overdrive's The Elder Scrolls V: Dawnguard review

I've been enjoying a little Skyrim modding lately, but have for the most part been ambivalent about the official DLC. I think this review has pushed me over the edge and I'll probably pick it up on the next Steam sale.

Thanks for writing.

Dawnguard is good, but you should definitely check out Dragonborn.

Yeah, I'll pick up all three at the same time.

If you skip any, make it be Hearthfire. Seems to only add a bit of busywork (building houses in the general vicinity of Morthal, Dawnstar and Falkreath; adopting kids and potentially getting your family kidnapped by bandits...if the latter happened to me right now, I would give no fucks and they'd be bandit stew).

Thanks for the kind words about me review. In a few weeks, I ought to have Dragonborn done, too, since I'm saving the bulk of that for after the main game and I just have a handful of quests to do to finish the main, thieves and dark brotherhood arcs.

Definitely skip Hearthfire unless you're playing it on 360 (and it sounds like you're playing PC, anyway). I'm only saying that because I've never touched the 360 version, so for all I know it could still be skippable. As for the others:

-The PC version is pretty much redundant unless you're playing unmodded. There are mods available that can accomplish Hearthfire's ends without the idiotic limitations.

-I've played and reviewed the PS3 version of Hearthfire, and it's got an ass ton of bugs. I mainly downloaded it because I really wanted a place to display all of my specialty weapons and trophies, which turned out to be a horrible idea. Now and then the weapons I worked so hard to earn would randomly disappear for good. Others would be permanently stuck in a display. Even though it gave you the prompt to remove it, you wouldn't be able to. The worst were weapons that didn't remain in their displays. Some would fall onto the floor, others would slowly rise out of their positions, and others would become permanent fixtures of the house. I had one sword that progressively levitated off a shield display until it was sticking through the floor of an upstairs bedroom. It eventually vanished.

I'm not sure if these bugs carry over to the 360 or PC versions, but the PS3 release is definitely glitch-laden crap.

Yeah, I never even got into the "display your crap" stuff. All my cool unique gear goes right into the chest in my house in Whiterun. Except I did put my Whiterun Thane weapon on the weapon rack in said house. I wonder if it's still there...

Yeah I'm on PC, modded, but still want to try Hearthfire. The content actually seems like it would give me a giggle even though it accomplishes what mods I already have installed already do. On Steam Sale it'll probably be like $.50 anyway.

Joe, I just read your review and I think your conclusion that "...if all you want to do is build a house, adopt children, and listen to awful lyrics belted out by a spoony bard, then by all means tuck in" pretty much describes my current interest in Skyrim almost perfectly.