Marketing research group NPD has released a list of the top 20 best-selling PC titles over the month of October.

Bethesda's Fallout 3 lead the pack, capturing both the first and eight spots. EA Maxis' Spore continued its strong performance with a second place showing, while newcomer Far Cry 2 settled in behind Nancy Drew.

Mythic's Warhammer Online squeaked in just above the World of Warcraft Battle Chest at fifth position, though Blizzard's MMO also took two other spots with separate SKUs.

The top 20 PC games of October follow:

1. Fallout 3 / Bethesda Softworks / $49 (Average)
2. Spore / EA Maxis / $49 (Average)
3. Nancy Drew: The Haunting of Castle Malloy / Her Interactive / $18 (Average)
4. Far Cry 2 / Ubisoft Montreal / $50 (Average)
5. Warhammer Online: Age Of Reckoning / EA Mythic / $49 (Average)
6. World Of Warcraft: Battle Chest / Blizzard Entertainment / $38 (Average)
7. The Sims 2 Apartment Life Expansion Pack / EA Maxis / $26 (Average)
8. Fallout 3 Collectors Ed / Bethesda Softworks / $79 (Average)
9. The Sims 2 Double Deluxe / EA Maxis / $25 (Average)
10. Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 / EA Los Angeles / $48 (Average)... Read more

The censorship woes for Bethesda's post-apocalyptic RPG Fallout 3 (PC, 360, PS3) never seem to end, and the latest changes to the game's content have been made for the sake of Japan, a country with a bit of history surrounding nuclear weapons.

The Bethesda Japan website update was spotted by Kotaku. In editing the Japanese release, the "The Power of the Atom" side quest was modified to disallow actually triggering a nuclear weapon, and the non-player character Mr. Burke has been removed from the game entirely.

Additionally, a weapon has had its name changed for having a name deemed "inappropriate" for Japanese audiences. Bethesda does not specify which weapon has been renamed, but the smart money is on the Fat Man mini-nuke launcher, named after the nuclear bomb dropped on Nagasaki.

Bethesda also made clear that violent content, such as gore, blood, or dead bodies, has not been lessened in comparison to the North American release.

The first Fallout 3 patch has been released, updating Bethesda's post-apocalyptic role playing gaming to version 1.0.0.15. The 6.6MB download offers the following bug fixes:

• Fixed occasional crashes when exiting the game or using Alt F4 to exit.
• Fixed crashes when using Alt-Tab while binks or credits were playing.
• The game now restarts properly after title updates finish installing.

Over 4.7 million copies of Fallout 3 have shipped worldwide since the game's debut last week, developer Bethesda announced today, explaining that the figure represents retail sales "in excess of $300 million."

While specific sales figures and a per-platform breakdown were not provided, Bethesda noted that the post-apocalyptic role-playing game saw "record sales at launch."

The game has already topped UK sales charts, with Xbox 360 release reportedly accounting for 55% of the game's week-one UK retail sales, followed by the PlayStation 3 version at 28% and the PC at 17%.

Bethesda's post-apocalyptic open-world RPG Fallout 3 has already sold more units in UK than the region's combined sales of Fallout, Fallout 2, Fallout Tactics and Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel, GamesIndustry reports, citing sales-tracking firm Chart Track.

The site does not mention a specific sales total for the game, which recently arrived on PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, but noted that 55% of its week-one retail sales were on Xbox 360, 28% were for PS3, and that the PC version accounted for 17% of its sales.

In addition to topping the UK sales charts, Fallout 3 saw a 57% boost over the first-week sales of Bethesda's last major release, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.

By popular demand, here's a dedicated chatty thread for you all to discuss your progress and experiences in the post-apocalyptic wasteland of Bethsda's Fallout 3.

Unfortunately, I haven't had the chance to give it a go yet, I've been traveling and bogged down with many other quality games, but I'm determined to give it a go as soon as I'm able, especially after reading Breckon's glowing review and hearing him talk about it.

Fallout 3 is a PC game. Sure, it's an Xbox 360 game, too. And it's a PlayStation 3 game, I guess. It's also an RPG, technically.

But when you get at the heart of it, Fallout 3 feels like a game designed for the PC. It has the soul of a big-boxed, full-manual, five-CD game from 1998. It has all the complexity and addictiveness of a System Shock, or a Deus Ex--or, yes, a Fallout.

And when I say "game," I mean it in the most ambitious sense. It's the kind of title that rekindles that 90s spark of imagination, when the borders of gaming were less defined, and anything seemed possible. From the opening moment, it's the kind of work that has you thinking: "Goddamn--this is a real game."

Not just another collection of cutscenes and shooting galleries. Not just another roller-coaster ride with a slightly different track. Fallout 3 is a deep, interactive experience; a compelling blend of crafted art, inventive quests and open world freedom.

Less a ride and more a trip down a lazy, apocalyptic river, Fallout 3 has a strong current in its central quest line. But it's the option of abandoning the raft--and killing your raft-mates, and stealing their stuff, and selling it to a zombie trader for a quick buck--that makes it something gamers should not miss.

Above all else, this is a game to savor... Read more

Censorship and Bethesda's Fallout 3 (PC, 360, PS3) are good friends, and the two just got a little closer: Bethesda has asked gaming websites including Shacknews to pull all trailers for the open-world RPG.

The request came from Bethesda marketing VP Pete Hines in an e-mail which is reproduced below. The e-mail does not delve into the reasoning behind the decision, but says the request is "in connection with ESRB's advertising guidelines."

The move comes on the eve of Fallout 3's release, with thousands of retailers ready to start selling the game at midnight tonight, and follows a widely-reported public complaint regarding depictions of post-apocalyptic Washington DC in Fallout 3 ads.

The ESRB struck last year when news outlets including Shacknews were asked to remove trailers for D3 Publisher's Dark Sector, with the rating board citing "gameplay montages [which] have been deemed to contain excessive or offensive content."

The full e-mail from Hines follows... Read more

Ads for Bethesda's Fallout 3 (PC, 360, PS3) appearing in the DC Metro definitely hit close to home with images of post-apocalyptic versions of the Washington Monument and the Capitol Dome--too close, for one reader of the Washington Post who took issue with the ads.

"The people of our city do not need a daily reminder that Washington is a prime target for an attack," wrote Joseph Anzalone in a letter to the editor of the Post which was noticed by GamePolitics.

"We do not need a daily reminder of what our worst fears look like," added Anzalone. "Since any First Amendment objection would be irrelevant (the ads do not present a true viewpoint or political message and would therefore not be protected), there is no reason for these ads to be part of our daily panorama," he continued.

"The ads should be removed, and the appropriate office at Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority should be directed to exercise better judgment regarding what can be displayed in our transportation system," concluded the concerned citizen.

Although Anzalone's interpretation of the United States Constitution is a little inaccurate--the ads fall under free speech, protected by the First Amendment--it's clear that the ads are having the intended effect, even if that effect leaves a bad taste in the mouths of some.

As Bethesda's Fallout 3 inches towards its PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 release on October 28, Valve today announced that the anticipated post-apocalyptic RPG is now available for pre-purchase on its PC digital distribution platform Steam.

The Steam version of Fallout 3 carries the same $49.99 price as the retail edition. Unlike Valve's Left 4 Dead, which is due November 18 and sis currently discounted by 10%, pre-purchasing Fallout 3 brings no price breaks or bonus incentives.

"Fallout 3 is one of the most important PC launches of 2008," said Valve president Gabe Newell. "With Fallout 3 added to the line up of great titles coming to Steam, this year promises to be an even better holiday season for Steam gamers."

With Fallout 3 (PC, PS3, 360) now complete and in the manufacturing stages, developer Bethesda has released the minimum and suggested system requirements for the PC version of the post-apocalyptic role-playing game, which arrives October 28.

Minimum System Requirements:
• Windows XP/Vista
• 1GB System RAM (XP) / 2GB System RAM (Vista)
• 2.4 Ghz Intel Pentium 4 or equivalent processor
• Direct X 9.0c compliant videocard with 256MB RAM (NVIDIA 6800 or better / ATI X850 or better)
Recommended System Requirements... Read more

Fallout 3, Bethesda's open-world take on the classic post-apocalyptic RPG series, is done and off to production.

"Vault-Tec engineers have worked around the clock on an interactive reproduction of Wasteland life for you to enjoy from the comfort of your own vault," reads a press release from Ubisoft Europe (the game's European distributor) on WorthPlaying.

The revival, sporting some ultimately unimportant censorship, will hit PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 on October 28. The full press release is reproduced below... Read more

Though the Fallout franchise is now mostly out of original designer Tim Cain's hands, that doesn't mean he's going to ignore what's going on with the post-apocalyptic role-playing franchise he helped spawn while at Black Isle Studios.

"The biggest problem...is that the original games were designed to make you feel like you were one of the last people left on Earth," he observed to Edge Online. "With Fallout 3 and the online version, I'm curious about how they'll handle making the game not feel too crowded--making it feel like there's not much life left out there after the war."

"I do like what I've seen about Fallout 3," Cain said of the Bethesda-developed sequel, which hits PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 on October 28. "It's their IP now and they've gone in a certain direction and it's very intriguing."

"It's not necessarily the direction I would've gone," he added, expressing... Read more

Bethesda VP Pete Hines finds the outcry over Fallout 3's censorship just a touch overblown.

"It is seriously the biggest non-issue in the history of video games," said Hines in a Shacknews interview published last night. "It got way more attention than it merits," he added.

Continuing, Hines emphasized that the net effect on the game is zero: "Have you noticed [the change]? Does it make a big difference that it's called something other than Morphine? I mean, who gives a--"

"Australia weren't the only folks that had brought this up," Hines pointed out. "It had actually been brought up in a number of places. Like, 'Hey, referencing real prescribed drugs is kind of a little concerning.'

Bethesda's solution to the problem was rather laid-back, as well. "We went back and looked at it and went, 'It's not like it's in the original game, we just made it up. So why not just change it to another made-up name?' ... We couldn't possibly care less."

After playing a few hours of the PC version of Fallout 3 earlier today, I sat down with Bethesda's Pete Hines to talk about serious PC business.

What kind of DRM will be included on the Fallout 3 disc? Will the PC version suffer from console interface holdovers a la Oblivion? Is the company optimistic about supporting the PC platform in the future? Read on to find out.

Pete Hines: And [copy protection] is a pain in the ass--it is a pain in the ass that we have to do it at all in the first place. But when you spend tens of millions of dollars, we don't think it's right to just put something out there and let everybody do whatever they want and pass it around.

And to have to support all of that--which is often the unspoken thing that nobody really wants to point to. You can argue all day whether or not somebody would have bought a copy of a game they pirated, but you can't argue, and you will never win the argument that I'm not having to provide tech support for those folks. Read more..

Fallout 3 is a bloody, bloody game. Along with glimpses of the ever-captivating wasteland, it seems that almost every new batch of screenshots brings another sad picture of a zombie getting one right in the eye.

I played the game for another couple hours today, and was amazed at just how often I was decapitating enemies with 10mm handgun bullets. We have a theory going that it has something to do with weakened connective tissue as a result of post-nuclear trauma. That, and it's pretty hilarious.

In any case, enjoy these new shots, and be sure to check out my fresh interview with Bethesda's Pete Hines.

Retailer GameStop has revealed that it will offer the propaganda-rich Fallout 3 Vault Dweller's Survival Guide to those that pre-order the RPG from GameStop's site. Initially released as a promotional giveaway during this year's Penny Arcade Expo, the thick booklet--available here in its entirety--provides an comprehensive and humorous look at the post-apocalyptic world gamers will find when the Bethesda-developed title hits PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 on October 28.

While the Survival Guide will be free to pre-order customers, GameStop cautions that supplies are limited, with the offer only extended to online orders, not in-store pickup.

Bethesda has revealed that following trouble with the ratings board in Australia, all versions of Fallout 3 will be identically censored when the game is released in October.

"We want to make sure folks understand that the Australian version of Fallout 3 is identical to both the UK and North American versions in every way, on every platform," Bethesda VP Pete Hines told Edge.

Fallout 3, a sequel expanding on Black Isle's classic PC RPG series, was initially refused classification in Australia, effectively banning the game from sale. The game was modified so that "the reward and incentive" for in-game drug use was reduced significantly and then given an MA-15+ rating.

Names for real-world drugs have also been removed from the game.

Hines asserted, "An issue was raised concerning references to real world, proscribed drugs in the game, and we subsequently removed those references and replaced them with fictional names."

Fallout 3 is making a big showing here at PAX. Vault Dweller Survival guides, a giant nuclear test site display with a fully-functional aluminum trailer (left)--and then there's the actual game.

I pulled Bethesda VP Pete Hines and Fallout 3 lead artist Istvan Pely aside to talk about the game, its design, and their reaction to Oblivion comparisons.

Shack: As far as the DLC goes, what type of content should we expect?

Pete Hines: The type is really--we want stuff that's going to be several hours. Not just like a one-off thing, but something like where you can download it and play it for X number of hours. It'll be similar to what we did with... Read more

Remember those old Fallout manuals? The ones with the taped-over hints and 50s-style dark humor? The original Vault Dweller's Survival Guide?

Bethesda has channeled all of that in the PAX 08 swag hand-out for Fallout 3: a thick, pulpy booklet full of illustrations and informative blurbs. It's basically Bethesda's take on Black Isle's original concept, and boy, is it awesome.

This thing even has an old school map that you can fill in as you explore the world, as well as a few pages of blank note space. It's very cool--and you can check the whole shebang out below.

Remember, the post-apocalyptic RPG hits PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 on October 28. While you wait, be sure to check out our new hands-on preview and video walkthrough.