There are two impossibly massive Skyrim mods remaking classic Elder Scrolls RPGs, and both had some extensive, gorgeous gameplay to share this week
May. 3, 2024Skyblivion is out next year, and Skywind is “closer than ever before”
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
The mod teams behind Skywind and Skyblivion, the two massive projects remaking Morrowind and Oblivion withinSkyrim, have been at work for a long,longtime, and it’s finally starting to look like that work will pay off. Both projects shared some extensive developer updates this week, complete with some absolutely gorgeous-looking in-game footage.
For Skyblivion, we get some lovely flythroughs of the rebuilt locations with some lore breakdowns, alongside a look at some new and improved features over the original. I’m particularly impressed with the more varied Ayleid ruins, which will now feature unique assets depending on what region you find the dungeon in. There’s also some very neat tweaks to class creation and leveling up, as well a full-on rebuild of the lockpicking minigame that stays true to the way it worked in Oblivion.
Skywind, a similar project remaking Morrowind, has also been in development for the better part of a decade, but its developers still haven’t committed to a firm release target. (They’re also stilllooking for volunteers, as you might expect.) But they do note in their update video that the mod is “closer than ever before” alongside a look at the team’s progress.
This video is a lot more technical in nature, but even if you’re not interested in the development details, there’s a lot of very impressive footage and some interesting gameplay details. Particularly notable is the fact that Skywind revives the old Morrowind armor system with 14 distinct armor slots. Yes, that means separate left and right pauldrons. For a particularly staggering idea of the scope of this project, the video notes that Skyrim had 1,100 NPCs voiced by 70 actors. Skywind has 3,000 NPCs voiced by 300 actors.
I’ve been eagerly awaiting both these mods for years now, and while it’s easy to cynically suggest they might never get finished after all this time, the progress these volunteer developers have managed to make so far is genuinely astounding. I’ve got my fingers crossed that I’ll be playing Skyblivion next year with Skywind not too far behind.
Thebest Skyrim modsare only getting better.
Sign up to the GamesRadar+ Newsletter
Weekly digests, tales from the communities you love, and more
How Metaphor ReFantazio pulled Atlus out of its Persona rut
League of Legends co-creator reveals the “ballpark” number for Arcane’s real budget – and it’s not even close to the reported $250 million figure
