Developer/publisher Bethesda Softworks has had a lot of success with the three previous Elder Scrolls games and the third game in the series, Morrowind, really is one of earliest examples of a true open world style game. Beth Soft has learned from making the first three games for Oblivion and as a result the fourth Elder Scrolls series is by far the best in the line and in my view is the clear winner for the best PC game released in 2006. The fantasy world depicted in Oblivion is vast and it also happens to be one of the best looking games released this year. You immediately have the option to make your playable character in Oblivion pretty much however you want. While you can focus on the main storyline, Oblivion gives you the option to just go nuts after the first hour or so and explore and take on the entire game world of Tamriel if you want.
It helps that combat, both in melee and in magic modes, is fast and furious rather than the slow and tedious way most RPGs handle these aspects. Production values are high (getting Patrick Stewart among others to be voice actors for the game was quite a coup) and if you happen to play through the entire content of the shipped version of Oblivion you have the choice of downloading the paid extra content from BethSoft or download any of the free third party mods that people have made for Oblivion. I’m not normally an RPG fan but its hard to turn yourself away for just one more hour playing this game and that’s why I’m selecting it as my pick for best PC game of 2006.
Phenom II Gets A New Revision: 125W AMD Phenom II X4 965 Performance Preview
Promising lower power consumption, lower temps, and most importantly for enthusiasts, more OC'ing, AMD is back with a new CPU revision for the Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition, which now boasts a 125W TDP. Is AMD able to deliver on their promises though? Find out in today's article!
Shattered Horizon Review
FutureMark, well known for their popular 3DMark benchmarks, is venturing into new territory with Shattered Horizon. This multiplayer shooter is perhaps best known for its system requirements -- the game supports DX10 only -- but there's more underneath the surface of this game than fancy visuals. Is it worth its $20 price tag though? Read Vandy's take inside!
Borderlands PC Review
Is it an RPG or is it an FPS? Borderlands blends the best elements of both in one entertaining package. Vandy has spent the past week playing the PC version of the game and came away rather impressed. Read his full thoughts on the game in today's review!
AMD Athlon II X3 435/Athlon II X2 240e Performance Preview
Today AMD is introducing 8 new Athlon II CPUs intended to service different segments of the budget CPU market. For HTPC users, new 45W dual, triple, and quad core offerings should deliver good performance along with low power, while performance junkies on a budget will want to look at AMD's new Athlon II X3 CPUs. See how the new chips stack up in terms of performance and OC'ing in this article!
EVGA P55 FTW Review
Looking for a good P55 motherboard to OC your CPU beyond 4GHz? If so, you may want to check out EVGA's P55 FTW. With its extra ATX12V connector, this motherboard can send up to 600W of juice to the CPU, and it's got more voltage settings in BIOS than 95% of the general public needs. But that's just barely scratching the surface of what this board can do. Check out today's review for the full details!
ATI Radeon HD 5770/5750 Performance Preview
With prices ranging from $109-$159, ATI's Radeon 5700 series of cards bring DX11 gaming to mainstream price points and usher in new levels of energy efficiency. But are they powerful enough to dethrone ATI's Radeon 4800 series cards? Yes and no. Read today's article for more info!
Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising Review
While it's not the true sequel to Operation Flashpoint, Dragon Rising is billed as a modern tactical sim just like its predecessor. Does it live up to these claims? Read Vandy's take in today's review!
Batman: Arkham Asylum PhysX Features and Performance
One eye candy feature PC users can enjoy over the console edition of Batman: AA is PhysX. Rocksteady's PhysX implementation is more than just tearing cloth and added objects too, although that's of course in there. Vandy goes over the features and performance of PhysX in Batman: AA in this article!
ATI Radeon 5850 Performance Preview
Not everyone's got $400 to spend on a shiny new Radeon 5870 card, which is why it can be argued that ATI's Radeon 5850 is the more relevant GPU for a lot of gamers and hardware enthusiasts. Based on the same DX11 RV870 architecture as the 5870, the 5850 delivers next-generation performance in a smaller, more efficient package, and most importantly it's priced for less than $300. ATI pitches it as their answer to the GeForce GTX 285...See how it compares in this article!
Overclocking the Radeon HD 5870
We weren't satisfied with the 900MHz core/1300MHz memory speeds we hit last week with our Radeon 5870 boards. We wanted to see how far ATI's latest flagship GPU could be pushed, and how well it could perform at those speeds. We also wanted to see which component delivered better performance results: OC'ing the memory, or OC'ing the GPU?
Fortunately thanks to AMD's GPU Clock Tool, we now have unlimited speeds on tap for OC'ing. Is 1GHz within reach? Find out in today's article!
![Top 5 Games of 2006 [ @ 1024 x 768 ] > View Full-Size in another window.](images/13-s.jpg)
![Top 5 Games of 2006 [ @ 1024 x 768 ] > View Full-Size in another window.](images/14-s.jpg)
![Top 5 Games of 2006 [ @ 1024 x 768 ] > View Full-Size in another window.](images/15-s.jpg)
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