Skyrim Beta Patch 1.7 Now Available on Steam

Bethesda has released the beta version of the latest Skyrim patch for PC owners of the game through Steam.

The 1.7 patch carries a memory and stability optimizations and improved Kinect voice recognition. This means the game won't crash as much and will generally run a lot better than it currently does—which is acceptable by anyone's reckoning.

The patch also comes with some bug fixes for the Dawnguard DLC, which is currently only available on the Xbox 360. The notes seem to suggest that the Dawnguard DLC will be available to both PC and PS3 owners of the game. That's good news for everyone who's not already playing it on the 360.

The update is also planned for release on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 at some point in the near future. If you're playing the game on the PC, you'll be happy to know that being a guinea pig to these beta patches doesn't have any downsides.