Dragonborn on the 4th of July

And by July I mean December. And what I'm talking is the new DLC for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

The first Skyrim DLC, Dawnguard, was released during the summer, first on Xbox 360, and then a month later on PC (it still hasn't been released for PS3; developer Bethesda cites memory limitations as to the reason why). Dawnguard added skill trees for both Werewolves and Vampires, as well as additional story missions in which the player could join a faction and either help eliminate the vampire threat or be a threatening vampire.

Many players enjoyed the content but others felt there wasn't enough new monsters and areas to make the purchase worthwhile. Critics also said that next to The Shivering Isles (the expansion for The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion) Dawnguard paled in comparison.

The next piece of DLC was released in September (again, first on Xbox 360 with the PC release following a month after) and was called Hearthfire. It allowed players to build houses, adopt children, and perform a variety of mundane tasks such as baking, beekeeping, and farming. It was a far cry from the dragon slaying adventures people had experienced during the main game, but it is only $5 vs the $20 for Dawnguard. One of the complaints critics had with Hearthfire was that many of the features provided by it were already available through various mods that the mod community had created. To each their own,  I suppose.

Now we have Dragonborn, returning to the long form, additional quests format that Dawnguard first provided. It will again be $20, and promises to have more varied monsters and terrain than the earlier DLC. One of the most demanded feature from players is the ability to ride dragons, and that seems to coming with Dragonborn. In Skyrim, you play as the Dragonborn who is able to absorb souls from dragons and speak in the language of the dragons, which allows you to have powers like a dragon, such as fire breath and the ability to slow time (among many others). Dragons returning in Skyrim is a pretty big deal, as is your character being the Dragonborn, and the insinuation is that you are the hero of destiny who will stop Alduin, the big bad dragon they call the worldeater. The trailer for Dragonborn shows a character who says "You didn't think you were the first Dragonborn, did you?" implying that he is the first Dragonborn, and that he will most likely be the antagonist for Dragonborn. I was pretty burned out on Skyrim by the time Dawnguard rolled around, so I haven't picked it or Hearthfire up, but Dragonborn looks too promising to miss. I will, however, probably have to wait until January 4th for the PC version. Such is life.

Did you count how many times I said Dragonborn in that last paragraph? I counted ten.