A new look at the demo - comparing CXL & Tropico 3

[LordOscar 0]

I started to play yesterday evening. Here's a summary of what to expect:

• release date October 2009
• full 3D graphics
• great landscapes made of beaches, hills, green plains, rocks, rivers, oceans...
• changing weather conditions (rain, hurricanes) and dynamic shadows during the day
• lots of vegetation: many different trees, small plants, modelized grass and cultures (not just textures on ground)
• life in your city: birds flying in the sky, fishes jumping out of the sea, people walking on pavements, cars and trunks on streets, boats, cows in farms...
• realistic curved roads
• many buildings: small houses, appartments, industries, farms, government buildings, leisure, casinos, banks, docks...
• buildings need time to be built
• ability to micromanage most of the buildings (usually 2 or 3 options)
• around 15 ressources to collect and export: farms, fish, oil, iron...
• 7 different communities to satisfy. You can click on people and see what they do & think of you
• edicts that alter the way the simulation works
• lots of graphs, stats, history of your actions
• great user interface
• a progressive experience with a campaign mode
• nice ambient sounds
• realistic 3D avatars
• a "suggested next builiding" window, very useful to improve your city with what is most needed
• to build something just click on the right mouse button and a window will appear. Alternatively you can create keyboard shortcuts and assign them to buildings (for instance press H for houses)
• demo has no bugs
• you can upload your cities to a server and download and visit other players' cities
• official forums
• game is 39€ and no need of online subscription

Oh, silly me... That's not Cities XL that's Tropico 3.

I think Haemimont Games (Tropico 3 developers) really do know how to code and create an immersive themed city builder. Don't you think?

Well, I may buy this game.

Right click on picture to display it at maximum size (1920x1080)

[Edited thread title for clarity - abcvs]

[GlobexCo 33]

Originally posted by: LordOscarquote>

-release date October 2009 OK

-full 3D graphics OK

-great landscapes made of beaches, hills, green plains, rocks, rivers, oceans... OK

-changing weather conditions (rain, hurricanes) and dynamic shadows during the day NO

-lots of vegetation: many different trees, small plants, modelized grass and cultures (not just textures on ground) OK

-life in your city: birds flying in the sky, fishes jumping out of the sea, people walking on pavements, cars and trunks on streets, boats, cows in farms... OK

-realistic curved roads quite OK

-many buildings: small houses, appartments, industries, farms, government buildings, leisure, casinos, banks, docks... OK

-buildings need time to be built quite OK

-ability to micromanage most of the buildings (usually 2 or 3 options) Not exactly

-around 15 ressources to collect and export: farms, fish, oil, iron... OK (not the same)

-7 different communities to satisfy. You can click on people and see what they do & think of you (quite different)

-edicts that alter the way the simulation works NO

-lots of graphs, stats, history of your actions NO

-great user interface (?)

-a progressive experience with a campaign mode (there are tutorials)

-nice ambient sounds (?)

-realistic 3D avatars (?)

-a "suggested next builiding" window, very useful to improve your city with what is most needed (can you explain?)

-to build something just click on the right mouse button and a window will appear. Alternatively you can create keyboard -shortcuts and assign them to buildings (for instance press H for houses) (by zone SC4/CXL or by buildings SCS/CXL?)

-demo has no bugs (no demo of CXLb)

-you can upload your cities to a server and download and visit other players' cities OK (just pay!!!)

-official forums OK

-game is 39€ and no need of online subscription (I remember €39,90)

OK= they are in CXL - NO= they aren't in CXL - (?)= this isn't a game stuff, everyone can have his own idea about it

So, Tropico 3 is a good game, but lets' compare it with CXL.

Can you use mass transports in T3?

Can you build real buildings (Eiffel tower, Triumphe Arc, Forbidden Palace,...) in T3?

Can you mod T3?

Can you create buidlings (BAT or something like this) for T3?

Does T3 have GEMs?

Curved bridges?

Night/day with realistic shadows?

Airports with realistic airplanes?

...

I prefer spend my money with CXL rather than Tropico 3.

(Remove it if against the CXL beta law)

[LordOscar 0]

Originally posted by: GlobexCo

-realistic curved roads quite OK

quote>

Quite ok?

[geek12 0]

Tropico 3 is such a light hearted game, but it has a lot of the elements I like to see in a "serious" city builder. I mean it's no Sim city, but it's fun to play a game like tropico.

[Bergrar 9]

i have only one thing to say

is the old engine of all the montecristo games,

-4 different communities to satisfy. You can click on people and see what they do & think of you

that is the biggest problem. i build zone and people will choose them if are good or badin sc4 but with their system

i just place zone and decorate around.

Perhaps i am wrong but i think this is the major issue of the game.

[soldyne 111]

I'll admit that the curved road on T3 is much smoother. but, personally, a few bumps in the road on CXL is not going to sway my opinion of the entire game overall.

as far as the zoning for different types of residents, I kind of like being able to directly control the wealth levels of each suburb I build. in SC4 you had to get really complicated if you did not want R$$$ to pop up in your R$$ neighborhoods. you had to use some combination of water coverage, zone size, tax levels, land value, and then you had to babysit the area to demolish the stuff you did not want and wait for something you did want to pop up. it got very annoying after a while. sometimes simplicity is preferred.

[morriswalters 16]

I don't know if this will play well in the latin community and playing as Che in the US may well get the developer talked about.  However the game has beautiful graphics.  I wouldn't think that you could model people that smoothly.

[Ocram's Razr 964]

Originally posted by: morriswalters

I don't know if this will play well in the latin community and playing as Che in the US may well get the developer talked about.  However the game has beautiful graphics.  I wouldn't think that you could model people that smoothly.

quote>

It is supposed to be tounge-in-cheek humor and I find the political aspect funny.

I personally play as a benevolent president because I try to do my best for the citizens of Tropico and I hold fair and honest elections (but I try to hold early ones when I am popular although once when the Tropicans demanded an election, I quit the game because I could not stand being tied with my opponent). I like the curved road aspect and the fact that garages are needed for some people to use cars. There are 3 main wealth levels (those that live in tenements vs houses, country houses, and apartments vs manions and luxery condos) plus poverty (those that live in shacks or shanties), which is nice. Education is important half the time (I usually build 1 high school then hire 1 teacher which in turn educates others whom become teachers themselves and eventually I get enough high school educated people to start building industries etc that demand that).

[panthersimcity4 162]

I love how Tropico 3 turned out in the demo. I'd definetally like to try out the sandbox thing though when the game comes out.

[geek12 0]

Originally posted by: panthersimcity4

I love how Tropico 3 turned out in the demo. I'd definetally like to try out the sandbox thing though when the game comes out.quote>

yea i was excited to see that it had a sandbox mode.

[cirugo 1,889]

Looking forward to this game as I loved the original Tropico...played the demo and it definitely whetted my appetite.

completely different game than a SimCity type game though.

[DarkLord7854 0]

I tried this game, was quite enjoyable, demo's on Steam, and Steam also shows the release date for "September 2009."

Kind of wish I hadn't pre-ordered CitiesXL now.. d'oh >.<

[MStar 0]

I think that even though Tropico 3 is not that similar to Cities XL, it can definitely be a game to refer to "how to make a game."

Even when it was in beta, it had a nice UI, smooth gameplay, lacked awkward x-to-english translations (the developers of T3 are Bulgarian.) and was overall enjoyable. I'm certainly buying it when it releases.

Basically what I'm saying is Haimemont Games knows what they're doing.

MC, however (after various sub-par games such as The Partners, 7 Sins, Fire Department/2/3, City Life) you can see all their games have the same similar poor, unfinished, unrefined feel to them. All poor UI, buggy, awkward french to english translations.

As someone who's purchased most of the games MC's published (StarPeace, Airline Tycoon, Crazy Factory, Start-Up) and been more than supportive of them and those excellent titles, I have to say they can't develop their own games worth [insert expletive here.] if their business depended on it.

[LordOscar 0]

A moderator changed the topic's title. That's ok, but I was not really comparing CXL to T3. Basically they are different games and their main purposes are not the same. T3 is much closer to a government simulation whereas CXL lets you build european and american huge cities. What I wanted to show was: Tropico 3 includes many features you can expect from a 2009 game but CXL seems quite limited in comparison.

[User_3D 4]

What's Tropico 3?

[Lancezh 0]

3d: http://pc.ign.com/objects/143/14327511.html

To compare roads in a game that is ment to simulate cities to the millions and one with a town around the 1000ish's speaks for itself. its not comparable, the engine of t3 couldnt do with the amass of buildings that we face in cities xl and vice versa.

But other than that from a gameplay perspective you could compare it to a certain degree, i feel the multiplayerpart of cities xl is far more appealing to me than in tropico 3 and its more like creating something beautiful, or monumental... while in Tropico i want to master the campaign and the given challenges. while both of these games offer both aspects one relies more on it than the other.

To just say that Cities Xl is a rip off and Tropico not is unfair from my point of view, i'll buy both. For certain.

[Craig-Abcvs 1,595]

Originally posted by: LordOscar

A moderator changed the topic's title. That's ok, but I was not really comparing CXL to T3. Basically they are different games and their main purposes are not the same. T3 is much closer to a government simulation whereas CXL lets you build european and american huge cities. What I wanted to show was: Tropico 3 includes many features you can expect from a 2009 game but CXL seems quite limited in comparison.

Looks like a comparison to this moderator.

Oh, silly me... That's not Cities XL that's Tropico 3.quote>

Very well then the place to discuss Tropico 3 is in Gaming Talk...   >>>

Topic moved.