newbie question

[One808lyph]

when a patch available sometimes theres two files available for download, thats the regular .zip/.exe files and the .diff file, whats the use of a diff file?

[Shorty]

it (as well as .patch files) are raw code (or as raw as readily rightable code can be) and can be applied directly to the games source files, if you have them, to allow you to modify more updated code segments to be compatible with your own patches.

or, you can just compile the patch source code, which will give you an executable file.

in short: theyre the same thing,. one just hasnt been compiled yet.