After about 2.5 missions and quite a few hours play, I can say that the XBox version is a joy to play, as it was for T3 really. I don't really feel that playing this on the console has dumbed down the experience at all, not for the way I play anyway.

The only concession would be accessing lists in the Almanac is a bit more tedious than point and click but that's a minor gripe. Using the building menus too is the most frustrating aspect for me as it's a bit hit and miss using the analogue stick, sometimes takes a few goes to get onto the one you want. Maybe the use of the d-pad would have been useful here with the menu options put into a square rather than a circle.

When it comes to camera movement though it's just a joy using the 2 sticks to move around, it's just so natural, probably the best part of playing on a console. Placing buildings, roads etc is just so easy.

I'm only up to around 300 people so far but no glaring bugs to report so far.

As for the game itself, the introduction of tasks is good, but I don't like the way they are available. It's a shame if you're making this beautiful island to have glaring icons popping out of some buildings. Bit frustrating too when the ground isn't level and place anything in what looks like a good spot.

Also the game is very very similar to T3. It looks the same and plays the same, so whilst it's still enjoyable for me, it's not giving much of a challenge so far, but it is early days. I think T5 needs to have a graphical overhaul as a minimum requirement as well as some new mechanic that will tweak the gameplay.

All in all, well pleased

All sounds good, thanks for the review. You'll have to let us know when you begin to reach population caps and road caps etc. I intend on getting the game soon, so your review helps.

Also, how are the graphics on 360?? Would you say the same as T3 or better??

(18-10-2011 07:13 PM)RGT94 Wrote:  All sounds good, thanks for the review. You'll have to let us know when you begin to reach population caps and road caps etc. I intend on getting the game soon, so your review helps.

Also, how are the graphics on 360?? Would you say the same as T3 or better??

Umm I think better, but I haven't played T3 for quite a while so difficult to compare but certainly no complaints and it looks like all the screenshots we saw pre release, i.e deeper colours

Which version number does the xbox version have?

(18-10-2011 10:19 PM)DrAtomic1 Wrote:  Which version number does the xbox version have?

Well with the delay I'm guessing it's 1.03, or the equivalent XBox version of 1.03 and the relevant bug fixes. No idea how to check though.

(18-10-2011 07:13 PM)RGT94 Wrote:  You'll have to let us know when you begin to reach population caps and road caps etc. I intend on getting the game soon, so your review helps.

Well, I just gave it a bit of a stress test. Completed mission 3 then whacked it on fast forward, open doors, kept creating jobs. The most I got up to was 634, then the immigrants stopped. I also had about 150 tourists and there wasn't a hint of a problem or slowdown. Strange thing then though as my population started decreasing all the way down to 609 still no immigrants, even though I made sure that average pay was > caribbean???

Anyway I saved the game with pop = 628. Quit to Main Menu, tried loading it ..................... and it crashed!!!!! At least I think it did, the icon stopped flashing and the xBox guide button didn't work.

So I rebooted XBox and then tried again ...... and it loaded successfully after a bit of a pause at the end.

So there you go, it's a shame that there has to be a pop cap with the islands so big now, but that's just the way it is.

Thinking about it now, it seems my population was decreasing as the number of tourists increased. So maybe a people cap of about 750 in total wouldn't be far off the mark.

Given the hardware limitations the XBox 360 has, 750 seems rather generous -- that said I don't doubt that they tested it. The PC version requires four times the RAM of an XBox 360 (and the 360 shares it with the GPU!), and having less than that causes some fairly interesting issues (one day I'll stop doing strange things to T4).

As for the icon freezing up, that could be a few things. It happens in the PC version when it's reading a large chunk of the data, and suspends/locks the rendering thread up until it's done. If it locked the primary thread of the process, provided the 360 runs in a similar way (which given what I can see of the Engine's 360 queries it should), it might also stop underlying functions of the 360's OS

(19-10-2011 01:34 AM)Mikeeboy Wrote:  Well, I just gave it a bit of a stress test. Completed mission 3 then whacked it on fast forward, open doors, kept creating jobs. The most I got up to was 634, then the immigrants stopped. I also had about 150 tourists and there wasn't a hint of a problem or slowdown. Strange thing then though as my population started decreasing all the way down to 609 still no immigrants, even though I made sure that average pay was > caribbean???

Anyway I saved the game with pop = 628. Quit to Main Menu, tried loading it ..................... and it crashed!!!!! At least I think it did, the icon stopped flashing and the xBox guide button didn't work.

So I rebooted XBox and then tried again ...... and it loaded successfully after a bit of a pause at the end.

So there you go, it's a shame that there has to be a pop cap with the islands so big now, but that's just the way it is.

Hmmm, that doesn't sound too great. But i suppose it could be worse. How much land did you use for a population that size?? does the town look lost on a huge island or can 600+ people use the island quite well??

I only ask becuase i'm curious to know how useful the huge islands are.

(19-10-2011 06:32 PM)RGT94 Wrote:  

(19-10-2011 01:34 AM)Mikeeboy Wrote:  Well, I just gave it a bit of a stress test. Completed mission 3 then whacked it on fast forward, open doors, kept creating jobs. The most I got up to was 634, then the immigrants stopped. I also had about 150 tourists and there wasn't a hint of a problem or slowdown. Strange thing then though as my population started decreasing all the way down to 609 still no immigrants, even though I made sure that average pay was > caribbean???

Anyway I saved the game with pop = 628. Quit to Main Menu, tried loading it ..................... and it crashed!!!!! At least I think it did, the icon stopped flashing and the xBox guide button didn't work.

So I rebooted XBox and then tried again ...... and it loaded successfully after a bit of a pause at the end.

So there you go, it's a shame that there has to be a pop cap with the islands so big now, but that's just the way it is.

Hmmm, that doesn't sound too great. But i suppose it could be worse. How much land did you use for a population that size?? does the town look lost on a huge island or can 600+ people use the island quite well??

I only ask becuase i'm curious to know how useful the huge islands are.

I wouldn't say the town looks lost. I'm not the most artisitic when it comes to design, I tend to just ram them in, but I'd say half was densely populated and the other half had roads weaving their way to mines. But there's much more room to put a bit more thought into your building placement.

In the PC version you can fill an entire island with farms and primary resource production with a population of 500 if you space it and reduce the number of workers. It gives the feel of a banana republic

Given you guys have plantations (or so I assume), I'd be using them instead

Does it still have the save game bug from 3?

(19-10-2011 10:53 PM)Mikeeboy Wrote:  I wouldn't say the town looks lost. I'm not the most artisitic when it comes to design, I tend to just ram them in, but I'd say half was densely populated and the other half had roads weaving their way to mines. But there's much more room to put a bit more thought into your building placement.

Okay then, thats cool. I like the sound of that. I played the PC demo and i liked the idea of actually having enough space for a country side. With long roads leading to mines and farms etc. All osunds good to me. Thanks again,

Im not seeing much change in the size of the island, but its been awhile since I played t3. Of course I havnt gotten any really huge populations yet. About 350 at most

(20-10-2011 01:33 AM)Agent Orange Wrote:  Does it still have the save game bug from 3?

Well if it is there it isn't as bad as before because I have had no problems with populations over 450 people yet.

I finally got ahold of T4 for the 360, and I have to say it's a major improvement over T3. It's faster, brighter (although I think the gamma or something is too high), more colorful, and has all of those nifty additions T3/360 didn't get with the AP add-on. I can only register minor complaints if anything, like the way some menus work. I've gotten through about 10 missions and it's been smooth all the way. Played a few sandbox games, getting to over 450 without slowdown.

J

Well i finally managed to try Tropico 4 and i seemed to have lost the last 4 or so hours, looks nice and plays really well, impressed!

Game froze on me last night, but fortunately no damage was done. I had just completed the mission after Bickering Factions, trouble between US and USSR. I had the victory page and I pressed on "Win" half way through the speech. I think the game had just started showing me a cut scene when it froze. Fortunately my campaign progress had already been saved so no damage done apart from missing out on a cut scene.

(20-10-2011 01:33 AM)Agent Orange Wrote:  Does it still have the save game bug from 3?

Pushed pop to 610 and was able to save and load just fine, also judging from other reports I'd say it's fixed or beter yet absent.

Edit: Ow... and my first impression thus far? Very polished, well worth the extra month waiting!

Tropico still has a lot of potential I think. If the devs are going to make a 5th then I would highly appretiate it if they spent even more time deepening the gameplay, such as adding elements or expanding on existing elements of the game. I'd say T4 is a definite couple of steps in the right direction in that respect.

So far, I have been really happy with T4. I like how nice the islands look, and I love the new additions. I have had a few freezes, but otherwise the game runs nicely, so much better compared to T3. I also like that roads feel easier to build and that the islands have so much room to build on. All in all I think this is an excellent game, one I am sure I will be playing a lot.