Can't buy 4:3 TV's or monitors where I live, haven't been able to for many years, It's considered obselete no matter how much people wish to believe otherwise.

As for my initial thoughts on SSE, It doesn't look (or sound) anywhere near as good as my modded 32bit version, not even close enough for a worthwhile comparison.

It's a good release for console users but if you already have the 32bit PC version modded and running stable then this version offers absolutely nothing worth having.

Not terribly impressed. I'm not overly critical or expectant but the only thing I see is what maybe should have been 5 years ago. The 64-bit support, effects, performance, etc. That should have been in Skyrim 2011. I mean, they apparently didn't even do much bugfixing as everyone can see what the #1 mod on Nexus is already. One last thing. The UI. DarnUI, DarkUI, SkyUI, etc, etc, etc have been some of the most popular mods since Oblivion. How-the-hell have they still not gotten the message that their stock PC UI's have been awful for over a decade now?

Keeps going to show how much this modding community continues to prop up their games.

Maybe it is because more LOD would have fallen in the range of the meaning "more content". In a remaster you cannot see more content. XD

I probably am not the best one to answer this question for two reasons. First, I'm not a typical PC gamer. I'm plugged into a 5.1 home theater setup and a 50" TV. Two, I played maybe 5 hours of the orginal version since I bought new tower speakers to replace my blown mains for my sound system.


That said spending two hours playing the special edition last night, my only positive impression was the sound seeming quite a bit better. With the exception of the voice acting which sounds exactly the same.

That reminds me that I used to have my computer hooked up to my widescreen television until abut a year ago. That kept me from needing a new monitor for several years. So now must backtrack on my original rant.

I must say, I'm playing it on pc and the visuals are really quite better! Rick shouldn't worry about the "orangey environment illumination", it doesn't take away anything from the atmosphere of Skyrim. Unfortunately the enhancements stop right there. And it really falls short if we look at it from every other point of view:

- old clunky animations

- 5 voice actors for all the games npcs

- lack of variety in spells and caster equipment in general

- skill tree dullness

- no physics based rendering

- same LOD

- wet/burn/freeze effects partially or totally missing

- no holstered dual wielding weapons visibility

- no howling

- followers still follow you by foot

- no improved AI

- no fixed bugs

- whatever else that doesn't come to my mind right now

I've seen the ps4 version running on a friend's system, the graphic compartment is still watered down if compared to pc, god rays are barely visible, the overall impression is a big letdown, even considering that xbox360 and ps3 versions were far worse.

MrMattyplays' review is really honest and sincere about this release: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Si7xEs4t9aA

I've personally come to a conclusion: starting from Fallout 4 letdown (I'm one of the few people really disappointed by the game), going on to this... remaster, I've realized that even if Bethesda is able to do great games thanks to such visionary as Todd Howard, they are still a full profit-oriented software industry, whose interest lays only in cash, so no surprise if they charge their games at full price even if they are 5 years old.

Certainly mods will solve most of the game's problems, but it's time for me and those people in search of new adventures and emotions to move to newer games, even if it's hard to find a really interesting and interactive rpg.

Looks better than vanilla. But thats about it. People expecting changes are gonna be disappointed. It really just is Skyrim with some better looks.

Mostly good for me, but the new lighting makes the skin color of my Nord differ greatly. White as a sheet one moment and pushing towards Redguard the next. I get that it is supposed to be a more dynamic lighting, but this seems absurb.

Hi, I've been having issues installing the special edition..
I preloaded the game, and now if i hit play, it unpacks but the Hard Disk usage drops slowly from 30Mbps to 0Mbps, the unpacking then stops and it schedules the unpacking for 5 minutes later.

Ive tried redownloading the game, but then it freezes on precise 3.0GB.
Tried installing on a different drive. Not working.
Tried running steam as admin and in compatibilty mode. No luck....

Thanks in advance... <3

You know, I didn't even think of that - lol. Was able to force it easily in Nvidia Inspector using Skyrim's profile, but I will give it a try this evening to see if its any better. Again, right now I'm almost hitting 60 FPS consistently whereas a single GTX 960 4GB only did 35-45 FPS on Ultra, so its definitely working now.

Still downloading it, cuz internet is potato... But I can't take my eyes away from the little Steam icon next to the play button... It's just a badly zoomed in version of the normal Skyrim logo. Actually bothers me.

Though I'm not too worried about the game itself. The way I see it, it's just a 64-bit upgrade that opens some potential up. It just needs time.

I think the game looks better... mostly in the lighting department. And the ground cover objects are much thicker in most places as well. And finally it looks like the LOD distance is higher too. I may be remembering wrong, but it seems like I can see objects a lot further away than I could before.

The animations and character faces are still horrible. But I honestly did not expect them to be improved. I've always been a big-time ENB user and the biggest thing I'm missing is the sub-surface scattering that ENB brought to the table.

All in all, I'm happy with the Special Edition. It's not a night and day difference for us PC users... BUT the switch to 64-bit should make ALL the difference down the road. I'm excited to see the state of the modded game several months from now.