Upon fleeing the smoking ruins of Helgen you’re treated to a breathtaking view of Skyrim once more and from that moment you’re inexorably sucked into a world that refuses to let go. However, being a re-release, it’s much easier to simply ignore these shortcomings instead of letting them get in the way. Factor in hefty loading times, corrupt save files, and issues specific to Skyrim’s PlayStation 3 release, I just couldn’t be bothered wrestling with it anymore. Beyond that, the game engine hasn’t exactly come along leaps and bounds over the past ten years – just look at last year’s Fallout 4. In creating such vast worlds, populated by hundreds of interactive characters, it’s mandatory for a Bethesda game to be riddled with bugs, it’s something of a running joke. Looking back, I can put my finger on what exactly went wrong. Even those who didn’t game often got caught up in the Skyrim craze, each with their unique, and often humorous, stories to tell. I spent at least a dozen or so hours exploring its superb snowy open world, but failed to connect in the same way my friends and peers had. I’d fallen head over heels for Oblivion and revelled in Fallout 3’s Capital Wasteland yet, for some reason, Bethesda’s trek to northern Tamriel simply didn’t click for me. I didn’t love Skyrim the same way as many others did when it launched at the end of 2011.
