The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition launches today
Once again, we can venture into the frosty part of Tamriel - The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition releases today. The game is available on PC, PS4 and Xbox One.
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition releases today, the revamped edition of the hit RPG from 2011 was announced during this year’s E3. Just like five years ago, we’ll play as Dovahkin – a mortal with a soul of a dragon. Roaming the vast land covered in ice and snow, the players can plunge into hundreds of quests offered by different factions, help to end the civil war between the Empire and the Stormcloaks, explore and loot forgotten ancient ruins, face mighty dragons and once and for all deal with Alduin, who wants to destroy entire Tamriel.
Everyone who owns Skyrim along with all DLC packages should already have Special Edition in their Steam libraries. There’s more: if you don’t have all of the DLCs but would like to play the Special Edition, according to this Twitter post, you have time until October 28 to purchase any missing expansions, hence you’ll be able to get the new version for free.
Compatibility
An important issue for all returning players is the compatibility of the Special Edition and their old game files. The new edition is a separate game, so it won’t overwrite any original files or mods. Regarding the savegames: as long as your game is not modded, you will be fine – just copy the files into Documents/My Games/Skyrim Special Edition. In case of modded savegames, there may occur some complications – in some cases, the saves will not work with the new Skyrim, due to the “This save relies on content that is no longer present” issue.
Mods
The community-created upgrades of the game can also encounter problems. A very important tool for modders, Skyrim Script Extender, reportedly met with technical issues (according to this discussion on Steam, it was due to the lack of 32-bit .exe file), and, as PC Gamer informs, the creators of a very popular mod, SkyUI, haven’t expressed any intention to release a new version, compatible with the new edition. It doesn’t mean that the Special Edition will not receive any mods, however – it’s just that the migration will take some time. But there’s a silver lining: the information that the new Skyrim will support the Nexus Mod Manager. The fans of TES who own a console, on the other hand, cannot complain – they’ll finally have a chance to experience the mods themselves – the developer has managed to make them work on Sony and Microsoft’s consoles.
Reviews
Along with the news about game releases, we usually provide a summary of reviews – but that’s not the case this time. The reviews shouldn’t be expected too soon either. And that’s because of Bethesda Softworks’ new PR policy: the media received the new game just one day before the release, so there simply wasn’t enough time to evaluate as vast a game as Skyrim.
The players' reviews on Steam can serve as an indicator, though; and these are mixed. Out of over 4,000 people who shared their opinions so far, more than 1,600 players are rather disappointed. The main reason of negative opinions are technical issues, such as frozen black screen after launching the game, shader issues, crashes, inferior anti-aliasing, generally poor optimization (fewer FPS on the same level of graphics), issues with monitors working at more than 60Hz, more bugs, or not recognizing mobile GPUs in laptops. The list is rather lengthy, and probably still incomplete.
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