Given the amount of time between the release of The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim and the release of its first DLC expansion, Dawnguard, we knew that it was going to be quite the undertaking, gameplay wise. Developer Bethesda had previously come out to say that unlike the DLC that was included with Fallout 3 or Fallout: New Vegas, the type of content they were planning for Skyrim was much more substantial, meaning it wasn't going to feel like a simple side quest.

Still that wasn't much to go on, but thankfully Skyrim Lead Artist Matt Carofano has come out to give a much clearer comparison for Dawnguard versus past DLC releases for Bethesda. Though gamers should be focusing on the content itself, there is an inherent value proposition to any piece of DLC, whether it's for last year's Game of the Year or not, and now we have a better idea of what gamers are in for.

In quantitative terms, Dawnguard will be significantly larger than any of the DLC released for Fallout 3, but not as expansive than The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion's biggest DLC offering, Shivering Isles. For anyone that finds it hard to gleam a point of comparison, Carofano also said the DLC delivers about as much content as one of Skyrim's faction quest lines.  It's a completely arbitrary way of describing the quality of a piece of DLC, but in essence it's Bethesda's way of saying Dawnguard should provide between 10 to 20 hours of content.

The DLC, which is currently in beta, puts players in the midst of a battle between Skyrim's version of vampires and vampire hunters, known as the Dawnguard. Players will have to make some really tough decisions along the way, including whether they want to succumb to the darkness and become a full blown vampire, or lay waste to the whole lot of them.

Specifics regarding the DLC's story are still shrouded in quite a bit of mystery, but frankly that's how we like it. Just the first trailer for the DLC was enough to prove that this is an addition worth checking out.

Does "smaller than Shivering Isles but bigger than anything for Fallout 3" sound like an adequate amount of content for Dawnguard? Were you concerned that Dawnguard was going to be too short of an expansion?

Skyrim's first expansion Dawnguard is scheduled to release June 26, 2012 for Xbox 360, and about 30 days later for PS3 and PC.

Source: Game Front