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SkyrimSE_FallForest_FULL

Now that Skyrim: Enhanced Edition has hit shelves, enough of people are going to be checking to see whether a v-year-old game is worth playing for the get-go time or by and large good plenty to justify a 2d playthrough. Special Edition is free if you own all of the Skyrim DLC and $39.99 if you don't (the new game contains all previous DLC). If you already own the game, yous can grab a pretty sweet upgrade for gratis. If you don't, the $39.99 cost tag isn't terrible, only it'due south a good idea to know what you lot're getting when you buy a new version of a v-twelvemonth-sometime title.

Every bit we expected, the upgrades here only upgrade the lighting model and create some additional footing ataxia. Texture models aren't updated at all, and the extent of the lighting modifications varies on the scene. In some cases, the two versions of the game look well-nigh identical; in others in that location'due south a substantial difference. In the slideshow beneath we've included screenshots from both PCGamer and PCGamesN.

PCGamesN went a bit farther than only comparing vanilla versus SE — they besides compared the vanilla game versus a modded version of Archetype. And while the Special Edition is pretty sexy looking compared with original Skyrim, it doesn't actually hold a candle to what the modded version of vanilla Skyrim tin can exercise. Bank check their story for more details on this, and more comparison shots. I tin't say I'thousand surprised at the state of affairs, though, because Bethesda has never been as willing to push the graphics envelope as some modders were.

We saw this when Bethesda released the High Resolution Texture Pack for original Skyrim. While the new textures were unquestionably improve than the old versions, the loftier resolution texture packs that modders had already created bested the versions from Bethesda in every scenario. The difference between them was in the corporeality of work your GPU had to do to handle the improvements — the Bethesda updates were much kinder to video cards than the unofficial variants.

Overall, Skyrim Special Edition will be a peachy update if you've never screwed around with mods just only want the game to expect prettier. But information technology'll accept some fourth dimension for modders to really become their hands on the game and tweak updates to improve fidelity to best consequence. While some mods may work out of the box, Bethesda has said that others volition require some updating to function properly. Once that's done, the final product should truly polish — one might argue that this update represents the best of both words, with new back up for 64-bit operating systems and an updated engine from Bethesda, combined with the formidable creativity of the mod community.