I honestly didn't expect to enjoy it as much as I do. Designing your own home is great, but the best part for me is being able to essentially make your own little community, and populate it with all (ok, well, most) of your favourite characters: spouse, steward, housecarl, kids, dog, complete with chickens, cow and horse. And... um, the bard. I've spent as much time on it as I did on Dawnguard, probably even more.

Not a shabby little package for $5.

Could it be better? Sure, nothing is ever perfect. Does it add a good amount of depth and options that weren't previously there? Deffo, I based a whole RP off hearthfire, and that character feels more rooted in the world than any of my others.

I like it

There's a huge Iron shortage in Skyrim at the moment.

I noticed that a lot of players like to throw out the "It's a great deal for $5" argument. While I don't disagree that, from a pure "bang for your buck" perspective, Hearthfire is a indeed good bargain at $5. No argument there.

However, a Hostess Twinkie might be a bargain at 50 cents, but I'd still prefer to spend several dollars more and enjoy a chocolate souffle. Equally, I'd have preferred it if Bethesda spent more time with Hearthfire and gave us a $20 version of the idea rather than the $5 version.

Well the chocolate soufflé takes longer to make, so you have to settle for an appetiser in between meals.

I see. So, you have information I don't? There's a grander version of Hearthfire on the way then?

Must respectfully disagree with the Twinkie anology... Hearthfire is more like a shaker full of salt. It doesn't expand the game significantly, just makes the experience more satisfying.

Well, sure, but to me it's a missed opportunity. Hearthfire is a great idea. Worth the $5? Absolutely. But with the added satisfaction of being able to build your own home also came a lot of (at least in my case) "Man, if only ...."

If only the three homes had three completely different architectures.
If only you didn't have to choose between (for example) "Kitchen OR library" within a single home.
If only the marriage system was altered to allow for remarrying, and allowed for marrying widows/widower NPCs provided the player didn't murder their previous spouses him/herself.
If only we actually got that wine cellar that one of the developers had been raving about somewhere. A cellar with barrels in it is not a "wine cellar." You store bottled wine in wine racks. Barrels are for fermenting wine that has yet to be bottled.
If only you could hire any bard you wanted for your home (from the various taverns).

Yes, all of this would have taken much more time and cost more money, but as I indicated earlier, I would have been willing to pay for it.

* I agree about the architecture. Also, I wish one of the houses could be built in a snowy place.
* And yes, I would find remarriage more palatable if it was impossible for spouse-killers.
* I can deal with only allowing three wing, but agree that it should totally be your choice which three. For instance, child's room, alchemy lab, and armory.
* Maybe it's a mead cellar. That's the sort of thing you'd find in a Nord house. And Hearthfire allows no other houses.

Same here. I simply assumed that the house in the Pale would be that snowy house, until I went to look at the property and saw that it was only slightly north of Whiterun.

Hearthfire brought me back to Skyrim. Okay, it's story time so grab some warm milk and find a nice, comfortable seat.

I suffered from "restartitis", because I'd get to about level 50 before I got burned with being too powerful. On my last game, I purposely kept my level at 1, used no enchanted weapons, and made other self-imposed rules in the game.

Then, I blew it. I clean up my saves prior to turning off the console, and I had cleaned out my saves, and wanted to see where I was. I accidentally pressed the "up arrow", which forces you to select your m/h/s options for every level gained. It was my mistake, but this pretty much killed my spirit in continuing to play Skyrim.

Hearthfire changed this. Not only did it give me an excuse to restart the game, but now I had a goal I wanted to play: building my house! I'm at level 34 and have the most fun in the game since I bought it. Main quest? LOL. I've visited the Greybeards and that's it. No horn to go after because I just don't care about the MQ. I did open DB, but only for Shadowmere, now in my possession (finally!).

Now, Lydia and I will romp Skyrim's caves and temples. We'll bash in the skulls of the Falmer while turning mages into maggot homes. We'll strip bandits of their hides and cash in on their weapons. Animals and dragons had best run away, because we're going to skin them (preferably dead, but we're not picky).

Oh, and this is my occupation as a mill worker.

On my new main I will live in Riften until Dawnguard business is complete then I will move to my house that I had been working on for the past few months. I will then get the female Dunmer Mage as steward, wife is Jenessa so they will get along. Then Gregor and maybe adopt a orphan from a city. On my first playthrough my Imperial saw Sophie in the street selling flowers, he bought all of them then adopted her. Those kids from Riften atleast have a roof over their head.

The house with the fish hachery (Windstad Manor) is in a snowy location isent it? (It does snow there from time to time for me).

Edit: And yes, theres a swamp like 10 feet away, but it do snow at the manor from time to time and theres snow on the ground, sometimes it rains too, i belive it depends on what direction your comming from.

It cost $5. I spend more than that for lunch. Money well spent given the amount of entertainment that both my son and I have had since downloading. Did it help with my diabolical plans for galactic domination? Nope. But it didn't make my beer taste flat either.

$5.