The Fallout 3 countdown begins. Bethesda finally released the first trailer for its next major project after the mighty Oblivion this week. You can feast your eyes on it below. The game is described as a ‘post-apocalyptic open-ended RPG’.

Speaking to SPOnG yesterday, Pete Hines, VP over at Bethesda told us, ”We know it's been a long wait, but we hope folks enjoy the teaser trailer and the brief glimpse at what it is we're doing with Fallout 3. We'll have a lot of info coming out about the game in the next month or so.”

Pete informed us that Fallout 3 is set to release in the autumn (or ‘fall’ if you are American) next year with versions in development for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC.

Bear in mind when you are watching the trailer below that it is all in-engine which means, according to Pete, that “it's done with game assets in our rendering engine, but it isn't done real-time.”

You will also notice that the trailer features The Ink Spots singing "I Don't Want to Set the World On Fire" and the voice of Ron Perlman of Fallout 1 and 2 fame.

SPOnG expects to bring you plenty more Fallout 3 info, art and screens right into your eyes in the coming weeks. For now, just watch this and gape.