I started playing Dawnguard on my xbox this weekend.
For those totally out of the loop, it's a vampire storyline. go hunt or join the Vampires. This was pretty much public knowledge, so it's not a spoiler unless you deliberately deprive yourself of any knowledge about the product before you buy it.
It's wired up for 10th level or higher (you won't hear about it until level 10). Any city guard will mention the initial quest, and that'll get it going. I had to look it up after I bought it, because it wasn't obvious while I was finishing up an existing quest.
Enough about that. Here's my observations in a hopefully non-spoily way.
They've worked harder on NPC dialog in this new DLC. I suspect they're emulating DragonAge, which seems chock full of NPCs who won't shut up. It's still not to that level, but they tried to be a bit more varied, and they now tend to have multiple responses to questions from NPCs.
The Vampire Lord powers are cool, and they setup a seperate Perk advancement track that doesn't seem to interfere with your normal track.
Kinect + Dawnguard = broken, I had to disable Kinect commands. apparently, there's no voice recognition on the new Vampire powers. So you have to manually hit the Power button (normally RB). With Kinect commands enabled, this button doesn't actually do anything (it won't use the enabled Shout or transform). Oddly, it will do the Bats power (new Vampire Lord power). As a result, you can't transform into a vampire lord or back with Kinect commands enabled.
Here's the extra delicious part. I despise 3rd person mode. I also tend to press down hard on the thumbsticks while in combat. So the default control arrangement would have me popping in and out of sneak, and 1st person mode constantly. So I swapped those to Run and Power on LB and RB, which are much less harmfull in the heat of combat. With the Kinect's disabledment of the Power button, because I could just say the name of the Shout, it was perfect.
Now, the combined effect of all this with Dawnguard, is I get stuck transforming into a Vampire Lord in the heat of combat AND it's a forced 3rd person view. There's nothing I like more than loosing a second of attack and circle strafing while my body transmogrifies itself while my enemy is trying to chop my head off with a greatsword in large Hit Point doses.
I haven't seen anybody else mention anything about the Kinect = Dawnguard effect (and yes, I tried restoring the buttons to their original configuration).
Overall, I like the new content. I just hate the mechanical difficulty with Kinect.
I will give one more spoiler with regard to choosing sides and getting Vampire powers (namely because it could be confusing)
[sblock]You have to do the initial Dawnguard quest to get the ball rolling. That will lead to your real choice of which side to take. Regardless of which side you choose, you will get a chance to become a Vampire Lord, sooner, or very later. Just so you know that you CAN try the goodies AFTER being a good guy.[/sblock]
For those totally out of the loop, it's a vampire storyline. go hunt or join the Vampires. This was pretty much public knowledge, so it's not a spoiler unless you deliberately deprive yourself of any knowledge about the product before you buy it.
It's wired up for 10th level or higher (you won't hear about it until level 10). Any city guard will mention the initial quest, and that'll get it going. I had to look it up after I bought it, because it wasn't obvious while I was finishing up an existing quest.
Enough about that. Here's my observations in a hopefully non-spoily way.
They've worked harder on NPC dialog in this new DLC. I suspect they're emulating DragonAge, which seems chock full of NPCs who won't shut up. It's still not to that level, but they tried to be a bit more varied, and they now tend to have multiple responses to questions from NPCs.
The Vampire Lord powers are cool, and they setup a seperate Perk advancement track that doesn't seem to interfere with your normal track.
Kinect + Dawnguard = broken, I had to disable Kinect commands. apparently, there's no voice recognition on the new Vampire powers. So you have to manually hit the Power button (normally RB). With Kinect commands enabled, this button doesn't actually do anything (it won't use the enabled Shout or transform). Oddly, it will do the Bats power (new Vampire Lord power). As a result, you can't transform into a vampire lord or back with Kinect commands enabled.
Here's the extra delicious part. I despise 3rd person mode. I also tend to press down hard on the thumbsticks while in combat. So the default control arrangement would have me popping in and out of sneak, and 1st person mode constantly. So I swapped those to Run and Power on LB and RB, which are much less harmfull in the heat of combat. With the Kinect's disabledment of the Power button, because I could just say the name of the Shout, it was perfect.
Now, the combined effect of all this with Dawnguard, is I get stuck transforming into a Vampire Lord in the heat of combat AND it's a forced 3rd person view. There's nothing I like more than loosing a second of attack and circle strafing while my body transmogrifies itself while my enemy is trying to chop my head off with a greatsword in large Hit Point doses.
I haven't seen anybody else mention anything about the Kinect = Dawnguard effect (and yes, I tried restoring the buttons to their original configuration).
Overall, I like the new content. I just hate the mechanical difficulty with Kinect.
I will give one more spoiler with regard to choosing sides and getting Vampire powers (namely because it could be confusing)
[sblock]You have to do the initial Dawnguard quest to get the ball rolling. That will lead to your real choice of which side to take. Regardless of which side you choose, you will get a chance to become a Vampire Lord, sooner, or very later. Just so you know that you CAN try the goodies AFTER being a good guy.[/sblock]
