ANNOYING VOICE: “Wait – Is this guy seriously talking about Skyrim? Like, vanilla-non-remastered Skyrim???”

Yep – that’s what I’m talkin’ about. Well, not vanilla per se.

Roughly four and a half years ago, the world renowned game developer, Bethesda, placed a beautifully crafted installment of the Elder Scrolls series into the hands of players; PC and console alike. The title was an absolute hit, raking in over $450,000,000 in sales within the first week (and just for a point of reference, Bethesda had a budget of about $85,000,000 for development and marketing).

However, while millions of players started loving the game, this passion began to dissipate as the game grew older. Within a couple of years, 500,000 active users quickly dropped to 250,000 – 250k to 200k, and so on. As of June 24, 2016, Skyrim’s DAU (Daily Active Users) is only about 25,000.

With Skyrim’s unique story-line and quest-lines, this drop can be primarily attributed to one thing; graphics. Since 2011, games like The Witcher 3, Dark Souls 3, and Fallout 4 (also Bethesda) have blown Skyrim’s once superior visuals out of the water. It was evident that TESV would be sentenced to the video game Hall of Fame to rot for eternity…

…but not for long.

Take a look at this – these are two images from the Skyrim Special Edition reveal at E3 a couple weeks ago.

Actually, that’s wrong. The image on the top belongs to the Bethesda E3 conference reveal. The picture on the bottom is a version of Skyrim on PC, with a graphical overhaul (environmental enhancement mod). Now, isn’t that somethin’? Here are some more pictures of modded copies.

(Sorry console players, you are excluded from this limitless beauty)

Everyday, thousands of modders develop fresh and new additions to a previously archaic game. Don’t care for alluring sunsets or scenic landscapes? Rig your Skyrim with the latest lightsabers, Jedi robes and Sith garb to turn Tamriel into your own personal Star Wars episode (it’s amazing, I’ve done it myself). Or maybe Lord of the Rings? – or Game of Thrones? The possibilities are endless.

I know many of you are asking yourselves, “why are making this post now, Millennium”? Okay, two things – 1. I recently picked up the game again after owning it first on console – 2. There is a HUGE steam sale on this game, so not buying it would literally be a crime against Whiterun and her people (haha Skyrim joke).

ANNOYING VOICE: “Hold on a minute! You forgot about the content! Skyrim’s quests and story missions are all the same as before! The whole reason I stopped playing was because I beat everything!!!”

Well, if you managed to beat the hundreds missions and side-missions that came with the game (not mentioning DLC)… then you’re in luck! Modders like muppetmuppet and MadFrenchie have engineered dozens of extensive quests exclusive to their mods. Perfect, right?

ANNOYING VOICE: “Yeah, yeah, whatever…”

Alright, then. Links to some of my favorite mods are just below this post. Trust me when I tell you that jumping back into the world of Skyrim will be one of the best decisions you’ve ever made, especially when equipped with top-of-the-line mods.

Good luck, Dragonborn!

SOME BASIC MODS:

http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/27043/? – LIGHTING

http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/607/? – TEXTURES

http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/1111/? – WATER

http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/2356/? – CHARACTER FACES

LINK TO MORE MODS –