Hi all,
Having a problem when entering the hidden temple from the tavern for the first time. When I change level by descending the steps from the tavern, the level screen comes up and the loading bar get's halfway across. Then Arx crashes to the desktop with an "Arx.exe encountered a problem and needs to close..." I love this game and will be very disappointed if I can't continue.
I'm running XP with updated ATI drivers.
Thanks!

Crashes like this are completely random and don't actually stop you continuing; the game never breaks in such a way that an area crashes each and every time you try to enter it. To avoid losing your progress from things like this, do full saves after major events and quick saves on a regular basis. The more complex an area is the more likely it is to crash (with the city and tavern areas being the worst). Unfortunately, these crashes are a universal problem and can't be resolved by updating drivers or whatever.

Thanks for your reply. I really (truly) wish I didn't have to disagree with you on this, but it crashes every time I try to enter the hidden temple. And I've tried many times. I also tried dropping all the textures, colors, options to the barest minimum to see if that helped, and sadly, it didn't. I've tried reloading different saved games and going back to that point again, and still I can't enter that area. My next choice, I suppose, will be a clean reinstall of the game, unless someone has any other suggestion?
I've read other peoples problems with the crashing, and I'm happy to report that up until this point, I've had flawless performance with the game (except the long save loading mentioned elsewhere). This is the first problem I've had.

No worries. Did a full reinstall and problem solved.