It should come as no surprise that The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim launched with a whole host of bugs. Bethesda RPGs are renowned for their massive worlds, but with that size comes a greater propensity for stuff to just plain go wrong. Having been through this before, Bethesda started working on a major patch soon after release, and it looks like they're finally ready to deliver.

Wednesday’s patch, which has already gone live for PlayStation 3 users, is dubbed “Skyrim 1.2” and aims to fix a whole host of actual bugs. Here’s the full list of changes, straight from Bethesda:

• Improved occasional performance issues resulting from long term play (PlayStation 3)
• Fixed issue where textures would not properly upgrade when installed to drive (Xbox 360)
• Fixed crash on startup when audio is set to sample rate other than 44100Hz (PC)
• Fixed issue where projectiles did not properly fade away
• Fixed occasional issue where a guest would arrive to the player’s wedding dead
• Dragon corpses now clean up properly
• Fixed rare issue where dragons would not attack
• Fixed rare NPC sleeping animation bug
• Fixed rare issue with dead corpses being cleared up prematurely
• Skeleton Key will now work properly if player has no lockpicks in their inventory
• Fixed rare issue with renaming enchanted weapons and armor
• Fixed rare issue with dragons not properly giving souls after death
• ESC button can now be used to exit menus (PC)
• Fixed occasional mouse sensitivity issues (PC)
• General functionality fixes related to remapping buttons and controls (PC)

Note that this patch is separate from a minor one released last week that properly tied the game’s PC executable to Steam. This had the side effect of removing a bunch of mods upon update and subsequently limiting one’s ability to tamper with the game, such as installing a third-party large address aware patch that enabled Skyrim to draw on more than just 2 GB of system RAM. (There is now a workaround for those who’d like to take full advantage of their PC’s hardware.)

This likely won't be the last Skyrim patch, and future DLC packs will likely come with their own bugs and hiccups. But this should improve the game for scores of players (that texture bug on the 360 is a big one) just in time for the holidays.

Source: Bethesda via Giant Bomb