If you haven’t purchased any of the addition episodes that have been released for Fallout 3 the Broken Steel expansion is the best place to start. There have been a lot of positive changes and updates to the core Fallout 3 game included in this release. Most notable is a change to the ending of the game. Fallout 3 did so many things right but the ending was one of the more anti-climatic endings of a game this generation. Ending the game actually means, ending the game. If players complete Fallout 3 and want continue exploring the wastelands and completing side quests they are forced to revert to a previous save file to do so. Downloading Broken Steel will allow you to complete the main story and continue exploring the wastelands filling those gaps in your achievement list.

Microsoft has announced that Grand Theft Auto IV: Lost and Damned will be featured as their Deal of the Week for starting on August 24th.

One of the more interesting Deal of the Week announcements to date, the first Grand Theft Auto IV episode will be available for 1,200 Microsoft Points, instead of the usual 1,600. After purchasing the Lost and the Damned myself (read my review here) I believed it was definitely worth its original price tag, but with the upcoming discount, every GTA fan should give the add-on a try. If you haven’t given Lost and Damned a shot I suggest you take advantage of the discount on August 24th.

Microsoft confirmed a list of the new features coming to the 360 Dashboard via the Xbox Live summer update expected to hit on August 11th. Curious about what this new update will be bring to dashboard? Here is a list of everything Microsoft is stating will be included in the Summer ‘09 update.

Crouching under a grove of palm trees, hidden by tall grass, I stare down the barrel of my sniper rifle patiently waiting on the American troops to come charging over the hill. My team has silently coordinated a beautiful plan of attack that has pushed our enemy into a single corner of the map. Our planes are flying above their base continually pelting their position with payload after payload of bombs weakening their attack plans. My teammates have moved our tanks into a position that should help us prevent any type of moving assault that our enemies might be assembling. With my weapon locked and loaded, my job is to pick off any ground troops attempting to flank us from either side of our position. As a further precaution, we have secured our recently seized bases with enough explosives to ensure any attempt of a hostile takeover will be extinguished by the flip of a switch. This match will be ours as long as we keep it together and hold our position. It is just a matter of minutes now….

Thrust into the wasteland as the “Lone Wander from Vault 101” and ending up “The Last, Best Hope for Humanity” was a long, and at times, trying journey. If you missed the first two parts of my review you can check them out here and here. Following your fathers trail requires a lot of back and forth through the wastelands and they are anything but safe. Constantly having to defend yourself against on coming attacks from Raiders, Super Mutants, Feral Ghouls, Mole Rats, Vicious Dogs, Deathclaws, Mercs, and more, isn’t always an easy task. No place outside of the fortified walls of wasteland settlements scattered across the D.C. Area are safe. Weapons are the key to staying alive while moving from place to place, lots of weapons. Weapons aren’t any good without ammo and decent armor compliments the pair nicely.

Bethesda has released a few details concerning the next installment of DLC for Fallout 3 today. Mothership Zeta, dated for an August 3rd release, will be the final add-on for Fallout 3. This time around, players will be abducted by aliens when answering a distress call. Judging by the details I have been reading, this is not going to be friendly visit, so be prepared to wipe out as many aliens as possible in hopes of returning to earth. Apparently, some characters from the earths past will be making an appearance in Mothership Zeta, implying that aliens have been abducting humans for a long time. No specifics were released as to who we might see aboard the ship, but would you really want them to spoil it ahead of time? Of course, as with every add-on pack, a few new weapons and armor options will be available to experiment with. The update includes a Gemini-Era Spacesuit, Samurai Armor, Alien Atomizer, Alien Disintegrater, and a Drone Cannon. Even though it wasn’t mentioned in the information released, I would assume this expansion would be a good place to stock up on Alien Power Cells used in the Alien Blaster as well. Just a guess though. The DLC will be released for 800 Microsoft points ($10.00), which has been the magic price for all previous content packages. If you have grown a little weary of wandering through the wastelands, Mothership Zeta should act as a neatly packaged escape from the D.C. ruins.

I received a couple emails asking me how I completed the Nuka-Cola challenge achievement in Fallout 3 over this last weekend. The Nuka-Cola Challenge is a side quest in Fallout 3 that requires collecting 30 Nuka-Cola Quantum drinks and delivering them to one of two characters living in Girdershade. When you locate Girdershade underneath the raised highway on the east side of the map you will meet Sierra Petrovita. She lives in a small shack with a neon Nuka-Cola sign hanging near the door. Sierra will ask if you would like to take the Nuka-Cola tour, which consists of walking through her tiny shack home and looking at all the Nuka-Cola branded items she has collected in the wastes. The only way to open up the side quest is to take the tour and listen to her talk about the various junk she has collected. On the bright side, when the tour is complete, she will offer you an ice-cold Nuka Cola. Then Sierra will ask you to help her collect Nuka-Cola Quantums so she can fill her vending machine. She will pay you 40 caps for each one you bring her and when you hit 30, she will give you the Schematics to build a Nuka Grenade, and the achievement will be unlocked.

I spent the last two weeks logging into Xbox Live to play 1 vs.100, a new online game show. 1 vs. 100 is a two-hour game show featuring live gameplay between players, multiple rounds, and a rather boring host commenting on the action. That sounds like a real game show, right? The idea of bringing a game show with real world prizes to peoples living room is very intriguing. Millions of people connect to Xbox Live everyday and this game has been designed to give anyone the opportunity to get in on the action. This is accomplished by giving gamers three ways to participate during a live show. Every round a player is chosen to be The One. This person is selected to sit center stage and answer multiple choice trivia questions in a Who Wants To Be A Million style arena. Another 100 players are selected to be a part of The Mob. Remaining players logged into the game will be part of The Crowd.

Picking up were Part 1 (check it out here) of my Fallout 3 review left off, you are rising out of the vault and into the wastelands. After your fathers unexpected exit from Vault 101, you forge into the unknown in hopes of reuniting with him on the outside. As you escape the fallout shelter with the assistance of your childhood friend Amata, the overseers daughter, you gaze across the ruined landscape of the D.C. Area for the first time. Looking over the horizon for the first time, its obvious the world has been destroyed. There are no signs of life, no color, nothing but ruins. As drab and depressing as that sounds the game is ascetically beautiful. The remains of buildings and technology scattered throughout the world looks reminiscent of a 1950’s era Sci-Fi movie. The game does a great job of making you feel alone, to the point that wandering the landscape creates an eery feeling.

1up.com posted a story earlier this week (check it our here) reporting that Bungie President Harold Ryan, in an interview with the Seattle Times, expressed excitement for Microsoft’s recently unveiled motion control peripheral Project Natal. When speaking with the Seattle Times, Harold was quoted saying, “ I absolutely think Reach could be enabled with it.” After E3 we learned that Microsoft and Sony are working on getting into the motion control game that has made the Wii so successful.