Well I havent played any of it yet Vince due to another certain game but my husband has been playing the Skyrim Special Edition and what Ive seen so far looks pretty good without mods. So for a free game we are happy with it.

The original Skyrim we played was modded very heavily and looked very nice but since then we both have much better pc's so I would like to play it without mods on my first playthrough .

The mod I think that would be necessary would be the Unofficial patch, not sure if Bethesda have fixed all the bugs as yet.

They fixed absolutely nothing in the Special Edition. You still need the Unofficial Skyrim Patch (SE version).
The only difference in SE Edition is that the game executable is now 64bit (which allows for more memory, more mods), some new shaders and somewhat better lighting.
Oh, they've also upscaled the original textures from 1k to 2k, without even modifying them. What that means is that the game now uses twice more video memory while looking exactly the same. Good job on that.

Good thing is that it's free, because I can't imagine the shit show it would have ensued if this would have been sold again, even with a discount.

I'm really enjoying the Skyrim Special Edition. I only played 5 hours of the original, butI was co-Dragonborn in hundreds of hours in the standard edition. The graphical improvements are fabulous, though I needed to tinker to get the depth of field the way I wanted it.

I don't like to mod my games, so this is the perfect way for me to enjoy a fancier looking Skyrim. I've already been attacked while taking a picture lol so that might tell you how much I like the way it looks now!

The buying and selling menus interactions are terrible, but they always were. I'm not sure if I'm doing something wrong when trying to back out of selling my stuff.

Thanks for replying, the three of you! I bet if we tossed in that we would give away 10 games in the thread twe would have had a spamfest. I appreciate your words as I am still deciding on if I should embark on a new quest with it or not.

After playing around 20 hours with Special Edition I have to say that I enjoy it the same.
Even if the new lighting is not very different in the comparison screenshots, in-game looks really good in some locations.

There are also a few minor improvements that I found out that are not immediately obvious:
Now rain drops don't go through various objects. Previously rain would fall through roofs or under bridges, now it doesn't anymore. Small change, but lovely, especially if you use the "Frostfall" and "Wet and Cold" mods.

Also, now water flows more naturally through rivers. It changes direction and speed based on land shape. Before, water always was flowing in the same direction, no matter how the river was shaped. Sometimes even sideways.

Also, it seems there's a lot more grass now, without dropping my framerates into the gutter.

Originally posted by Adi:

After playing around 20 hours with Special Edition I have to say that I enjoy it the same.
Even if the new lighting is not very different in the comparison screenshots, in-game looks really good in some locations.

There are also a few minor improvements that I found out that are not immediately obvious:
Now rain drops don't go through various objects. Previously rain would fall through roofs or under bridges, now it doesn't anymore. Small change, but lovely, especially if you use the "Frostfall" and "Wet and Cold" mods.

Also, now water flows more naturally through rivers. It changes direction and speed based on land shape. Before, water always was flowing in the same direction, no matter how the river was shaped. Sometimes even sideways.

Also, it seems there's a lot more grass now, without dropping my framerates into the gutter.

I'm happy to hear you're enjoying it. I noticed the water flow as soon as I saw the river on my way to Riverwood. I was immediately impressed by that. I didn't experience rain or snow for quite awhile, and didn't see that change until yesterday. It really increases immersion!

I bet there could be a few more things we haven't noticed yet.

I will wait for all the mods I love to get updated for the new version, then I'll dive in again :3

Originally posted by Gyrmadet:

I will wait for all the mods I love to get updated for the new version, then I'll dive in again :3

I'm doing the same thing!

I began playing SE tonight, had a good time. I never played the original though, so I can't compare it. Many mods are available for it already. The ones I installed are:

Achievements Mods Enabler (so these mods won't disable achievements)
Unofficial Skyrim Special Edition Patch
Static Mesh Improvement Mod
Ordinator - Perks of Skyrim
Ars Metallica - Smithing Enhancement
Apocalypse - Magic of Skyrim
Relationship Dialogue Overhaul
Carry Weight Modifiers

Originally posted by SuperStarAD:

I began playing SE tonight, had a good time. I never played the original though, so I can't compare it.

I think we're very lucky to be playing Skyrim for the first time with the SE! I'm happy to hear that you're having a good time with it as well :D

Skyrim is incredibly addictive and fun!

Originally posted by Starwing6:

Skyrim is incredibly addictive and fun!

You don't have to tell me that.
Last night I wanted to play for 1-2 hours before sleep. Left Whiterun to go to the Greybeards.
On the way there I've explored 4 dungeons, killed 4 dragons and learned 3 shouts.
And this is only half the journey, because after this adventure I found out that the clock was pointing at 4:30 AM. Suffice to say... I got to work 2 hours late.

Originally posted by Adi:

Last night I wanted to play for 1-2 hours before sleep. Left Whiterun to go to the Greybeards.
On the way there I've explored 4 dungeons, killed 4 dragons and learned 3 shouts.
And this is only half the journey, because after this adventure I found out that the clock was pointing at 4:30 AM. Suffice to say... I got to work 2 hours late.

sound's like a common case of Elder's Scrolls syndrome.
Been there, done that; now I am dealing with Dragon Age syndrome...