What a question , PC of course !

"Could have", but can't currently. Whether or not it was "cut out" of the original game is irrelevent, Dawnguard adds it in for you. Now if I could only find a blasted Woodcutter's Axe. I don't use console commands, cheating is just not my thing, so my added "pets" are welcome (if a bit underpowered for the level I started them at). IMO, the Dawnguard story line is more rich than any of the guild quests, at least as rich, if not moreso, as the main quest line. Yes, there are quite a few new NPCs with their own stories to tell. Most of it revolves around a central NPC, but the additional, very detailed backdrops/NPCs along the way add a LOT of back story, both about themselves and Tamriel in general. There are at least two new areas that are very, very large, on the scope of Blackreach (actually I think both are bigger than Blackreach) large. Off the top of my head there are a good dozen added creatures/baddies EASY, new Alchemy ingredients, at least one new spell, a whole set of new dragon weapons (and a light shield), bunch of new specialty armors, including the VERY cool heavy falmer suit.etc., etc.

In short, Dawnguard is much less an "expansion pack" or DLC that adds new missions and much more additional content for Skyrim that is every bit as worthy as anything currenty in the game.

On playing both sides... don't know, I haven't played the second side yet, but will tonight.

Why should you care? Just play New Vegas in the mean time or move on to another game.

On Topic: I think this DLC is worth about 15 bucks.


Um.. A woodcutters axe is hilariously easy to find. Just go to Riverwood near the second wood cutting stumb. There's an axe on the table.

LOL, I know... but my travels are taking me nowhere near there, and as Guildmaster, I'd hardly think I'd have to trek to some backwoods hole in the dirt for a bleeding axe. And no one any where else seems to be leaving them lying around. Being that I've aligned myself to the DB currently, I'm not doing much exploring either, so I haven't come across one *yet*, but I'm sure I will.

Point being, none of the stores are selling them any longer because I'm up around level 54 or so.

Hear that? It's the bottom falling out of pussnheels subjective argument

What ?

IMHO it's worth it, but that's entirely subjective - I've certainly enjoyed it so far (a good 10hrs in) and reckon I can get some decent mileage out of it, more than I could from shelving out ￡13.99 on anything else. While some of the features (Arrow smithing especially) certainly feel like they should have been in vanilla, and can be added by mods for free, I feel that it adds enough to make playing Skyrim feel fresh again. I'm enjoying it more than I did Knights of the Nine anyway, which felt kind of isolated from the rest of the game, but that's just my opinion, yours'll probably differ.

Only 20% of bethesda is working on DLC.. This has always been true..

On PC its possible to have craftable arrows.. Not talking about consolers.. And what I was saying was not that its nice to be able not to use the console commands... But merely it would take no effort to create it... I hated that main quest line.. I wouldn't pay a single dime to actually play it.. Meaning Skyrim's main quest.. Many mods include new NPC's with loads of new NPC's.. One of the worst things that happened to RPG's was the adding of voice acting.. It limited the amount of dialogue.. This is not true to all RPG's because some RPG's have lesser amount of NPCs.. There is a free Mod that adds in a ton of area.. It is well detailed to be honest.. Its called Moonpath to Elsewyr I believe.. Also Fallout DLC's such as point lookout adding in land 2x the size of blackreach.. Only for 10 dollars.. In Moonpath to Elsewyr there are also loads of new creatures.. And many mods that add in new creatures.. Spells, weapons, clothes, etc are all possible to obtain on the PC through mods..

Dawnguard does not stand up to a Shivering Isles or a GTA dlc.. It is not an Expansion Pack..

↑ and why on earth is there a part 2 to this thread

It's actually a good discussion. There is some bashing at Bethesda and Dawnguard here and there, but other then that, a very interesting thread.

Oh yeah, it's worth it.

When I first started I would have said that it might be worth it, but after getting to the Soul Cairn and the other new area, which I won't spoil, it's definitely worth it - some of the best scenery in the game.

Also, lots of new lore about the falmer.

Yep. Like when someone calls us all cheapskates for questioning whether it's a good idea to spend another $20 on a videogame.

But in all seriousness people's opinions on the matter are interesting.

the only bashing is about the quality of the end product, looking back at other bethesda products and even comparing what other companies bring out , the quality is frankly , low , all the bugs and glitches even after a full month of playing by the xbox(censored) are still there
it just feels that DG was launched in a hurry and untested or atleast not tested long enough

True, a lot of game with all DLC can be bought with only $20. And you should buy those instead and come back to skyrim 10years later. I am sure all Skyrim DLC will be sold as a bundle for $5

Seriously, you are comparing new game content with some few months old content. That doesn't seem quite right to me.

Of course there are some new game/DLC out there that cost must less, but do they have as good graphic/voice/interaction as Dawnguard? Don't forget those stuff cost a lot just to put into a game, and I think $20 totally worth it

My first PC game purchased was gee, I dunno, maybe Gunship? Pools of Radiance? We're talking been playing for, oh, 30 years or so, back when teh only alternative was a 2600. Asleep? Hardly. Mods are a mixed bag and always have been, for any game. 90% (or more) of them are gamebreakers in some way for me. Garbage textures, tears, animation bugs, and so on. The sheer list of lost players who can't play at all after installing DG are testament to the fact that modders are NOT superior coders or designers. Those that are may wind up working for gaming companies, but by and large, most don't and never will.

I'm not knocking the modding community, or the use of mods. I'm just saying that there is always the huge risk of failure, which can be catastophic, when using mods. So, I don't use them, at all, ever. Simply the implied risk of viruses is enough for me to NOT use user generated content. I'm very cautious about what I will and won't put on my machines. As I result, I can safely say that my PCs have not crashed, been infected, etc. for, phew, can't remember how long, maybe 10 years, probably longer.

Soooo... sorry, no can do on the mods. Though, from what I have seen of them, NONE of them even come close to adding the volume of content that DG does.

You're making the assumption that someone who is willing to by an OEM product is also willing to buy a backyard generated product. Hey, if that's what you like to do, go for it. But you can't weight the value of one against the other, especially when the latter is not ALLOWED to make money off of the product. Shivering Isles? Yeesh. Personally, I was never a big fan and found the entire pack to be repetitive and boring, the least of Oblivions final greatness. But, that aside, DG offers at least as much content as Shivering Isles did.

And I hate to keep hammering this point home, but mod installation, up to the point og final release with all content included, is always going to be potnetially game breaking.

Infected? None of my comptures never have either, and i frequently visit on the... darker sides of the net Common sense with some freeware tools and browser plugins keeps my system safe.


Volume? No. Quality? Depends on the mod, some far surpass Beths work. Many do not come close. SkyUI comes to mind as an example of "better" Project Nevada for New Vegas by some of the same people was a "commercial quality" add-on too.

But why i use mods is that Bethesda can't make a game customised to my preferences, but with mods i can do that myself.

I just flicked through a walkthrough of moonpath to Elsweyr. It didn't have the polish you'd get from official DLC (some of the writing was a little 'functional', I spotted many dodgy texture joins and so forth), but I deffo had to tip my cap to the guy/girl/guys/girls/daedric lords who created it. That looks like a damn good mod to me. The only proper experience with game mods I've had though, was on Civ IV complete - they were boxed in with the game so they worked absolutely fine.

Surpass, well that's subjective. As your latter statement clearly illustrates with the sentiment "my preferences". I design custom software for a living. Trust me, if you wanted a software company designing a game to your specific needs, it's a game you'd never be able to afford (or want to pay for, really). All of which is irrelevant to the original question, "is it worth it?" DG has to be valued on its own, not on comparison to other products.

FWIW, it's not just viruses, malware, some mods are inherently game breaking. Figuring out which ones are and aren't on your machine is a trial and error process that can be, at times, quite painful. IMO and IME, it's something better avoided.

Well for me it was totally worth the 20 dollars. I had about 13 hours after finishing the Vampire side of the DLC yesturday and have yet to do the dawnguard quests completely.

I made a New character to begin with hoping that it would make it where mods etc where ok and was able to run all my mods i had installed on pc but anyways. It was really fun cause i rushed to level 10 (did the companion quests and finished by level 11) and then headed off after duruk (Orc Dawnguard dude) approched me in whiterun. Thought he looked pretty cool so i was like awesome expansion already.... lol

Anyways i can go on but i think starting a totally new character made this DLC alot better cause after finishing the vampire side im still gonna go back right after this post and continue to play through and master VL form (Achievement for all perks). And i already know im going to make another character and roleplay as if his parents died by vampires so he is out for revenge and joins up for dawnguard...

Basically after 13 hours after making a new guy i still didnt touch the main quest or anything and look forward to going through the older content as a Vampire Lord now....

Well worth the 20 dollars and the ridiculous wait for the PC version and the total silence we encountered earlier. At least in my opinion. enjoyed every dang minute of the Vampire side and am loving the VL form and powers.

Not sure if any of that made since its almost 5 am right now and im really anxious to get back and play my VL guy right now >

The Only complaint i have about it witch wasnt a big deal really ... is that i found Serana had quite a problem thoughout the quests keeping up with me and simply following. I had to run back alot on multiple quests and find her only to be standing there doing nothing or looking for a enemy that was dead or something. So then i had to exit the dungeon, place so that she would actually start following me again. Only annoyance, bug, whatever issue i came up with really throughout my game play.

You're a software dev and you can't check if a mod has any files that could pose a threat? It takes all of 1 minute to do. Also, the only mods that can break your game are ones that use scripts (it's actually scary how easy it is to corrupt a save game with a bad script). But mods that add new models / textures / sounds or tweak game parameters such as lighting / weather profiles etc. are completely safe and can really add to your game experience. You'd be a fool not to take advantage of the wealth of brilliant mods available out there, such as hothtrooper's amazing armors.

than you are missing a great part of the intended game play ,when i see what is to offer and what the vanilla version has to offer i sometimes think beth left those things out or simplified it so the modding community can have a go at it and they did some wonderfull work and only once , very early in march or something i had a mod that incompatible with the others , never did my game ceased functioning because of a mod after tjhat

Yes. 50-ish hours of dawnguard so far for me