Even though the transition into the newest generation of gaming consoles has been a gradual, whimpering affair so far, it’s pretty clear that the previous generation is wrapping up its final encore. To look back at how the PlayStation 3, Wii, Xbox 360, and Nintendo DS thrilled us for years, PixlBit brings you our Game of the Generation series. Our staff has picked their personal favorite, most influential, most impactful games to highlight as we bid adieu to what was.

Greetings, my fellow Draugrs! The Halloween season is upon us, so The Elder Scrolls Forge is celebrating in grand fashion by bringing you the most bone-chilling mods for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Whether you are looking for some terrifying quests, Halloween-themed overhauls, greater immersion, or just a little aesthetic character embellishment we've got you covered. Remember, all images are scalable if you'd like to get a better look, and if you are interested in snagging yourself a copy of any of the mods just click on the title to be taken to its respective Skyrim Nexus page. So whenever you are done cursing off Valgar Vinicia for running out of pumpkin spice, dim the lights and prepare to celebrate Halloween, Dovahkiin style!

Welcome back, citizens of Tamriel! In this edition of The Elder Scrolls Forge, we take a look at the game that brought many into The Elder Scrolls fold, The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. While Morrowind dropped some years ago, many uber-talented modders have worked tirelessly to bring this game up to speed. In keeping with that theme, we are taking a look at graphic and texture mods for the third installment in The Elder Scrolls Anthology. So grab a mug of you favorite Sujamma, say a quick prayer to Azura, and let's begin our journey back to the Red Mountain!

As many of you have probably heard, Bethesda recently announced The Elder Scrolls: Anthology, available September 10th. Community created content is synonymous with Bethesda's fantasy role-playing franchise, so we figured that now would be the perfect time to showcase some awesome mods in an on-going feature entitled "The Forge". Each feature will showcase a different type of mods for a specific Elder Scrolls title, so if you don't see a beloved mod featured then fret not, there will definitely be multiple installments for each criteria. If you're interested in obtaining any mod, simply click on its title to be taken to the Nexus Community page where you can snag yourself a download. So without further ado, let's get started with Texture & Lighting mods for Skyrim! 

Sometimes I want to play games where I can summon Ifrit and fight enemies on the sides of buildings.  Other times I want to leap across moving platforms, flatten enemies with my butt, and collect shiny stuff.  But then there’re times when I want to play a game where I get dysentery and have to crawl through the woods inch by inch following the sound of buzzing flies to a dead body so I can loot it for supplies.

If something has been missing from Skyrim, it’s the ability to strike down your enemies from atop a majestic steed.  It seems that the folks at Bethesda were aware of this and have addressed this issue in the next update – 1.6.

The Elders Scrolls series has always been known for their lively modding community, and Skyrim is no different. Now a few weeks after the release of the creation kit we’re starting to see some amazing mods that add new challenges, content, and a few laughs. 

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim patch that PC players got last week is now available to Xbox 360 players. Update 1.4 has the following fixes and changes:

The Elder Scrolls has always been a series known for its various mods made by the community. This is because Bethesda has always made available tools to assist modders in creating quality content, and the latest entry in the series, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, looks to be no exception.

Last month we announced our Game of the Year award winners by genre, platform and overall game of the year, but we weren’t through showcasing the best that 2011 had to offer.  With so many games deserving of the moniker Game of the Year we have decided to expand our awards ceremony into 2012 with the 2011 Supplemental Awards.  These awards seek to recognize games that excelled in a specific area whether it be through technical achievement, sheer enjoyability or utter disappointment.

While the PC and 360 versions of Skyrim have benefitted from the recent patches, the PS3 version has been plagued by terrible lag issues. This is due to a memory problem where lengthy save files basically weigh the game down, causing it to chug drastically. However, PS3 owners can finally start to rejoice, as help is coming later this month.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim has been the talk of the gaming world since it was released. It has spawned tons of discussion in various forums, Twitter feeds, and even has its own meme. It came very close to taking the top spot in PixlBit’s Game of the Year awards, and ended up tying with The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword for the Runner Up award. Yes, Skyrim has earned a lot of accolades, and it seems like that hasn’t been lost on the gaming public at large. In a press release from Bethesda, Skyrim has now shipped 10 million copies worldwide.

Now for the fun part. We've had an opportunity to tell you about the best in each genre and on each console, but today we're pulling out all of the stops and weighing in on the absolute best game of the year. The nominees for this award encompassed only the winners of each of the categories in the past two awards, severely limiting the overall pool of possible choices. The results were surprising, but they speak for themselves. Welcome to the final day of the official...

As is par for the course for the massive worlds created by Bethesda, Skyrim has not been without some serious, unforeseen issues. The 1.2 patch that went out a couple weeks ago was set to solve many of those issues, but ended up creating a whole new set of problems. Bethesda has been committed to addressing these issues in a timelier manner, and so far it looks like they are doing just that. The 1.3 patch went out for PC not too long ago, and today that patch has gone live on the Xbox 360.

What would a major RPG release from Bethesda be without a few glitches? Though Skyrim has released to rave reviews across the board, the game has not been without its problems. A patch went out earlier this week for PC and consoles, but it looks like the patch not only hasn’t fixed the framerate problems in the PS3 version, but now there’re a ton of new problems.

Update: We learned today that the patch for PC and Xbox 360 will go live this Wednesday. This is a current ETA for the patch, and we will update if things change. The original story follows:

The Elder Scrolls series is rightly famous for defining what an open world game should be, and Skyrim can arguably be considered the most worthy in the lineage. As the title suggests, the game takes place in Tamriel’s northern most province, a rocky and inhospitable land that is home to the Viking-like Nords. The assassination of the High King of Skyrim has precipitated the next prophecy found in the Elder Scrolls foretelling the return of dragons and the destruction of the land unless a destined champion can fight them off. Guess who you play as?

Skyrim's map is super big but as a PC player discovered, it's even bigger than you thought it was. This player found a gate in the southeastern part of the map and turned on a "no clip" mode to go beyond the gate. There he found an entirely different landscape.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is easily one of the hottest games out right now and many gamers are enjoying slaying dragons and collecting books. However, there have been issues with texture popping and frame rates since launch and players are wondering when these problems will be fixed. Bethesda Softworks had stated that they were working on a patch to resolve these issues but had been vague on when this patch would be released.

Some users playing Skyrim on the PlayStation 3 are having frame rate issues when their save files reach 6 MB. It's not known how widespread this issue is but enough have brought up the issue in Bethesda's official forums and now Pete Hines, Bethesda's VP of PR and Marketing, has issued a statement.

Back in February, Bethesda Softworks challenged its fan base to name their child Dovahkiin if it was born on 11/11/11, the same day The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim would be released. In return, Bethesda would give the parents free Bethesda games for life. Well, Megan and Eric Kellermeyer are the proud parents of Dovahkiin Tom Kellermeyer. Bethesda released this statement: "Be it the real world or the game worlds we create, we wish young Dovahkiin the best in all his adventures. And if Alduin ever reaches this realm, we’ll be in touch."

Episode 42 welcomes rookie PixlTalkers Jesse Miller and Mike Wall to the group as they join Jason Ross and Joaquim Mira. This week's episode has three main topics, the first involving the holiday onslaught of game after game after game. In particular, the group really feels like Ubisoft just didn't time their release dates well. Afterward, conversation moves to Modern Warfare 3's multiplayer, as well as the game's rivalry with Battlefield 3. The podcast concludes with some discussion of Skyrim, its dragons, and its glitches. Click through to listen to the podcast!

Skyrim is a popular game. Since its release last friday, it's been the title to play and mostly everyone is talking about it. It shouldn't be a surprise then to hear that the game has sold big. Real big.