With E3 2016 looming ever closer, the rumor mills about what will be announced are at full speed.  That being said, it was brought to our attention today that Bethesda Softworks may be announcing a remastered, current-gen version of the wildly popular (and often-memed) open world game, Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.  The rumor comes to us via the ever-present industry insider Shinobi602 (who also broke the news about the release delay for Horizon Zero Dawn).  This new version is said to include all of the DLC that was available for the original, better graphics, and mod support.

Harry & I decided to sit down & mull this one over, and we talked about what we liked about the game, as well as what we’d like to see done with the remaster.

Doug
In my opinion, Skyrim was one of the best open-world RPGs I have ever played.  The character creation was nearly flawless, the core story kept pushing me to find out more, and the copious amount of side missions had me losing track of time in my evenings & weekends.  I loved the skill tree system, the different ways of approaching combat, and the fact that I was going up against enemies that would get stronger as I leveled up.  This was also the first time in a game that I felt the dialogue choices I was given were actually making a difference in the outcome of the story.

Now, with this remaster…  I know that a lot of gamers aren’t fans of remastered versions of older games, but I think this is one could be good.  To have all of the DLC in one place, and current-gen graphics on such a large scale game?  Fantastic!  If I had my way, though, a few things that I want out of this version would be:

• Tweaking of the coloration in the environment.  The colors in the original were very muted (I know that it went with the theme, but still), and I feel like some pops of color on the dragons would add a nice touch, as would some additional contrasts in the character armors.
• PLEASE, Bethesda…WORK ON YOUR AI!  Having my companion get in the way in those small cave tunnels was always frustrating to the point of defenestrating my controller.  I can’t TELL you how many times I screamed “DAMMIT, LYDIA!  MOVE!!” at my screen while trying to get through some of those maze-like areas.
• Give the towns a bit more “life”.  I’d like to see more crowd interaction, instead of seeing NPCs either standing around or milling about aimlessly.

Harry
Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim stole hours and weeks of my life when it came out in 2011. I remember having that entire weekend plus a day (Monday was a holiday that year) to get into that game, and what blew me away was the environment.  The mark of a good open world game in my opinion is how immersive it can be.  This includes not only the AI, but the land itself.  How it changes in different zones, the day/night cycle and more.

Upon hearing about this rumor, I actually got excited.  I don’t do that often for games, as I feel like many remasters are just like movie reboots.  It’s just a company’s way to sucker you out of money for something you already bought.  Mind you I played (and still play) Skyrim on PC, and it was a beautiful game then.  If a remaster is indeed in the works, it’s one of those rare times I wouldn’t mind double-dipping again for the experience because, let’s be honest, Elder Scrolls Online is not such a great experience.

If this does happen, there are a few things I need to hear about before I purchase it and they include:

• Better loading times for this game. I just re-ran a play through of Skyrim a few weeks ago and I realize how much I have been spoiled by The Witcher 3.   The ability to seamlessly go in and out of buildings is something that if not addressed here, needs to be addressed in the next  Elder Scrolls game.
• Mod tools needs to be included. Now, I will admit. I didn’t hang around long for Fallout 4 as I feel like I have enough games on my plate but it would be nice to have access to some of those Nexus mod tools to really create a unique experience for Skyrim.  The ability to change the map, improve certain graphic settings and more would make this more palatable to replay if some of those tools are allowed to mod the game
• A ‘denser’ world in which to play. One of the reasons why GTA V was such a big improvement on current gen consoles was because Rockstar managed to find a way to add to the game. More people, denser traffic and so much more that gave that game life.   Skyrim could benefit from it as well.  One of the mods that came out years ago actually attempted to bring random full scale battles that players could run across. I mean, if the world is at war, it wouldn’t be uncommon to stumble along a fight between armies…and better yet, interrupted by a dragon!  That, not to mention adding more NPCs  to some of the cities in the game a’la Witcher 3 could make this game so much more better.

Check out the video breakdown of our thoughts here.

But is this a real thing or just a rumor?   E3 starts in just under a week and we just have to wait until Bethesda’s press release to find out.  Skyrim came out in 2011, and we have no idea when the next Elder Scrolls iteration will be coming so, why not give gamers something to re-play in the meantime. We will just have to wait and see.