Bethesda recently announced a remaster of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, and it seems like the company are hard at work to really justify the notion of a return trip to the land of Nords and Dragons.
At least, that’s according to Bethesda’s Pete Hines, who says that Skyrim: Special Edition is aiming to be “as next-gen as possible”.
Speaking to IGN, Hines said:
We haven’t gotten into the full, ‘Here’s all the things we’re doing.’ But the basic idea is, in all the ways possible we’re trying to improve it and make it as next-gen and appropriate for these consoles as possible. Performance, effects, or whatever we can do to make the game look and feel better, we’re going to give it a go.
Since the game was revealed not too long ago at E3, there’s still plenty we don’t know about the remaster. However, the E3 trailer (below) showcased a few new visual effects, including snow shaders, enhanced lighting, and volumetric God rays.
We also know that the remaster will include mod support on consoles, and will come with all DLC from the base game.
Many PC users will doubtless already have a ton of cool graphical mods, and may be questioning the point of a remaster from their perspective.
Bethesda seem to understand, as PC gamers will be able to upgrade to Skyrim:Special Edition for free – provided they already own the original game and all DLC.
While most of us would probably rather just have a new Elder Scrolls game, you might want to get used to the idea that a Skyrim remaster is the best we’re getting for a while. Bethesda recently confirmed that The Elder Scrolls VI is a very long way off.
geforceSkyrim Special Edition launches October 28 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.
Ewan Moore is a journalist at UNILAD Gaming who still quite hasn’t gotten out of his mid 00’s emo phase. After graduating from the University of Portsmouth in 2015 with a BA in Journalism & Media Studies (thanks for asking), he went on to do some freelance words for various places, including Kotaku, Den of Geek, and TheSixthAxis, before landing a full time gig at UNILAD in 2016.