I'm a big board game player, but I've honestly never played this version because Classic still works. That said, I'm still going to pick this up...

Yes! I play singleplayer only, and it's a lot of fun -- to the point where I don't even play the Classic version anymore (although I still have it installed).

I've read that there are some occasional problems with multiplayer but the developer seems to be pretty responsive to issues.

The one missing is Germany, which was just released in December. I guess it's too new to be included in the bundle.

Different publisher. Twin Sails Interactive did the old one and they handle meaty board games (Gloomhaven, Terraforming Mars, Blood Rage, etc.), and Marmalade did the new one and they really focus on jazzing up simple childhood games (Clue, Battleship, Life, etc.). Just wildly different priorities from the studio involved. I'm assuming the Asmodee buyout of Days of Wonder had something to do with it also, even though that happened a few years earlier.

This type of complaint has been all over the discussion forum for this game. But there is no "they." Or more accurately, there are multiple "theys."

The publisher made the decision to transfer the rights from one developer (Twin Sails) to another (Marmalade). So the complaint about "taking down Classic" should be directed to the publisher. (Although Classic can still be played in singleplayer mode).

Marmalade did make the decision to use different graphics. To me that's understandable. They want to make it their own. It's still certainly recognizable as Ticket to Ride.

And yes, of course this version has to be purchased separately. Because it's a new game, by a new company. Think of it like Call of Duty. Do you get this year's Call of Duty free just because you bought last year's Call of Duty? No, because they're two different games, made by two different developers. Marmalade is a for-profit business, so they are not going to give away their product just because customers spent money on a different product 5 years ago. (And actually to their credit, they did give away the Europe DLC to people who owned the previous game, which they really did not have to do).

Like PoeticKatana said, it's about the same price as the "Round the World" DLC bundle when it's on sale. So not horrible, but certainly not great and not necessary if you play solo and have all of the maps for Classic. I almost bought the Round the World last week, so I figured I'd go ahead buy today and maybe GMG will get some better bundles...