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The star in this regard is the volumetric lighting, which managed to leave me in awe all these years later as I stalked through Falkreath forests where moonlight dropped in ghostly shafts through the trees. The Special Edition doesn't go for sweeping character model and animation overhauls like I and many other players had hoped, but it does enhance the world’s occasionally meaningful details.
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(I've also spent almost all of my roughly 400 hours with Skyrim on PC, where naturally I stuffed it with graphical enhancements.) But a side-by-side comparison with the original version quickly unmasks the considerable differences. “I struggled with this realization at first: in my memory, it always looked much like this, with the woods around Riften alive with detailed vegetation. Skyrim's Special Edition recaptures and beautifies the original game, but leaves a lot of room for an even-more-special edition down the road. Much as the prophets over at Bethesda Game Studios foretold, the Dragonborn has returned to us, but it's certainly not the second coming.
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The Nordic homeland looks better here, no doubt, but never quite good enough to let it pass for a modern game, and it lacks any new content or behind-the-scenes features to make it feel fresh for a returning adventurer. But soon after I'd spy rich foliage carpeting the floors of dark fir forests and light bouncing off choppy waters on Lake Ilinalta, and these sights would kindle a homesickness for this made-up world I explored for months five years ago, but the inconsistency of the graphics upgrade leaves Skyrim in a strange place. It's the first thing I saw in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition as we rode in the cart toward our execution, and it didn't leave the best first impression. Rigid and coarse, Ralof's hair looks like a piece of dust-caked banana Laffy Taffy I once found under my couch.
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