I did what the POL notice said of removing my POL folder and let steam redownload it, managed to get in game but it seems like the ffxi game folder also got "updated" and the graphics are all messed up - my mog house looked like a massive open space, persumably because the DAT files got reverted. from the title screen it looks like it has went into a pre-abyssea version

Now doing the file check everyone suggested on this thread to see if it'll update itself ; ; If not i guess it's a wipe and reinstall procedure - thanks steam!