A remastered version of Skyrim, officially known as The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition, was announced by Bethesda earlier this year. On Friday (October 28), the game finally arrived on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Windows PC albeit not without at least one glaring issue.
In the original Skyrim, Bethesda utilized uncompressed .wav files for non-music and voiceover sound assets. According to Reddit user LasurArkinshade, the sound assets in the remaster are packaged in a .xwm format.
That's not necessarily a bad thing, the Redditor continues, as it's possible to compress audio to .xwm without significant quality degradation so long as you don't crank the compression up to insane levels. Unfortunately in this case, Bethesda cranked the compression up to insane levels.
In the same thread, a Reddit user that goes by the handle gstaff - believed to be Matt Grandstaff, Bethesda's worldwide community manager - says they (Bethesda) are currently testing a fix and hope to have an update out this week.
Gamers have already come up with a workaround but if Bethesda has an official patch coming in the next few days, it'd probably be best to just wait for that.
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition delivers a number of visual improvements, a fact that'll no doubt be more appealing to console gamers with limited access to mods. PC gamers, meanwhile, have been using mods to supplement Skyrim's graphics for years thanks to a very devoted community.
That said, there are some subtle changes that may not immediately be evident as highlighted in the video above from YouTube user Brodual.