I greatly enjoyed my time with Dawnguard during my hands-on preview, but it was hard to ignore the glitches that impeded my progress. At one point, the “Chasing Echoes” quest refused to update because Serena would not progress in a conversation with her mother. The subtitle “Mother!” remained on-screen, although no one was actually saying anything. Due to this, I had to reload from an earlier save.
I thought to myself, “I’m sure it was just a one-time thing”, even though Skyrim’s track record clearly stated the opposite. Upon reaching the same area in the mission, the audio level of all dialogue from Serena and her mother that was directed at the Dovahkiin dropped to an inaudible whisper. However, when Serena and her mother chatted with each other, their voices were perfectly normal. Fortunately, the subtitles kept me from becoming lost in the mission.
The developer overlooking my playthrough claimed that the issue hadn’t been seen before and that the team would definitely look into the problem if it persists. I would have expected this from the PS3 version given its past problems, but the preview took place on the Xbox 360, a version considered to be far more stable. It seems we will have to wait for the expansion’s retail release to find out (or possibly Xbox 360 beta feedback) to find out of the issues are widespread.
Gahndii
June 19, 2012 at 12:02 PMI just finished playing through the beta and all the quests and dialogue worked flawlessly.
I did notice that while in the soul carin, sometimes the sound effects of my spells seemed to be really quiet.
You may have been playing a version that was pre-beta. Also, I feel that the title of this article is incorrect and misleading. Just because you experienced a quest breaking glitch does not mean the DLC has MAJOR bugs. It means you had an isolated experience just as the developer explained….
Skyrim has some bugs but thats to be expected in a game this large. The reason Skyrim dosen’t play well with PS3 is an issue with Sony, not Bethesda. The way the PS3’s memory archetecture works makes Skyrim unplayable, not because the game itself is buggy.
Either way, Dawnguard is amazing and it is well worth the $20 price tag. For those of you who haven’t read up on Dawnguard…. think Knights of the Nine plus about 10 hours. Sweet deal!
garrett
June 26, 2012 at 5:51 PMi am having issues with Dawnguard it will not allow me to use the vampire lord power when i try to use it nothing happens. What do I do?
luke
June 27, 2012 at 2:15 AMmine won’t even start. VERY Frustrated
Danny
June 28, 2012 at 5:56 PMThis DLC is unplayable for me. My Xbox won’t stop freezing during various parts in the story. I’ve never had this issue before.
tim
June 29, 2012 at 3:19 AMI’m with Danny. My dawnguard keeps randomly locking up in the Soul Cairn mostly but its happened in other places and Skyrim never froze up on me before I downloaded Dawnguard.
Christian
June 30, 2012 at 3:27 AMMy content has a game breaking glitch, where the priest will not stop attacking. Ive tried every soulution, even re-downloading and restarting the DLC. He just will not stop. Ive looked up every possible answer and none will stop. Im extremely dissapointed.
Zach
July 8, 2012 at 12:05 AMI’m stuck on the part of the quest “beyond death”. I can’t get the elder scroll after you defeat the dragon in the boneyard because it says to talk to sarena’s mom and there’s no way to getting to her because she’s behind the castle wall.
Danny
July 8, 2012 at 2:55 AMI’m also having an issue with Redwater Den. There are no walls or floor and no matter how many times I reload or reinstall the DLC it’s still impassable.
Jessica
January 13, 2017 at 5:42 AMIt’s 2017, I’m playing the Special edition, and there are still glitches in the Soul Cairn.