Since The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim released during November 2011, the game has been praised for its almost endless amount of content. Since the world of Skyrim is huge, it would almost seem pointless to add downloadable content, but Bethesda has with “Dawnguard.”

Dawnguard revolves around the Vampire lord Lord Harkon, who wants to gain complete control with the Elder Scrolls. In classic Elder Scrolls style, players can choose to stop Harkon or join him in his quest for world domination.

Skyrim was highly anticipated, and a critical and commercial success: the game sold 3.4 million copies during the first two days or launch and later totalled 7 million sales across Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC. However, PS3 users were complaining about the game’s bugs and thus playability. Bethesda has since released patches to improve playability.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim was many critic’s Game of the Year, an award given to video games considered the “best” of that year. Press cited the seemingly endless world, deep levelling up mechanics and the power of choice available to the player as reasons for the game’s best-of title. It wasn’t a low quality year, either: 2011 brought games such as Valve’s Portal 2 and Rocksteady’s Batman: Arkham City - sequels, along with Skyrim.

For French, Italian, Spanish or German players the 1.6 update - which brings mounted combat and Kinect support, allowing users to literally shout spells - is out. The “plan” according to Bethesda is to launch Dawnguard in the FIGS regions mid-July.

The Dawnguard trailer, below, asks players if “you want to be one of us, to feast on the dark souls of the living” or “are you with them, the Dawnguard.” The vampire lord wants to the end the “tyranny of the sun” - vampires can’t walk in daylight. Vampires in Skyrim significantly alter gameplay: along with not being able to go outside in the day, players have to suck on blood to survive. Moving around is also expedited: players have wings.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim “Dawnguard” DLC is available now for 1600 Microsoft points on Xbox Live. A release date for the PlayStation 3 and PC versions has not been announced.