Skyrim: Special Edition v. Skyrim

[Spanoodle]

So recently my laptop fried and I was reduced (I say reduced in slight bitterness because I had put in so much time) to going to Skyrim: Special Edition on my desktop. Now I'm not some spoiled brat who isn't grateful for the fact that I have another way to play Skyrim, I was just upset that I lost all my progress.
I digress.
I got the free upgrade to the special edition on Steam after it came out, but was avoiding it because I didn't want to start all over. I now decided to start playing the special edition on the desktop and it's pretty nice. I haven't put really any time into it though. So I wanted to know what you guys think of the Special Edition Skyrim.
Pros? Cons? The good the bad the ugly? I wanna know.
Oh and another question out of curiosity, are you planning on getting it when it comes out on the Switch?
I plan on it. That way I can bring it everywhere The only reason I would consider starting all over.

 

[Emma]

The biggest pro it has is that it's 64 bit. This lets it use more than 4 GB of RAM. Skyrim can be pretty demanding, especially if you heavily mod it. A lot of the crashes and slowdowns are actually because the game was running out of RAM. The 64 bit version runs much, much better. The water and particle physics are both better. Rivers and streams will now actually flow realistically instead of awkwardly in one direction. There really isn't any cons to it in terms of the game itself. It's better in every way.

That's not the same for mods. You can't just use mods from the original version. They have to be run through the new construction kit first. Also not all mods are available yet. The Script Extender isn't available yet for Special Edition, but they're working on it. And SkyUI is never coming to Special Edition. It's a long story, (long version is here, though they were far too polite and airbrushed over the more nasty parts), but the short, but uncensored, version is that the SkyUI team had a falling out with the community over paid mods. They supported them and were going to go paid only for future updates and they very viciously attacked the community when they protested. Ever since they'd been very hostile towards the community in general and steadfastly refused to port SkyUI to the Special Edition out of pure spite.

Personally I think SkyUI is terrible and an ugly eyesore, but it the only, and the universal standard, for mod control panel in Skyrim, which were separate mods in Fallout games, not tied to a UI mod.

They did allow for someone else to take over SkyUI but I'm not sure that's likely because absolutely no one wants to work with them after how they treated the modder community during the paid mods scandal. So maybe we might get some kind of port for Special Edition or, more likely, someone else will make something completely new.

I may get the Switch port. But I dunno when. The Switch looks like a complete disappointment with severe defects, hardware issues, and overall cheap and easily damaged construction. That doesn't sit well with me.