Arcanum - Unofficial Patch moves to v080626

Drog Black Tooth's Unofficial Arcanum Patch was updated last week, moving the latest version to 080626. The list of fixes is way too long to post here, so head over to the original RPG Codex thread for the latest.
More information.

I've thought of picking up this game. It looked cool when I saw it in the stores, but I never got.

How important are these fan patches? As much as I like the ones I've played with for the BG series, I find them a bit heavy in the 'true to the tabletop' area. As some one who never played table top games, those things don't matter that much to me, so long as the game actually works.

These particular patches are mostly about adding and correcting some minor tidbits (as in adding artwork found in game files but not in game, fixing repeated dialogue, spellchecking, some scripting issues). The major thing is "Sprite mirroring is disabled, the game now uses all 8 rotations for every creature (the number of animations is almost doubled).", which sounds quite significant. To be honest, I haven't played the game with the patch, but by the looks of it, there's no reason not to apply it.

I just reinstalled it … on my UMPC (HP Mini Note), and am looking forward to another run!

I've tried playing this game through many times, seems hollow and I eventually can't go on.

I finished Arcanum for the first time earlier this summer and I used the latest unofficial patch. Overall it was a great experience although I have to say that the magic mechanics are completely unbalanced. Except for saving some energy by the use of Teleport, "Harm" is really the only spell you need through the entire game. Still, despite it's torns, it's one of the finer RPG's out there.

by hollow you mean the single game with more depth than anything yet made?

I'm curious if the memory leak with DirectX 8.0's sound is still a problem. Do these new patches conflict with any level cap remover or balance patch?

Does anyone have any tips on what direction of character is the most fun to play? I do know that gunslingers have been nerfed and swordsman are too powerful.