As reported last week, the legal battle between Bethesda and Interplay over the final fate of a massively multiplayer online Fallout game has ended in a settlement, one that leaves full control of Fallout intellectual properties in the hands of Bethesda.

For those of you just joining the ongoing legal battle, when The Elder Scrolls developers Bethesda Softworks originally acquired the license to the post-apocalyptic Fallout series in 2007, original owner Interplay was granted the rights to create a massively multiplayer online game based on the property with a pair of conditions: Interplay had to secure $30 million in financing for the project, and development had to be in full swing by April of 2009.

Interplay met neither goal, so Bethesda parent company Zenimax took steps to take the permission back, and now they finally have it.

Under the terms of the settlement, Interplay no longer has a license to develop the Fallout MMO. They are still able to sell copies of Fallout Tactics, Fallout and Fallout 2, but its permission to do so ends on December 31, 2013. Bethesda parent ZeniMax agreed to pay Interplay $2 million in consideration as part of the settlement, while both sides are responsible for paying their own legal fees.

A separate but related lawsuit between Bethesda and developer Masthead Studios was settled in late December. Masthead has been tapped by Interplay to develop portions of the Fallout MMO, despite that the original Bethesda agreement forbade the company to subcontract. Masthead agreed that it had no rights to develop games using the Fallout license.

In an official statement issued today, ZeniMax CEO and chairman Robert Altman expressed satisfaction with the settlements. "While we strongly believe in the merits of our suits, we are pleased to avoid the distraction and expense of litigation while completely resolving all claims to the Fallout IP. Fallout is an important property of ZeniMax and we are now able to develop future Fallout titles for our fans without third party involvement or the overhang of others' legal claims."

I guess this leaves it up to Bethesda to make their own Fallout MMO. Good thing they've got a studio established for such things.

The legal stoush between Bethesda and Interplay over the rights to certain aspects of the Fallout universe, which has been dragging on for years, has finally been settled, according to a report on Fallout fansite Duck & Cover.

While the actual details of the settlement are yet to be released - they're expected to be made public sometime later this month - it's still good news for fans of the franchise, as it can hopefully put a distracting and messy peripheral issue to bed.

The battle centred around the rights to a Fallout MMO, which series creators Interplay claim they held. Current Fallout publishers Bethesda, citing a number of failed milestones as part of the deal, disagreed.

Confirmed: Bethesda v. Interplay Settlement Has Occurred [DAC]

Sometimes games aren't to your exact liking. If you have computer skills, maybe you can create a mod. If you have computer skills and developed the game, well, you can do that, too.

J.E. Sawyer, who worked as project director on Fallout: New Vegas and the game's DLC, created a mod for his own playthroughs. As Shacknews (via website No Mutants Allowed) pointed out, the mod increases the number of weapons and armor and cuts the level cap, XP gain, health, and healing.

The mod is available via Sawyer. You will need all Fallout: New Vegas DLC installed as well as the pre-order bonus packs and Fallout Mod Manager.

So why did Sawyer release a mod instead of a patch? "The game's over," he wrote. "The ship has sailed. No one is working on it anymore. No testers, nothing. This mod is just me working in my free time. If I horribly botch something, you can just un-check the mod and go on your way." Sounds good to me.

Fallout: New Vegas was originally released in Oct. 2010.

J.E. Sawyer releases his own Fallout: New Vegas mod [No Mutants Allowed via Shacknews]

James Chadderton's take on Manchester in ruins hints at the apocalypse without bothering to identify its nature.

His artwork, amalgams of computer graphics, painting and photo, show the effect, but not the cause. It's a deliberate ploy to pull viewers into the scenes of devastation and then allow their imaginations to fill in the back-story.

You can check out Chaderton's work over on his Facebook artist page, or if you live in Manchester, at Incognito Gallery in the city's Northern Quarter. Incognito Gallery is at 5 Stevenson Square, Northern Quarter, City. M1 1DN. 0161 228 7999. The gallery has prints of the art ranging from £350 frames works all the way down to £2 postcards. The gallery is open Monday-Saturday 10am-5.30pm, Sunday noon-4pm.

If you go tell em Kotaku sent you, just to confuse everyone.

Special thanks to intern Chris for hunting down all of these before shots. And to the following photographers for their pictures: Exchange Center Ferris Wheel, Manchester Town Hall, Urbis, Palace Theatre, and The Print Works.

Manchester Apocalypse: Death Of Our City [Manchester Confidential]

A cottonopolis post-apocalypse: Artist displays images of Manchester skyline in a nightmarish future [The Manchester Evening News]

In pictures: Manchester after an apocalypse [BBC]

Music: Apocalyptic Zombie Credits by Cameron Mizell

Microsoft's Xbox Live Arcade is having its own Black Friday sale, with Fallout 3 25% off and Marvel vs Capcom 2 a handy 73% off. More details here.

Originally, the graphic novel tied into Fallout: New Vegas was only available by buying the collector's edition of last year's post-nuke RPG. But Bethesda's announced that you can now download All Roads to iDevices. Written by Chris Avellone—creative director for New Vegas—with interior art by Jean Diaz (Boom's Incorruptible) and Wellinton Alves (Marvel's Shadowland: Blood on the Streets), All Roads served as a prequel to the events of FNV. So, if you loved the stories of the radioactive badlands you found in the game, all you FNV completists should probably get to downloading.

Fallout: New Vegas Graphic Novel Now Available For Download [BethBlog]

Those of you who held off on getting the post-nuclear adventure set in the Fallout universe's version of Sin City with the hopes of getting a beefed-up edition have just hit the jackpot. Fallout: New Vegas Ultimate Edition ties together all of the add-ons—Dead Money, Honest Hearts, Old World Blues, Lonesome Road, Courier's Stash and Gun Runners' Arsenal—so that you can hit the increased level cap of 50 with no waiting. Europe gets FNV Ultimate on February 10th of 2012 and North America can open it up three days earlier on February 7th.

Inspired by last year's Fallout: New Vegas, Nanahra has made himself a replica New California Republic Ranger's outfit that, at a glance, looks as good as the real thing.

Not that the real thing's actually real. But if it was, it'd probably look like this. Only slightly more radioactive.

What's great about it is the level of detail on show; there's layers atop layers in the costume, while the helmet and gun look perfect.

Cosplay Outfits [Nanahra, via Bethesda]

Overhaul games lives up to its name next week when the HD version of classic PC platform shooter MDK2 is released on Beamdog.com. Check out how far Kurt Hectic and friends have come over the past decade in these exclusive before-and-after screens.

The MDK series (created by Shiny Entertainment) provided countless hours of silly shooting and gliding entertainment for me back in the late 90s and early oughts. With his amazing coil suit, complete with head-mounted sniper rifle, Kurt Hectic made an excellent reluctant hero. The floating and shooting action was unique for its day; hell, it's still pretty unique.

The BioWare-developed sequel mixed things up further with shooting-heavy sequences featuring Max, a robotic six-legged dog, and truly bizarre portions featuring the mad scientist Dr. Fluke Hawkins, armed with his object-finding skills, an atomic toaster, and the ability to transform into a monstrous version of himself.

Overhaul has done a great job of polishing up the old assets. I've played a bit of the HD version already, and it's rather faithful to the original; just prettier.

If only there were a bunch of screenshots around here somewhere to demonstrate that.

Here's the brand-new trailer for Lonesome Road the next big expansion to the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC epic Fallout: New Vegas.

In this one, publisher Bethesda summarizes: " You are contacted by the original Courier Six, a man by the name of Ulysses who refused to deliver the Platinum Chip at the start of Fallout: New Vegas. Ulysses promises the answer as to why he didn't take the job, but only if you make one last journey into the hurricane-swept canyons of the Divide, a landscape torn apart by earthquakes and violent storms."

You'll have to part with $10 to play this. Starting September 20 on Xbox 360, later on the other two platforms.