The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Anniversary Edition

Quick Overview
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Anniversary Edition is the most complete version of Skyrim, combining the Special Edition base game, all major expansions, and a large bundle of Creation Club content. You still get the classic open-world RPG experience: exploring snowy mountains, joining factions, fighting dragons, clearing dungeons, crafting gear, and building your character however you want. Bethesda describes the Anniversary Edition as including the core game, add-ons, and Creation Club content with quests, dungeons, bosses, weapons, spells, and more.

What makes this version different is the extra content. It adds things like new quests, survival features, fishing, extra items, homes, armor sets, weapons, and more small adventures. It is not a full remake, but it gives Skyrim more content and replay value.

Who Should Play This Game?
Play Skyrim Anniversary Edition if you want a huge fantasy RPG where you can roleplay freely, explore at your own pace, join different guilds, become a mage, warrior, thief, assassin, vampire hunter, dragonborn hero, or just wander around discovering caves and side quests.

It is also a strong pick if you like modding, because Skyrim still has one of the biggest modding communities in gaming.

Skip it if you want modern combat, cutting-edge animations, or a completely new Elder Scrolls experience. Under the added content, this is still Skyrim — legendary, massive, and addictive, but also old in some areas.

Performance on PC
Skyrim Anniversary Edition is easy to run by modern standards. Steam lists minimum specs as Intel i5-750 / AMD Phenom II X4-945, 8 GB RAM, GTX 470 1GB / AMD HD 7870 2GB, and 12 GB storage. Recommended specs are Intel i5-2400 / AMD FX-8320, 8 GB RAM, GTX 780 3GB / AMD R9 290 4GB, and 12 GB storage.

In simple terms, almost any modern gaming PC should run it well at 1080p. Performance only becomes heavier when you start adding high-resolution texture packs, ENB graphics mods, big quest mods, physics mods, or hundreds of plugins. Vanilla Anniversary Edition is light, but heavily modded Skyrim can become much more demanding than the official specs suggest.