![]() ![]() I have never been a huge Skyrim modder, so I’m excited to try out this feature on consoles. I know on PS4 that there are a lot less mods to choose from than on PC or even Xbox, which is disappointing, but I expect that will change after launch. The one aspect I have not played around with so far are the mods, hence my aversion to a scored review so early, but I’ll dive into that scene shortly. ![]() Textures, fog, pop-in and a million other things have been fixed or enhanced, so this is certainly the best “out of the box” version of the game that exists so far. Skyrim’s vistas are never going to be unimpressive, but when you look closer, the game’s age is there, between polygonal rock formations and Bethesda’s not-great character models that were also not-great in 2011. ![]() ![]() Yes, you would obviously see the difference in side-by-sides, and PC players using mods have seen enhanced versions of the game already, so it’s a strange experience. The visual update is an interesting aspect of this, because if you’re like me, most of us were so awe-inspired by Skyrim when we first played it in 2011, that we sort of have this idealized image in our minds already that the game has always looked great, so this new version isn’t that much different in our mind’s eye. It is tricky to really “review” remasters, because what are you actually reviewing? The quality of the original game? The quality of the remastering itself? Which mods are the most fun? It’s hard to say. What’s that? I should actually talk about the game? Alright, alright. I could have easily had a review up a day or two before launch, and it’s not like this game is some horrible disaster that needs to be hidden, but here we are, and Bethesda at least imagines it knows what it’s doing with this policy. This is all just so pointless and short-sighted to me. And as you can see I’m also using most of this article to complain about Bethesda because I haven’t gotten to vent about that yet. So here I am, writing an unscored first impressions piece instead, part of the choppy, uneven coverage that will come out about this game over the course of the next week thanks to a lack of early copies and an embargo. I don’t need to complete 300 quests for the fifth time to have a true understanding of this variant.īut I’m not publishing a scored review today because I know everyone would be all “You’re just gunning for those clicks!” as I’d appear to be one of those “race to the bottom” reviewers that will try to benefit from this new embargo-free, Wild West policy. I mean, this is a game I’ve sunk 500 hours into across console and PC previously, and you can experience the “remastered” aspects of this new version pretty quickly. However, the fact that this is a remaster means that even if I got this game a few days ago, I probably could have had a scored review out not long after. This is, of course, Skyrim, a game that you can sink 50 hours into without blinking, and 100+ hours can come pretty easily as well. So really, this new “day before” policy is more like “hours before.” for reasons that only Bethesda would know. Better than those who were trying to play the PC version, where that code didn’t unlock until 8 p.m. It took an hour to download, so I got to play it before and after dinner, and I got about seven hours in total. I mean, have you heard all that much about Skyrim Special Edition this week? Maybe, but not as much as say, Titanfall 2, which rolled out a slate of positive reviews a few days ago, and also is being released today.įor the curious, I received my PS4 Skyrim code at 3 p.m. yesterday. And even then, this kind of thing seems like it could hurt more than it helps. Even if many gaming fans have been at odds with the press over different issues in the last few years, “no information about the functionality or quality of a game ahead of launch” isn’t exactly something anyone but a game publisher can get behind. Needless to say, the press hasn’t been too pleased, and I think most fans agree with them. ![]()
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