Sometimes I genuinely want to forget that I ever played this game just so I could pick it up and play it again for the first time. It will always be recognizable to me as the game that made me understand that video games could be a truly immersive and compelling experience. It was the first game that made me feel like I could reach through the screen and touch it. No other game has made me toggle the "walk" button so much: I spend just as much time strolling across the map admiring the view as I spend killing bad guys. Come and get me, dragons: I'm the heckin' Dragonborn and I'll go as fast as I darn well please.

Sure, the game isn't perfect, but there's a good reason that people keep coming back to play Skyrim after twelve years of stale NPC dialogue, T-posing dragons, and Todd Howard jump-scares: no other game gives you the same sense of wonder and awe. It's really no wonder we haven't heard a peep from Bethesda regarding its eventual successor: they've got some big shoes to fill. Hopefully Starfield is able to sate our open-world RPG loving hearts while we wait for the next addition to the Elder Scrolls series, but until then, Skyrim has a permanent place on my computer - and in my heart.