The Sound of It

To do something a little different for the last day of month, I thought I'd do a compilation post and video. There are only a few mods here this time, so I won't be presenting them in exactly the same way that I did with my compilation posts in the past. That being said, I'll still try to keep the descriptions just as brief as possible so the post doesn't go on forever.

One thing about Skyrim and most games in general that will always have room for stylistic improvement is sound. The audio of a game always can be rated subjectively, and there will always be someone who thinks the sounds should be changed one way or another. Occasionally there are those that do enjoy the sounds the game comes with but will think that more variety would enhance the experience. Today we'll have a listen to works of both types of people.

The first two are known as Sounds of Nature - Water and Fire. Needless to say, one affects fire and the other affects water. Both simply breathe more life into the game by replacing the original sounds associated with these two elements with higher quality audio. With Sounds of Nature, it's much easier to hear the sound of water flowing, and if the character approaches a fire, the crackling of the wood and coal is much more audible.

The next two, once again made by the same author, are called Sounds of Skyrim - The Dungeons and The Wilds. These mods add more background sounds to wildness and dungeon environments. The sounds range from bird-calling to creaking floorboards. The Dungeons really makes you sit at the edge of your seat, and The Wilds always makes you look around a little more than you're used to.

Immersive Skyrim Thunder adds even more to the outside atmosphere by making the sound of weather a force to be reckoned with. The distant rumbling of a coming storm seems to draw out the realistic wariness of staying out in the wet and cold. And if the calm before the storm doesn't scare you, the clashing of the heavens in the middle of a downpour surely will.

Finally there's Improved Combat Sounds, which adds a bit more meat the end of your blade when you're trying to stab through bandits. The original combat sounds from the game always sounds too much like metal-on-metal and not enough blood and ripped flesh. This mod fixes that problem by adjusting the sounds your weapons make when making contact with the enemy.

And this is what you'll hear in the game.

It's amazing how much sound changes the way the player feels about a game. These mods inspired me to turn off the in-game music just so that I could listen more closely to the living, breathing world surrounding me. I've included the Nexus links to each of the mods I discussed above, but if you prefer to install your mods with Steam Workshop, here are the links for those that I could find:

1. Sounds of Skyrim - The Dungeons
2. Sounds of Skyrim - The Wilds

If you ever find a Steam Workshop link to a mod that I was unable to provide a link for, please send the link so I can update my post with it. It's always better to have multiple file locations available, even if I tend to only use Nexus.  That's all I have for now, so be sure to let me know what you think and have a wonderful Leap Day. Until next time.