Hey guys! I've got PC Gamer open here and found this article so interesting that I want to share it with you all.

I'll just list the mods that they review in the order they gave them & you can google/yahoo search for them if you wish:

BEST MOD - BT Mod, author=Beider and Tikigod, mod type=Interface
*changes map view, check weapon integrity & more

Ariana Trudeaux - author=Blocky, mod type=companion
*female fighter/ranger companion

Beneath the Wall - author=Mod4You, mod type=Quest/Location
*Caves beneath Bruma & Black Bow bandits ... download

Cheydinhal Petshop - author=Proudfoot, mod type=Store/Companion
* furry friends can be bought at this petshop .. dog, cougar, bear or imp that travel & level up with you .... download

Dark UI - author=Greybird, mod type=Interface
*changes you overly bright console to a dark leathery one ... download

Deadlier Sneaking - author=Haarvest, mod type=Rules Tweak
*thief or assassin are easier to play due to increased sneak speed, damage & distance .... download

Dimensional Pocket - author=Symbiode and Skullguise, mod type=Spell/Location
*leads to 5 pocket locations where you can bed down & store your stuff ... download

Forgotton Tomb - author=Eddwills, mod type=Quest/Location
*cool tomb hidden near Anvil

Goblin War Party - author=DrGamut, mod type=Companion
*play your cards right and you can have a gaggle of goblins following you around Cyrodiil and you are their leader

Kumiko Manor - author=Academecian Nwahs, mod type=Building
*champagne & caviar southeast of Leyawiin for a mere $50.000 gold

Landscape LOD Texture Replacement - author=Shaja, mod type=Appearance
*improves the jagged look of Oblivion landscape without bogging down your framerate .... download &&& ... example

Natural Wildlife - author=Torag, mod type=Rules Tweak
*gives Cyrodiil's animals aggressive, shy and passive personalities.

No Psychic Guards - author=NVDrifter, mod type=Rules Tweak
*stops guards from showing up everytime you shoplift an apple, etc.

Oscuros Oblivion Overhaul - author=Chardok, mod type=Rules Tweak
*makes the game harder by adding level caps to NPC & monster scaling.

Underground Assasin - author=Perditio44, mod type=Quest/Location
*Dark Brotherhood fans will like this as it extends the guilds storyline with a quest & a shop that sells unique items for assassins.

The Weather Wizard - author=Kweeky, mod type=Quest/Location
*Loads of new voice acting & a mage tower that allows you to control Skingrad's weather

I think that this is so fantastic that individual modders are getting mentioned and reviewed in a major gaming magazine! This is the following issue from the one that gave the Giants mod on the disk that comes with the mag. If Bethesda is down now on its own modding community (? for whatever unknown reason) ... other major movers&shakers in the gaming world at large are not. They are taking notice of the noble and talented efforts that are being put forth for free by these hardworking modders. Bravo I say - Bravo!!

Indeed, they did something similar for Morrowind too, only it was "top 5 challanging things to do in MW."

PCGamer loves the TES series you see, and next issue (July), the guy who reviewed OB is going to do a special feature on it - he loves it THAT much! Notably, they never did a special feature for HL2 soon after IT came out.

So Vaanic, is it the one dude at PC Gamer that loves TES games or is it all of them? Either way, I really like it. You know, those guys are pretty brutal usually in their game ratings. Well, I think they are. I mean - c'mon, if you're gonna give some poor game a 34% raiting in your mag, why even bother to put it there?

Oscuro's over Francesco's? Not way IMO

Also, Ren's Beauty pack should be there, together with Sentinent Weapon, Akaviri Imports, Better Nightsky, Timeslip's mod manager, some slow leveling mod etc....

How did a housing mod come in front of Ren's extraordinary mod?
Now, I'm not saying that Kumiko mannor is bad, but there is a whole lot of better mods that could take that position. Did you know that Timeslip solved the archiveinvalidation.txt problem?

But it's great that modders get their glory through the media. Indeed, Bethesda UI looks rediculus compared to BT mod. And almost anything is better than the official mods.

I would like to see this magazine thing become a tradition. Good modders deserve to be recognised.

I agree HyPNO .. on your various points.

I am awaiting the July issue of Gamer now with interest after Vaanic has said about the interview that will be in it.

And ... as I copied down the mod list and especially when I went looking for the links = I realized how much had been overlooked and left off their list. I can only speculate and offer several explanations for it:
1) maybe this article was written at a certain time when all the mods we see now weren't out there yet
2)PC Gamer got their list of games from certain sources but not others
3) Gamer is influenced by certain types of mod effects over others

Really, I tried when I was looking up some downloads, to go to as varied of sources as possible, so the people interested could browse the different sites after DL'ing and see what else they liked at that site.

And I also was so tempted to start adding DL's of my own when I saw how many great ones there are out there. I did do a few personal DL's but I wanted to just report the article here.

?!?!?!?!??!?!!!!!!!WTF! I haven't got that in my PCGamer! And I suscribe to it! WTF?!??!?!?!?!?!?!

Oh, and by the way, Arieana Treadux is available to download from this site. But it doesn't work for me... The voice acting is non existant.

I use almost all of those mods . And much more..

But hey! They missed out on my slower leveling mod! Oh well, they have Oscuros, and he has mine bundled, so I guess I will settle with that [/bragging]

No, really, I wouldn't want to be on the toplist with mods that has been spent weeks and weeks developing and working on. Mine only took a couple of days .

Duncan, I'm sure yours will arrive ... Cain has had a subscription forever and gets issues about 3 weeks ahead of the newsrack. I'd tell you what month issue it is but it's in the reading room. Oh wait ... I'll go see. July '06 - Titan Quest is on the cover.

Hmmm... I just received the July '06 one, but it has Half Life 2 Episode 2 on the cover. Are you in the USA?


EDIT: It has a feature: Beyond Oblivion, with many different thingys about it... I.E.: how to start a goblin war, the best loot, etc.

Yes we are in the USA. I have never heard of Titan Quest. OUr June 06 cover was Civilizations. Cain does not like Half Life 2 because the steam engine is spyware.

Ah, I've looked into most of these mods.

Haven't used them though, my computer now won't support Oblivion until I scrounge up enough for a decent video card.

Yeh, you and me both on the better video card. And I already got a new processor and an additional memory stick for it. But I've really lost interest in Oblivion. Even Cain isn't playing it anymore, and he was a Morrowind fiend. He's completed the main quest, won't tell me the ending and now he seems to have forgotten about it.

So, I wonder if it is even worth it to worry about. I am modding for Morrowind still - just like that TESCS better.