Sorry if this question has been asked and answered dozens of times already (which seems likely); I have just bought this game and have seen on the internet that it needs patches, possibly fan versions (since the company went out of business). Is this true, and if so where's the best place to download it/them?

Cheers.

Love the Manson avatar. =)
Playing the game I hit a patch-fixable part of the main quest where the game would crash mid-dialogue no matter what response option I chose, so installing a patch before playing is definitely a good idea (patches won't affect or apply to old savegames).
There are fan-made patches available although I've never tested them myself; I searched the net after hitting the dialogue crash &came across the most recent official patch, 1.2. It fixed the problem (although I had to start a new game) &I went right through to the end without a problem.
Link: http://www.vampirebloodlines.com/patch/