My 3 Favorite Skyrim Mods So Far: User-Made Enhancements for Your Character and the World's Water

Iris Ophelia's ongoing review of gaming and virtual world fashion

The number of PC mods for Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim has been growing exponentially since the game's release in November, and the modding community around it and other Bethesda games is incredibly strong. No developer's kit has been released for Skyrim yet, which means it may still be a while before the more dramatic mods (like this corgi mod for Bethesda's Fallout: New Vegas) are possible. Even though they're still restricted to manipulating in-game assets and replacing textures, Skyrim modders have still come up with hundreds of subtle and not-so-subtle tweaks to overhaul your game. They really show how Second Life is not the only platform with a strong community for user-generated 3D content. (And a lot of SL content creation is pretty similar to Skyrim mods, replacing textures and using pre-existing game assets.)

I've been wading through these mods since they first started popping up and I've picked out my three favorites to share with you, starting with...

Xenius' No More Blocky Faces

A face texture mod is mandatory in my opinion, because for some reason Skyrim shipped with an odd blockiness on the textures around the forehead, chin, and nose. There are a lot of variations on the blocky face fix, including these super glamourous and super gritty texture replacers. Although I'll admit that the faces in Skyrim are realistic to the point of being a bit homely, I still can't bring myself to replace them with the face of a Victoria's Secret model either, so No More Blocky Faces is all I really need.

luix_luix's Assassin's Creed Jester Clothes Female Replacer

I've admitted how much I love Assassin's Creed on NWN in the past (check out this post if you've forgotten), so it shouldn't be shocking that of all the armor and clothing replacers and mods available right now, this assassin-inspired ensemble (which replaces an incredibly awful Jester outfit available to Black Hand assassins) tops my list. It's made using a combination of retextured assets that are already in the game, so while it's not 100% accurate it still captures the spirit of Assassin's Creed costume design.

Laast's Pure Waters - Adaptive Flow

There are plenty of mods that have nothing to do with perfecting your avatars appearance, of course, including a slew of tweaks to the environment. My favorite among these is Pure Waters, which alters the physics of in-game water for a more realistic effect. Ponds look placid while arctic seas look choppy, compared to the default water which is always somewhere in between. Pair this mod with isoku's Realistic Water Textures for a breathtaking water overhaul.

Tell me what your favorite mods are (or what mods you're wishing for) below!

Iris Ophelia (Janine Hawkins IRL) has been featured in the New York Times and has spoken about SL-based design at the Fashion Institute of Technology in Manhattan and with pop culture/fashion maven Johanna Blakley.

Comments

[Zulu]

Sigh... Another same video game article on New (video game) world notes

[Angèle]

These improvements are remarkable. The water textures and movements are beautiful ! Thank you for sharing this.

[Iris Ophelia]

Zulu, it's a new world. Maybe it's not your favorite world, and that's why most of the article is hidden under a cut so people who want to can click it, and people who don't can move on.

[foneco zuzu]

It's in no way compared to Sl, for just a simple and i hope that the LAb will not go other way, Sl is full of live, real one, each behind avatar, Bethesda games are for single player and as the sims 1 and 2, for personal enjoyment only.
Second Life is a living identity, and no Ai can reproduce it's flavor, for the good and the bad (grifers, spammers, content thieves)!
But there is a common element, Sex!
And no matter ones wants to hide that fact, sex is what made internet possible, what sells Modded games, and what keeps Second Life alive!

[Pathfinder]

I think it's great that Hamlet is covering games like Skyrim.

Everyone needs to remember that real innovation typically happens at *intersections.*

Video Games intersecting with Virtual Worlds intersecting with Augmented Reality. IMHO, *that's* the sweet spot. And NWN seems to be right in there, covering it admirably.