I’ve been playing modded Skyrim again to get my mind off of things and after playing three hundred hours of that game (according to steam, actually seems kinda low to me) in many different versions and I have to say: This game is actually just ok. Probably their best post-morrowind, although that really isn’t particularly high praise. When you mod it so that it’s better balanced, there’s more things to find and more things to spend your septims on, the gameplay loop actually starts working pretty well. There are also just many, many parts that I’ve never seen before (might try to finish the main quest this time), and that’s pretty cool for a game I’ve often felt I’ve gotten everything out of already. Like when I originally played it at release, it was like forty hours in that once the sheen wore off, that I realized that way too much of that games quests are just lazy excuses to send you into random dungeons, which still holds true, but as I’ve said, once the mods come in that gameplay loop actually works, although it does always still feel kinda flat in its execution.

The modding scene has also genuinely grown into something better than I would have ever thought: There are so many talented people working on that game, it’s absurd. The way they added unto that engine over the years is incredible (they only very recently added things like support for PBR textures, ships and carriages that actually travel the sea and roads and just checking out the Nexus, someone like last week made a mod that adds an Elden Ring-Style horse to the game) and tools like Wabbajack have made modding so much easier. I’ve been playing the “Nordic Souls” mod list, which isn’t the largest or most advanced engine, keeping it somewhat vanilla plus, with many quest mods and follower mods and the likes (all fully voice acted in more than decent quality). It’s been pretty fun. There’s also a mod for an enhanced and fully revamped main quest in the works, which looks pretty promising (maybe they can make a new mages guild afterwards, that still feels like the weakest part of the game to me).