I simply love Skyrim. And, as one would imagine from that statement, it’s my favorite game of all time. I simply love everything about the game, the environment, the depth, the characters. I have to say, if I could choose one game to live in, it’s probably be Skyrim. I have played Skyrim from start to finish a dozen times, and every time I feel the same way about it. The amount of detail that went into designing Skyrim is simply amazing.
Of course, Skyrim has it’s fair share of bugs as well. It actually has more bugs than one would dare to count. And all of the updates have not done much to fix those bugs either. The updates so fix some of the more game-breaking bugs but leaves most of the stuff as-is. I am particularly fond on flying horses. It brings a whole new dimension to the game too. Other stuff that I’m not particularly fond of includes falling to your death after that little conversation with Meridia. Like, if you’re going to lift me up into the sky to have a chat and do your errand, at-least put me down nicely so I can live to do your shitty task.
When Skyrim Special Edition was announced, everyone (including me) was excited (to say the least) about what new and exciting improvements have been made to the game. But, all that was blown to bits when I actually fired it up. On the PC edition (yes, I play on PC), there was no visible improvements whatsoever. I mean sure, there were some graphical improvements, but we’ve had those and better with mods. The sheer volume of bugs seem to have actually increased in the Special Edition. In the original game, the horse would never fly away with me on it’s back, in the Special Edition, it seems the horse has a higher tendency to fly away with me on it’s back. It’s actually convenient to get around you’s think, you don’t have to deal with navigating around a rock or something like that, that’s until you discover that it’s impossible to control the flying horse and you just have to go wherever it takes you, which, mostly, is in the opposite direction of where you want to go. Also, try to get off the flying horse and you’ll drop to the ground, all the falling damage included. And if you wait around too long enjoying the view, you can’t get off without having your ass hauled off to Sovngarde. One would think that when a “Special Edition” is released, one would fix some of the bugs that’s been wrecking havoc, not add more bugs to worry about. I can’t say what’s in the console version but I can imagine it’s the same there too.
The number of DLCs released for Skyrim is not as impressive as Bethesda’s other games like Fallout but I have to say, the DLCs of Skyrim are somewhat better than those of Fallout 3 and Fallout NV. I have to say, the Dawnguard DLC was a pretty good one, not without it’s own fair share of problems though. Let’s take an example; Serana, the one NPC you want around for the entire game and you don’t even have the option to marry her. I get she might have s weird family and have family issues, but those stuff were solved at the end of the questline. Although, if you look at it, it’s actually a blessing that you can’t marry her. Because if you did, your kids from Hearthfire would have to spend their time without their mom and dad (or mom and mom, or whatever). So either you leave your kids home all by themselves (without any guarantee that they’ll see their parents ever again), or leave your favorite NPC at home and go on alone into a dungeon (and get stuck into a tight corner and wish you had your wife around to help). I wonder how your wife (or husband) doesn’t get at all jealous of you spending more time with our adventure partner than your life partner. Well I guess it’s the same reason that enemies stop looking for you after 5 minutes of searching. In short, they’re pretty dumb. Dumb enough to not realize that the “hero” is more attached to someone else and spends their entire time with them and that the “spouse” is only to take care of the adopted children.
Let’s have a look at the Hearthfire DLC shall we. Sure, it adds the ability to own a property in almost every hold of Skyrim. But why do the houses have to be way out in the middle of nowhere. Like, you have to walk about 10 miles just to buy some food from the nearest town, let alone the fact that there’s no security whatsoever. No guards or anything to provide some measure of security for you children (assuming you’ve adopted some). Don’t even mention the various bandits and wolves and giants and what not on the way to the nearest town to get your supplies. How’s your non-combatant spouse supposed to navigate through that mess just to get the day’s food. If you marry Ysolda of Whiterun, she is pretty quick to set up a shop. Yeah, like, someone is going to think, “You know what? I’m pretty tired of the town food. I’ll just walk over to the middle of nowhere and get some stuff from Ysolda’s store.” What are you even going to sell at your store, giant poop? And where the hell is your store anyway? I don’t see it anywhere. The kids really seem to like the Lakeview Manor for some reason. I get that there’s a pretty lake and all. But have you guys never noticed the weirdo living just behind the house, calling forth souls from some plane of oblivion and shit. And have you never noticed that pack of wolves with their guardian wolf living just a little way off the house. How the hell can you not notice the mudcrab infested pond just in front of the house. I just have my family live in Solitude, away from all the nonsensical stuff going around the Hearthfire houses. You would think that having your kids living in Solitude is all well and good. That’s until you find out that your kids constantly complain about not being allowed into the Blue Palace. Like, I’m the Thane of Solitude, I demand that you let my kids into the Blue Palace.
I’ll not even talk about the last DLC “Dragonborn”. Maybe some other time.
There is one other thing that bugs me about Skyrim. If the lore is to be believed, Tiber Septim, who is also a Dragonborn, was responsible for founding the empire. One would believe that being a Dragonborn, the hero has the next and rightful claim to the throne. Even more so after the Dragonborn gets rid of the current emperor (irony has no end or mercy). Now come on, hurry up and get me on my way to Cyrodiil, to that beautiful throne of yours.
I’ll continue this story sometime else I guess.
Also, maybe, go here to watch me play Skyrim Special Edition.