It’s obviously a small addition, but a very welcome one of course. Mounted combat was first seen in that great GameJam content preview and we’re glad to see that it has made its way into Skyrim in an official capacity. What is even better is that PC players can even try out the new feature right now, by downloading the 1.6 beta update that is available on Steam now.

Unfortunately, this means that console players will have to wait once again to try this out. Skyrim’s beta updates on PC always allows Steam users to preview new updates early, so it could be a long while yet until we see this land on Xbox 360 and PS3. If they wanted to, Bethesda could have easily charged a small fee for this which no doubt a lot of people would have bought in an instant. However, these free updates are another indication of the great support that Bethesda seem to be giving Skyrim post-release, so we just hope that extends to next year as well, and of course making all these new features available on console.

We’ve said in the past about the idea of mods becoming available on console and who knows, this could be a priority for Bethesda as well once they have released the highly anticipated Dawnguard expansion. Unfortunately, there’s no word on when that is coming out yet, but we expect a solid release date to be made at E3 – a gameplay trailer would be awesome as well.

Just to reiterate, mounted combat is now available on PC via the 1.6 beta update. Have you tried it out yet and managed to take down a dragon whilst still riding a horse? There’s a great video below showing that this is now definitely possible. Have fun with the update folks.

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The app essentially follows you on your vast journey, providing a notebook for you to record any notable activities that you come across on your travels. The most useful aspect of the app is the ability to jot down entries on a particular item or event that you have seen in a particular location – making a written observation in the app so that you can remember it and return to the location if needed.

Sounds great for a free app, right? That’s what we thought, but apparently ZeniMax Media, owner of Bethesda and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim are not too happy with the app being available and have decided to send a copyright infringement letter to the app’s developer, Rick Blalock.

However, when speaking to TouchArcade, Blalock has revealed that he is yet to receive a C&D order from Zenimax and Apple has yet to remove the app from the app store since ZeniMax has not revealed what the app is in violation of. You may remember that ZeniMax were in the headlines recently for their efforts to stop Mojang using the phrase ‘Scrolls’. Do we sense an element of over-protection here perhaps?

If anything, the Dragon Shout app embraces everything that is good about Skyrim and according to the developer, the map featured in Dragon Shout is hand-drawn by himself and doesn’t infringe on anything in Skyrim. To make matters even more interesting, we noticed that Pete Hines, one of the big guns at Bethesda has even commented on TouchArcade’s story by saying that this situation is ‘Much ado about nothing. The app is up and will remain up.’

Does that comment from Pete Hines suggest that Bethesda doesn’t mind about the app being up, but ZeniMax does? That may be some tension right there folks. Perhaps ZeniMax needs to calm down a little before fans start to turn against them. ZeniMax obviously doesn’t want to remain in the bad books of the gaming community with The Elder Scrolls Online on the way, so a statement to clear this situation up would be the most effective way of putting this to bed we feel.

In this crazy world of ongoing patent and copyright disputes, do you find it ridiculous that the developer is being targeted for providing a FREE app to Skyrim lovers? Give us your thoughts on this.

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For those of you that haven’t seen it yet, gaze upon it once again above – it looks rather pretty doesn’t it? Unfortunately Bethesda gave no other additional details on the forthcoming DLC, only to confirm that more information would be coming at this year’s E3 expo in June.

If you study the image, you’ll see that the Nord fellow has glowing orange eyes. This is the same guy that has featured in other official images, but Bethesda are obviously placing a heavy influence on the fact that the guy has now been ‘possessed’ if you like. While still in a human state, natural assumptions point to some kind of new vampire content that Bethesda may be planning to deploy – especially if you picture the word ‘dawn’ relating to the fact that vampires don’t play well with direct sunlight.

Then of course there is the current existing town in Skyrim called Dawnstar which may also be linked to this Dawnguard content. Will we be seeing a brand new vampire class or faction? The image also features arrows as well which may be an indication that they are planning to include the crossbow weapon as seen in their excellent Gamejam preview video.

For those that have forgotten, Bethesda also felt the need to remind everyone that the first Skyrim DLC expansion will be a timed-exclusive for the Xbox 360. Just like Call of Duty, Xbox 360 owners will get the content first for a month, before Bethesda releases it for the PC and PS3. It’s not ideal obviously, but money definitely talks these days and it is a common occurrence in the industry at the moment.

Assuming that this content is directly related to vampires – would you be happy with that? When E3 lands, it will have been eight months since release don’t forget, so it will be interesting to see if fans will be satisfied with a vampire-related expansion pack to the game or not. Feel free to offer your opinions on the first expansion pack, based on the image that Bethesda has released.

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It goes without saying that Bethesda has well and truly taken their time on the first post-release content for Skyrim. It has actually been over six months since the game released without any new content to enjoy – on console anyway since PC owners have had the Creation Kit to utilize for a good while now.

The well known phrase good things come to those who wait should kick in here nicely as Bethesda are finally ready to unveil what they have been cooking up for the last six months, knowing too well that there is an overwhelming sense of expectation, perhaps a little bit of anger but plenty of excitement from the legion of Skyrim fans who are dying to see some fresh content.

A tweet sent out by the official Elder Scrolls Twitter account states that we should ‘be on the lookout for the first DLC info tomorrow’. An additional Tweet sent out by Pete Hines clarifies though the the information reveal will be minimum though, so not a full on blowout of details unfortunately.

Still though, any information is good information in our books so we can’t wait to see what happens. We’re guessing that Bethesda will unveil a title for the new DLC as well as a release indication for when the content will be out. Or we may just see a gameplay trailer confirming the title and a release at the end.

We will let you know all the juicy gossip as it happens later on. What are your expectations on the DLC reveal? Would you like to revisit the worlds of Morrowind and Oblivion as soon as possible?

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With the Creation Kit and Steam Workshop now freely available, it means that thousands of mods are accessible on arguably the most popular digital PC gaming platform. However, before the Creation Kit released, everyone was getting their mod fix from Skyrim Nexus and you’ll be pleased to know that it still remains a great alternative source to customize your game.

While most of you have probably seen some bizarre mods like the Macho Man patch, many of you will be specifically hunting for mods that will make your game significantly better from a graphics point of view. A useful collection of graphics-improving mods has been compiled by the guys over at Kotaku, and providing that you have a PC rig capable of running multiple mods at once, you’ll find that installing the following mods will make your game look distinctly better than the one that Bethesda shipped back in November.

The first mod that you’ll definitely want to install if you haven’t yet is actually an official one from Bethesda. It’s called the High Resolution Texture Pack and claims to give your game an instant improvement in exchange for a minimum 4GB of RAM and a 1GB ATI or NVIDIA graphics card.

FXAA Injector is another essential mod that you’ll want, as is Lush Grass and Trees if you really want to appreciate that fine Skyrim foliage. One of the most impressive mods in our opinion though is the Xenius Character Enhancement mod by Xenius. This little gem makes all of the facial and body features of every single character in the game better – particularly in the eyes department as you’ll see in a comparison screenshot above.

One of the most famous graphic enhancing mods that most of you are probably already running is the Enhanced Night Skyrim patch. This mod drastically improves the night sky effects that you’ll see in the game and is simply a must-have mod if you want to experience Skyrim in much finer detail.

Those are obviously just a few of the thousands of mods that are available for the game. It is a real shame that console players cannot enjoy things like this, but let’s hope that the upcoming DLC may provide some much needed TLC for console players. If you are running a collection of mods on PC that have made your game much nicer though, list the mods that you have used to achieve your results.

If you could pick out one single mod that has changed the game for you, what would it be?

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It goes without saying that they are taking their time on the new content for Skyrim. It has been six months since the game released in November and aside from numerous patch updates and the Creation Kit for PC users, console players have had little to get excited about.

Could it be that all the excitement about new content is actually turning to frustration? After it was revealed that Bethesda had trademarked the name ‘Dawnguard’ all sorts of speculation started to fly around, with many believing that the Mythic Dawn cult group from Oblivion would play some part in the first expansion pack.

Talking about expansion packs, it does now look certain that the first piece of DLC won’t be on the minimal side. Bethesda had teased the idea of add-on content being substantial, and it looks like Skyrim players are going to see content on the scale of the brilliant Shivering Isles pack that released for Oblivion.

Unfortunately, not everyone will be enjoy the content at the same time though. The Elder Scrolls franchise has fallen victim to the Call of Duty exclusivity plague and it means that Bethesda will be releasing the new content on the Xbox 360 first for a month, before those of you playing on PS3 and PC can access it.

It’s not an ideal situation obviously and there is bound to be ton of jealousy when the pack finally does surface. With just two months to go before E3 2012, could Bethesda actually be keeping gamers waiting until then to announce their DLC plans? If they have made gamers wait six months so far, it wouldn’t surprise us if we had to wait another two months as after all – E3 is the grandest stage of them all to make announcements.

What are your honest opinions on the lack of DLC for Skyrim at the moment? It seems unheard of for a modern game of this generation to not provide any additional content after six months. Are you bothered by the wait, or are you happy for Bethesda to take their time on it? Are you contemplating an announcement at E3 2012 now, or do you still think the content will be announced before?

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For those of you that aren’t aware, it has been six months now since Skyrim first released back in November 2011 and we are yet to have a sniff of any sort of post-release content, on console anyway. The same cannot be said for PC users though, since they are probably not too desperate for new content as console users, as they have the full use of the Creation Kit and mods to enjoy whenever they want to spice up their game.

If you head to the official Bethesda Twitter account now, you’ll see that an image has been revealed of an unknown figure, along with the words ‘tomorrow’. Obviously there is no guarantee that this is Skyrim DLC related, but it probably wouldn’t be a good idea if Bethesda were to unveil something completely unrelated to Skyrim, as that may infuriate fans further.

Going back to Pete Hines’ Tweet at the end of last month though, he did say that Bethesda has some announcements concerning Rage too, so this is another reason why we shouldn’t get our hopes up too much. Having said that, we can’t hide our excitement on the future of the game as you just know that Bethesda are prepping something huge for the game on an epic scale of proportions.

After seeing the level of quality in their expansion packs for Oblivion, we can’t wait to see what they come up with for Skyrim. The ultimate release for us would be a trip back to Cyrodiil, but if Bethesda announce some brand new locations to gamers we wouldn’t mind that either. A lot of people want to see random epic boss battles when travelling around and we agree that adding Monster Hunter style elements into the game would add a brand new dimension to Skyrim.

We saw with Bethesda’s Game Jam clip that possibilities are endless for DLC, so let’s hope that their reveal on Tuesday will be specifically linked to the first expansion pack. If you are playing Skyrim on console at the moment, tell us what you want to see in the first piece of DLC. Remember that it will be an Xbox 360 timed-exclusive for a month, just like Call of Duty. This will continue for the second piece of DLC as well, when it will then become available on PS3 and PC. It’s not ideal obviously, but that’s the way the industry works these days unfortunately.

What DLC do you want to see? What are your thoughts on the image released above by Bethesda – any ideas?

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You know what that means don’t you? You’ll now be able to use shouts such as Fus Ro Dah to your heart’s content, simply by shouting into the Kinect sensor in your best macho warrior voice.

The depth of the Kinect support for the game is nothing short of impressive, as you’ll even be able to call upon every single skill in the game, fast travel at ease, bring up the skill tree menus and much more. One of the most pleasing aspects we can see is that you’ll be able to tell Kinect to loot items when hunting in dungeons. Even when you are over encumbered you can simply transfer some items to a traveling companion – all by voice.

Bethesda has stated that there’s over 200 voice commands to be implemented in the Xbox 360 version of the game via Kinect, while a full list of Kinect dragon shouts will be available for study soon. We have a feeling that Fus Ro Dah is the one that’s going to be used the most though, and we can’t help but feel that PS3 users would love the same kind of functionality.

It also poses the question on the status of DLC. Bethesda look to have spent a good while on getting this working so smoothly, so we can only hope that their next project is finalizing DLC. It has been six months since release after all, so to say that extra content on console is due is an understatement.

Delight for Xbox 360 owners, but not so much for PS3 users perhaps. Let us know your thoughts on the new Kinect support for the game. It will be available for use at the end of this month – there’s an excellent preview video showing it in action below.

Is new functionality like this worth postponing DLC or not?

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However, we already have confirmation that the patch is causing some problems on the PS3 version, with even Bethesda admitting that there is a freezing glitch in the game which now occurs whenever a player enters water.

After such a long period of time for the patch to come out, you would have thought that these things would be tested, but unfortunately that isn’t the case. It isn’t a sporadic issue either – the moment you step foot in water after installing patch 1.5, your game will freeze up requiring a hard reset of the PS3.

Luckily, there does appear to be an immediate workaround to the problem. Bethesda has advised all players to clear their game data for Skyrim by going to the game utility section of the XMB. When you reboot Skyrim after this change, the game will reinstall and it should fix the problem for you.

As for the new changes that you can expect to see in the new update, Bethesda has revealed that console players will now be able to view a cinematic kill camera for projectile weapons and spells. There are also some brand new animations and kill moves when using melee weapons, so those of you who prefer to melee your way out of trouble should appreciate these new features.

You can read the full changelog here. If you have noticed the water freezing problem as well on patch 1.5, let us know if you managed to fix the game, or if you’re still having problems.

Unfortunately, there’s still no word on DLC but we guess they are still working on it. Give us your thoughts on the lack of console DLC – six months after release.

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The good news, is that this month, the month of April may be the time when that happens, as the company has officially confirmed that they have some ‘cool news and surprises’ to bring to Skyrim players.

Specific platforms were not announced in the Tweet by Bethesda’s PR man Pete Hines, but considering that the majority of PC players are more than satisfied with the Creation Kit at the moment, it’s about time that Bethesda extended that love to console players as well.

If they don’t publicly reveal DLC next month, you would have to treat that as a disappointment, especially since Pete Hines has gone on Twitter to say that something good is coming. If you have been following all of the rumors surrounding potential DLC, you’ll have probably already heard that the first piece of content is rumored to be called ‘Dawnguard’. We told you that Bethesda had filed a trademark for the term Dawnguard and possible relations to this name could trace back to the ‘Mythic Dawn’ group from Oblivion.

It’s early days yet of course, but there’s usually no hiding away from a registered trademark. We saw it with Command and Conquer Tiberium Alliances and most recently, we may have also seen it with the PlayStation 4 ‘Orbis’.

What are your thoughts on the cryptic tweet by Hines? Do you agree with us that it would be a disappointment if it is not related to DLC? Let us know what your status is with the game at the moment. Are you still playing religiously, or have you stopped playing the game in favor of waiting for DLC first?

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