So I have played the PC version of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition on PC on Steam for a total of 12 hours so far and here is my review.

Leaving Helgen and getting out into the wilderness before you enter Riverwood the graphics are absolutely amazing with the volumetric fog and the volumetric lighting.

I have absolutely no idea what some people on the internet are talking about when they say the graphics don't look that good at all.

The draw distance is also very good. I just love staring at the waterfalls seeing them from very far away and not seeing the blocky Level of Detail (LOD) that the original 32-bit version of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim has. If you squint your eyes and focus hard on looking closely you can see the water flowing down and you can see it splashing in the river at the bottom.

I have absolutely no mods installed, not even textures mods.

12 hours is not a lot of hours played, but this is one of the most stable and smooth feeling Bethesda Game Studios developed video game I have ever played, not even a single Crash to Desktop (CTD). I didn't have a single Crash to Desktop (CTD) in the original 32-bi version of the PC version of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim on PC on Steam in the 12 hours I played either, but I know 100% for sure I will be playing the PC version of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition for up to 500 hours or 500+ hours, even though from 11.11.11 to this day today I got a total of 300 hours played of the original 32-bit PC version of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim on PC on Steam played.

Many of you know I don't like playing The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim for anywhere from thirty minutes to up to one hour before I get played of it's gameplay, even with mods, but I have no idea what it is about The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition. I can keep playing it, I go in the forests and wilderness and kill bandits, bears, saber toothed cats, wolves, etc. I can just go around the video game world map of Skyrim and look at the scenery like the mountains and admire their waterfalls and draw distance.

There are some bugs that Bethesda Game Studios will fix like the Audio in a patch and maybe other bugs that Bethesda Game Studios will fix in a patch.

Guys I'm really enjoying playing The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition since for the first time when I enjoyed playing The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim on 11.11.11 when I first purchased it.

What's making me enjoy playing The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition? It has to be the graphics isn't it?

Yeah, I was similarly enthralled by SSE, not just the lighting effects but the buttery smoothness of it all. 32 bit has a small amount of controller lag, but that seems completely gone with SSE; the controls are tighter than a gnats behind. And the rain. Omg the rain is awesome and no longer clips through roofs. I spent 20 minutes just walking in the rain and stepping under roofs.


I can't stand vanilla gameplay either, but SSE is so beautiful and smooth, I find myself playing it and not even minding the unmodded gameplay or the vanilla UI or HUD or map, or all the little things that used to bug me about vanilla Skyrim.

The graphics, the sandbox gameplay, the brilliant quests, the expansive world, etc. It's all of this and more.

I have the SE but am still playing my modded original. From the video's I've seen my original still looks better - which is fine, I've got it just the way I like it. With the mods I have installed I have everything the SE has (that I want) and more.

I would however recommend SE to those picking up Skyrim for the first time. Many of the *essential* mods are already in beta. You've got nothing to lose.

Yeah I love very much looking at the rain at night in the cities like Falkreath and Riften.

The volumetric lighting looks very good, but there is one small problem with it that I hope a lot that Bethesda Game Studios fixes.

If you go at night to Winterhold the small town under it watch the city guards walk around at night with their torches and look at the how the torches cast their light on the snow. It looks very white you don't see a orangey color.

Go to Windhelm by the fire braziers and look at the fire emitting the light on the outside of the fire braizers and under them it looks weird they have this orange glow. You shouldn't be seeing light under those fire braziers.

I think sometimes we are just more receptive to things (games, movies, books, even people) at some times in our lives than at other times.

I couldn't stand Oblivion when it came out, and for many years afterward. I tried several times to play it but I just couldn't tolerate the game for more than two or three days at a time. I would become so aggravated that I would have to give up for the sake of my blood pressure (I uninstalled it several times, thinking I'd never play it again).

But I came back to it (yet again) in 2013 and this time it "clicked" with me. I don't know why. All of the things that aggravated me for so many years did not bother me nearly so much anymore. I guess I finally made my peace with the game. I finally accepted it for what it was, and stopped expecting it to be something it wasn't.

I've had similar experiences with books and movies and music. It's a mystery to me. Perhaps something similar to this is happening to you.