I've been looking into a new laptop as of late, and I'm completely overwhelmed by the sheer amount of options. I'm kind of a layman when it comes to information about computers, so I'm skeptical about how good all the "best" laptops actually are. I'm looking for something that could run, say Skyrim, with pretty decent graphics at a pretty decent framerate. Again, I'd like to keep costs at a minimum.  Can anyone give me some leads?

To be honest, if you want a gaming computer, don't get a laptop. You should either buy a desktop or buy the parts and make a custom build (like what I did). I don't just say this because desktop's are generally more powerful, but when you build your own you save money and if any component ever fails, you can simply buy a replacement rather than have to go buy a new computer. Just my thoughts.