Dawnguard

I like Skyrim, I played the heck out of it on Xbox, I modded the heck out of it on pc, and I enjoyed every second.

Last week saw the release of the first official add on to Skyrim, Dawnguard, and since Shanice was nice enough to fill in for me yesterday while I stressed over exams, I’m going to fill in for her tonight while she is working late by giving you my thoughts on this DLC.

Dawnguard involves the return of an ancient race of vampire lords known as the volkihar vampires, they intend to use the power of an elder scroll to “end the tyranny of the sun” at the same time an order of vampire hunters (called the dawnguard) is reformed to put a stop to them.

You are given the choice of who to side with in the quest, each offering their own rewards, as a member of the dawnguard you are given access to new weapons and armour, inducing crossbows, and as a Vampire lord you are given access to a powerful new transformation, allowing you to assume the form of a fearsome Vampire lord to lay waste to your enemies.

I picked to fight along side the dawnguard and had a jolly old time of it, the quest line is massive and crosses over nicely with the mainstory line, the new areas added to the game are both fantastic to look at, and in some cases absolutely huge, i'm still not sure the add on is worth the hefty 1600 microsoft points it cost me, but it did give me a whole weekend of fun and gave me a much needed reason to return to skyrim, and you can't fault it for that.

One of the nicer touches in the DLC is the stuff it adds that is not part of the main DLC quest line. A few new dungeons are added, complete with some new loot, 3 new shouts are added to the game and a couple of much requested features are included, dragon bone weapons and the ability to craft your own arrows.

In conclusion, if you need an excuse to return to skyrim, this is a fun and well executed addition to the game, but if you don't yet own the game, don't buy it just for this DLC, your probably better off waiting for the game of the year edition that will include it.