versions of Fallout 3 are all due out sometime this fall. As long as you don't live in Australia, get ready to get your game on!

 Well if they decide to allow multiplay between the XBOX and the PC I'm sure they'll do as they have with all of the other titles and disable the auto aim for the PC.  The gameplay trailer was neat, though the graphics don't look exactly next gen.