Todd Howard raps Live on Kotaku Talk Radio tomorrow

Have you ever wanted to have a conversation with Bethesda’s own Todd Howard? To just hang out and really get to know the man? To chat long into the night about the most intimate of Fallout and Elder Scrolls details?

Well, we may not be able to help you there. However, we can offer you the chance to ask Todd a question on Kotaku Talk Radio. He’ll be making an appearance during tomorrow’s show, which kicks off at 1pm EST.

K-Talk is a live broadcast production, so a few lucky callers will get to query Todd in real-time. Be sure to ask him to bust a few rhymes — T-How’s got mad skills, but rarely gets the chance to flaunt.

Head on over to Kotaku for more details.

Update: You can now listen to a replay of the podcast or download it from iTunes.

Around the web: Back to the Future edition

Great Scott! As one of the few creatures scurrying around the office, today already feels like the night before Christmas, even if it’s two nights before Christmas. Most everyone has left for the holidays, and I’ll be doing the same soon. But before I head out, I thought I’d round up some of the latest online coverage — this time dominated by coverage of the 2000s, 2009, and 2010.

Top games of the decade, top stories of the year, best dinosaurs of all time — with both the year and decade coming to an end, these lists keep coming in. We start with IndustryGamers’s Top 20 Stories of 2009 –which features ZeniMax’s aquisition of id Software at #18. Speaking of id, RAGE makes Telegraph’s Top 10 Most Anticipated Games for 2010.

Elsewhere, Fallout 3 is in good company in Big Download’s Best PC Games of the Decade, while Morrowind and Oblivion share a spot in GameStooge’s Top 50 (with the countdown still going). Also, at The Yorker, Bethesda Game Studios ranks #9 in a list of the Top Ten Game Developers of the Decade.

While most sites are looking back at 09 and the decade as a whole, Joystiq revisits 2008 to help gamers find great titles with better deals. Making the list is Fallout 3.

Heading back to the future, head to Splash Damage’s site — where they have news on the “most wanted” lists Brink is making for 2010.

On the subject of what people want — see what Pete and Todd (and other industry folks) told Kotaku they want for Christmas. More on that soon.

Todd returns (again!) to OXM podcast

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In podcasting news, earlier this month Todd Howard returned to KOXM – the official podcast of OXM — to discuss important things like burning maps in a warehouse, John Carmack’s cars, Fallout 3 DLC, and help give a proper send off OXM’s Dan Amrich — who recently shipped out of OXMland to head to Activision.

Give it a listen. You’ll want to download episode 193 at iTunes.

Roundup: Fallout 3 DLC captures more awards

The downloadable content for Fallout 3 may have earned you a few digital trophies, but now it’s earning the team that made it some real metal. That’s Todd up there above, graciously accepting Machinima.com’s Inside Gaming Award for Bethesda’s post-release support of the game.

G4′s X-Play also saw fit to bestow its award for “Best DLC” to Fallout 3′s Broken Steel add-on, specifically. Check out the full presentation here.

As the end of the decade draws near, more sites are rolling out their “Game of the Decade” selections. The Guardian is the latest; Morrowind and Oblivion made the top 30, while Fallout 3 cracked the top 10.

Looking ahead to 2010, MSN UK reminds you that Brink is one of the games to look out for, saying: “If immediately accessible and flowing movement weren’t enough of a draw, Brink uses state-of-the-art graphics and physics.”

On a ridiculous note, Bethesda environment artist Megan Sawyer passed along this video of someone controlling their Christmas lights with a Guitar Hero peripheral. What?

If you’ve got any festive plans that involve any of our games, shoot us an email.

Around the web

TGIF! As you countdown to the weekend, here’s some coverage for you to read up on.

With Halloween tomorrow, I thought I’d share all the entries in Joystiq’s 2009 Pumpkin Carving Contest. Among all the awesome entries, you’ll find Fallout contributions (pics 55, 57 — shown above, and 80). Really great stuff — bums me out I never got around to carving one.

Moving along, a new blog post at Bitmob was motivated by a tale of evil things you can do in Fallout 3. So out of curiosity, Dan Hsu asked folks around the gaming industry to share their memories of “doing evil” in games. Among others, the list includes Todd Howard and Emil Pagliarulo, as well as some other guys tied to the Fallout franchise (Obsidian’s Feargus Urquhart and Chris Avellone). Find out their evil deeds here.

The latest AVault podcast (#53) is up and features Pete Hines. Give it a listen (as I’m doing right now) to hear him discuss Fallout 3, Brink, id Software and more.

Lastly, Strategy Informer recently put up a new preview for Rogue Warrior. You can read it here. Elsewhere, you can check out the game’s achievements at none other than Xbox 360 Achievements.

Web Roundup: Fallout 3

Plenty of cool stuff I’ve found recently for Fallout 3. Read on…

On Twitter, I came across a link to a blog called The Adventures of Tobasco da Gama. In this post, our hero (we’ll call him the Lone Wanderer), discusses his plan to tour DC in a Vault Suit. A man of his word, check out the pics on Flickr.

Recently the 2009 MIXX awards were announced — celebrating creativity in interactive advertising. Among the award winners, Fallout 3 was awarded a Gold Award for Product Launch. Special thanks to AKQA (who also won an award for McDonalds and Flip Video) and everyone else that worked on the campaign.

At Planet Xbox 360, there’s a new list of the Top 10 Gaming Moments to Experience Before You Die. It’s a good list that points out how many great titles there have been this generation. Click here to find out what Fallout 3 moment made the list.

Ready to take on some Fallout trivia? The Escapist has two quizzes — in Heroic and Legendary flavors.

At Kotaku, Todd Howard was featured in a recent piece titled, “Is Single-Player Gaming In Danger Of Extinction?” — written by Michael McWhertor. Here’s a snippet from Todd:

“[Multiplayer is] the most requested feature we get,” says Todd Howard, executive producer of The Elder Scrolls series and Fallout 3 at Bethesda Softworks, so far resistant to the trend this generation. “So we do consider it every time… and every time it loses, but I suppose you never know.”

Moving on, I caught this pic from EPICponyz that you might recognize from here..:)

To conclude this wrapup, here’s three videos to check out from YouTube. This one caught my eye because of the great work done on creating the BoS armor. Also be sure to check out this Fallout 3 Medley, and yet another fantastic fan video from Drakortha.

Toddacon!!!

That’s all I could think of when I saw the above image of Todd in the second “Codec Chatter” interview at the revamped Game Informer website.

Here’s a snippet of the interview:

Now that you’ve successfully reinvented Fallout, is there another classic franchise you’d like to bring to the next generation?

Todd: I’d go with Wing Commander. I think the world needs a cinematic space shooter reboot. Maybe I can swing the Battlestar Galactica license and sneak it in that way.

Head here for the rest. Enjoy!

Todd’s favorite games

Over at Industry Gamers, Todd Howard shared a list of his 10 favorite games of all-time. This isn’t the first time Todd’s claimed Ultima VII as his favorite game — among other places, he noted it in a feature on D&D for 1Up

Looking through his list, there’s definitely some games in there I’d consider for my top 10. I’ll post my At-The-Moment Top 10 in the comments section, and encourage you to do the same.

Weekend Update: Todd Howard interview, GamesCom coverage, and more

I hope everyone’s having a glourious weekend. Here’s some news and info I thought I’d share.

G4TV caught up with Todd Howard at QuakeCon last weekend. Above you can watch the interview, as Todd touches on the future of The Elder Scrolls, Fallout 3 content on PS3, and Zenimax’s recent acquisition of id Software.

A couple of interesting blog posts at Destructoid. They caught up with Emil Pagliarulo (briefly) for a feature they did on “What the armor says.” Meanwhile, Ben PerLee had a chance to play WET this past week. Here’s an excerpt in which he discusses the game’s soundtrack…

“I’ll say it plainly: this soundtrack is really good, and my favorite part of my hands-on with the game. It’sfilthy hot.”

Plenty of news continues to surface for Brink. You can read previews at GamePro, ingame.de (translation courtesy of Google), and TotalPlayStation; as well as new interviews with Paul Wedgwood at Atomic Gamer and QuakeLiveTV (via YouTube).

Also out of QuakeCon, Team Xbox has a new interview for RAGE with Stephan Martiniere. Meanwhile, VG247 has an interview with Todd Hollenshead.

Finally, a new review for Mothership Zeta is up at Console Monster. Here’s a snippet…

“As always with the DLC developed for Fallout 3 by Bethesda, the depth and attention to detail is fantastic. There is a wealth of enjoyment to be had and Bethesda has truly shown the world how DLC should be designed, developed and distributed.”

That’s all for now…now get back to enjoying your weekend.

Quick Update: There’s a new preview up for WET at Games Are Evil.

Around the web — around the world edition

We’ve got coverage from QuakeCon, GamesCom, San Francisco, Atlantis. You name it, we got it…

Germany has become the center of the gaming world this week — as press and gamers alike flock to GamesCom in Cologne. Above is a picture of our booth — inspired by Brink’s Container City. Find more pictures at Kotaku, as well as this Splash Damage-endorsed Flickr page.

Press folks have been checking out WET at GamesCom, as well as in New York, San Francisco, and last week at QuakeCon. Read hands-on impressions at Kotaku, Team Xbox and Gamespot. Here’s a look at the Gamespot preview:

“Wet seems to be at its best during the combat sections, which are quick, stylish, and a whole lot of fun to play. The platforming sequences, by contrast, tend to slow the action down a great deal, and we’re hoping there’s more gun-firing and swordplay than ledge-leaping and chasm-jumping in the final version of the game.”

Elsewhere, Game Trailers has a new interview for WET with Pete taken last week at QuakeCon. Hit the jump below to catch it and the latest Fallout 3 news…

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