Tom's Hardware Steam Giveaway: 'Skyrim: Special Edition'

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Joshua Simenhoff was a former Tom's Hardware community manager. He covered a wide range of topics, including PC hardware how-tos and articles with a focus on community engagement. His expertise lay in connecting with readers and providing practical, informative content about the latest technology.

  • Jeff Fx
    Anyone who bought the original and all the DLC already has the special edition. It looks much better than the original release, but not as good as the original + 3rd party mods.
    Reply
  • Math Geek
    wouldn't mind having it to see what all the hubbub has been about all these years. never played it myself but would for free :D
    Reply
  • RomeoReject
    My younger brother doesn't have this yet though, could be nice for him!
    Reply
  • alextheblue
    18976968 said:
    Anyone who bought the original and all the DLC already has the special edition. It looks much better than the original release, but not as good as the original + 3rd party mods.
    I was missing one DLC and I didn't catch wind of the freebie option for DLC owners until it was too late.

    Anyway, while what you say is true, I believe there is more potential in Skyrim SE - mods are free to consume a LOT more RAM for one thing. You can still mod away so if you want super realistic textures, I'm sure they're out there. It's built around DX11 instead of (I believe) DX9 in Skyrim. It also comes stock with some pretty-graphics extras like volumetric lighting (godrays), SSAO, lots of other shadow improvements like smoother shadows + shadow movement, temporal AA, rain occlusion, flowing water shaders, dynamic DoF, reduced pop-in when moving fast, and probably other tweaks. Some of that could be added with mods, but not all of it, and it's nice to have it baked in. It does require a beefy system to turn crank godrays up though.
    Reply