has anyone played tropico 3? or any tropico I guess..? I was thinking about trying it out as it seems like a nice mix between simcity and civ5. 

is a lot of fun. At least the single player is, I didn't really try the sandbox mode too much. They don't really explain what's going on in Tropico 3, you just kind of figure it out. Tropico 4 has a more robust tutorial, Tropico 5 too.

It seems like a much more relaxed, casual SimCity. Plus, building roads is super fun, I find it very cathartic.

Also, it's hilarious. 

I wouldn't mind the newer tropicos, but I've heard you basically have to shell out more than you pay for the actual game in DLC in order to get most of the interesting stuff. 

You might be able to snatch up Tropico 4 & all its DLC for a decent price during the upcoming Steam sales if you're willing to hold on. I always see those games on sale. 

Yes, that's a good idea! Thanks for reminding me about that. 

Speaking of which!

Tropico 4 Collectors Bundle (with DLC) 85% off on Steam this week; http://store.steampowered.com/sub/19282/ 

Just picked it up! Thanks dude! 

Gosh Assassin's Creed is a cunt on your wrist when you have to hold down 3 keys just about all game long for movement, 10-15hrs of holding down 3 keys. Fuck. Couldn't play Revelations after that, so I tried a few other games...

Hydrophobia Prophecy - 6.0. Cheap indie game, pretty good but only 3 hours long.

Red Orchestra 2: Heroes of Stalingrad - 5/10 complete trash, dont' how this has a 76% aggregate. You play most levels 4 times over, mostly defence-style at that. Gave up on easy because I got stuck on 1 level that become very hard, but for most of the game you can pretty much just stand around waiting for timers to run out since you never seem to die unless the game decides you can die on this round.

Fable III - 7.5. Not bad, but I was expecting a bit better. Nice scenery and all that. Way too easy for an RPG though. By the time I got to double-magic-spells I was just standing still and charging the alt-magic-attack. Just kills everything and you hardly need to move. Think I used 1 health pack in the whole game. Also RPG elements are pretty basic - I collected 2 weapons the entire game, 1 extra gun, and 3-4 magic upgrades. But guns/melee are irrelevant with the overpowered magic attachs. Treasure chests were full of junk, money was irrelevant because there were really no shops. Worst thing was the character interaction, the most awkward, childish shit I've ever seen in a game. However I did enjoy about 2/3rds through when you leave the main island, it gets a bit more exciting exploring Aurora, meeting black slime dude, and there's a few good side quests. "The Game" side quest must be one of the best side quests in any game ever. 

By the way in case anyone is interested here's a list of hte rest of my 2011 games to play. Some good stuff in there, especially some epic rpgs I can't wait for (divinity, rage, dragons age 2, witcher 2, deus ex, skyrim... damn). Ordered by metacritic's rating.

Trine 2
The Haunted: Hells Reach - 51%
Brink - 70% [steamworks]
Divinity II: The Dragon Knight Saga - 72%
Serious Sam 3: BFE - 72% [steamworks]
Hard Reset: Extended Edition - 73%
F.E.A.R. 3 - 74% [steamworks]
Red Faction: Armageddon - 75% [steamworks]
PayDay: The Heist - 76% [steamworks]
Alice: Madness Returns - 76%
Rage - 79% [steamworks]
Section 8: Prejudice - 79%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 - 79% [steamworks]
Assassin's Creed: Revelations - 80%
Dead Island - 81% [steamworks]
Bulletstorm - 82%
Dragon Age II - 82% (rpg) [purchased]
L.A. Noire: The Complete Edition - 84%
Torchlight 2? - 84% [steamworks]
Saints Row: The Third - 85% [steamworks]
Crysis 2 - 86%
Dead Space 2 - 86%
Bastion - 87% [action rpg]
The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings - 87%
Battlefield 3 - 89%
Deus Ex Human Revolution - 90% [steamworks]
Batman: Arkham City - 91%
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - 94% (rpg) [steamworks]
Portal 2 - 95% [steamworks] 

Alice: Madness Returns - 76%
- terrible consolisation and bad controls, great art style and cool atmosphere
Rage - 79% [steamworks]
- Good game all round, solid gameplay despite driving bits, and some very cool scenes. Ends too abruptly.
Bulletstorm - 82%
- Minorly fun but stupid and juvenile, characters might appeal to pre-teens
Crysis 2 - 86%
- Crysis of Duty, on rails interactive movie but quite stylish.
Dead Space 2 - 86%
- terrible consolisation and bad controls, cool sci-fi style and great atmosphere
Deus Ex Human Revolution - 90% [steamworks]
- Very good, strong style, does exactly what it promises.
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - 94% (rpg)
- Excellent. Vast scale, beauty and exploration compensate for any gameplay and balance flaws.

HTH. 

Now go and marry Natural Selection 2... 

When Shambler says Rage ends abruptly, he means "There is a button, and when you press it, you get the achievement for beating the game and a cutscene plays." It is incredibly jarring.

I liked Rage, I also really disliked a lot of it... Just give me 8-10 hours of the Dead City, the vaults, the various hideouts, with guns, ammo, and turrets I can set down. Because I loved the way shooting felt, and how the enemies integrated canned animations with pathfinding.

I guess my Rage review would be shortly "What it does right, it does amazingly. What it doesn't, is mediocre and in the way." 

I just love that RAGE was dripping with the standard id design sense. "Oh, there's a 5 foot drop down here that I can't get back from ... let me guess ... enemy spawn trigger at the bottom?" 

I liked Rage, quite a bit. I just wish it ran decently on my AMD card. I also wish the level tools ran well and came out earlier than they did.

Oh well :( 

Yeah, that was a LONG lag time before the tools appeared. Which I guess contributed to the near zero community involvement with Rage. 

I somehow got the impression that the tool was more of a visualizer that let you modify entities only, not world geometry, or create new spaces. I have no idea as to if that is accurate at all, or where I got said idea.

But still, pulse rounds in the shotgun? Makes those Authority soldiers pirouette as their head disintegrates. No really, they do a little pirouette when decapitated, and the pulse rounds are one-shot kills to the head for them. It has lots of little Very Satisfying Things to it, enough to where I frown all the more at the minigames, the driving, the time killed in the towns - the fact that there are two big towns, neither of which being much more than a distant place you have to travel to. 

Hot steampunk chicks in skimpy clothes and increasingly ridiculous hats. 

http://store.steampowered.com/app/276810/

Looks kinda neat to me. Watch the gameplay video. It seems to work pretty well, it doesn't look too restrictive or clunky. The setting etc all look good too. 

Yeah looks awesome, but if it's a turn-based tactical game, then all the screenshots/videos must be cinematics only right? Pity, it would look awesome as third/first person :D 

Nope watch the videos, it's not exactly cutting edge GFX but they are very respectable and no cinematic bits in the turns. 

http://www.twitch.tv/focushomeinteractive/b/590892631#/focushomeinteractive/b/590892631

Have only skipped through as the buffering is slow as fuck but definitely looks promising. Freedom of movement plus style of city, especially. 

...During the steam sale today. Sure am going to have fun on them. 

Review of Deathwish for Blood by gggmanlives
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4Fotgr5e3k&feature=youtube_gdata

Played it a few months ago, it really is worth checking out as he says 

I remember the original Blood got a bit long winded and seemed to drag on a bit too much toward the end, but it was still a solid and fun game. 

Blood is my #3 shooter, after Quake and Doom. I hope to give this mod a go, though I'm not big on the Brutal difficulty mentality, and didn't care for how the game adjusted enemy health and damage with the difficulty, along with placement and count.