We talked about the exhaustive Fallout 3 Q&A yesterday, but there are a few morsels of information we want to point out specifically, chief among them are new images that reveal the Megaton Bar, a "shotgun on robot" and the Pip-Boy skills menu.

For the Fallout purists, chances are you'll be dismayed to here that traits have been taken out of the game and melded into the perks system, which has been modified to where you're allowed a new perk with every level. "That was a hard decision for us, and one that took, literally, years," said executive producer Todd Howard, who noted that the traits and perks system were so related that many of the design-a-perk contest entrants were actually traits.

According to Howard, if you include ranks, there are about 100 perks available and only 19 chances to pick a perk each game (level cap is 20). No worries, though, because "Bloody Mess" is still available, and that's all we need to hear to be satisfied.

When we first heard that Bethesda was working on a Fallout 3 game we made a pledge to ourselves that we were going to stay completely spoiler free, that we'd go into the experience fresh, with no knowledge of what surprises awaited and what mysteries we would unearth. Sadly, it didn't take long for us to remember that we worked for a video game site, and trying to remain willfully ignorant of a major title was misguided at best.

But it's not too late for you, dear reader! You can avert your eyes right now. You don't have to read this exhaustive Q and A with Bethesda wherein they discuss everything from drug use and child murder to Fallout 3's inventory system! You can still ... you already clicked on it, didn't you?

While the ballyhoo around Blizzard's announcement of Diablo 3 kept us all sleep deprived and glued to our screens this last weekend, some were left not as impressed as others. And by some, we mean Fallout 3 production director Ashley Cheng, who feels the series' third trip to the well is too 'conservative.'

"I must say," wrote Cheng on his blog, "I am disappointed that Blizzard has stayed on the conservative side in terms of design with their updates to Diablo and Starcraft." However, he tempered his displeasure with a measure of excitement, writing that he "loved" the game's destructible environments and that the vaunted action RPG looks "pretty amazing." Even so, take heed, dear Blizzard. Try not to be so restrained when you finally get around to revisiting Starcraft: Ghost; we think casting Nova in a post-apocalyptic wasteland is a guaranteed way to win our hearts.

We know that as the supposedly impartial game media we're supposed to give every game a fair shake, but can we be honest with you about Fallout 3: We are helpless to resist it. Maybe it's the aesthetic, maybe it's the pedigree, but we just can't let an opportunity to post about it pass us by. Luckily though, we think a lot of you probably feel the same way, so you won't mind seeing a few new screens.

In addition to the above image, we've got a still that looks like it's from the stat management screen and a mutant firing a giant gun at the national mall. And that's it. That's all Fallout 3 has to give us to get onto Joystiq. Isn't that sad?

When you play a lot of video games as we do, they can tend to feel a little same-y after a while. But Majestic Studios may just have just pushed past Homageville and straight into Lawsuitburg with Limbo of the Lost, which appears to have lifted many of its background graphics directly from Bethesda's Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. No, it's not in a "Hey, this game looks like Oblivion" way. It's more like "Hey, why are you seizing my copy of the game as evidence?" GamePlasma has the image above and many, many more examples.

What's nuttier is that this game has actually been around for a while. It was originally released in Asia way back in November of 2007, though it's just now getting a North American release. It's criminal, but it's also kind of inspiring. Apparently, if you dream of making games, all you have to do is find another game, and then make up a guy to put in that game and then sell it. If we weren't so busy liquidating our stock in Majestic Studios we'd be slow clapping.

(Oh, and just so you know, Bethesda tells us they don't have a comment and Majestic's email address doesn't work..)

Update: No one is safe from Limbo! It seems the game also stole an environment from Eidos' Thief: Deadly Shadows.

Update 2: Just heard back from U.S. publisher Tri Synergy who tells us that the similarity between the two is "striking" but "We're just as shocked as anybody else and we've put a line in to Majestic. We had no idea that any of this had been in the game and things would have been different had we known." They're still exploring it though, so we hope we'll hear more soon.

[Thanks Michael]

As if Fallout 3's Collector's Edition wasn't enough to make you frantically type "DO WANT" in our comments section, Bethesda and Amazon have announced an even grander package, the Fallout 3 Survival Edition. In what's essentially the special edition of the collector's edition, Amazon's offer includes all of the latter item's goodies -- a Vault Boy Bobblehead doll, a hardcover book of art and a behind-the-scenes DVD in a Vault-Tec lunch box -- as well as a "life-size" replica of the Pip-Boy 3000, the wrist-mounted contraption worn by in-game apocalypse survivors.

Of course, being a replica, the Pip-Boy 3000 doesn't offer the full functionality enjoyed by those wandering Bethesda's wasteland. This one's just a cool digital clock, we're afraid. It's already available for pre-order on Amazon (but not to Europe, sorry!), with the console and PC versions listed at $129.99 and $119.99, respectively. DO WANT ... ?

As if you needed more incentive to pre-order the game, the Bethesda Blog has now revealed "representational images" of the Fallout 3 Collector's Edition. Based on the above design, the Vault Boy bobble head will likely be the same vertical size as the Vault-Tec lunch box, and the hardcover art book about the same diameter as a DVD. Alongside the game, it all looks like it will fit neatly into the carrier, which should be sturdy enough to block its contents from our drool.

[Via Big Download]

Another new screenshot released shows the Vault dweller literally shooting off the leg of a mutant adversary. Come to think of it, we really hope that wasn't Albert he just hurt. Rounding out the trio of new images is a landscape portrait of what we believe is the first town you visit in the game. Fallout 3 is due out this Fall.

US-based monitoring group SITE said there has been a video released on Islamic militant forums encouraging terrorists to detonate WMDs in America. According to Australian-based News.com.au, "SITE also released a computer-generated image, showing Washington DC in the aftermath of a nuclear attack, which reportedly appeared on an Islamist forum." If that released image, featured in the article and reprinted above (sans kangaroo, we added that), looks familiar, that's because it's concept art from Fallout 3, released back in May 2007 (a high-resolution image is available here).

To be clear, we're not faulting SITE or anyone else involved in this story -- after all, it's an unmarked piece of concept art that does illustrate the terrorist's goal, and SITE doesn't make any claims as to the origins of the image. It's more of an oddity than a joke, but it's interesting to see how a simple thing such as concept art can be interpreted in different ways.

[Via A Post Nuclear Blog; thanks, Andy]

Mandatory game installs have become an expected burden for PlayStation 3 owners, a tax paid in time for the pleasure of playing games on Sony's latest console. And while the time spent watching the bar creep across the screen has ranged from modest to absurd, we're still not accustomed with having to wait at all. It's a sentiment echoed by the developers at Bethesda, as the company recently let slip that the PS3 version of its radioactive RPG Fallout 3 will not include any upfront installation at all.

"The answer to that is no, there isn't," Bethesda marketing guru Pete Hines recently told Joystiq concerning Fallout 3 on the PS3. "That doesn't mean we don't use the hard drive, just that it does it in the background as opposed to a large, upfront install." As far as how much hard drive space the game will require, the exec wouldn't say exactly. Hines did mention that the RPG will require "a similar amount" of HD space as Oblivion, making us expect to fill up the PS3's juicy interior with about 4-5 gigs of atom-splitting data when the game ships this fall.

We heard from a guy whose best friend was apparently there, that Bethesda Softworks and Splash Damage totally hooked up. Neither one is ready to kiss and tell (yet!), but they're both walking around with that starry look in their eyes ... and they're wearing the same clothes they had on yesterday. We know, right!

Splash Damage said they both "share a passion for creating great games" and they're totally "confident that this partnership will result in even greater experiences for gamers." How dreamy. Bethesda cooed, "This could not be a more perfect fit." Wow, get a room you two! Actually, first tell us what game you're working on, then get a room.

There are plenty of reasons to pre-order Fallout 3. Maybe there's a cute checkout boy/girl at your local game retailer that you'll take any opportunity to see or, maybe, it's because Fallout 3 is almost certainly going to be completely and utterly rad. Either way, those that lay a five-spot on the game at their local GameStop are going to be walking away with a five-song Fallout 3 soundtrack disc, according to Bethesda's official blog.

As you can see here, there are a few licensed tracks as well as some originals by recently-announced scorer Inon Zur. As you can also see above it's gorgeous and we want it so bad and please Fallout 3 just come out today oh please please we need this please. Please.

No matter what platform we choose to take on Fallout 3's radioactive wasteland, we will be doing so to the musical styling of seasoned game music composer Inon Zur.

If Zur's name isn't familiar to you, it's likely you've hummed along to some of his more notable tracks heard in games like Crysis as well as each of the three expansions to Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War. And speaking of three, a trio of the songs Zur created for Bethesda's hotly anticipated RPG are available to listen to on the official Fallout 3 website, from in-game tracks "Megaton" and "Into the Wasteland," to a bass-heavy title track that has us climbing the walls in our underground shelter in the march up to the game's release this fall.

Cake, pizza, fabric, all things you can take a chunk out of to judge the quality. But Fallout 3, it's more like a Jenga tower or a baby: Taking a sample slice out of it won't end up well for anyone. To that end Eurogamer reports that Bethesda's Pete Hines says there will be no demo for the sprawling action RPG.

"When you build it as one thing, there's no way to portion off a section and have it stand on its own without putting the whole game in the demo, which we're just not going to do," Hines told the publication. But honestly, if at their heart demos are to help consumers make wise buying decisions, do you really need one for Fallout 3? We'll be fine waiting to have our minds blown by the whole package. In the interim, enjoy these three new screenshots Bethesda released today, to take the edge off.

Did you know that it was scientifically possible to desire Fallout 3 more than you already do? We didn't until this morning when we saw the (unconfirmed by Bethesda) listing for the collector's edition of it at Gamestop. For $70, you'll get a Vault Boy Bobblehead doll, a hardcover book of art and a behind-the-scenes DVD. Oh, and the whole thing comes in a metal Vault-Tec lunch box. Yes. Please.

There's also a date for the game of October 7, but that could just be an estimate. As far as we're concerned (thanks in part to today's announcement) the official date for Fallout 3 is "Not even close to soon enough."