One of the bigger titles to hit gamers next year definitely has to be Bethesda Softworks' Fallout 3 (PC, Xbox 360, PS3). This is why people love squeezing as much information about the game as they can from Pete Hines, Bethesda's Vice President of Public Relations.

Read more what Hines had to say in the full article!

Remember our report on the rumored The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion expansion called Shivering Isles? Just to give you a bit of a refresher on this topic, a Finnish gaming magazine called Pelit mentioned a few weeks back that the Bethesda people are already planning and thus have already confirmed Shivering Isles.

ZeniMax Media, the owners of Bethesda, was also able to secure a trademark for the phrase Shivering Isles with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office as early as August last year.

In fact, after Pelit, European magazines like PC Zone and PC Gamer recently ran features about it. When contacted by 1up for their official comment on the matter, they said that they wouldn't comment on it or confirm anything.

Hmmm, maybe it's just me but that particular answer reminds me of the time when they denied the PS3 and PSP version of the game, months ago. Oh well, Bethesda better say something concrete about this so as to stop the confusion of fans and players.

Straight from the Finnish, through Destructoid, and into our cold, lifeless hearts, this little rumor may have very welled breathed new life into us, those who have spent almost 300 hours killing things in Bethesda's Elder Scrolls IV game.

According to "Pelit," a Finnish gaming magazine, there may very well be an expansion for Oblivion already in the works, currently known as "Shivering Isles." They say that Bethesda's already confirmed the expansion, but hasn't given a release date for it. On the other hand, Destructoid does a little more fact-checking. Apparently, ZeniMax Media, Bethesda's owners, secured a trademark for the "Shivering Isles" phrase with the U.S. Patent and Trademark office in August:

Word Mark SHIVERING ISLES Goods and Services IC 009. US 021 023 026 036 038. G & S: Computer game programs; providing downloadable computer game programs offered via handheld computers, wireless telephones and mobile and wireless devices

IC 041. US 100 101 107. G & S: Providing online computer games; providing online computer game programs offered via handheld computers, wireless telephones and mobile and wireless devices

Filing Date August 17, 2006

Owner (APPLICANT) ZeniMax Media Inc. CORPORATION DELAWARE 1370 Piccard Drive Rockville MARYLAND 20850

While it was certain that there would have eventually been a full expansion for the game, this was somewhat unexpected. It also kinda sucks that pirate-themed games won't be able to use that name anymore, but that can't be helped. Hopefully, Bethesda will give news outlets a little bit more to think about in the next week, as we'd surely like to know more. In the meantime, we better wait for the company to get the PS3 version of the original game out first. Oh, and we better finish the main campaign too. All that killing just makes us keep going, you know.