Skyrim PC patch arrives, adds mandatory Steam DRM, kills some tweaks
It should come as no surprise that Bethesda's massive Skyrim needs some patching and last night, the first patch, weighing in at a humble 18MB, arrived for the PC platform. Unfortunately, this patch didn't address any of the game's bugs; rather, it prevented the main executable from running without Steam. "DRM," you cry, waving your makeshift pitchfork in the air. Well, yes ... but a bigger problem than that, as detailed by the good-looking folks at Rock, Paper, Shotgun, is that the patch disables some of the game's more popular mods.
Initially the patch disabled the large address aware third-party patch that allowed the Skyrim executable to, well, address larger amounts of RAM. For some reason, the game will only recognize a maximum of 2GB of RAM (or: the same amount of RAM that a bathroom scale has). Luckily a workaround has cropped up that doesn't need to alter the executable and life goes on. However, the "fabled uGrids .ini file tinker that made the game's icy landscapes look significantly more gorgeous" is no longer operational post-update. RPS isn't bullish on long-term patch support from Bethesda, so consider this a warning if you're considering playing PC and have a religious or philosophical opposition to being unable to mod your software.
