I got it for free, due to having the original with all expansions. I wouldn't have bought it. It was also a good time to replay at least some of the game, as that had been on hiatus for a long time.
My main concern about SE is that it's amazingly buggy on a quest level. I've encountered 4 quest-stopping or -crippling bugs, where one of them required restoring an older save (the end game with Miraak), one I haven't resolved yet (getting enrolled into College of Winterhold) that requires changing the quest state, a temporary one with an unresponsive Beor etc. Actually these were not encountered during the playthrough with original Skyrim, but then I had already applied the unofficial patches.
Why hasn't Bethesda fixed this by now? Why not acquire the unofficial patches, and give the developers some hard-earned money? They are definitely worth it.
@kerrman Actually and strangely this is in favor of PCs. I can play 20 odd year old games on my new PC. Why Microsoft consoles don't run a slimmed down version of Windows is to me a conundrum. Then they wouldn't have had to make Xbox-specific games, and backwards-compatibility would not be an issue. Of course they want people to buy new games and new peripherals etc.
@RingoBarsha87 I don't think Bethesda will make more mods/expansions for Skyrim. Dragonborn was Skyrim's Shivering Isles, so to speak. I believe though that TES Online could take time from developing single-player games.
Gamespot: I find mods that add trinkets and weird things (giant rabbits?) completely uninteresting (as always, mileage may vary). The only mods I care about are new quests and new places and preferably combined. Could you please review the best such independent mods? Falskaar is the best I've played so far.
"producer Stéphane Roy said it was "really, really important" to make sure the core gameplay--the "fun factor"--remained intact across console generations."
That's seldomly a problem, unless there's outright crippling lag. I played through Skyrim on a rather weak PC, and when I got a new rig the game experience didn't change at all. It only looked a bit prettier when I set everything to max. The same with Crysis 2, Bioshock etc.
If they dumb down Thief for consoles' (and console players') sake, then I will mourn.
I didn't see any differences that would affect game play, unless the frame rate was affected. Sure, there's more rain and explosion effects on a PC, but does that affect game play much? No.
Admittedly, Crysis 2 looked amazing on my new PC with everything set to Extreme and at HD resolution. I had earlier played on less than top settings and at 1024*768. Even so, the game as such played as well and was as enjoyable on either machine.
@reincarnator07 @ulkas Agreed. Buying a new console every year would be costly, especially if it wasn't backwards compatible with already owned games. It works for mobile phones as they are heavily subsidized. I doubt the same model would be used for gaming consoles, but might be worth considering for Steam.
ulkas' comments