The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is officially ten years old. How time flies, eh? The open world role-playing game first released for the PlayStation 3 on the 11th November, 2011 — and boy was it a mess. Skyrim ran extremely poorly on Sony's old console — even after it had received a boatload of updates — but its poor technical performance didn't stop the game from becoming a landmark release. One of the most successful RPGs ever made — both critically and commercially — Skyrim has simply never faded away.
Thankfully, PlayStation players finally got to experience a good version of Skyrim on PS4, with the Special Edition in 2016. It actually ran quite well, and even featured mod support a little later down the line. The newly released Anniversary Edition should be another improvement on PS5, where it boasts an enhanced frame-rate, faster load times, and loads of Creation Club DLC.
But as always, we want to farm your thoughts. What do you think of Skyrim, all these years later? Vote in our polls, and then tell us all about your adventures in the comments section below.
Comments 85
I still adore it all these years later, warts and all.
Disregarding the constant milking of the cow, and the bugs on release, it is one of the greatest games ever made. The sheer size is incredible to me still today.
personally i prefer fallout
Skyrim + Modding Community = Legendary
Edit: not sure on sample size but it seems like a sizable proportion did not buy/play it. Very surprising to me tbh.
haven't played it, I have a copy of the VR version I've yet to start, welp
Fantastic game. Gameplay, setting, lore, soundtrack, character options...masterpiece of gaming in my mind. 150 hrs on my first run through
I way prefer games of this style to be with guns but this game I completely loved and wasn’t wishing it was anything other than what it was. That’s a testament to its greatness
Yeah modding community made this game still relevant even today.
If i have to vote the game itself, i think it’s at best a 6. But with so many varieties of mods, the game is absolutely a masterpiece.
@Victor_Meldrew best way to play it, enjoy, it is awesome.
@clianvXAi what mods do you think are the best for this on the PlayStation console
A truly great western fantasy RPG, I think it’s perfection is the reason we haven’t had another Elder Scrolls yet, they are not sure how to top it!
Its a brilliant game but its time to move on..
I've never played it other than trying it for about 10 minutes on PS VR. After that I then vomited uncontrollably and decided to sell my PS VR because I clearly get motion sickness from VR lol
I like skyrim but it's oblivion that I really loved, I played maybe more than 100 hours on that game, just finishing side quests and exploring dungeons.
It really is a masterpiece. Mods on PC absolutely blow the PS version out the water though unfortunately!
Never played it and I'm not really interested
It is a good game.
Never saw a reason to play more than once ages ago.
Skyrim felt like a relic a year after launch when Dragon’s Dogma came out. And with games like Horizon, Ghost of Tsushima, The Witcher 3 and the upcoming Elden Ring, Skyrim feels more and more dated with each new open world game that comes out.
It's a masterpiece just like Fallout 4 with or without mods. Tired of that cheesy "with mods" comment. Modders are so great they haven't gathered to make their own game yet 😏
As much as I played and generally enjoyed Oblivion, I loathed Fallout 4 and realized Bethesda RPGs just aren't for me. I skipped Skyrim and went all in on Kingdoms of Amalur, which I adored. Bethesda games are way too janky for my liking. I'd rather play Dragon's Dogma, or Witcher 3, or any other number of Western RPGs over a Bethesda one.
It’s a great game but like… it’s been 10 years already. Would like something new lol. This and GTA V are just going to exist forever.
I only played it for the first time on switch a couple of years back and for me it didn't hold up the way in the way I've found other games of that gen have. I'm sure at the time though it was mind blowing!
An absolute masterpiece and a game I still regularly revisit and find plenty to do
Played a bit recently an thought it was absolute rubbish. Not engaging at all.
@nessisonett i agree. Mods on Xbox also blow PS version out of the water. Decent skin texture packs, body sculpting mods, texture packs etc reallycmade a difference to me and alot was not present on PS4, especially anything which really messed with main character remodeling.
Removed - harassment
It's a pale shadow of Oblivion. Put hours into Skyrim's predecessor but really couldn't be bothered with this. Dunno why?
That it needs finally die along with GTA V.
@CynicalGamer Never played for two main reasons:
1.The time commitment it needs.
2.Melee combat looks janky and not fun.
Masterpiece. Winterhold for the win.
Removed - flaming/arguing
My experience with the game was walk miles for quest and get killed just before reaching destination 1 second after saving.
Its a fantastic game and it holds up very well, went on to check out the PS5 version today for an hour but ended spending 3 hours in it. Easily one of my fav games.
It was a crime on PS3 how terrible it wad made.
@TheArt https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_video_games_derived_from_mods
oh look, it's the guy who hasn't any clue what he's talking about. I think I'd rather have the guy who comments first on nearly every article (although you're probably wrong about that too..)
Masterpiece. But it is more that a bit rough round the edges now. If you play for a bit you forget and immerse yourself if the wonderful world but it's pretty stark when you first go back to playing it.
It's a good game, and I was there day 1 (with the LE with that much much bigger than in the pictures dragon statue. I'm a huge TES fan that was super psyched for the preorder, and expected an envelope in the mail to arrive. Instead this massive 22"x22"x22" cube was dropped at my door. Thing looked like a refrigerator....it was just skyrim and my LE dragon I still have absolutely no idea where I'll ever put it, but will never get rid of it. )
But I never quite got into Skyrim the same way as with Daggerfall, Morrowind, and Oblivion. Despite being more popular, something of the old magic was always missing from Skyrim and it felt like a step back. Still good, still TES, but not quite as gripping as prior entries.
Like everyone else said, though, the PS3 version of TES games is always trash. I played prior games on PC, and Skyrim for X360. Then bought it for PSVR, Switch, X1X, Palm Pilot, Apple IIe, Amiga, C64, IBM PS/2, Cray X-MP, MSX, DEC Alpha, AS/400, VAX VT-100, and ENIAC (Skyrim Punchcard Edition).
@TheArt Dear Esther, The Stanley Parable, The Forgotten City, Undertale, DOTA 2. Plenty of good games started as mods, but that's beside the point.
The point of many mods is to enhance the original game, often bringing it more up to date. Saying Skyrim is better with mods isn't an insult.
For some reasons a bunch of other open worlds have drawn me in a lot more, but Skyrim was still a great game. The first few times you fight a dragon in that game are unforgettable.
Strangely, I played Skyrim on PS3 and encountered surprisingly few bugs. Just got lucky I guess.
Also: obligatory “Arrow in the knee” joke here.
Still haven't played it, still don't care.
Skyrim is a great game I have basically no interest in returning to.
Removed - flaming/arguing
Finished Skyrim once after it was launched, and i liked it a lot. Open World action RPG games were new at the time, it was special.
Then 2015 came around and The Witcher 3 got launched, and i played it for at least 200-300 hours, it was a 10/10 game for me.
Sometime 2016, tried playing Skyrim again but i quit after 1-2h. I found it's inventory cumbersome and systems antiquated...
Never touched it again since then.
my thoughts? I played it on switch for 85 hours, never want to play it again
My opinion on Skyrim is pretty much the same as other Bethesda games: excellent role-playing and atmosphere with floaty controls and boring combat.
If I can sink 500+ hours into a game it knows what it's doing. There are few games I've sunk that kinda time into. It is also one of those games that I thought about when I wasn't playing it. Also a rare feat imo. The music, the lore, the graphics (at the time), the overwhelming amount of content, the fact your decisions mattered and changed the game...it was just a wonderful experience minus the bugs.
"Poll: 10 Years Later, What Are Your Thoughts on Skyrim?"
It says Skyrim NOT Skyrim with Mods.
Played it on PS3 back when it launched and had a great time with it.
@trev666 I thought Oblivion was better, FO3 as well.
Skyrim is one of the most milked games ever. It's antiquated af.
I bought it on release and loved it. It wasn't perfect, the main plot is dire and, outside of memes, it's characters are pretty forgettable but few games match it's sense of discovery. I played the ps4 re-release and wasn't as keen, its just not aged particularly well, especially when held up against The Witcher 3.
I played it on PC a few months after the original release and had a blast. However one thing I've noticed with Bethesda style RPGs is I can only play them once. I tried to play it again but burnt out pretty quick. I tried the same with Witcher 3 and had the same result.
Yet on the flip side I've played more linear JRPGs multiple times and can always come back for more. I've played Persona 5 4 times now for example.
I get why folks continue to admire Skyrim since it's so impressively big especially for its time though. Looking forward to 6 in... 6 years probably.
Played the Switch version. It's okay, but there are better open world games. The main issue I have with the game is that it's entirely quest based and doesn't really have a collectible of some kind (like say: Korok Seeds or Spirit Orbs in BotW), so there's no real incentive to explore the massive open world. You just go wherever the quests tell you to go and ignore 90% of the map, which almost defeats the purpose.
@Enuo And none of those even come close to providing the open-world experience Skyrim offers. The sheer detail of the world, the agility to interact with is still unrivaled. Every NPC has a place in the world, every object can be interacted with, a full crime system, the ability to just soak in the life where you are feel like you're really in a town, and just as a passing tourist. All the secrets and mini-events.
In terms of being whatever you want how you can personally interact with the world, Horizon, Witcher 3 (the world is a good backdrop for the well-written quests, but not that great on it's own), Ghost of Tsuhima, have rather static open worlds by comparison. And that's not an insult to those games, it was not their purpose.
Was not as special at the time as when Oblivion came out. Have tried on multiple occasions and just have no drive to go through the story. The Witcher 2: Assassin of Kings came out the same year and in my unpopular opinion demonstrated how RPGs were going. Skyrim has aged terribly and if it wasn't for the awesome modding community fixing Bethesda's lazy efforts would be forgotten.
Platted it on psvr. It is amazing in vr.
The normal version is just OK imo.
Amazing game, especially in 3D on a giant projector screen.
Was playing on my toaster this morning wait for my toast. It’s a good game. We need more ports of this quality on to toasters.
Just have the free version of the update a go and have to say I’m impressed. Last time I played it it felt very rough around the edges. This was much smoother, better textures and load times
I tried to play it but quickly realized the time investment and 10yrs later still not ready to commit. lol
Internet culture and repeat releases have soured things a bit, but I loved the game when I played it ten years ago. Absolutely loved it.
But Bethesda really slowed down afterwards.
In 2005/6 we got Oblivion, in 2008 we got Fallout 3, in 2011 we got Skyrim, in 2015 we got Fallout 4. No new Elder Scrolls for an entire decade, and for more than an entire console generation. Shame.
I put about 300 hours into two different characters on the PS3 version.
That version was ass. But Skyrim is a great game at its core.
@TheArt
10 years later and you’re still a knob…
Some things never change.
Removed - flaming/arguing
@Victor_Meldrew Skyrim VR is great! Without VR i would never have tried it.
As a gamer who quit playing video games in his late teens and returned to gaming in his mid 30s, I tried out Skyrim for the first time for a couple hours a couple days ago and found the combat to be absolutely atrocious. It felt like a slog compared to the likes of Horizon Zero Dawn, which was my reintroduction to gaming, and the newer generation of open wold RPGs. I just couldn't get into it.
@TheArt
Wow what an epic comeback!!!
I've only played through it once. Was getting a bit sick of it towards the end so I rushed through it massively underleveled. Still don't' know how I finished it
My main memory is of racing the save corrupting save size bug to the Platinum... It was pretty rough the last few hours before I finally got that last trophy.
It's a masterpiece. Yes it may feel dated but at the time it was truly something special. I didn't need mods in order to sink 100's of hours into and enjoyed almost every single second.
PCMR snobs strike again, on a PlayStation site of all places.
Sigh.
Rather play Skyrim on a loop than a million Soulsborne games.
It's overrated as hell. It wasn't even that special at launch. It was alright then though, but it has aged poorly. The world was empty and pretty boring, the npcs felt dated and the combat was pretty sluggish and stiff.
i wish more games offered the freedom and customization skyrim had
Truly fantastic game, I loved Lydia as well. Perfect companion and wifey material (we did live together)
I played it a bit on the Xbox 360 back in the day, then again on the Switch and honestly I just couldn't get into it. I never quite understood the hype with this game.
@Col_McCafferty - "Rather play Skyrim on a loop than a million Soulsborne games."
That's.....a take. Any reason why Soulsbourne (or Souls-like) games are so low in your estimation?
Tried getting into it a couple of times, but couldn't really get past the combat, which, despite being the same system that New Vegas used, was much harder to deal with here (likely due to fact the mechanics really work better with ranged weapons than melee) so I never really got that far into it. From what I did play, it seemed okay (combat aside), but nothing approaching the level of reverence I've seen from others.
I've never downloaded, installed, or played Skyrim before. However I have bought it twice so far (PS3 and PS4).
So happy the PS5 version offers a free upgrade path from PS4.
To be honest, although i owner and played oblivion and Skyrim, I didn’t enjoy them that much. I had a much better time with Morrowind, but that may have been because it was my first such game. I think a large problem is how the story and lore is delivered, but also the latter two had terrible enemy levelling and scaling systems. They are also always janky as anything.
They have always been so close to greatness, but they can certainly be bettered, and I hope they will be one day.
It's pretty good. I thought it was overrated even at the time and twelve re-releases haven't changed that in any way, but it certainly has quite a bit going for it - enough to overlook the fairly tedious combat and general jankiness. I like the side questlines, like the assassins guild and the thieves and stuff.
Really surprised Dawnguard hasn't got more love.....
Playing Skyrim on Pro/PSVR combo was incredible. To be IN the world and have everything right there with you was a brand new game experience with it. I played it on PS3 and PS4 before VR - what I didn't expect was how new everything felt from that perspective. Amazing.
I love this game, but it didnt age too well, which makes me love it even more.
Yesterday I started fishing, and then a fish started flying across the screen and I just burst out laughing.
I LOVE Skyrim and that is something that will never change
I used to love Elder Scrolls games but From Soft games have ruined Bethesda games for me. All I used to need was a map full of things to find but post Dark Souls I need fun gameplay.
I first played the game when it was remastered on PS4 and was really enjoying the game at first.
I then encountered a game breaking progress bug that repeated regardless of which save I used. So I had to start again. I then discovered this was a known bug in the original game so was left annoyed that it hadn't been fixed as part of the original game or remaster.
Then when I managed to get through the main quest line the Thieves Guild bugged out on me but luckily I had more saves this time, one of which worked.
I think if I wasn't getting issues playing this game it would be much higher rated but because the issues I had I just found the game good. It also felt a bit dated for a newcomer
I think the combat aged very poorly and I cant be bothered to scavenge another bazillion caves again
@Legacy2K Speaking of, I hated how they wouldn't let you marry Khajit. You could marry like, just about every other race but Khajit? Nope. I played as a Khajit and I wanted to be able to marry an NPC of my species but Bethesda says screw you furries I guess? Kind of a nitpick I know, but it turned me off to the whole marriage feature because the variety of potential races you could marry was smaller than the variety of potential races you could actually choose to play. It honestly seems a tad racist, and would be a huge controversy if races like Khajits or Argonians were real instead of fictional (that'd be the Skyrim equivalent of not letting you marry non-white races in the real world).
This game is the proof that Bethesda is an awful developer, re-releasing a crappy game full of bugs without fixing a single one of them. Every single quest has several problematic bugs that exist since vanilla Skyrim.
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