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

Where does a sprawling game that's already sprawled across three downloadable expansions set partially in Alaska, Pittsburgh and an Air Force base go in a fourth? To the rocky beaches, creepy swamps and faded boardwalk of a new island called Point Lookout.

With so much content already released that makes the massive Bethesda game more massive, the offering of another $10 expansion is either a tough sell or a necessary fix for those who've been buying everything. Following the bombastic, level-cap-raising, end-revising Broken Steel, however, the next piece of content just can't seem like that big a deal. Good thing it's interesting.

Loved
Creepy Creeps:Point Lookout is no Resident Evil. It's not as scary as the first of those games. But it's got a double-barreled shotgun and plenty of shambling enemies to be shot with it. It's got a boarded up mansion, a propensity to exhaust its visitors' ammo supply, and some great psychological tricks similar to what Bethesda's designers dabbled with in one of the Vaults in the core game. It also has a bunch of new inbred enemies and a lot of people swinging axes in close quarters where your rifle is poor defense. If you like to panic while playing your games, this is the Fallout 3 DLC for you.

Beauty And The Beach:Games grounded on real world terrain such as Grand Theft Auto and Fallout benefit from art designers who draw from interesting elements of real geography. Forget lava bridges and rainbow roads. There's beauty in bringing a strong art style and the player witnessing it to craggy cliffs that overlooking a shipwreck and the shoals of sand exposed by low tide. A smoky sky, a looming Ferris wheel, a lone lighthouse in the distance, a cave littered with coffins… this is the scenery to make you feel uneasy.

Hated
Strange Pace: It starts hard. It ends easy. There are lots of optional side mission, at least one that was surprisingly simple for a Level 26 hero. An expansion's degree of challenge certainly doesn't need to be set to a steady incline, but when you feel like it's getting good is when it's ending.

This one's the haunted side-trip of the Fallout 3 downloadable expansions. It offers players a more significant change of scenery than any of the DLCs since Operation Anchorage. It breaks no new ground for gameplay, but advances Fallout 3's aesthetics.

Recommended for those seeking uneasy and weird. And, hey, if you play Fallout 3 and already have your hero eating the flesh of the ghouls he kills, then uneasy and weird is just right.

Oh, and it features Mother Brain. See? Weird.

Fallout 3: Point Lookout was developed by Bethesda Softworks and distributed to the Xbox 360 and Windows for download on June 23. It's also announced as coming to the PS3 later. Retails for 800 Microsoft Points ($10 USD). Played the five core quests, one extra, sampled the new weapons, raised my hero from Level 24 to Level 26 over the course of about five hours.

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The dairy details how the team set about taking a bunch of phrases scribbled on a napkin, (Swamp, Boardwalk. Mansion Siege. Organ Thieves. Steamboat. Cultists") and turning it into the next adventures in the game.

It's an interesting glimpse into the process of expanding an already popular and detailed world. Also, there are these neat new screenshots:

Deus Ex Mundus, Diabolus Ex Labori [Beth Blog]

Three separate online retailers are now listing a Fallout 3 Expansion Pack - Broken Steel and Point Look product for the Xbox 360, including eStarland, MSN Shopping, and Bountii. The latter of actually lists the product as Point Lookout, which is a state park in developer Bethesda's home state of Maryland. The listings have led to speculation that this is a new, unannounced Expansion for Fallout 3.

We contacted Bethesda's Pete Hines for comment.

We have said there will be three DLCs for Fallout 3, for PC and 360. We've released two, and the third, Broken Steel, is scheduled for release Tuesday, May 5th. Beyond that we have no announced plans for additional DLC.

No announced plans for downloadable content, but that certainly doesn't rule out unannounced plans. Earlier this week our Australian brothers reported on the Australian Atari release schedule, which lists something called the Fallout 3: Quest Pack 1 for release in June. When they contacted Atari for comment, they were told they'd have to await an official press release, which would lead us to believe an official press release is coming.

Until we get the official word, we add rumor tag to the top and bide our time.

Fallout 3 - Point Look: A new expansion? [GameFocus via Xbox350Achievements - Thanks sanctusmortis!]