Unofficial Fan Patches: Getting The Most Out Of Your Purchase

The worst feeling in gaming may just be buying a game and realizing that it is a buggy mess and/or near unplayable. You may have heard so many amazing things about a game only to find that in its base state, sucks the big one.

Games that have a cult status like this are usually saved by unofficial patches that the fans or even ex-devs that may or may not have worked on the title created. Typically you’ll find fan patches to mainly fix bugs left by the developers. After all, no one else is going to fix them, right?

Sometimes you find some unofficial fan patches that add more to the game or restore content hidden or unfinished before release. It may require some extra work on your behalf after a purchase but if you want to play the following games, you need to start Google searching your game to some patches.

The following four games are well known for having giant unofficial patches to help either fix the game, restore content, or other major fixes.

Dark Souls: Prepare To Die Edition

I wanted to start off with this since it is the most recent on the list.

Dark Souls for the PC was a disaster. The thing is, we knew it would be. The devs made this “port” to satisfy the fans but they told us flat out that they had no experience porting things to the PC. That… is not a good sign at all.

Thankfully, the game was easy to configure and add/edit/delete files to. Almost instantly after the game released there was an unofficial fan patch ready to fix things like slowdown, resolution, windowed mode, and tons of other things.

The result made the Prepare To Die Edition actually playable. That is, after you bypassed the absolutely dreadful Games For Windows error on some Windows 7 and 8 machines where the blasted Marketplace wouldn’t start up causing the game to just sit there with a blank screen. How do you fix that, you ask? Check this post out I made around the release of Dark Souls for the PC. It will also help with Fable 3.

You’ll find all the links and help you need with the stickied posts at the top of the Dark Souls Steam forum.

Titan Quest

Titan Quest is the best Diablo clone ever made. Ever after the release of Torchlight and its sequel, I stand by that remark. This game was filled with awesome story, great class system, and fun enemies. Plus, who doesn’t want to go up against the Titans as you represent the gods of Mt. Olympus?

The unofficial patch for Titan Quest fixes a bunch of issues with bugs, balancing, broken quests, broken skills, loot problems, and tons more. It actually makes the game a lot better but besides the other games on this list, it isn’t needed. You can certainly play Titan Quest and The Immortal Throne without this fan patch but it truly makes the game better.

In fact, the Titan Quest community it still very much alive and kicking. The mod selection out there is very impressive and the work done to this spectacular game by the fans is what keeps this as my favorite Diablo clone. If you haven’t played Titan Quest, you can find it very cheap online with its expansions. I recommend getting the fan patch, as well.

Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords

Now this may be the most important fan patch ever made. It is well known that Obsidian was rushed to release this game and as such as unable to complete a bunch of content. The released product felt like an unfinished experience and that hurt its reputation and standing as a sequel. Honestly, KOTOR2 was my favorite one and this fan patch makes that much easier to swallow and say.

This absolutely enormous patch adds an entire planet full of content, cutscenes, new battles, better story flow, fixes for quests, items, combat, resolution, textures, and oh god so much more. Seriously, you CAN NOT play The Sith Lords without the Restored Content Mod.

Please. I will say this again. This mod is way too important to the overall experience you have with KOTOR2. Download and install the Restored Content Mod. Then you may enjoy one of the best Star Wars games ever made.

Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines

This is another huge and important patch, just like KOTOR2. By itself, Bloodlines is a buggy mess. This patch also restores unfinished content locked on the disc. In other words, just like KOTOR2, you really should be downloading and installing this patch before you play Bloodlines. This is vital to experiencing the game the way it should be.

What does the patch do? It adds, fixes, and edits content in every part of the game. Seriously, just check out this link to a great post on the Steam forum for the game that also contains a download link. It has a list of everything fixed in Santa Monica, Downtown, Hollywood, Chinatown, Hollowbrook, and even every general fix. The list is massive and will give you a guess at how bad the game really is without this patch.

Make sure you download the True Patch Gold, though. There are links out there for the True Patch and while it is legit, the Gold version adds much more and is widely used.

These four games aren’t the only games with unofficial fan patches. There is a laundry list of titles with great backings from the community. Even when a game is littered with bugs you can tell when you have a winner when its legacy is still being stitched together, supported, and loved by the fans. Check out the following list for other games that have notorious needs for unofficial patches.

Deus Ex

The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind

Fallout 2

Might & Magic VI

Neverwinter Nights

Ultima IX

Enjoy your purchases with the knowledge of fan patches! Share any more games that have unofficial patches below in the comments so everyone knows!



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