Lies. SI was great if only for the ambientation and the plot twist. but I agree with you. the real choice was to side with golden saints or dark seducers, nothing more! Dawnguard apparently provides 2 different storylines, unlike every other "guild" quest done before (look at Tribunal). the only exception is bloodmoon.

Except that the questlines in Dawnguard are identical, only difference being dialogue. To be fair, I think the radiants are different though, they have to be. Even dawnguard can become . There's no consequence for choices.

Dialogue is the heart of a rpg. it's important enough.

If bethesda really believed that, then npcs would react to your deeds more realitically, guards would have a huge list of dialogue responses based on your players deeds personality time of day etc like in Oblivion, and people wouldn't repeat the same things over and over again.

*Sigh* but I digress. Regardless, different dialogue does not equal different questlines. Dialogue may be important, but so is choice, different perspectives, tangible, meaningful, permanent impact and response from the world, large advantages and drawbacks based on decisions and alliances etc.

You do understand that Kotaku and IGN aren't run by one person, right?

Furthermore, why do people with this attitude even bother reading reviews? Good luck finding a writer out there who you agree with on every subject 100% of the time.

Exactly. Thank you.

if i were you i would wait to get dawnguard, since the questline of it is soo fast and there is not much content.

Oh and if you guys want a "player review" feel free to read mine or make your own in this thread: http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1390811-my-very-amateur-dawnguard-review/

Then I guess Dawnguard and Skyrim proper have a really bad heart then.

They both have the same simplistic dialogue (in terms of options and reactions).

Well put Alikah. Thank you.

Yeah, while I found SI to be a great expansion, the primary draws were the main storyline and a new landmass, while the side-quest content seemed pretty anemic, if memory serves.

I think Bethesda made a vital mistake with Dawnguard, they attempted two separate factions, but with little content to differentiate them. Sure, as a poster above mentioned, the dialog was different on either side and the radiant quests were different, the main story missions were nearly identical, at least so far on both of my playthroughs. If Bethesda wasn't planning on making very distinct separate questlines they should have focused their efforts on one splendid faction plot. And I'm willing to bet that many didn't take the time to complete both faction lines, could be wrong though.

Honestly, in my opinion 200-300 points should have been shaved off the price of this add-on. Dawnguard is obviously much more expansive that KoTN, but I do believe it is over-priced, at least somewhat. But, again, I found this to be an enjoyable DLC worth my time. I'm now wondering how large Hearthfire will be, I'm hoping it is at least on par with Dawnguard, but more reasonably priced. I would be ecstatic if Hearthfire turned out to be one of the more content heavy DLC.

I agree with everything you just said. I personally complete all the questlines...usually. In morrowind I did all the house questlines because they were radically different and conflicted with one another. This time they're so similar I dont think I would have done them both had I known before.

I 100% agree with the Kotaku review. Dawnguard is so underwhelming.

What's so wrong about exepting this dlc should be near a real Addon? It's the most expensive dlc (no Addon) I personal know, to a roleplaygame.
And for what Dawnguard is in my opinion, twenty dollars are to much, it's more the size of the bigger DLC of Fallout 3 and they cost 10.

I stopped part way through my playthrough on the Dawnguard side, there aren't enough different aspects to justify the time.

Another thing that irked me was the Soul Cairn, sure it visually pleasing, but it was barren, boring, and the only good thing that came out of it was Arvak. The only decent part of that area was when I had a clear destination, such as finding and killing the keepers, oh and talking to jiub.

the soul cairn was pretty bad. And i love how Beth tries to justify making new "creatures", by throwing some skeletons and draugr in there and calling them Mistman, Boneman, and Wrathman.... Beth is getting lazy with creativity.

Edit: I also stopped halfway through the questline. Nothing about entices me to finish it other than to get achievements. Beth's writing is becoming so lackluster.

Exactly. Vsions did a good job on the soul cairn and forgotten vale, but the areas were barren. There was so much potential for these locations but outside of their main quests they were truly lackluster.

As I recall, those were actually the enemies from the original appearance of the soul cairn in battlespire and they have their own place in its lore. I agree that they should've made them LOOK more unique however.

oh okay, i didn't know. Still tho, to me it just feels as tho Beth has no creativity anymore. They create one big bang like the vampire lord, add a lackluster story line and call it DLC. Guess i'll just wait and read a review next time before buying.

Overall I got waaaay too tired of the dungeon crawling...but realised it was done deliberately so you went say...the longest time without feeding as a vamp...so youd see how weak you were as a blood starved!

Honestly it made me erase my saves and start over vowing not to touch dawnguard till im done having actual fun.

Its the endgame chore like Dead Money was to New Vegas!

Right, as soon as I was done with the main missions, I kept thinking "there really is no reason to return to this place". If Bethesda had shrunk the Soul Cairn and Vale down and actually packed them with decent content, this could have been a stellar DLC. Something tells me that these two timed-exclusive DLCs will be the worst out of the batch, I'm not sure why. Hopefully, I'll be incorrect about that statement. Does anyone have a link where Todd claimed that Dawnguard was the "Shivering Isles" of the group? Another thing I hope I'm wrong about.

No he never said thag to my knowledge. He DID say it would feel like an expansion though.

Dawnguard got a 8.0 on IGN last time I checked

Not every game can be like Planescape Torment, I fear.

How dare you insult the greatest DLC ever created.