When I bought Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion I thought that the lack of gold was a huge problem. I could not buy new weapons, ammo for my bow, or repair my magical armour since I was not a Journeyman of Armourer. So I went through the game – or through levels 1-10 – without good armour and attack power. How did I get gold you ask?

Well, I got so fed up that I asked my good friend Vaughn, who is the one who recommended the game to me, and he told me about a certain “Gold Cheat.”  But when I asked him to tell me how to do it he said I needed to figure it out on my own. It took me hours, since I had the jist of what to do, to find the right person in the Imperial city. Finally, I found the right person. Dorian.

Dorian is a Redguard living in the Talos District in the Imperial city, and is one of the nicer Redguards. What you need to do is find him, and choose the persuasion option once the dialogue box opens. But instead of getting him to like you, you need to bribe him, and then you’ll have the option to persuade him. Do this, and try to get him to dislike you, I think he doesn’t like Boast and Joke. After he doesn’t like you, bribe him again. Repeat the bribing process about ten times, so that he can have more gold for you to loot. Then, it’s very simple, kill him!

Now, if you try this and it doesn’t’ work, what you need to do is delete the patch you’ve downloaded on your 360 or your PC. For the PC, I cannot help you. But for your 360, it’s very easy and it does not delete any of your hard drive’s data, only the patches that stop glitches. What you need to do is go to your System Settings, then go to Memory. Once you’re on the “Hard Drive select” screen, (mind you this will work on the new and old Dashboard) click the “Device Options” or, the Y button on your 360 controller. Now; click the following code: X, X, LB (upper left trigger thing), RB (upper right trigger thing), X, X and a little notice box will open up saying “This will perform maintenance on your Xbox 360 storage devices. Do you want to continue?” Choose “Yes.” Let them be deleted. Then start your game, and follow the steps above to do the gold cheat. Now, when I did it, he ended up having 13,000 gold in his pocket, and I kept clicking for an hour or so. I ended up with about 57,000,000 gold. Generally, an hour is good enough, but if you really want to rake in the dough, I suggest for a couple hours. If you have a very heavily loaded hard drive though, don’t take too much, because it will cause Oblivion to run very slowly. 

Just promise me you won’t break your thumb getting gold, okay?

Most people don’t pay attention to the game world while they play a very entertaining game. In games like SimCity, and Spore the world is essential. You even create the world and all who inhabit it in Spore. But what about those large Role Playing Games like Elder Scrolls I-IV, and Fallout 1, 2, and 3? What about their worlds? And what about Action and Adventure games like Assassin’s Creed, Grand Theft Auto 1-4, and Mercenaries 1&2 and their worlds? And let’s not forget those few 1st Person Shooters that catch our hearts, like Half-Life.

Read on for more information and the list of games.

Well, most people take the environment of the game that they are playing for granted. If a person was playing Grand Theft Auto IV and the people had no emotion in their voices, all looked the same, and never really did anything would it be as fun to massacre them? If the traffic lights just stayed green, would it be fun to weave in and out of cars? If the weather was always the same, if you couldn’t change your clothes, take girlfriends on dates, go get drunk and scream “YELLOW CAR!,” if you couldn’t highjack a sports car, if you couldn’t call 9-1-1 for a fire truck then kill the driver and jack it, if you couldn’t hold off the S.W.A.T. team with an M4 Assault rifle while using a hotdog stand for cover would the game be as fun as it is?

In Oblivion you can create your own character, and every single character model in the game – which is massively huge – has their own face. Oblivion was the very starting point for games like Fallout 3, which has surpassed all expectations and gotten 10-10s and 5-5s.  The world of gaming is only matched by how realistic the world feels to you. Now, if we were to list the top five most believable game worlds, I think they’d be in this order:

1. Grand Theft Auto IV (PS3, Xbox 360, PC) – for its perfect duplication of New York City, from everything to the busy Time Square, to the gangster infested slums. Not only this, but its graphics have been boosted 100 fold, and the game runs and looks beautiful.

Not only that, but the voice acting is incredible. Like in Dead Space, when you watch the short cutscenes you feel like you are watching a real movie. With the Mafia, Irish Mob, Russian Gangsters, “G” Gangsters, Junkies, and crazy cops this game is the perfect example of the real “American Dream.” Well, slightly, we all know that things are exaggerated with the violence.

The realism in this game is great, people will walk around, some will be yelling on cellular phones, some drinking coffee and watching the birds. There are people jogging in the park, listening to their iPod while walking to work, groups of people doing Pilates, people eating a picinic. There are old women driving aggravatingly slowly on the freeway, there are police chasing a robber, or handcuffing an offender. There are people watching comedians, strip clubs, movies, resturaunts, boat trips, and hundreds of “flying rats” (pidgeons) to explode into a puff of blood and feathers.

Traffic changes depending on what time of day it is. People are getting mugged in the alley way, texting and walking aimlessly, only to end up bumping into you. People will even start to fight with you if you accidently run into them. You could take out your assault rifle and hold everyone captive at a local fast food joint. You can systimatically take out targets for an unknown person. You can kidnap an Italian Mafia man’s daughter. There’s all sorts of stuff to do, ranging from acting as a bounty hunter, to taking care of boyfriends or giving people rides to their homes. The game is so large, it makes my head spin.

2. Fallout 3 (PS3, Xbox 360, PC) – for its horrifically accurate and creative post apocalyptic scene, the immense voice actors, the 100% explorable world, the many ruins, weapons, armour, and incredible sound and visual effects. Not to mention – can you guess it? – V.A.T.S.

Fallout 3, the sequal to the sequal of the amazing, original Role Playing Game is a 100% improvement.  The graphics capture the pure emptiness of the desolite post apocalyptic wasteland. Every little detail in a person’s face is different; from the lines on an old man’s forhead, to the lush lips of a young woman, talking to a man in a tattered and blood spattered pink floral dress. There are a boat load of new weapons, items, sepcial items, and apparal to be found, and worn.

One of my most favourite things in Fallout 3 is your Pip-Boy’s radio. Listening to Three Dawg cracking jokes and playing old 50’s and 60’s music, exploring the vast waste land, busting some ghoul heads with your Chinese Assault Rifle. Or you could attack the entire city of Megaton. You could even nuke the entire city of Megaton! The possibilities are endless!

There goes Megaton >:D

3. Spore (PC) – Spore is unlike any other game. Not only do you create your enemies and your playable characters; but you create the entire world you live in. The trees, the ponds, the random small animals, the sky (from what I have heard) and pretty much everything else.

4. The Sims (PS3, Xbox 360, PC) – Sims games have been known for its [almost] realistic feel, cartoonish look, and somewhat crude humor. You can do pretty much anything in newer Sims games, you can set your house on fire while cooking dinner, you can set your car on fire while cooking dinner, you can accidently fall into the pool and drown, you can have an extra terrestrial as your next door neighbor, and let’s not forget the best part: you can get it on while on a fur rug next to a romantic fireplace, only to burst into flames yourself!

5. Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (PS3, Xbox 360, PC)– For its perfect nerd utopia and it’s extremely high playability. I myself have well over 400 hours on the game, along with every expansion made so far. Oblivion is, still today, probably the largest game ever made. With its massive amount of quests, extremely fun glitches, and many easter eggs, Oblivion is a game I’d suggest you buy. Right now. Go to your closest game store and buy the Game of the Year Addition.

All of these games are more than worth buying, and I own every single one. If you have a life, do not buy these games, because you will be sucked into the world and begin to believe you live in it. If you have time, however, these games are the best games I have ever played. I also suggest Half Life, which can be got with The Orange Box (PS3, Xbox 360, or separately on the PC), it comes with Half Life 2, Half-Life 2 Episode 1, Half-Life 2 Episode 2, Portal, and finally Team Fortress two.