I have gone through Light Side without the patch and I didnt have any problems with grpahics. Now that I want to try the dark side, I am just a little scared of the bad comments on this forum regarding the new bugs with 1.0b patch. 
  
To be short, can I play Dark Side without upgrading to 1.0b? 
  
Finally, what the hell is this bug with the light/dark side mastery? o.O