Oblivion Now Rated "M"

The ESRB recently issued an advisory that it has changed its rating for Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion from a "T" for Teen to an "M" for Mature. The reason for the change? A third-party mod that allowed you to play the game with topless female characters in the PC version of the game.

The reason why this is a problem is because the nude art file was actually included in the final version of the game. It must be noted, though, that it is impossible to access without downloading the mod. It was left on the disc, but the average user isn't ever going to be able to access it. Similar to the "Hot Coffee" scandal around Grand Theft Auto San Andreas, this is a mod that you have to jump through several hoops to get so only a small percentage of people are ever going to see.

Of course, for anyone that has played the game it is pretty clear that Oblivion probably deserved an "M" rating from the start even without the pixelated elf boobs. There is blood and violence and you are killing other people. There are dismembered corpses all over the place. There is devil worship among many other cults. Cold blooded murder. Drug use.

It seems to me the ESRB blew it when it rated Oblivion and they are using the nude mod to cover up for their mistake.

View the original article here

Best Rated Laptops for Gamers

Step inside your gaming persona for a bit and think about this: what do you require out of a laptop designed for gaming? Is it the internal hardware? Is it the external design? Is it the added features and functionality it provides?

On the design part, lots of companies produce laptops with key design characteristics that inspire you to think about extreme things.

Alienware is such a company and their gaming laptop product line is designed to look more like really fast planes, rather than laptops. They also include illuminated keyboards with their laptops to make the design stand out from the crowd even more.

ASUS and Toshiba use the same strategy and include sleek, almost aerodynamic, design and highlights in their gaming laptops product line.

Some companies go that extra mile and include a lot of added connectivity options to their laptops so the average gamer isn't constrained anymore to just playing games, but now has the option of connecting to the internet and keeping in touch with gamers alike.

Having accomplished great external designs, the real battle starts behind the scenes, under the laptop case, on the component level. There are no two laptops alike, and this is far truer in the case of gaming laptops, since every company focuses on key aspects while trying to keep their price requirements at bay so more gamers can afford the extra spec.

So what do you demand from your gaming laptop? Would you like to crank up the visual quality settings to ultra-high? Then you'll need to afford the extra buck, since gaming laptops which can do that usually come equipped with more than one graphics card and this type of configuration costs quite a lot.

How about multitasking? Do you like to do more things at once? Then invest in a laptop with a powerful multi-core processor and plenty of RAM installed. Think quad-core here with about 4-6GB of RAM installed.

If you'd like a laptop that can do everything, then the same rules apply, since the processor and RAM will handle the tasks, while the graphics card(s) will ensure everything will be represented as it should be, with every pixel in its place.

Aside from the design aspects and the extreme internal configuration, the visual side of the equation must be taken into account. The screen size will determine how well you see your opponents on the battlefield. Look for screens equal or larger than 15.4 inches, since these are perfect for gaming, and don't settle for anything less.

Visit Best Laptops For Gamers for some concrete examples.

View the original article here