When it launched back in November of 2011, The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim was a very impressive game. Boasting one of the biggest open worlds players had ever seen and a ton of content, this was the pinnacle of Bethesda's work thus far, earning numerous Game of the Year awards.

However, once the game opened up to mods it began to improve exponentially. Modders found ways to tweak the gameplay and the animation, but most importantly they were able to take Skyrim from a good-looking game to a great looking game.

Now that some three years has passed since Skyrim's launch, most would figure that the mod community has dropped off, but that's not the case. Rather, folks like TESRenewal are still dedicating hours of their day to either making Skyrim better or adding new content to the game. Just look at the Skywind and Skyblivion mods that are in the works.

Moreover, modders are still trying to find ways to improve the visuals in Skyrim, as indicated by the images seen in the gallery above. NOTE: These are in-game screenshots that have not been altered in any way.

Obviously, while we say that the images have not been altered via image editing software like Photoshop, they do come from heavily modded versions of Skyrim. Unfortunately, we don't know what specific mods each user had active, only that whatever they were puts the game on par with current-gen visuals. To see the full, 18-image selection readers can head over to the Faces of Skyrim Exhibition, which pools together some of the best screenshots featuring character faces.

[gallery columns="2" link="file" ids="232464,232465,232466,232467,232468,232469"]

As we mentioned, Skyrim has always been a fine looking game, but one that impresses with its scope and scale more so than it's fidelity and animations. However, the modding community has found ways to prop up those features as well.

At some point, though, we hope to see what Bethesda has in store for the next entry in The Elder Scrolls saga both because there are new systems on the market and also because it will give modders a new platform to play around with.

What Skyrim mod has impressed you the most? Which mods are musts for new PC players?

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Source: Flicker