Skyrim player boots up PS3 version after 7 years inactivity, and my god it's broken

I've got a bit of a confession to make: when I move on from a console, I don't really look back.

Don't get me wrong, I'm no stranger to busting out my GameCube or Nintendo 3DS for a long weekend of passion (and Zelda), but my PlayStation 3? My Xbox 360? Those things are gathering dust up in the attic. I'm a monster, I know.

I have often wondered how my older consoles are doing, of course, and what some of my older save files are looking like after all this time. I'll just never know for sure because I'm far too lazy/terrified of spiders to go up to the attic and dig through boxes until I find what I need.

Thank goodness, then, for one brave Skyrim player who decided to check in on their original PlayStation 3 save file after seven years of inactivity and a console reset. When they booted up the game they were met not with old friends and happy memories, but what can only be described as some kind of purgatory.

As you can see in the video below, Skyrim has turned into a wasteland of scattered NPCs and one poor soul who appears to have merged with the player's character and can only say "stop". Is he begging for death? I'd be willing to bet yes, because that would be preferable to whatever nightmare he's currently stuck in.

"If you leave Skyrim for long enough, Skyrim will leave you," one commenter wisely observed. Others added it was basically a miracle the game worked at all, if you could describe what we see above as working.

The moral of the story? If you're keen to check in on older consoles and games to see how they're holding up, maybe don't. Ain't nothing but nightmares down that path.