Welcome to the board, Lord Buckthor. [img]graemlins/happywave.gif[/img] I go with Wyvern: Implementing the patch will rob you of a great many opportunities to exploit the numerous benign bugs of the game. Nearly all bugs are to your advantage, and the two that are not (the vampire ring bug and the spirit shield) really take no pleasure away from the game in comparison with what the exploitability of the other bugs gives you. However to some the game will crash permanently one one or two occasions if the patch is not implemented. In that case you should of course do so...
And on a side note there are at least two occasions in which the game will probably crash a few times for you with the patch as well... One of them is early in the game - in the Snake Temple. So remember Bungleau's tag line.
And do keep us posted on your progress. [img]smile.gif[/img]