so i already have dawngaurd, and have pretty much beat the [censored] out of every quest in the game. my question is, should i drop the ten bucks or watever it is to get hearthfire? Only reason i ask is because the dlc has some pretty mixed reviews. Im just wondering from another elder scrolls playing gamer to another, is it worth my time? Or should i just pick it up along with the next dlc that comes out to save myself some letdown?

For the price of a cup of coffee I do not see how Hearthfire could be deemed not worth it. Unless you are some woeful PC player who is going to wreck the game by cheating and using console commands or some mod to get everything, just building and furnishing the houses is going to keep you occupied for a while. After that it depends on what you want to do with the houses as to how much fun you will get out of them. I would not download it with another DLC since you will not have time to do both at the same time, so you will probably not appreciate it.

If you're ready to take a break from Skyrim I say wait with getting it.
Hearthfire is fun while you're playing the game but it's not enough to breathe new life into Skyrim on it's own.

But if you're planning to continue playing anyway, why not get it?

that's pretty much exactly what i wanted to hear. And scince i do plan on playing till bethesda makes a new game (lol) i suppose its worth the admission
thanks

Well worth it go for it unless as Aussie says you want to destroy it by modifying everything.

I am struggling with the same question and I feel as though what has already been said here is swinging me towards buying it, but I have a few big questions.

1) What exactly is IN this dlc? Obviously building a house, but is that really all there is? If someone could give me a broad list of features, that would be nice to see.

2) Are the houses you can build actually better than the houses you can just buy? It would seem this would have to be a yes for the houses to be worth it, however, I am confused as to how a house in the middle of nowhere can be more valuable than a house in a city where I will have access to shops, quests, healing, etc. A pro/con breakdown would rock.

Hope I'm not asking too much, but I appreciate any answers, thanks!

I'd wait for the next patch, theres just so many bugs that will make you keep wanting to start over, its incredibly frustrating...

It's probably most enjoyable when you do start over, honestly. Haven't run into any game breaking bugs personally.

- Three building sites for your new home, located within the borders of Falkreath, Morthal, and Dawnstar.
- Obtaining Thanedom within any of those three cities now grants you a Housecarl, in addition to the right to be able to purchase property.
- Some new items, mostly related to either children, cooking, or building. You can see them all here: http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Hearthfire_Items
- The ability to adopt children, so far as you have a home with the right requirements. To my knowledge, you can modify the existing homes to add these requirements to them.
- A couple new crafting stations, most related to the building itself, but the Oven allows more complex cooking recipes.
- You can set a Steward for your new homes. Pretty much any follower can be a Steward, and they can fall into multiple roles like spouse and/or housecarl as well (though that's one less person in the house if they fit into multiple categories.) The Steward role lets you purchase crafting materials through them directly, purchase livestock or the services of a bard, or allow them to automatically decorate your home with just gold instead of crafting them yourself.

- Lack of a nearby vendor is a downside. I don't really think of Skyrim houses as quest hubs so I don't find that to be an issue. You have to travel regardless of where you put your home. Healing isn't an issue either; you can build shrines to all nine divines in your basemant.
- The locations matter somewhat but the houses themselves have near identical feature sets. Each home gets a single unique outside building exclusive to that location (an Apiary (bee hive), a grain mill, and a fishery.) There's some differences in what creatures will threaten your home, based partially on the level you discover the home, and partially based on just what creatures are located nearby.
- Each home works the same way: you build a small house to start, then a main hall. With a main hall you can convert the small house into an entranceway. From there, you have three sets of three wings each to choose from. Each wing is mutually exclusive with the other options within that set.
- This matters because you're often choosing between things you can't get otherwise. For example: the house by default has a maximum of one bookcase before the wings are added. And only one wing option adds any bookcases at all (the Library.) But the Library competes with the Armory (mannequins, chests, and display cases) and the Kitchen (the only way to get an oven.) The other wings aren't quite as hard, but there's still a unique trophy room and a green house for the other two wings. The other choices within those wings are mostly just duplicating stuff you've already got some of with just the entrance way and main hall, but it's still something you have to weigh.
- Customization is mostly about what you don't build. It's easy to just build everything, but then you get a house crammed full of dressers, shelves, barrels, and chairs that you probably won't like. Opting not to build every option gives you more leeway than the default homes, where you're picking either to put stuff in a part of the house or leave it completely bare.
- With the exception of the oven, and depending on certain wing choices, every crafting station can be built at least two times over. Lots of storage space, and you don't have to build every one of them.
- The houses are larger than most of the default ones, at least when fully built. They're arguably simpler in design though, since it's basically a small rectangle attached to a larger one, which then has three mostly rectangular shaped wings on its remaining sides (and a basemant.) Not a terrible layout though.
- Before mods, the size of household can include: a steward, a housecarl, a bard, your spouse, two adopted children, any pet they adopt, some livestock (including a generic but house specific horse), as well as a carriage driver.

So is it better? Honestly the biggest downside to the default homes is the distance from a vendor. Beyond that I prefer the new Hearthfire homes. Modded homes are a different question, but I've found the most enjoyable thing with mods is to combine the new Hearthfire houses with mods that allow for customization. You get the new Hearthfire features like stewards and adoption, but you've also got an almost completely blank slate to customize the house with that you don't quite get with the vannia homes.

Of course, that assumes you're on the PC. If you are: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/22791 is really recommended. I started out just making a stock Hearthfire home, but with that mod, I opted to build only a handful of the interior items, instead filling it with personally placed objects for the rest of the layout.

@ Zherok: Thanks for the incredibly detailed breakdown man, I appreciate it greatly!