I Might be in Love with Tropico
stargrace 
I love steam. I love that I can make wishlists, and that I can see those of my friends. I have taken to randomly giving out steam gifts when I see that someone is having a bad day. It makes me smile, and it’s just something I like to do. If you’re looking to add me, please feel free. I’m there as Stargrace (big surprise).
Anyway, I recently won a steam copy of Tropico 4. Why I had never played this game before, I have no idea. A few friends of mine suggested that this game would be perfect for me, since I love games like Civilization, Sims, Sim City, and Banished. After 3 hours of playing, I have to agree. When I first started the game I decided I wasn’t going to bother with tutorials. That was a mistake. I quickly failed anything I tried to do after that, didn’t know the commands to do what I wanted the game to do, and so I went back and played through the (very lengthy) tutorials. They come in handy.
I then proceeded to play through my first campaign. It starts out really simple, you have to worry about a few rebels but no one is coming to invade you. You’re given a “city” to start out with (I use the term loosely) and you’re tasked with bettering it. I started out by swapping my farms over to corn so that my people could get some food. Built them a hospital, some fishing warfs, and before I knew it my little city had blossomed into a 200 population town. There were police stations to keep down the crime, and then the environmentalists started in on me. They were a thorn in my side. I built them some rehabilitation plants along with some strategically placed fountains and trees to block the dump. That seemed to appease them.
Finally it was election time. I was granted a lot of money to bribe make as many quality of life changes as I could in a pretty short time, and then see how the election went.
I won, of course. A generous leader! I had 157 votes, while my competition only had 43. I noticed Tropico 5 is out right now, but I don’t really have the funds to pick it up, so I’m going to wait for a steam sale (maybe the Christmas one). In the mean time, I’m certainly hooked.
As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!