The might of Skyrim means the aging RPG is still going strong after all these years, partly because there are so many amusing things that can go wrong, such as this fan who ends up riding their horse in an unusual way. Despite coming out in 2011, The Elder Scrolls 5 fans are still finding new things in Bethesda's epic fantasy game. The title itself is lauded for its hugely immersive world and dense lore, but its continued popularity goes beyond the general experience.
For example, many are aware that Skyrim's physics engine can be a bit buggy, causing all sorts of chaos to happen without warning. In a way, it's part of the game's charm. There are plenty of unintentionally amusing things that can occur across this cold province, and fans are more than happy to keep TES5 in the gaming limelight by showing off such haphazard occurrences.
One recent example comes from Reddit user NviZynC who, during the course of what was likely an average Skyrim playthrough for them, was able to capture a rather bizarre moment. A brief clip shows them riding their horse across a body of water. Only they aren't riding it in the traditional sense. Instead, the player can be seen stood atop the equine beast as it swims across, making it look like some sort of four-legged gondola. NviZynC makes it clear that they are playing the vanilla version of the game with no mods installed, so it's clear that this is one more bug to add to the growing list.
Used for traversing parts of the world without having to run or use fast travel, horses are pretty important to the Skyrim experience, but the sight of one being used in a way that horses should not be used is, on the one hand, funny to see, but on the other, something of an immersion breaker. While this recent clip doesn't appear to have made a significant impact on the user's playthrough, it is just another example of how the game can appear to be in a less than fit state, especially given how long it's been out.
Of course, many of the glitches in Skyrim can be quite hilarious, and, as mentioned above, it's probably one of the why reasons the game's still popular today. Whether Bethesda will take onboard what it's learned about how buggy TES5 is at times can't be said at this stage, but hopefully the next entry in the long-running Elder Scrolls series will not be quite so laden with issues, however amusing they may be.
Skyrim is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.