I don't appear to have done anything to my game since I last played it, but for some reason Steam has decided I can't play my own game! Anyone else had this bug? Or a solution? I've had a few issues with Steam recently and it's a ballache of epic proportions. I curse Bethesda for ever using it.

I has it once, was a problem with the steam servers I think. Have a google and see if there is a solution.

Already did, can't find anything really. Not without trawling through 800 pages of irrellevancy, in which case I figure it's quicker just to ask.

EDIT - OK, just checked and TESV.exe doesn't exist?? Seriously wtf??? Steam says it's up to date, that's actuall mental, it's deleted my game .exe

Got it once, attempted shortly after and it loaded after hanging for about 10 seconds

or you can just set the STEAM to offline mode, and play...

Steam was in offline mode. I've tried both on ad offline. I also had a problem the other day when steam attempts to update over something like a college connection with a proxy server that obviously isn't steam-friendly, then refuses to open at all in on- or offline mode. Verifying cache seems to have helped although now obviously it's auto-updated and basically ruined my installation anyway... *sigh* I'm sure I turned updates off, nevermind.. so much for a couple of relaxing hours before work. Now dedicated to fixing my game install.

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=4595-WEXN-6831

There, thats not hard is it? Ever heard of "Search"?

I wish Steam support had a "How to Search for stupid people."

Real cool bro...

Put steam into offline mode and try again.

If you can't put steam into offline mode due to poor/crappy/non-existent internet connection, then close steam and create a file named steam.cfg in your root steam folder. Add the following ...

BootStrapperInhibitAll=enableForceOfflineMode=enable

Steam should now start in offline mode.

If you still can't get to the standard steam gui (likely due to it wanting to update the steam client), then start it up and let it stall, then go to your Skyrim root folder and start TESV.exe directly. It will happily run as long as there is a steam thread running.

If your install has become corrupted and you need to verify it, then it's time to learn from the experience. Zip your steam (or Skyrim) folder up for backup purposes so you can recover it if required without putting steam online.

This bug ridden POS game that Bethesda has lumped us with is too much fun to allow steam's idiosyncrasies to stop us playing.