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All 6 versions of Skyrim, ranked

Skyrim vs. Skyrim vs. Skyrim.

by Robin Bea

Source: TheDuke08

When Skyrim was released in 2011, it was hailed as one of the best RPGs of all time. The same was mostly true when it was released again in 2013, 2016, 2017, and 2018.

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Director Todd Howard has promised (threatened?) to keep releasing Skyrim until people stop buying it.

He wasn’t lying.

Bethesda is releasing the Skyrim Anniversary Edition in November. It includes 500 pieces of the “Creation Club” mod content that makes Skyrim actually fun to play in 2021.

In the meantime, we’re taking a trip down memory lane with all our favorite Skyrims to date, from the original yelling-at-dragons simulator Skyrim to the much-improved Skyrim.

Here are the 6 best Skyrims before Skyrim arrives in November.

6. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

(2011, PC/PS3/Xbox 360)

The very first Skyrim, Skyrim, introduced players to the snowy land of Skyrim: Oh, the mountains and game bugs were so large even the Dragonborn’s horse couldn’t scale them, making it the worst (and, in a way, truest) way to play Skyrim.

5. Skyrim — Legendary Edition

(2013, PC/PS3/Xbox 360)

Skyrim Legendary Edition removed fan-favorite features like the bug that randomly deleted save files. It replaced them with Skyrim’s DLC, letting you live out fantasies of abandoning your family to go questing or playing a worse version of Morrowind.

4. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

(2017, Switch)

Skyrim went back to its roots on Switch, removing mod support and dialing back the graphics to roughly 2011 levels. One big upgrade came in immersion, with motion controls that made combat realistically painful.

3. Skyrim — Special Edition

(2016, PC/PS4/Xbox One)

Skyrim Special Edition added console mod support, so you could turn dragons into Thomas the Tank Engine or whatever other perverted thing you’re into. On PC, it broke mod support, which made merely starting the game into a challenging new quest.

2. Skyrim VR

(2017, PS4; 2018, PC)

Swinging an unwieldy, over-decorated sword or shooting fire from your hands has never felt as good as it does in Skyrim VR. The inevitable motion sickness is also a great simulation of how you’d feel after eating 15 cheese wheels in combat.

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1. Skyrim: Very Special Edition

(2018, Amazon Alexa)

Plenty of games let you fight supernatural creatures with sword and sorcery, but only one lets you talk about doing that while a robot gently mocks you. This voice-only Skyrim proves that Bethesda is in on the joke — or that Jeff Bezos is collecting data on mudcrab preparedness.

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