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.
ATI Radeon HD 5570 Performance Preview
The Radeon 5570 fuses ATI's 400-shader Redwood graphics core with a low-profile board design, giving you the guts of the 5670 in a package that's similar to the 5450. How does the final product compare to ATI's other sub-$100 offerings, as well as the GeForce 9600 GT and Radeon 4670. You'll have to read today's article to find out!
ATI Radeon 5450 Performance Preview
With prices ranging from $49-$59, ATI's Radeon 5450 brings DX11 and Eyefinity to the entry-level price bracket for the first time. But how does it perform? Find out in today's article!
Mass Effect 2 PC Review
BioWare's latest chapter in the Mass Effect series has earned overwhelmingly positive praise on consoles, but is the game still enjoyable on the PC? Find out in today's review!
AMD's New Year CPUs: Athlon II X4 635, Athlon II X3 440, Athlon II X2 255, & Phenom II X2 555 Black Edition Tested
Ready to pull the trigger on a new budget CPU? If so, you'll be glad you waited, as today AMD's providing a free 100MHz speed bump on their latest dual, triple, and quad-core Athlon II CPUs. But that's not all. For the tweakers out there that love to OC, AMD's brought back the Phenom II X2. The 555 Black Edition is AMD's fastest dual-core yet, and it's based on AMD's new C3 Rev. See how the new CPUs OC and perform in today's article!
Gigabyte USB 3.0 Boards Compared: P55A-UD6 and X58A-UD7
Promising transfer rates up to 10X higher than USB 2.0, next-generation USB 3.0 devices should offer considerably more speed to get things done. The same applies for SATA 6Gb/sec. But does the substance live up to the hype? Yes and no. Join us as we take a look at both of these technologies in Gigabyte's latest motherboards for the P55 and X58 platforms!
NVIDIA GF100 'Fermi' Graphics Architecture Overview
With DX11, 512 shaders, and a 384-bit memory interface, NVIDIA's next-generation GF100 GPU certainly looks impressive at first glance. It doesn't stop there though. NVIDIA's significantly upped their tessellation performance with GF100's new PolyMorph engines, and thanks to a tweaked ROP subsystem, the new GPU should deliver improved 8xAA performance as well. Join us as we take a closer look inside GF100's new architecture in this article!
ATI Radeon HD 5670 Performance Preview
Priced at $99 and offering features like DirectX 11 and Eyefinity, ATI's Radeon 5670 is poised to take over the heart of the mainstream graphics market. But is it powerful enough to displace the Radeon 4850 and 4770? How well does it OC? Find out in today's article!
Building a Core i7-920 Gaming Rig
With his Core 2 Extreme X6800 PC beginning to show signs of age, Vandy just finished upgrading his primary gaming rig to Core i7 over the holidays. With dual GeForce GTX 275s, and his Core i7-920 OC'ed to 4GHz, it's a pretty powerful performer. Read about the rest of the components used inside!
Intel Core i5-661 'Clarkdale' Performance Preview
With a 3.33GHz stock clock speed, integrated DX10 graphics core, and 32-nm manufacturing process, Intel's Core i5-661 is designed to make Core 2 Duo obsolete. But does it accomplish its mission? See how it performs with and without its integrated graphics in today's article!
Top Games of 2010
Because multiple blockbuster games were pushed back from Q4'09 to 2010, the next few months should be pretty busy for gamers. Games like Splinter Cell Conviction, Battlefield Bad Company 2, Supreme Commander 2, Mass Effect 2, and BioShock 2 are all expected within the first 3 months of 2010. Hopefully next year we'll also see the debut of games like id Software's RAGE and StarCraft 2. Join us as Vandy highlights some of the most anticipated games of next year in this 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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