The first downloadable content will now be Broken Steel, not the promised Operation: Anchorage, in September. Worse news, Bethesda says they're "hoping" that it will be by "the end of September." That's a lot of qualifiers.

When it hits, the Broken Steel expansion will raise the game's level cap to 30 and extend the adventure past the original storyline.

Next in the line-up will be Operation: Anchorage, initially set for a June release, followed by The Pitt shortly thereafter "probably at the same time." After that Bethesda will be releasing Point Lookout and Mothership Zeta

This further extended delay is a bitter pill to take for Playstation 3 owners, but at least now they have a date.

Fallout 3 Downloadable Content on PSN

The Broken Steel add-on first became available two days ago via Games for Windows Live, only to be taken down due to a DRM issue said to originate from Microsoft's Live service. Kotaku has now confirmed that the downloadable content has returned to the service, with our copy in the middle of downloading as we speak. Hopefully this version will fix the previous version's not being able to be played at all bug. Fingers crossed, everyone!

Thanks to Dylan for alerting us to the re-availability.

As we reported previously, PC users who downloaded the Broken Steel downloadable content via Games for Windows Live this morning were treated to a "cryptographic message is not formatted correctly" error. We contacted Bethesda's Pete Hines, who explained that the error is related to Games for Windows Live.

We're seeing the same error folks have reported, which is a Games for Windows Live DRM install error. Microsoft is working on fixing it, and we'll let everyone know once we've verified it.

Hopefully this won't take too long to fix. In the meantime, Xbox 360 users seem to be doing just fine, so the PC players who laughed at the Xbox 360 issues with the Pitt downloadable content are now getting a healthy dose of karmic retribution.

Update: Spoke too soon! Xbox 360 users are experiencing a nasty bug that keeps them from activating Project Purity. We're beginning to think that having the word "Broken" in the title was a bit of a bad call. Still, that issue isn't effecting everyone, so at least someone is playing it, right?

War seems to have changed quite a bit between Fallout 3's original ending and this new content. There're more giant robots, for instance. The orbital strike seems like a new thing as well, considering that my personal Fallout 3 character was so hideously evil that had orbital strike technology been available they definitely would have used it on me.

Perhaps Ron Pearlman is just talking about the word "war", which definitely hasn't changed in awhile. In that case, I say we all start spelling it "whar" just to take him down a notch. He's been getting all uppity ever since they gave him a giant stone arm.

Broken Steel will be available tomorrow on Games for Windows and Xbox Live for 800 Microsoft points.

Between this latest set and the batch released following the event in England, one thing becomes abundantly clear: someone at Bethesda is really good at taking screenshots. Seriously, these are some sure-to-be iconic images from the Broken Steel DLC. I like the way they're playing up the rusty Iron Giant up there. You can almost hear Vin Diesel croaking "Suuu-paahh-maaan".

And yes, post-apocalicious is a word. I just made it.

There's developer interview chit-chat you have to get through to see it all, but it's with Bethesda boss Todd Howard, so that's OK.

Broken Steel will sell for 800 points and will include an entire new area outside of Fallout 3's wasteland based on Andrews Air Force Base. The new DLC will also include more weapons, enemies and perks, including one that can bring back your dog when he's killed.

Broken Steel is the third of the three downloadable episodes Bethesda has been talking about for Fallout 3. The new content kicks off at the end of the game, changing away the original title ends and extending it perpetually. Once Broken Steel is downloaded Fallout 3 has no ending, Hines said.

"Broken steel doesn't have an ending," he said. "There are no more endings, we got the message."

The game also slightly tweaks the moments leading up to the ending, adding the ability to send one of several of your companions to complete the final task of the game, instead of doing it yourself.

The new content starts about two weeks after the events of Fallout 3's main quest, opening up in the Capital Wasteland by Project Purity, which is now up and running.

"Broken Steel takes into account what you did in Fallout 3 and what the world is like now," Hines said.

In Broken Steel the battle between the Brotherhood of Steel and the Enclave still rages and you are tasked with discovering and helping to build a Tesla Canon, a new, more powerful weapon for the Brotherhood.

As with the original Fallout 3 storyline, there are also a number of side quests in Broken Steel, most of which have to do with escorting freshly processed clean water across the wasteland and protecting it from raiders.

"You can get a number of different quests from a scribe, which has nothing to do with the main story," Hines said. "It adds some free-form miscellaneous quests you can do in the game."

The main quest sends you to an old power plat to find the parts for the Tesla Canon.

The new area is packed with new enemies, including a super mutant overlord, a feral ghoul reaver and an Enclave hellfire trooper; new weapons, like the Tesla Canon and a projectile flame thrower; new achievements and even new perks. Hines only detailed one of the perks though, called Puppies! If you pick the Puppies! Perk when Dogmeat dies he gets reincarnated automatically as a puppy, which you can go to certain areas to add back to your group.

The new pack also raises the level cap from 20 to 30 and greatly increases the enemy difficulty level.

"Enemies are a lot tougher," Hines said. "You start seeing new enemies at level 18.

"Advancement from 20 to 30 takes a ton of experience points."

Completing the main quest in Broken Steel will also require a bit of puzzle solving, Hines said. After you've get all of the parts for the new weapon, you take it trough the Presidential Metro Line to pull off an attack on the Enclave base.

One you cear out the Presidential Metro Line you get to make your way to Adams Airforce Base where you will be given new orders, Hines said.

"Adams Air Force Base is a new world space," he said. "You sort of leave the Wastelands and go to Adams Air Force Base, it's a pretty big space."

Hines says that the main quest for Broken Steel is a bit longer than The Pitt downloadable content, coming in at about four to five hours of gameplay, and that it also adds a bunch of sidequests which each take 30 minutes to an hour to complete.

The side quests, he said, have you going all over the world and give you a chance to see how it's changed since the end of the original Fallout 3.

The one thing that Broken Steel won't beef up are the collectibles, Hines said.

Along with the promised raise in the level cap to 30, Broken Steel also removes the ending for the game, allowing players to continue on in their adventure rather than having to deal with those pesky ending credits.

"Along with removing the game's 'ending' with Broken Steel, we figure raising the level cap would allow them to [enjoy the game for longer]. We plan on raising it to level 30 - but it will be a long, hard climb to get there!"

Yes, yes, we've heard the long, hard climb statement before. Bet you $10 some European WoW guild hits 30 after the DLC is released.

Bethesda to raise Fallout level cap to 30 [Eurogamer]