Huh.. These sound like some very big problems for this type of game. The hunger/thirst while reading or checking inventory, and switching to turn-based when a enemy is sighted would probably become very aggravating after a while. If the devs are still supporting the game, I hope they can eventually fix some of these issues.

I've played through F1 & F2. Those have surely influenced Underrail.
Underrail is an open game but the amount of sidequests and the size of the game world are quite limited in the early hours.
The exploration is later on more to do with how you have developed your character. The toughness of encounters limits the possibilities of roaming around, more than the size of the whole game world.
The combat is turn-based and if you like that you really need to think every move through quite often, it can be quite fun and rewarding. The combat in my opinion is quite fantastic. The knowledge of the opponents and knowing how to prepare for the fights are important factors. But I've had some frustrating moments, when you realize the battle is impossible to win and I've had to give up that location for the time being... In this, it quite resembles the original Fallouts :) Except it's underground and how things are run are quite different...

Ah, now I understand that - thanks for explaining that :)

Seeing what you just wrote made me remember again that division between modern/retro, "old ones" are subjective - in 2006 i bought TES IV:Oblivion, which was the first 3D RPG who had as high, or higher HW demands than FPS. Up until that time, it was an unwritten rule that RPG game, no matter how good, had always lower demands than 3D shooter, which were always about the presentation (graphics included).
So for me, 2006 is affirmation of current trends, which didn´t really change that much since then.
Real game changer was cca. year 2009 (release of Braid) with emerging of indie scene with all the dearly needed fresh winds game industry needed, but that´s a different topic.

For me, clean cut between modern and old school, objectively would be 2000 (because around 2000 games started to have nice graphics and things like visually appealing, user-friendly UI started to becoming a standard - for example minimalist approach of Black&White), subjectively 2004, because Half Life 2 - second game in the series, which proved that story in action games is jut as important as good feel from shooting (proving wrong Carmack again, who said stories in action games are like stories in porn), with addition of Havoc physics which well so well tuned (it wasn´t a first game to have them, but first game to implement them well), that it set standard for games to come - I still remember being in awe while kicking around boxes in the first level and feeling absolutely mesmerized and sucked into the world.

I consider retro anything made before about 1990. All these damned new-fangled VGA graphics make me sick.

Thanks for sharing this. That sounds really unpleasant and so I could now remove the game from my wishlist. A pity, though, on the other hand, because the overall idea sounded very interesting.

Sorry but...no paradox games for sale? There will be any updates before the end of the sales?

They will not add any new games to the sale especially not from big publishers . It's an indie sale .

Abe was that super surprise? Really?

Yes.

Didn't VtM: Redemption have some pretty beefy requirements (and recommended system even more so) for its time, in 2000?

Hard to say, I mean even Ultima IX must have had some steep requirements for its time, but what you could see on the screen could not be compared with Quake II or Half-Life in terms of graphical fidelity, speed and interaction.
Up until that time, FPS always had the upper hand.

Moreover, Oblivion was the first RPG to my knowledge, utilizing said Havoc Engine for behavior of corpses. Then later that year Gothic 3.

It's definitely inspired of them but not as good as them. It lacks on quests & writing (it isn't bad, just uninspired), it lacks memorable characters and dialogs, it lacks meaningful decisions (pretty much everything you'll do it doesn't matter -- well, i guess most games fail to do this properly anyway) but what it loses from all these "flaws" it makes up for in atmosphere, lore & combat which is excellent and deep and has a lot of it. Character development is great too and so is crafting. It is open, but depending on your character build you may have a tough time getting around but ultimately the exploration is rewarding. Also, there are two XP schemes, Oddity & Classic; the former rewards exploration, the latter rewards grinding. I played with both and found that certain characters benefit more from one or the other.

So, that being said, you play UnderRail for the excellent tactical combat and while you'll most possibly won't get bored by the story, don't except it to be a sophisticated one. And that's more than fine for me when the rest of the "package" screams quality. Check out post #417 too.


Oh, it's easy to be confused with that but i'm here to help: Metro series are just a spin-off of MiniMetro and are not related to it's story; it's actually set in a parallel u̶n̶i̶v̶e̶r̶s̶e̶ metroverse. Always glad to c̶o̶n̶f̶u̶s̶e̶ help. :)

So many nice games in this sale, I feel almost bad not buying anything.

Why Darkest Dungeon: The Crimson Court isn't discounted ? Is it really that bad add-on ?

Not bad, new ;)