My fallout 2 icon always ends up as http://tinypic.com/r/2ahcm6h/3 and i'm assuming it's normal, but who the hell is that guy?

one of the devs, I forget his name, I'm sure Ausir will be by to tell you. It's one if the fun easter eggs I believe.

Looks like Beadle!

That's Chris Taylor, one of the devs from Interplay

http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Chris_Taylor

Ah yes, i thought it might have been one of the devs.

Actually it's Tim Cain.
It's an easter egg - back when Fallout was originally released large icons were not really used, so you would not normally see it.
It would be funny in its time I guess (or whatever) but today, when large icons are most common, I find it just annoying - if you want you can find a replacement icon though.

(BTW if you go to the in-game credits and type "boom" you get to see his head exploding - a little way to get your revenge of the silly little icon )

Yep. http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Tim_Cain

Also (this is well known, but not to some), if you hold shift when you click the credits, you get a list of developer quotes (that might just roll you out of your chair :rofl:)

Hehe, yeah - that icon drives me mad. My Fallout collection, when the disc is in the drive, substitutes the Fallout 1 icon with a 3D icon of the standard atomic trefoil - however, Fallout 2 still uses Tim Cain's face.

Oh, how I wish that all Fallout 1/2 error messages when crashing to the desktop would have his face (perhaps along with a caption, "TELL ME ABOUT THIS PROBLEM!").