simulation

I prefer this type of game, as it's impossible to get stuck. I get frustrated with games where it becomes impossible to progress, either because of a glitch, or because some obstacle is basically impossible to pass, even with walkthroughs. This doesn't happen with Sims.

Tropico runs fine on my iBook G3 800 MHz with 640 MB, running Panther. I haven't had to adjust performance or anything.

The game sets you up as President of a small Carribean island, and you have to decide what to build, what to pay your workers, how much to embezzle, within a tight budget. There is a lot of complexity - more than in the Sims, for instance, and I am still exploring all the possible options, after a month of playing with the game. I haven't got into building TV stations, or imprisoning my enemies, for example, as I haven't had to fine tune to that extent.

Tropico is easy to learn, and there are three tutorial games included, which allow you to learn how some of the key parts of the game work. After that, you can either just run the sim as you want, or you can follow one of the 30 or so predefined challenges, where you have to build an airport, or embezzle a certain amount of money, or generate a particular level of tourist revenue, within a given time frame. These challenges are quite difficult, and require you to use all of the functions in the game.

I find it easy to get hooked on a game in the evening, and it's very hard to put the computer aside until I've run through a scenario. The good thing about Tropico is that there are varying levels, so relative novices can run through a game with no problems, but that doesn't mean you get bored, as there are plenty of features to explore at more challenging levels. Definitely a keeper!

I was hesitant when buying this game because the graphics looked great, and I was not sure if my pc could handle them. Although my computer is pretty old, Tropico runs quickly and efficiently. I have never run out of new scenarios, and find something new every time I play this game. I would certainly reccomend this product, particularly at this low cost!

This game is fun and addictive. However its performance leaves much to be desired. I have a PowerBook G4 667MHz, 768MB of RAM, with a Radeon 7500 32MB VRAM video card, and this game slows to a crawl when the population of the islands goes above 150 individuals.

Its performance is just ridiculous. My computer's specs are way above the system requirements listed on the game's box, yet I can barely play the game most of the time! I have tried everything to boost the software's performance. I've turned off all of the fancy graphics features (I've even turned off display of trees and vegetation, ground textures, etc.). Just to see if the game would run any faster, I've even reinstalled OS 9 (I am running Panther right now) to run the it. Under OS 9, it does perform a little better, but not much. The game would run well for a bit, then it would freeze for a couple of minutes to do calculations before I can get on with the game again.

This is unfortunate, because I really like the game play, but its performance is just not acceptable.