All Fallout fans in India rejoice. After Microsoft India washed it’s hands off the Xbox 360 version of the game and other major India distributors shying away from the PC and PS3 versions of the game, the future of the game indeed looked more bleak then a post-nuclear apocalyptic landscape. Thankfully, Steam has stepped right in to the save the day yet again!

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Yee-ouch, what a huge difference a single week can make, that too right just before a major game release like Fallout 3. It was an admirable attempt for Microsoft India to step-up to the plate and try to bring over the Xbox 360 version, so that everyone can hold hands together and play prosperously in our precious nuclear holocaust simulator. But now, not so much. Microsoft India has gone on record saying that due to some “cultural sensitivities” - Fallout 3 will simply not come to retailers (officially, that is).

This shocking news has certainly come in a strange light of instances where several big-name titles (Fallout 3 especially after the whole rating dilemma with Australia) have been getting the launch shaft due to similar reasons. One recent occurrence reported by EDGE was that Gears of War 2 was not to be made available in the countries of Japan (as well as Germany). Would India be denied of some much needed Locust-slaughtering after today’s fateful news with the PIP-Boy 3000? MS India’s Sanjoy John assures us that this is not the case at all, and that India can expect Gears 2 in time for release just like the rest of the world. With that said, at least some of us will be able to sleep easy tonight.

Xbox 360 owners rejoice! Microsoft India’s Product Manager Sanjoy John (GamerTag: MAGN0LIA) today confirmed on the official Xbox forums the dates of three of the most anticipated titles coming to the platform respectively.

Fable II: October 22nd 2008
Fallout 3: October 28th 2008
Gears of War 2 (Both Standard and Collectors Edition): November 7th 2008

Unfortunately, we still don’t have any clues as to when the PC and PS3 versions of Fallout 3 will arrive here (if at all), understandably because Microsoft India’s only concerned about their own console version and that seeing them bring the PS3 version would seem both awkward and hilarious (hilarious mostly for us). For now, it’s all up to local distributor e-Xpress Interactive.

Thanks to KeyFox KeyEffects Keyofx for the info. Who’s my bestest fwiend? Dat’s wight, you aaare.

[Image: Bernardo Bertolucci's The Dreamers]

Looks like somebody up there (or down here) finally decided to have some pity on Indian gamers without an Internet connection, a credit card, a Play-Asia account and oh, about 3 weeks of patience. Or in some cases, way longer. After having ignored the country for a long time, except for Lost Planet: Extreme Condition on the Xbox 360, Jap videogame giant Capcom have tied up with local distribution giant Milestone Interactive to bring all their upcoming and back catalog titles to the country.

While the distribution would initially stick to the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and the PSP platforms, Milestone says they would also be offering PC and PlayStation 2 titles somewhere down the line. The back catalog, which currently includes hot property such as Dead Rising, Lost Planet: Extreme Condition and Devil May Cry 4 will be available starting this week at stores all over the country, with newer games such as MotoGP ‘08, Street Fighter IV and Resident Evil 5 being available in accordance with the international street dates for these titles.

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Another year, another E3, and another Microsoft Press Conference come and gone. After starting off with a lot of chest thumping (what else is new?) about how the Xbox 360 is the be-all-and-end-all platform for the casual and the hardcore gamer alike and a whole bunch of stats about how Resident Evil 5, Fable 2 and Gears of War 2 will represent more than half a billion in sales for the platform , we finally got to see a hands-on of BethSoft’s eagerly anticipated post-apocalyptic RPG, Fallout 3.

After demoing the game, which involved half of a mock trailer for the game (the other half will hit Xbox LIVE Marketplace as part of the E3 2008: Bringing it Home downloads later), an Eyebot (singing patriotically, of course) roving the ravaged Washington DC landscape and some time spent with the PipBoy 3000 before kicking lots of ass with the VATS system, the sniper and laser rifles, regular and EMP grenades and turning an enemy chopper and its hapless cargo into superheated vapor with the Fatman, Todd professed his love for the Xbox LIVE Marketplace by announcing that players can extend their 100-hours+ gameplay time with a slew of DLC which will be available exclusively for the Xbox 360 and the Games for Windows platforms.

Oh, joy, now I can pay 150 MS Points on the Xbox 360 and $4.99 on the PC so I can get some sort of horse armor, or better yet, a scratch-guard for my PipBoy! Hit the jump to check out the E3 Microsoft Presser demo and the “Perfect Life” trailer.

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What’s with the recent entourage of game trailers these days? Here we are, already at the brink of having every major gaming website about to be ghastly hammered for the next few days because of You-Know-What 2008, but now it just seems companies are taunting us unfortunate no-showers with so called “new info”. Those trailers that recently popped up for Mirror’s Edge and Fallout 3? Pfft, pass. Then you got BioWare’s Dragon Age: Origins. Sure, it was great to see the first ever official footage to this highly anticipated whopper of medieval fantasia. No actual gameplay, but it’s all lovingly rendered in the new Eclipse engine. Again, it’s the first trailer ever. Slack can be cut. Then those cooky, crazy Canucks released yet another one. Dialogue is more or less the same from the first teaser; some of the actual in-game segments is new, but come on! At least put a god-damn dragon in there already! Cooky, crazy Canucks.

In other E3 related news, Dawn of War II is looking relatively scrumptious. Draco grudgingly agrees, but I bet he really wants to see more dragons.

Well, what more can we say? We’ve confirmed with local distributor e-Xpress Interactive a couple of days back that Soulcalibur IV will indeed not make it to Indian shores, thanks to the fact that it’s an Ubisoft game. Since Ubisoft doesn’t believe in offering any sort of sales concession when it comes to Indian markets, and e-Xpress, like anyone else, wouldn’t want non-existent profit margins, Indian gamers eager for Soulcalibur IV will now have to look at Play-Asia (as usual) for their imports.

Speaking to us about the situation, e-Xpress has clarified that rather than haggle with Ubi and import the games for “an obscenely high price”, they’ve elected to not import the game in all likelihood. But the real terrifying part of the conversation came when Fallout 3 came into the picture. In a press release issued last month, Ubisoft had claimed that it would be distributing Fallout 3 in some PAL territory countries in Europe including Germany, Switzerland and Austria. Which indirectly means that if India’s import were to happen via Ubi, there’s no chance of Fallout 3 ever being officially released for the consoles here.

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