Video Game Reviews - Skyrim Mod: Falskaar

Everyone who knows Skyrim, especially modded Skyrim, knows Falskaar by now. This mod is like nothing that we've ever seen before from a free DLC. And it is DLC. While it is not an official add-on, it is on the same scale as one, to the point that it is being treated as one by the modding community. In fact, the mod, which includes its own landmass, voice-acting and questlines, is so large that it comes as a .esm file just like Dawnguard or Dragonborn, and is designed so that it never needs to be removed, like an official DLC doesn't. There are two areas within Skyrim which are altered by the mod, and neither change alters performance in the slightest, and while on the island of Falskaar the bugs never get any worse than those inherent to the Skyrim game engine. This mod is so huge that I'm still not 100% through it, though I have completed the main quest and a good majority of the more prominent side quests. However, because it is so big, I'm going to have to go about this a little differently. We're going to break this review down a bit and look at the design of Falskaar itself, from the land to the presentation, then the characters and acting, and then finally the quests.

Video Game Reviews - Skyrim: Helgen Reborn

It's been a good time recently for unofficial Skyrim DLC. The modding community for the fifth game in the Elder Scrolls saga has not calmed down a bit since the game came out in late 2011, but only recently has it become truly remarkable. Bethesda Sotworks has announced that there will be no further official DLC for the game, giving modders free reign to finally make the big changes and additions that they have been envisioning since the game was first released, and to finally release the big mods that have been years in the making, knowing that there will be no more DLC in the future that they will have to adapt there work to support. Of course the most impressive of these megamods is the rightfully praised and popular Falskaar, the first unofficial DLC to feature a working, full-scale landmass, questline, and a full cast of brand new voice actors. It is a milestone for the Skyrim modding community. To make the large, open world of Skyrim seem like it truly exists in a larger world, the provinces surrounding Skyrim do exist in-game, if only in a very rough, unfinished state. The existence of Falskaar gives players hope that these lands might one day be made complete. Falskaar is by far the best all-around mod on the web for Skyrim, and I don't think that anyone could argue that, but we aren't here to talk about Falskaar today. Today, we are here to talk about a mod from back in May of this year that I feel has the potential to rival Falskaar and other such mods as a DLC alternative: Helgen Reborn, by Mike Hancho, known to his friends as Balok.