Last week Planet Elder Scrolls announced their October Hall of Fame Nominees. Here’s a list…

Morrowind mods

• Scourge of The Lich Father - Acts I & II by Dan T (shown above)
• Construction by jck8

Oblivion mods

• Verona House by Tom Dawson (dtom)
• nVidia Black Screen Fix by Quarn
• KF Chapel Shop by Floydian1 & Kalia

Congrats to all these modders for their great work!

Today we’ve got about 20-something new images up in our Fan Art section — including art inspired by WET. The one above comes from a nice chap named Joseph that emailed Bethblog. He’s got a couple more images, plus we shared some images spotted at DeviantArt that were forwarded to me by one of the guys at A2M.

Be sure to check out the rest here.

With last week’s Eurogamer Expo in the rearview mirror, new previews are emerging on several sites. Be sure to check out impressions at Brutal Gamer, PS3center.net, SavyGamer, Scrambled Pixel and Loot-Ninja. Sarcastic Gamer also previewed the game — here’s a snippet:

“Visually the game is stunning, with vibrant colour pouring out of every part of the environment. This is a testament to the world Splash Damage have envisioned, a floating city known as The Ark.”

More news from around the web after the break…

Congrats to Axis Animation, who created our Rogue Warrior trailer, and subsequently earned them a nomination at the Golden Roses Design Awards. Speaking of the game, we opened our discussion boards for the game this week.

New reviews for Fallout 3 Game of the Year Edition are up — head to Digital Chumps, PlayStation Illustrated and DPad Magazine. Meanwhile, you can read new DLC reviews at GameFocus, PSN At Home (Mothership Zeta, Point Lookout), and PS3center.net.

This week a new preview for RAGE is up and available to read at Play.tm. Here’s an excerpt:

“The plot is of course one area where id Software do perhaps lag slightly over competitors like BioShock and Half-Life, but this too is receiving a Twenty-First century make-over, the player set to uncover all kinds of unpalatable truths about the mysterious Authority which holds such sway over the game world. As you explore, you’ll uncover new snippets of back story, while you’ll also have the opportunity to collect blueprints, which can be used to build useful items. Indeed, you’ll find yourself progressing in a most role-playing like fashion, working towards the ownership of a buggy, and upgrades for it.”

This week Bioware’s Dragon Age: Origins hit shelves. The game is already a hit at our office (you’ll see that in “What we’re playing”), but I thought it was interesting to see this interview with Bioware’s Greg Zeschu where he discusses our games.

Wrapping things up, I found a couple lists worth checking out. Paste Magazine has ranked their top 20 games of the decade — including Oblivion (#19) and Fallout 3 (#3) in their list. Meanwhile, Digital Trends includes Fallout 3 in a list of games to play on 360, while GamerPops includes it as one of the top five games of this generation.

Now that DOOM Classic has been released on iTunes, John Carmack has written his development notes on the project which you can read here.

This week we took some questions for John from the id Software twitter feed, and you will find his answers after the jump.

Khct: What was the most fun and/or rewarding part of developing DOOM Classic?
Porting a game is a very different experience from developing a new game. With a port, after working for a while, there is a moment when BANG — the game is there. After that, it is mostly a matter of fixing problems, optimizing, and polishing the experience. This project was especially rewarding because I felt that I was being extremely productive on the days that I was working on it — I was probably the best person in the world to do that work at that time, and I was knocking out issues left and right.

Matthaigh: Did you encounter any problems when porting the code to iPhone/touch? Such as APIs you used?
It went very smoothly. The prBoom codebase that I based it on already compiled for OS X, so there wasn’t much grunt work, and I had all the device specific IO code that I developed for Wolfenstein Classic. Being able to take advantage of the GPL code that other people have maintained and improved over the years has been very satisfying for me. I always argued that we got worthwhile intangible benefits from my policy of releasing the source code to the older games, but with Wolfenstein Classic and DOOM Classic I can now point to significant amounts of labor that I was personally saved. In fact, the products probably never would have existed at all if my only option was to work from the original “dusty deck” source code for the games. If we were even able to find the original code at all. Hooray for open source!

Seventhcycle: What sort of synth did you use for DOOM Classic’s music? It sounds like AWE32 or AWE64. Why not use something like a SDD4?

The following answer is from Christian Antkow, Aural Assault Technician, id Software

Where possible, I pulled Redbook Audio off Bobby Prince’s archival CD’s and I can only assume it was created with a Creative AWE32 or some other comparable relic back in the day. Where I did not have original Redbook audio to work with, I went back to the original MIDI’s and ran them through a modern Creative X-Fi General MIDI module in an attempt to match the original Redbook audio as closely as possible. My original intent was to use the East/West Colossus Virtual Instrument in my DAW, and run all the MIDI through their GM instruments to generate completely new high quality renderings. When I did so with the first couple tracks, it just sounded way too “real” and all sense of nostalgia was lost.

So, that’s really the main reason I didn’t redo everything in a modern instrument. All sense of nostalgia would be lost and I felt that needed to be retained.

Kevinquilen: After all these years, how do you feel that people are still interested in DOOM and Wolf 3-D up against newer games?
Nostalgia undoubtedly plays a part, but I do think that the games hold there own and then some for playability. The iPhone market is full of titles that are heavy on aesthetics and light on quality gameplay. There is a LOT of gameplay in the old titles, and I spent a significant amount of effort to make sure that they play well on the new platform.

Thanks to all of the Twitter followers who submitted their questions, and of course John and Christian for answering them!

With last week’s release of DOOM Classic, there’s plenty of new coverage on the game — including interviews and reviews.

iPhone users should check reviews at SlideToPlay, 148APP, TouchGen, and IGN.

In addition to review, John Carmack has done several interviews this week discussing the game, future projects, and the iPhone as a platform. Read on at About.com, MTV Multiplayer, TouchGen, TouchArcade, VentureBeat, Slide to Play, and Kotaku.

As we have more on DOOM Classic and id Software’s iPhone projects, we’ll keep you updated.

I’m working on getting more Inside the Vaults. They’re a-coming! I promise! To get things rolling again, I thought I would go ahead and do one. So, this is me.

What’s your job at Bethesda?
I’m the Production Director (fancy name for producer) for Bethesda Game Studios. I’m responsible for the day to day of the development team, scheduling and budgets, QA and testing, localization, running team meetings when Todd Howard is traveling, game library procurement, weekend and evening catering, commissioner of our Madden online franchise league, purchaser of buckets to collect rain water leaking from our ceiling. I’m the last one who touches our games before they go out into the world to be replicated, boxed and shipped out to stores and/or downloaded via Steam/Xbox LIVE/PlayStation Network, etc… My office is full of gold masters of every version of every game we’ve shipped since 2001. I have one of the best jobs anybody could ever wish for.

What games have you worked on?
I’ve worked on Morrowind, Oblivion and Fallout 3 and all their expansions, downloadable content, add-on disks and Game of the Year editions. Unlike our leads who tend to focus on one project, I work on all our projects at the same time, focusing my time primarily on the one closest to shipping.

What is the best part about being a producer? The worst part?
For me, the best part of my job is the team I work with. I’ve been here for over eight years now and the team we have here is pretty awesome, and the games we make — also pretty awesome. Some of my best friends are people I work with. One of the highlights of my day is pulling down the latest build and seeing what new things are in the game. I love seeing our games evolve with every milestone.

I don’t have many complaints. Seriously, I get paid to make games. What is there to complain about? Well, if I had to pick something, I’d say my office gets as cold as a meat locker for some reason. I have a coat rack full of cardigans to keep me warm.

I could complain about the long hours, but I don’t mind putting in the extra time because I love what I do and I want our games to be among the best. It helps that I really believe in the projects we are working on, and that we’re in a unique position in the industry in that our projects are truly our own — we don’t do work for hire, we don’t rely on any external approvals, and we self fund and self publish our games. While it is nice to have the freedom, the pressure is also equally high to maintain the quality and success bar we’ve set with Oblivion and Fallout 3. Imagine having to follow up those two titles. Talk about pressure!

How did you get into the industry? Do you have any tips for breaking in?
As with any job, always do your best work and be in the right place at the right time. Even when you aren’t sure where you are headed, it always pays to have a strong work ethic so that when the stars align, you are in the best position to go where you want to be.

My first job out of college was working for a consumer advocate. It was a small office, only five employees, and we worked out of this old office building that was three blocks away from the White House. It was an amazing hands-on, trial-by-fire job and I learned a lot. I worked on book projects and public relations for non-profit consumer advocacy groups in DC. But it wasn’t where I truly wanted to be.

I’m a huge gamer and techie and really wanted to get into the games industry. I called and emailed the few developers in the DC area until one of them — Bethesda Softworks — had an entry level opening in marketing and public relations, and I was lucky enough to get the job. Flash forward years later, I’ve left Bethesda — I’m working on web interfaces and software development at a dot com (we’re all going to be rich, of course). The Internet bubble bursts and I’m out of a job. Luckily, when I called, Bethesda was happy to have me back. One day, Todd Howard walks by my cube and says, “Could you help me? I could use you on my project.” That project was Morrowind. Once I joined the internal development group (we were only 40 developers then), I never looked back.

In short, (here’s the advice section) work harder than everybody else. If you see something that needs doing, don’t wait for somebody else to do it, you do it. Always follow through. Never pass the buck. Assume you know nothing and always be learning from everybody. Go out of your way to make life easier for everybody else. Never ask anybody to do something you wouldn’t do yourself. This how you stand apart — people will remember you for it.

What would you say is your personal favorite game of all time?
Hard to limit to one. I have lots. Civilization. (Civ on iPhone is a must buy for any Civ fan). Utopia on Intellivision. Alice in Wonderland on C64. Karateka. Karate Champ. Ancient Art of War.  Super Mario Bros. 2. Prince of Persia: Sands of Time. Full Throttle, Monkey Island 1, Curse of Monkey Island and Day of the Tentacle. Knights of the Old Republic, Planescape Torment, Fallout 1, the Wizardry series, Jade Empire, and World of Warcraft (though I refuse to play it anymore b/c it sucks my life away) are my favorite RPGs. Redguard, which is one of Todd Howard’s early titles. More recently, I’m a big NCAA Football fan, and really impressed with the new Madden this year. I’m addicted to Carcasonne on Xbox LIVE. Rock Band, Mass Effect, Call of Duty 4 and GTA4 were high points for me in last couple of years, too. I’ll play anything by the guys at Bioware who made KOTOR/Mass Effect/Jade Empire.

What games are you looking forward to?
The Beatles: Rock Band. Dragon Age. Modern Warfare 2. Alpha Protocol. Uncharted 2. Mass Effect 2. Next year’s NCAA which will hopefully be updated with the improvements to this year’s Madden. Blizzard’s next MMO (World of Starcraft, pls). New Super Mario Wii looks awesome. Ken Levine’s next game. Sid Meier’s next game. GTA: Chinatown Wars for iPhone.

What makes you get out of bed in the morning?
Blondie, our German Shepherd mix rescue.

Worst job you’ve ever had?
Fast food. I worked at Roy Rogers in high school. Working food service — no thanks.

Any other hobbies and interests? What do you enjoy doing in your spare time?
I enjoy checking out what’s on the TIVO, movies, books, writing, music and podcasts. I love traveling and trying new restaurants. Having lived in DC most of my life, thanks to the Smithsonian Institution, I am now morally offended when I’m asked to pay to go into any museum. I like watching college basketball and pro football. We’re taking a big trip to Taiwan to visit family later this year. I’m working on my Masters degree part time — I hope to be done before our next game comes out. I’m planning on taking up golfing next year.

Happy Halloween everyone! Celebrate the horror genre by downloading DOOM Classic on your iPhone.

DOOM Classic includes the original three episodes as well as Episode Four, Thy Flesh Consumed, spread across 36 levels of non-stop carnage and action. The game also has three customizable control schemes designed by John Carmack.

DOOM Classic also supports up to four players via wireless internet — whether you choose to play Deathmatch or Co-Op.

Like DOOM Resurrection, DOOM Classic is available for $6.99 on the iTunes App Store.

If you look at this week’s “what we’re playing” — there’s games you’d expect to see (like Uncharted 2, Borderlands, Forza 3, and Brütal Legend), but the game that’s taken the office by storm this week is Runic Games’ Torchlight. For more details on the game, visit Runic Games’ website.

Below is the rest of the games we’re playing. Feel free to share the games you’re playing. Have a great weekend!

John Pisano: Torchlight, Borderlands, Brütal Legend, and Tropico III.

Nate “Red Spy” Purkeypile: Uncharted 2, Brütal Legend, Torchlight, L4D2 demo and most importantly, the TF2 Halloween Weekend Special.

Jay Woodward: Red Faction: Guerrilla, Brütal Legend, and Race for the Galaxy.

Daryl Brigner: Borderlands and Torchlight.

Orin Tresnjak: Forza 3, Borderlands, and Demon’s Souls. Maybe trying out Torchlight.

Jon DeVriendt: Torchlight, Forza 3, League of Legends, and The Witcher.

Pete Hines: Madden NFL 10 and Uncharted 2.

Ryan Salvatore: Team Fortress 2, Champions Online, and Half Life 2.

Gary Noonan: Magna Carta 2.

Matt Ponton: Rock Band 2.

Brett Douville: Brütal Legend, Brütal Legend, Brütal Legend, and baseball playoffs (for 11-year-olds).

Andrew Scharf: Borderlands, and trying to beat Sam’s high score on Paper Toss he so graciously set on my iPhone.

Jon Paul Duvall: Borderlands.

Michael Lattanzia, QA: Borderlands (PC), Champions Online (Bloodmoon event stuff!), Monster Hunter Freedom Unite, Brutal Legend, and Team Fortress 2 (suddenly picked this up again).

Brent Krische: Playing with my new iPod Touch, trying (and failing) to destroy that stupid train in Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story, and checking out the new Tales of Monkey Island episode.

Gary Powell, QA Tester: Borderlands, Demon’s Souls, and MGS4/ Metal Gear Online.

Jangjoon Cha: Forza 3! Without a wheel controller unfortunately.

Ashley Cheng: Brütal Legend, Madden 10, and waiting for DRAGON AGE.

Aaron Mitschelen, QA: Borderlands and LotRO.

Ricardo GonzalBOO!: Batman: Arkham Asylum, Scribblenauts, and more WoW than you can shake a reasonably-sized stick at.

Matt Weil: Borderlands.

Mark Lampert: Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising and Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City

Tim “Visor” Lamb: BORDERLANDS!!!

Matt Grandstaff: Madden NFL 10, Brütal Legend, Forza 3, and Borderlands.

At Random House’s website, you can read an excerpt from Chapter 1 of The Infernal City: An Elder Scrolls Novel. Head here to read a few pages worth.

Written by New York Times bestselling author Greg Keyes, The Infernal City will be available on November 24th.

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.