From the pro-augmentation site for Sarif Industries to the rallying cry again augmentations, so far the game seems to capture the scope and excitement that made the first version so good at the time.

More videos are available at DeusEx.com .

Everything looks so incredibly detailed and designed, from the clothing to the clutter and the soundtrack. Major Motoko Kusanagi would be proud.

The immersive interface is intriguing, except maybe the inventory. It is going to be tedious to go through hundred of items in a console scrolling mode.

I can’t wait to see what modders are going to come up with for this one.

And another one from G4 interview and demo with Todd Howard

Spectacular is an understatement. It looks like a more polished version of Oblivion, with better atmospheric effects, better lighting, huge creatures and vast landscapes.

And the soundtrack ! Listening to the Morrowind theme with a Nordic choir was enough to send chills down my spine.

I hope this video stays on for a while. Why is it that videos of games have to be buried under layers of useless birthdate forms or other login screens to protect children when the same children can be exposed to the gore and violence of movies trailers ? not to mention they can easily get around birthdate restrictions.

On the menu this time : vast and frozen landscapes, a dual hands combat system, a streamlined interface, a redesigned game engine, new AI behaviors and atmospheric lighting. Even the game editor and mods are coming back.

The coverage so far reminds me a lot of the anticipation around Oblivion. Looking at what we ended up with, there is a lot of room for caution around this game.

The release date of 11/11/11 seems very aggressive for such an ambitious program. It looks more like a marketing target than anything else. For all their creativity and ambition, Bethesda does not have a stellar record in releasing bug free, solid games. I would rather see not have to feel like a beta tester just so marketers can hit a fancy release date.

The news is still very exciting though. If previous Bethesda open games are any indication, this means that roughly a year after the game is released, we will have a healthy ecosystem of mods, bug fixes, interface and gameplay improvements.

It is going to be an exercise of patience but definitely worth the wait (unless the mods system is still as prone to slow down and crashes as it has been so far).

Playing modded Fallout 3 (or Oblivion, or Morrowind) can be an exercise in frustration.

On the one hand, you have the tantalizing promise of fantastic gameplay. With the right mix of mods, these games provide hours of exploration, dynamic encounters, thousands of quests and a level of replay value simply unmatched.

On the other hand, the game engine (Gamebryo), promises instability, glitches and crashes once you start dealing with too many mods. Even with careful tracking of mods dependancies, and their infamous load order, you can never tell when the game will crumble under its own weight, or when an obscure issue will corrupt your game beyond repair.

In the latest instance of random issues, I started experiencing crashes when going from level 16 to 17 in my current Fallout 3 game. Some research pointed to a known issue with Martigen’s Mutant Mod. Uprading to the latest version of this mod fixed the problem…. except it also triggered an upgrade of Fallout Wanders Edition (FWE), Energy Visual Enhanced and a removal of the huge FOOK2 mod because of incompatibilities with the latest version of FWE. The result is a dangerously unstable game, with frequent crashes in some areas. I may have to start again from scratch if I cannot find a solution to clean this current game.

And this is on top of gameplay issues (dialogues, combat system, inventory or interface) proper to each game.

Yet, even with these endless stream of issues, Bethesda managed to create virtual worlds that keep begging to be visited. They feel like your own personal MMO… except without other players.

I invested hours visiting the ash covered hills of Morrowind, the lush valleys of Oblivion or the irradiated roads of Fallout, and yet, I know I will go back and explore them some more.. even if it means starting a brand new game to smooth out issues with bloated saved game or too many changes in my list of mods.