So I played through the Vampire side, and really wasn't impressed. The only things I liked were Serana, not getting attacked on sight, and visiting the Soul Cairn. The new look for my vampire character was slightly displeasing but not terrible. Oh yeah, the ability to make arrows makes me wish I had taken smithing, but it's too late now. Cool feature I wish I could have taken advantage of.

The things I really dislike are the fact that I can't make use of the face-mage as a vampire (which I quite prefer to play) without some terribly annoying steps, I can't make the vampire castle my own by freeing the cattle and cleaning up the gore (Serana has some empathy, why can't I as the new master?), my character's overall "feeling" has been forced in a dramatically different direction, and the big one:
Random vampire attacks are ruining my towns and overall experience.

As I've been saying through the forums, I think I may very well just delete Dawnguard from my 360 and be out $20 and two days of my free time.


The things I really like, though, like the Soul Cairn, a halfway moral vampire like Serana, the potential of owning a big building in the mountains, and arrow crafting, I would hate to leave behind.

So I wonder about the Dawnguard side of the story before I potentially waste any more of my time playing it. Can you play through all of the Dawnguard side of the story as a vampire, or will they actually notice and be jerks? What happens when you try to go to the vampire castle? And is it possible to continue visiting the Soul Cairn at one's leisure?

And one more big one. Can anyone confirm that at the end of the whole quest chain, including the radiant and subsequent quests, whether the random vampire attacks stop at some point or continue?