Tuesday, August 28, 2012

NEW SKYRIM DLC: HEARTHFIRE


This morn Bethesda released the above trailer/ad for the second official batch of DLC for their uber-popular title, "The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim." Basically, this is for those who revel in the home management qualities in Bethesda's games. There are a number of existing houses you can acquire throughout your adventures but "Hearthfire" is the ultimate experience, allowing one to pick a plot of land, design your home, and furnish it with dozens of addendums. Watch the trailer and you will see what I mean. One aspect I geeked about was the ability to add "trophies" to your hall (a la "Fable"). Slaying a troll is always satisfying, but being able to display his corpse in your home, priceless. Let us hope you can have room big enough to put a dragon skeleton (or am I being too hopeful?).

Yes, there have been mods and PC add-ons (made all the easier by "The Elder Scrolls Construction Set") that grant you similar abilities, but for us console users this a very big deal. Besides, there is an undeniable polish involved when something is released by the developers themselves.


I actually have yet to add "Dawnguard" to my "Skyrim" experience. I have hardly played the game at all in recent months (which has more to do with not getting around to it than not wanting to). However, with "Hearthfire" on the way I will definitely be heading back to "Skyrim" soon. As cool as the features in "Dawnguard" sounded, it is the ability to finally really leave your mark on the already meticulously crafted realm of Skyrim that is most appealing to me. Playing house may sound far from exciting to some of my fellow gamers. Yes, it has more in common with "The Sims" than an action RPG, but one of the biggest draws of this series as always been living in a mythical world--this will only add to the effect for me.

The best part of this announcement is two-fold. First, this DLC will be a mere $5! Second, this will be released a week from today (September 4th)!

Live on. Game on.