I am pre-loading Skyrim Special Edition right now.

[WhiteNoise]

I have 200 hours into the game and I didn't complete the main story until nearly 200 hours in. I've done quite a bit as far as quest completion goes but still have a ton of content left. This was a fantastic game back then and even now I would enjoy it I'm sure but I doubt I'd want to start over. Too bad save files can't be transferred.

 

[shortylickens]

LESS THAN AN HOUR!!!!

 

[Sabrewings]

Never played it originally. It came with my 360 when I bought it, so I played it a little but couldn't get into it on console. Never picked it up on PC since I already had it, but if they're "re-releasing" it, I might have to give it a go.

 

[ArizonaSteve]

Unlocking now...

 

[Newbian]

Now to wait for a few essential mods to get released on this version and transfer my saves.

I cannot play this game without skyui.

 

[shortylickens]

Meh.

Framerate is crap. The only noticeable improvement is SOME of the lighting effects like godrays. You'd actually do better with a graphics mod for the base game as it probably wont kill performance.

They fixed NOTHING. Its the exact same game with slightly better textures, which is why the install is twice as big. And the textures dont really stand out as an obvious improvement. NONE of the bugs or glitches have been fixed. You still need the massive Unofficial Patch.
UI has not been enhanced at all. The only new feature is the clunky unpleasant integrated mod manager carried over from Fallout 4. It seems the people they let play early have already gone out of their way to port over some of the more popular mods. Oh, and they did not unlock framerates above 60, so even if you take the settings down, you get nothing to show for it.

If you got this free, congrats. If you still dont own Skryim and feel like buying, I would not recommend this.

 

[Newbian]

Meh.

Framerate is crap. The only noticeable improvement is SOME of the lighting effects like godrays. You'd actually do better with a graphics mod for the base game as it probably wont kill performance.

They fixed NOTHING. Its the exact same game with slightly better textures, which is why the install is twice as big. And the textures dont really stand out as an obvious improvement. NONE of the bugs or glitches have been fixed. You still need the massive Unofficial Patch.
UI has not been enhanced at all. The only new feature is the clunky unpleasant integrated mod manager carried over from Fallout 4. It seems the people they let play early have already gone out of their way to port over some of the more popular mods. Oh, and they did not unlock framerates above 60, so even if you take the settings down, you get nothing to show for it.

If you got this free, congrats. If you still dont own Skryim and feel like buying, I would not recommend this.

They never said it was going to be anything more than the graphical update and 64 bit support for mods and such and that's a good thing.

Granted we need to wait for the unofficial patch to get working here as that fixed a lot of things but it was free.

Also skyui is your friend for the ui fix.

 

[Blue_Max]

Meh.

Framerate is crap. The only noticeable improvement is SOME of the lighting effects like godrays. You'd actually do better with a graphics mod for the base game as it probably wont kill performance.

They fixed NOTHING. Its the exact same game with slightly better textures, which is why the install is twice as big. And the textures dont really stand out as an obvious improvement. NONE of the bugs or glitches have been fixed. You still need the massive Unofficial Patch.
UI has not been enhanced at all. The only new feature is the clunky unpleasant integrated mod manager carried over from Fallout 4. It seems the people they let play early have already gone out of their way to port over some of the more popular mods. Oh, and they did not unlock framerates above 60, so even if you take the settings down, you get nothing to show for it.

If you got this free, congrats. If you still dont own Skryim and feel like buying, I would not recommend this.

I read this exact review on Steam minutes ago! :thumbsup:
Many similar reviews just as brutal... taking hot-rod machines with GTX 970's and better and still running dog-slow.
New glitches causing characters to spazz out even during the intro cart sequence!

*sigh* such high hopes... looks like I'll hold off for a while or dig up my old Nexus account.

 

[FireJack]

Hoped they would have native support for higher resolutions but trying to get it to 3840x1440 has the same problems as before.
Changed it in the .ini but in game all I can see is the top corner of the game screen like I increased the resolution on a monitor that couldn't support it.
The options menu also locks the game at 16:9 at fullscreen and does not let you pick a resolution for some reason.

 

[futurefields]

Running the game 60fps locked with no frame drops, completely butter smooth here. It does use quite a bit of my GPU though, between 60-90% in outdoor scenes. It hasn't broke the 60fps lock yet though.

It looks great and LOD pop-in is dramatically reduced, in most scenes there is no visible pop-in which is usually my pet peeve with open world games.

 

[futurefields]

 

[bystander36]

Running the game 60fps locked with no frame drops, completely butter smooth here. It does use quite a bit of my GPU though, between 60-90% in outdoor scenes. It hasn't broke the 60fps lock yet though.

It looks great and LOD pop-in is dramatically reduced, in most scenes there is no visible pop-in which is usually my pet peeve with open world games.

I've had the same experience so far, but I also noticed while it's mostly around 70% usage, the GPU clock rate is 1000Ghz on my 1070 (it normally is at 1950ish). That means my GPU is easily capable of 120 FPS if it wasn't capped at 60hz due to the physics issues above that.

I also have to say that TAA is much improved over the MSAA and FXAA options we had.

The game engine is definitely improved.

 

[thejunglegod]

I don't really understand what the big fuss was with this anyway. The moment I saw the first trailer for a special edition I knew there was nothing that they'd do which hadn't already been done through mods before. They've had 4k textures, all the god ray effects, lighting tweaks etc. through mods since the original game. I mean, I don't even know what the hype was for?

 

[bystander36]

I don't really understand what the big fuss was with this anyway. The moment I saw the first trailer for a special edition I knew there was nothing that they'd do which hadn't already been done through mods before. They've had 4k textures, all the god ray effects, lighting tweaks etc. through mods since the original game. I mean, I don't even know what the hype was for?

One big difference is it does it with much better performance. When using all those things before, the game was choppy. Now it runs better than the previous vanilla version.

 

[shortylickens]

OH, they did allow for borderless window as in Fallout 4, which makes alt-tabbing instant. Thats good for checking guides and such.

 

[Raduque]

I almost wish I had previously bought the DLC, but I never finished the base game and have about 40 hours into it. I do like free stuff, but the DLCs are $45 and SSE is $40.

My console peasant co-workers are REALLY crazy into Skyrim on PS4 and preordered this the day it was announced.

 

[futurefields]

I've had the same experience so far, but I also noticed while it's mostly around 70% usage, the GPU clock rate is 1000Ghz on my 1070 (it normally is at 1950ish). That means my GPU is easily capable of 120 FPS if it wasn't capped at 60hz due to the physics issues above that.

I also have to say that TAA is much improved over the MSAA and FXAA options we had.

The game engine is definitely improved.

yeah i'm running a 970 @ 1418mhz. sounds like the 1070 is quite the beast

 

[zinfamous]

While I wont say your wrong, as yes I could see 72 hours being enough to "win" the main quest ( and miss about 80% of the games content) as most games today are 10-30 hours to complete 100%. This game is about exploring, finding little tidbits/stories that do not pertain to the main quest line. And again i get it, some people need a path to follow and specific finish to end a game, nothing wrong with that. In my opinion your missing out, but in yours its maybe just a waste of time. I have played the game through to "almost" completion 3 times, mage, unarmed, and thief builds. I never finish the game as I too would feel its "over" and wouldn't do the side quests.

As for me I preloaded and am excited to try a sword and Board build, but really want to build a mage again.. maybe 2 play through s with the new updated graphics?

that's funny. I keep thinking I will try mage (flamed out with that one ~level 30) or bow or thief only, but I always end up with sword and board character in Skyrim. I think it's just natural for that world. Mage seems especially weak or just simply anathema compared to other ES games. It seems like it gets old and simple--it is pretty simple--but shield bashing dragons to death is pretty satisfying.

 

[zinfamous]

I'm pretty excited about this release, I totally plan on making my dump again in Whiterun. I'm curious if the limit of items I can discard on the map will have increased, since last time it locked the game up after threw too much stuff in the creek. You can get the legendary version of this over at cdkeys.com for alittle over 12 dollars right now.

LoL! I remember your dump. Hopefully with 64 bit, you can fill up that gigantic lake in the southern part of the map.

 

[Mandres]

I cant see any justification for charging 60 bucks for this on pc. For the consoles the enabling of mods offers some value, but on pc this should be $20 max

 

[shortylickens]

I cant see any justification for charging 60 bucks for this on pc. For the consoles the enabling of mods offers some value, but on pc this should be $20 max

in a way it is, get skyrim legendary on sale and there you go.

 

[futurefields]

I cant see any justification for charging 60 bucks for this on pc. For the consoles the enabling of mods offers some value, but on pc this should be $20 max

They are charging $40 on PC and if you owned the game already with DLC, you get it for free. That's a very generous offer considering fans of the game will largely already have it on PC.

 

[dust]

I just found out about this, mainly due to this thread, so thanks! I have to say it's a curious sensation - getting excited and disappointed without even playing the game, just from reading the thread evolution. I played something like 1000+ hours before, the vast majority of them with mods. I don't think I'd be able to play vanilla again.

 

[Dahak]

that's funny. I keep thinking I will try mage (flamed out with that one ~level 30) or bow or thief only, .......

There are a couple of magic overhauls that should help with that. Not that I have tried any, as I am usually a sword and board person anyway

 

[Blue_Max]

Well, just tried it out on my i7-2600 + GTX 960 4GB
I feel like it actually runs a bit smoother, but I'm not seeing a night-and-day difference in quality... but I'm not having these slowdown complaints like people with faster PCs seem to be having.

Thumbs up from me - can't beat free!