Huh? A new patch was released for the PC version of Arkane Studios’ Arx Fatalis earlier today, a little over eight years after the game originally hit store shelves in 2002. According to the patch notes, this latest improves the game’s stability in Windows Vista and Windows 7, and also addresses some performance issues with NVIDIA GPUs on top of some other, much smaller fixes.

This, understandably, is the last patch Arkane Studios will put out for its RPG. However, you can now make your own by messing around with the game’s source code, which was also released this morning alongside this patch. You can grab the source here.  

Huh? A new patch was released for the PC version of Arkane Studios’ Arx Fatalis earlier today, a little over eight years after the game originally hit store shelves in 2002. According to the patch notes, this latest improves the game’s stability in Windows Vista and Windows 7, and also addresses some performance issues with NVIDIA GPUs on top of some other, much smaller fixes.

This, understandably, is the last patch Arkane Studios will put out for its RPG. However, you can now make your own by messing around with the game’s source code, which was also released this morning alongside this patch. You can grab the source here.  

Holy shit, finally.

Good, I guess?  Arx Fatalis was a fun little game back in the day, but I can't imagine picking it up again based on this news.  Strange, but kinda neat that they're supporting a relatively unknown game like this so far down the line.

Weird.

I love it when games are not forgotten by their developers.

This was a great game. Maybe this will inspire some people to go back and play it.

Wow if only most companies would be willing to release a patch 8 years down the line we might actually get bug free pc gaming one day ;p
...
 
Yeah okay will never happen

Something like this is always good to see.

at least the devs cared enough to still help. the source code is always good as well.

I'm always happy to see an RPG like game come out for the 360 ;)

Ehhh... sure? From the hour or so that I played of it, Arx Fatalis seemed alright. It's one of those games that came out around the same time as Morrowind and kind of fell in that game's shadow. Maybe I'll reinstall it.

oh wow that is pretty crazy... I have been waiting for this patch like FOREVER!

" Wow if only most companies would be willing to release a patch 8 years down the line we might actually get bug free pc gaming one day ;p ...  Yeah okay will never happen "

"The Arx Fatalis GPL Source Code is also subject to certain additional terms."
 
edit: Guess that's OK with GPL3.

woah, i was thinking about reinstalling and playing this game not too long ago. 

Thanks for posting this little news oddity, Brad.  I don't really read GB's headlines for the typical news and its fun to hear about quirky weird things like this.
 
Arx Fatalis was a fun little spiritual successor to Ultima Underworld.  Could seriously cut some gobbie heads off in this game.

I'd never heard of this game before now but I'll always take the opportunity to take a look at a commercial game's source code. Good practice. Cheers for this little story!

Woot! been waiting for this.

It's only €5 on Steam, been thinking about buying it for years, but never gotten around to it. I have so many games on there I never play as it is anyway.

Yes!

I played through about half of Arx Fatalis on the Xbox.  I wrote a really shitty review that I never bothered to upload, but sufficed to say I didn't care for it much.

I honestly have no idea what this game is about. I remember hearing about it back in like, 2002 or 2003 but I never picked it up.

I have never heard of this game.

This was a quirky, fun little title. Pretty ahead of it's time if you ask me. Arkane's other title, Dark Messiah, may have been tripe, but this one is definitely worth checking out if you're in to RPGs. Terrible VO work though...

Ooooh. Spambots are here XD

" It's only €5 on Steam, been thinking about buying it for years, but never gotten around to it. I have so many games on there I never play as it is anyway. "

Never heard of it.  Does it suck?

This is great news. One of my fav RPGs of all time. Reinstalling now. :D

As opposed to the glorious reality of bug-free console gaming? "

Awesome. compared to most bullshit in the gaming industry things like this really make me happy. 

NICE! 
  
I snagged this off gog.com mid last year, but stopped playing it due to instability issues in Win7 x64, which made me sad as I was having a blast playing it. This is fantastic!!! 
 
Bethesda and Arkane, you guys are second to none!

" Never heard of it.  Does it suck? "

Played this back in the day on the original Xbox and loved it.  I agree with the comparison of calling it Ultima Underworld 3 as it reminded me so much of UW1 and UW2.  Took me forever to finish and it was so lovingly detailed I can still remember some of the dungeons even that was over 5+ years ago.  Funny I was just thinking about how this would be a game I would love see updated and re-released.

" @JamesM said:

As opposed to the glorious reality of bug-free console gaming? "

Hah.. haha... HAHAHA. Yeah ok. Maybe game breaking glitches don't happen as often on the consoles, but bug-free? yeah right dude. "

" @ReFracture said:

" @JamesM said:

As opposed to the glorious reality of bug-free console gaming? "

Hah.. haha... HAHAHA. Yeah ok. Maybe game breaking glitches don't happen as often on the consoles, but bug-free? yeah right dude. "

It was a rhetorical question. Of course console games have bugs. It was Karkarov who implied otherwise.  My fault for using sarcasm on the Internet, I suppose. "

never even heard of this game

Wow. Just a while ago I was remembering how much I enjoyed and also hated this game. Then I see this... Cue Twilight Zone theme...
 
I didn't know Bethesda owned Arkane. Does this mean we'll get Dark Messiah of Might & Magic style swordplay in TES: Skyrim perhaps? Hmmm.

Awesome game that I need to play some day.

" Ehhh... sure? From the hour or so that I played of it, Arx Fatalis seemed alright. It's one of those games that came out around the same time as Morrowind and kind of fell in that game's shadow. Maybe I'll reinstall it. "

" @JamesM said:

As opposed to the glorious reality of bug-free console gaming? "

Hah.. haha... HAHAHA. Yeah ok. Maybe game breaking glitches don't happen as often on the consoles, but bug-free? yeah right dude. "

I still need to play this game.  
I know what my weekend is going to be now. 

I would love to see a proper source port of this. It's one of those games I've been holding off to nab on gog.com since I wasn't sure how much you could update it as far as mods etc. With this patch tho I'm at least gonna nab it (because that's pretty neat of them to patch a game 8 years later) and well hope something good comes from the fan community. It's things like this that makes me glad I primarily game on the PC. Games never die on the PC, they get resurrected over and over thanks to the fans.

neat.  the game was pretty cool, but i never got around to beating the final part.  Really, really loved the way you had to trace symbols to cast spells.

This reminds me that I still need to finish Arx Fatalis. People speak so highly of it and I have never gotten past the first few hours.