When I first heard of Skyrim Special Edition, I was excited. Skyrim was one of the games that got me into gaming. I was planning to buy it before I saw that every owner of the original got SSE (as I will be referring to it as) for free. I wasn’t expecting much, but I was expecting something.
I should note that my machine qualifies all of the requirements for SSE. I have an intel core i7, 16 gigs of ram, and a 970m.
The game runs like crap. On low, I get around 15 fps, which is barely playable. anything else is a slideshow. Bethesda has a laughable support page for SSE on their website, which I have visited multiple times and had no success. what baffles me more is that my Nvidia Geforce Experience program when optimising the game says I should be running it on near ultra! I suspect no amount of troubleshooting can make up for a bad port, as my console friends have no issue.
But even when I decide to go low, the game is packed with issues. props not loading, important NPCs not loading (my favourite one is where the prisoner tries to escape, and the archer shoots him, right? But in my playthrough THE ARCHER DIDNT LOAD. He just kept running.)
After all that I decided to play the original Skyrim. It should be noted that I have quite a few mods on it, But for these comparisons, I turned off all my mods and set it to low. I didn’t even notice that much of a difference. Yes, SSE has better graphics, but not by much. If you can handle a bit of grey in your game, I would choose the original, for two reasons.
1 Much Cheaper.
2 Much smoother.
Add on the fact that I ran it at 150 fps on low, and 60 on ultra, I think we have a winner.
Now, let’s bring up mods.I actually do like Bethesda’s approach to modding. While I am a fan of Nexus, it is clunky and outdated. Being able to mod from in game is nice. but a number of mods are pitiful compared to nexus. Even with a lot of mods being ported over, it’s still going to be less diverse. I haven’t seen one Thomas the Tank Engine mod, and that disappoints me.
I actually do like Bethesda’s approach to modding. While I am a fan of Nexus, it is clunky and outdated. Being able to mod from in game is nice. but a number of mods are pitiful compared to nexus. Even with a lot of mods being ported over, it’s still going to be less diverse. I haven’t seen one Thomas the Tank Engine mod, and that disappoints me.I suppose if you have a super computer and care more about how you mod more than the mods themselves, but if your thinking of getting back into Skyrim, I suggest loading up an old save, or starting a new adventure. That’s what I did and I am enjoying it immensely. And if you’re getting into the series, buy the original. It’s cheaper, and I guarantee you will have a better time.
I suppose if you have a super computer and care more about how you mod more than the mods themselves, it might be worth it but if your thinking of getting back into Skyrim, I suggest loading up an old save, or starting a new adventure. That’s what I did and I am enjoying it immensely. And if you’re getting into the series, buy the original. It’s cheaper, and I guarantee you will have a better time.
Don’t buy this lazy cash grab. It’s not even close to its price tag of free.
LambChopBlog 