In honor of Fallout's tenth birthday, Bethesda has announced a contest that any fan should love. You design a perk—one of those quirky character advantages in the series—and you can win your Perk in the game, your name in the credits and either a PC or Xbox 360 prize pack that's fairly sizable.

As far as gaming contests go, this is a really classy way for Bethesda to reach out to series die hards with their newly acquired IP. And I can't think of a better reward than to be part of a game I love without doing any of the hard manual labor that's affiliated with design. But don't you dare steal my Crappy X-Ray Vision Perk, in which players can only see through the clothes of obese male NPCs. Because that's a keeper. Hit the jump for the full scoop.

Celebrating 10 Years of Fallout!

10 years ago the original Fallout was released and forever changed role-playing games. Now is your chance to be a part of Fallout history. We're giving you, the fans, a chance to design one of the perks for Fallout 3!

No, we aren't going to tell you about any of the perks that are already in Fallout 3. First, that would spoil it, and second, we don't want to color your ideas with anything we are, or aren't doing. It's a clean slate for you. Be creative.

Think of something in the spirit of Fallout. What would you really want your character to be able to do in the game? Don't worry about any stat requirements or the level you would get it at. Just design a cool perk and we'll fit it in where it could go.

Part of what make Perks great are the Vault Boy images that goes with them. You can choose to use one of the generic icons we've provided to go along with your Perk if you're not artistically inclined (that won't hurt your chances of winning, in case you're wondering) or you can choose to upload a drawing, sketch, photo, or creation of your own design. Send in a photo of yourself in the appropriate pose, sketch it on a napkin and scan it in...whatever you want.

If you win, you'll get your Perk in the game, your name in the game's credits, AND your choice of the grand prize from the Prize Vault: either the PC or the Console flavor.

All entries must be in by 11:59 pm (Eastern time) on October 31, 2007. We'll announce the winner of the contest, and all the other awardees, in November.

PC Grand Prize:
Your choice of an ATI or NVIDIA video card
Logitech G15 keyboard
Logitech G9 mouse
Logitech G51 Gaming Speakers
Vault Boy bobblehead
Vault Tec lunchbox
Fallout 3 t-shirt
Vault Boy decal

OR

Console Grand Prize:
Xbox 360 Pro
Logitech G51 Gaming Speakers
Vault Boy bobblehead
Vault Tec lunchbox
Fallout 3 t-shirt
Vault Boy decal

We'll have plenty of prizes for runners-up and honorable mentions, and we'll also pick from all the entries at random to give away some additional prizes just so everyone has a chance to win something. Prizes will include great stuff from our friends at NVIDIA, ATI, Logitech, and Microsoft, as well as Fallout schwag.

You can enter as often as you like, but you can only enter the same perk once, and you can only win once. All entries subject to the terms and conditions of the contest. Make sure you read them before you enter.

Good luck to everyone. We look forward to seeing your ideas.

Happy 10th Birthday to Fallout.

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