The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim was one of the best games of 2011. 2011? It's 2013! No matter, Skyrim lives on, thanks in part to its fancy outfits.

The game continues to get downloadable content. Last month, the PS3 and PC versions of Dragonborn were released. It had been released on Xbox 360 last December (the Kotaku review's here).

Skyrim also lives on via cosplay. Here is a round up of some, certainly not all, of the best Skyrim cosplay the internet has to offer. Thankfully, there are no tired arrow-in-the-knee gags!

Have a look and suss out who pulled off the best Skyrim cosplay.

[Aicosu]
[AndrewDobell]
[Artyfakes]
[audrey-vista]
[Beebichu]
[BrianFloresPhoto]
[Deviant-Kaneda]
[Drgibbs]
[emilyrosa]
[FlorindaZanetti]
[KasuzameYuu]
[Ken-Eden]
[kethien]
[Kim-san]
[la-baronesa]
[LordXanathos]
[Mech-Infect]
[NicciFett]
[RocknamLee]
[SanDrawGames]
[vani]
[Zerios88]

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim was one of the best games of 2011. 2011? It's 2013! No matter, Skyrim lives on, thanks in part to its fancy outfits.

The game continues to get downloadable content. Last month, the PS3 and PC versions of Dragonborn were released. It had been released on Xbox 360 last December (the Kotaku review's here).

Skyrim also lives on via cosplay. Here is a round up of some, certainly not all, of the best Skyrim cosplay the internet has to offer. Thankfully, there are no tired arrow-in-the-knee gags!

Have a look and suss out who pulled off the best Skyrim cosplay.

[Aicosu]
[AndrewDobell]
[Artyfakes]
[audrey-vista]
[Beebichu]
[BrianFloresPhoto]
[Deviant-Kaneda]
[Drgibbs]
[emilyrosa]
[FlorindaZanetti]
[KasuzameYuu]
[Ken-Eden]
[kethien]
[Kim-san]
[la-baronesa]
[LordXanathos]
[Mech-Infect]
[NicciFett]
[RocknamLee]
[SanDrawGames]
[vani]
[Zerios88]

Now available for preorder from the fine folks at Gaming Heads, this $299.99 statue of Skyrim's champion would not be possible without the PC modding community. You just don't get this sort of visual fidelity with today's game consoles.

Now I'm not saying a great statue couldn't have been based on the unmodded PC or console versions of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. They're perfectly capable of conveying enough visual data to allow artist Alejandro Pereira to craft a reasonably accurate facsimile of Bethesda's ideal Dovahkiin. He's still be 16 inches tall, cast from high quality poly-stone and dressed in the finest tiny fabrics tailored by what I can only imagine are ridiculously small fashion design students. He'd still be limited to 1,000 pieces for the standard version or 500 pieces for the $329.99 exclusive version with light-up fireball. He'd still ship in Q4 of 2013.

It just wouldn't be anywhere near as smooth and well-defined.

Now that I think about it, I'd pay extra for a special edition jaggy Dovahkiin. Missed opportunity, Gaming Heads.

Just when you think you've seen it all, you really have not. The wonderful world of Skyrim mods never ceases to delight and amaze.

These screenshots recently popped up online in Japan, with a forum commenter pointing out that The Elders Scrolls V: Skyrim was a game in which you could play in a river of cabbage.

スカイリムって山からチーズ落としたりキャベツ川に流して遊ぶゲームだろ [豚メシ速報]

Finally! Skyrim's downloadable content, until now exclusive to Xbox 360 and PC, is making its way to the PlayStation 3.

Dawnguard, Hearthfire, and Dragonborn will all be on the PlayStation Network in February. They'll all be 50% off during their launch week.

In case you're a PS3 player and you haven't been paying attention, here are some links to our coverage for the vampire-filled Dawnguard pack (not great), the home-making Hearthfire pack (lovely for fans of domestic activity), and Dragonborn, the best of the three.

So what took so long? Dunno. Last August, Bethesda said bringing Skyrim's DLC to PS3 was a complicated issue.

Dragonborn will also hit PC on February 5, Bethesda's Pete Hines announced today.

If the Video Game Awards are actually an awards show, and not just a keynote for promoting upcoming games, then the big news from last night was The Walking Dead: The Game. Eminently quotable analyst Michael Pachter said before the show that if this title, a downloadable self-published game, took home Game of the Year, he'd eat his hat. To his credit, Pachter later tweeted out a request for one, presumably to consume.

But the surprises don't just stop there. The Walking Dead won Game of the Year coming out of the Best Adapted Game category. Except for 2003, the first year of the VGAs, when things were very different from today, only two adapted games have even been nominated for GOTY: Batman: Arkham Asylum and Batman: Arkham City, and neither won. This is a different time in games development, with publishers looking for games whose characters and stories they fully own.

Some might look to a licensed or adapted work and consider that the game derives its significance, or at least the attention given to it, because it draws on some other franchise in popular entertainment. So it's strange that a licensed, adapted work reminds us that story, and characters, and choices, and the memorable experiences they create, matters most.

Here's another surprise nugget: The Walking Dead: The Game earned its makers five Video Game Awards. The next big winner? Journey, with three (including a nomination for Game of the Year.) Borderlands 2 also took home three awards, the best haul for a traditional boxed console game.

So if you're thinking this might have been a different Video Game Awards, in its 10th year, you're probably right. Had the show given more attention to that purpose—only a handful of these awards were actually presented in the broadcast—we might be pondering it as a landmark year. The VGAs are often accused of being an industry popularity contest, but maybe this year they acquired recognizable critical heft. We'll have to see what happens next year, and the year after.

So here are the 25 winners of the 2012 Video Game Awards, plus the Game of the Decade. Two fan-voted awards gave Character of the Year to Claptrap from Borderlands 2, and Most Anticipated Game to Grand Theft Auto V.

Game of the Year

The Walking Dead: The Game

Telltale Games

Also nominated: Assassin's Creed III, Dishonored, Journey, Mass Effect 3

Studio of the Year

Telltale Games

Also nominated: 343 Industries, Arkane Studios, Gearbox Software

Best Xbox 360 Game

Halo 4

Microsoft Studios/343 Industries

Also nominated: Assassin's Creed III, Borderlands 2, Dishonored

Best PS3 Game

Journey

Sony Computer Entertainment/thatgamecompany

Also nominated: Assassin's Creed III, Borderlands 2, Dishonored

Best Wii/Wii U Game

New Super Mario Bros. U

Nintendo

Also nominated: The Last Story, Xenoblade Chronicles, ZombiU

Best PC Game

XCOM: Enemy Unknown

2K Games/Firaxis Games

Also nominated: Diablo III, Guild Wars 2, Torchlight II

Best Shooter

Borderlands 2

2K Games/Gearbox Software

Also nominated: Call of Duty: Black Ops II, Halo 4, Max Payne 3

Best Action-Adventure Game

Dishonored

Bethesda Softworks/Arkane Studios

Also nominated: Assassin's Creed III, Darksiders II, Sleeping Dogs

Best Role-Playing Game

Mass Effect 3

Electronic Arts/BioWare

Also nominated: Diablo III, Torchlight II, Xenoblade Chronicles

Best Multiplayer Game

Borderlands 2

2K Games/Gearbox Software

Also nominated: Call of Duty: Black Ops II, Guild Wars 2, Halo 4

Best Individual Sports Game

SSX

Electronic Arts/EA Canada

Also nominated: Hot Shots Golf World Invitational, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 13, WWE '13

Best Team Sports Game

NBA 2K13

2K Sports/Visual Concepts

Also nominated: FIFA 13, Madden NFL 13, NHL 13

Best Driving Game

Need For Speed: Most Wanted

Electronic Arts/Criterion Games

Also nominated: Dirt: Showdown, F1 2012, Forza Horizon

Best Song in a Game

"Cities" (Beck) for Sound Shapes

Also nominated: "Castle of Glass" (Linkin Park for Medal of Honor: Warfighter); "I Was Born for This" (Austin Wintory for Journey); "Tears" (Health for Max Payne 3)

Best Original Score

Journey

Sony Computer Entertainment/thatgamecompany

Also nominated: Call of Duty: Black Ops II, Halo 4, Max Payne 3.

Best Graphics

Halo 4

Microsoft Studios/343 Industries

Also nominated: Assassin's Creed III, Dishonored, Journey

Best Independent Game

Journey

thatgamecompany

Also nominated: Dust: An Elysian Tail, Fez, Mark of the Ninja

Best Fighting Game

Persona 4 Arena

Atlus/Arc System Works/Atlus

Also nominated: Dead or Alive 5, Street Fighter X Tekken, Tekken Tag Tournament 2

Best Handheld/Mobile Game

Sound Shapes

Sony Computer Entertainment/Queasy Games

Also nominated: Gravity Rush, LittleBigPlanet (PS Vita), New Super Mario Bros 2

Best Performance by a Human Female

Melissa Hutchison for The Walking Dead: The Game

Also nominated: Emma Stone for Sleeping Dogs; Jen Taylor for Halo 4; Jennifer Hale for Mass Effect 3

Best Performance by a Human Male

Dameon Clark for Borderlands 2

Also nominated: Dave Fennoy for The Walking Dead: The Game; James McCaffrey for Max Payne 3; Nolan North for Spec Ops: The Line

Best Adapted Video Game

The Walking Dead: The Game

Telltale Games

Also nominated: Disney Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two, LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes, Transformers: Fall of Cybertron

Best Downloadable Content

Dawnguard for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Bethesda Softworks/Bethesda Game Studios

Also nominated: Leviathan for Mass Effect 3; Mechromancer Pack for Borderlands 2; Perpetual Testing Initiative for Portal 2

Best Downloadable Game

The Walking Dead: The Game

Telltale Games

Also nominated: Fez, Journey, Sound Shapes

Best Social Game

You Don't Know Jack

Jellyvision Games

Also nominated: Draw Something, Marvel: Avengers Alliance, SimCity Social

Game of the Decade

Half Life 2

Valve Corporation

Also nominated: Batman: Arkham City, BioShock, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, Mass Effect 2, Portal, Red Dead Redemption, Shadow of the Colossus, Wii Sports, World of Warcraft

When Skyrim first came out, Bethesda had lofty promises for the game's downloadable content. Skyrim's DLC will feel like expansion packs, the developers assured us.

Reality has told a different story. Skyrim's first DLC, Dawnguard, was a disappointing add-on filled with boring, samey quests. The second DLC, Hearthfire, was basically Barbie's Playhouse with dragons.

Third time's a charm. I've spent a few hours with Skyrim's latest piece of DLC, Dragonborn, and what I've played so far certainly feels like an expansion pack. It could also turn out to be Skyrim's best DLC yet.

Skyrim's newest DLC—out today for Xbox 360, and early next year for PC and PS3 (yes, PS3!)—takes you to the island of Solstheim, which you may remember from one of Morrowind's expansion packs, Bloodmoon. Solstheim is full of problems, quests, cities, dungeons, and all sorts of other things to explore and fight your way through. It's also rather unusual.

See, the first thing you'll notice, once you take a boat to Raven's Rock and start poking your way through Solstheim, is that it actually feels like a new experience. There's a new map. There are strange new areas and enemies—a city of nature-worshiping Skaal is protected by a powerful wind barrier; an underground tomb's dark elf corpses turn into hideous (and deadly) Ash Spawn; little goblins called Rieklings infest watchtowers and castles all across the land. It's all very bizarre and interesting.

Entering Solstheim, for me, was sort of like starting up Skyrim from the beginning, with no knowledge of what was in store. Even though I haven't even seen everything that the original game's massive world has to offer, there's still something really exciting about dropping into a new map that's full of potential. In other words, it feels like an expansion pack.

The second thing you'll notice about Dragonborn, if you're like me and recently spent a ton of time with Dishonored, is that you will miss the Blink spell a great deal. That shit should be in everything.

But I digress. Perhaps the most common complaint about Skyrim, generally considered an excellent game, is that its world was not as magical, not as creative, not as unique as the world of Morrowind before it. Solstheim has some solutions to that problem. Yes, you'll still be battling through some dark dungeons filled with the same old traps and levers—hope you like fighting Draugr!—but there's more to see and explore. There are giant mushroom homes furnished with magical air elevators, sickening demon squid Lurkers that shoot blasts of shadowy ink at your face, strange gems that command you to bring them to nearby mountains. You know, the usual.

The main quest is fascinating, too. I won't spoil the details, but it revolves around a dude named Miraak—who may or may not be the first ever Dragonborn—and the spell he's cast upon the people of Solstheim to subconsciously turn them into his slaves. Your goal is to stop him.

"But wait," you might be saying. "It wouldn't be Skyrim without countless bugs and glitches everywhere you turn. Does Dragonborn have any of those?"

Of course! When you first load up your copy of Skyrim with Dragonborn installed, you'll be accosted by a group of cult members who want to kill you. This happened to me in Windhelm. Except they weren't very good at showing that they wanted to kill me: once our dialogue had ended, they walked around in a circle for a few seconds before finally going hostile and pulling out their fireballs.

And of course there are the goblins floating in mid-air in the middle of fights, the janky animation during one particular moment when you're switched to a third-person point of view, and all of the other little bugs that make Skyrim Skyrim.

But still, so far I'm very pleased with this piece of DLC. It might have taken a year for Skyrim to get its first real expansion pack, but this seems to be the one we've all been waiting for.

I'll have more on Dragonborn here on Kotaku as I continue to play the game today. Expect a full review soon.

Skyrim's next piece of downloadable content, Dragonborn, is out tomorrow for Xbox 360.

Can't wait til then? One person claiming to be a beta tester has sent some screenshots and alleged details about the new DLC to the website TheOuthousers.com. I've asked Bethesda whether or not this stuff is real, and will update if they respond, but for now, here are some of the highlights from the alleged leak.

Potential Dragonborn spoilers follow.

Perhaps the most interesting detail is the list of achievements, which, if real, would confirm the rumor that you can tame and ride dragons in Dragonborn.

• Outlander - Arrive on Solstheim (20 G)
• Raven Rock Owner - Own a house in Raven Rock (20 G)
• Solstheim Explorer - Discover 30 Locations on the island of Soltheim (30 G)
• The Temple of Knowledge - Complete "The Temple of Miraak" (20 G)
• The Path of Knowledge - Complete "The Path of Knowledge" (20 G)
• At the Summit of Apocrypha - Complete "At the Summit of Apocrypha (40 G)
• Hidden Knowledge - Learn the secrets of 5 Black Books (40 G)
• Stalhrim Crafter - Craft an item out of Stalhrim (20 G)
• Dragon Aspect - Learn all 3 words of Dragon Aspect (20 G)
• DragonRider - Tame and Ride 5 dragons (20 G)

According to the leaker, the DLC starts off with cultists coming after you, calling you "the false Dragonborn." You find a note on their bodies that leads you to a ship at Windhelm, which you can then take to Solstheim, the continent brought back from Morrowind. You can then explore and quest your way through the new continent.

The leaker has also got purported lists of some of the new spells, weapons, armor, and locations in Dragonborn.

Head on over to TheOuthousers for the full leak. Or just wait til tomorrow for the actual DLC.

Maybe you held off from getting and playing Skyrim last year, thanks to either the tingling of your wizardly instincts or an emptiness of wallet. Whether you waited or couldn't get it a year ago, you can get a Premium edition of Bethesda's hit action/RPG hybrid.

According to Examiner.com, the enhanced release of The Elder Scrolls V will be packed in with a bonus disc with behind-the-scenes content, trailers, walkthroughs, five music tracks and a 600-page e-book. The Premium Edition reportedly also comes with a map of the game's environs, a t-shirt with the dragon emblem and postcards featuring concept art.

Amazon.de lists the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 versions of the Premium Edition at €59.99 (about $77.36) with a PC counterpart costing €49.99 on the PC (approximately $64.47). The product has a release date of December 7 on the online retailer listing.

Update:
Bethesda Softworks—publisher of Skyrim—has told Kotaku that the Premium Edition will be only available in some territories in Europe, with the U.K., Benelux, and Germany the only ones announced so far.

First images and details for premium edition of ‘The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim' [Examiner.com, via Polygon]

Skyrim's next DLC could be taking us back to the world of Morrowind, the third game in Bethesda's popular RPG series.

Eagle-eyed Elder Scrolls fans have dug through the files for patch 1.8, which Bethesda released yesterday for PC, and found all sorts of clues that could hint at future content for the game.

One line hints at a return to Solstheim, the Nord colony last seen in the second expansion to Morrowind, Bloodmoon. Other patch files hint at dragon riding (!) and a bunch of other locations in and around Solstheim.

The patch also suggests that the DLC will be named Dragonborn, which was trademarked by Bethesda back in May.

If Dragonborn is really a thing, it would be Skyrim's third piece of downloadable content. Dawnguard and Hearthfire were both released earlier this year.

I've reached out to Bethesda for comment and will update should they respond.

Update: Bethesda says no comment.

1.8 Beta Update and Dragonborn DLC hints discussion [Bethsoft Forums]