Tropico 4

Written by, Josh Cook.

Do you dream of a salt mining game? Games such as Tropico are considered niche. Most scoff at the mention of salt trading or management of wages and unemployment and the "Call of Duty" generation would refuse to even contemplate the purchase of the banana republic stimulation.

Yet here we are at the fourth Tropico, something must be working if it’s survived for 4 installment, someone must be buying it. It’s franchises like good old Tropico that prove PC gaming could never become obsolete.

So how does Tropico 4 fare compared to its predecessors? Well, for the most part it remains unchanged and for the first few hours I thought of Tropico 4 as nothing more that just a large DLC for the 3rd installment, however the current incarnation feels like every action has been refined with nothing left to want for such as the inclusion of parliaments and juntas, although there has not be much added in the way of buildings this is more than made up for with it's vast economic simulation and island management.

The main source of income is the exporting of goods by managing an island’s natural resources to both feed your Tropicans and sell to countries across the globe, with it comes the necessary massaging of the populace’s happiness either through careful attention to their needs or ruling with a iron fist with your loyal army.

The biggest success of Tropico 4 is its gradual expansion of each city, turning an hour’s play into a late-night session. The majority of game play occurs throughout its missions (which I ended up only completing a few) Set in the Cold War era. You might well expect more from Tropico 4’s story line as your small Caribbean island must court the favor of the US or the Soviet union, making friends with one will have benefits such as more profits on tobacco or salt, however this puts you at risk from other nations how dislike your allies and places your tiny island at risk for all out nuclear war.

This means a string of questions and decisions will be sent your way that include objective-based tasks, or forced events. With the latter you’re given a situation and a choice of options; in most cases the decision you make will have a negative effect on at least one faction, and in this sense toying with politics is a nice touch and adds depth to a already deep game. Tropico 4 never really manages to capitalize on this feature since politics affect little more than who you can and can’t trade with. The truth is, however, upset one faction and it’s likely you won’t even notice its effect, especially considering the ease with which favor can be gained.

 7/10

Driv3r (Driver 3)

Over the last couple of days, this has been the main game that I have been playing. This game was released back in 2003 for various platforms such as the PS2, Xbox, PC and Nintendo's GBA. The story line is quite short but, very in depth and remains almost exactly the same across the different platforms. Though, the story line is seemly short for a game this well designed, the missions within the 'Undercover' mode can be very challenging. When I first played the game, I found myself restarting missions many times so that I could progress further. Going back to the story, the game shows you how it is all going to end at the very start. The undercover story mode, is built as the progression to the ending in which you have already seen at the very start.

It is easy to compare this game with the Grand Theft Auto series because of the ability to use weapons which are unnamed in the game yet, easily recognizable.Guns such as the M1911 Pistol and the AK-47. You may be asking 'Well, if there is just a story mode then why are you saying that this game can be compared to the Grand Theft Auto series?'. Well, there is an alternative free play option which lets you roam around one of the *three cities (the third has to be unlocked though story mode). On the back of the case, there is some text that reads 'Good. Bad. Both', to me this suggests that you can chose how you want Tanner to behave. The free play option is listed on the menu as, 'Take a drive' which doesn't hint at anything specially other than driving. With the cities being as detailed as they are on the PS2, Xbox and PC games, it is very relaxing to just driver around and discover new places based around real locations of the world. If you look at the real maps of these cities and then compare them to the game, they are very closely matched minus a few streets and exact details.

I thoroughly enjoy this game (even if I did get stuck many times). This game has so much to offer. I mainly play the PS2 version but, I recently brought into the GBA version. As you can imaging, on a smaller console the graphics are not the same at all though for a GBA the graphics are ok even though they can be hard to work with. The GBA version offers the same feature just with less great graphics by miles, that is my summary.

Definitely worth buying!

Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy

Hello and thank you for reading the first ever blog from Big Screen Little Screen. I thought that it would be good to start on what I believe is one of the PS2's greats, 'Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy'. The platform game developed by Naughty Dog I must say, the game is brilliantly designed. Not only is the world very colourful but, we are tricked onto believing that there are no loading screens. I think some have under-rated this game, maybe even misjudged though it isn't exactly Crash Bandicoot all over again, you can most definitely see a resemblance in the comical shorts and the bounciness of the characters. I remember playing this game for hours on end when I was younger, finding all of the powercells and scout flies. There are certainly plenty of collectibles to keep you on your toes if the monsters aren't enough.

The game, like many great games was released in 2003 which is exactly a decade of technology ago. The content of this game was so good and advanced for it's time and it all worked so smoothly. In addition to this, the game was free roaming enabling you to do and go anywhere you pleased.

Sandover Village is the beautiful starting point, starting in The Green Sages Hut on the top of a small island that links into the village by a set of wooden bridges. This is when you meet the main characters I've always liked the beginning of the game (after the tutorial level, Geyser Rock) as it lets you look over the entire world in the near distance that you are about to embark on an adventure in.

For those that haven't played the game,  to the left is the windmill where you will find the mayor and to your right there are two huts that you can enter and discover the contents. Further into the village, if you take the left bridge you will reach the sculptors house and a path that leads to Sentinel Beach. If you take the right bridge you will reach the bird keepers hut and also the farmers. This way also leads to the Forbidden Jungle. Out of all of these areas, I would rate the Forbidden Jungle the most heart wrenching. Whether it be for getting bitten by snakes, knocked out by swinging logs or even being beaten up by a plant, some of these antics remind me of some of the tragic deaths similar to Crash Bandicoot. The Forbidden Jungle sure is the scariest of the easier areas that you are forced to venture to... (Those lazy villagers!).

Anyway, I will not bother tp list just about every area in the game so I can single them out for their own 'award' of some kind, no matter how much they may deserve it. Every area to it's own, they're all fantastic! As you expect with any game, the further you get the more difficult the challenges that lie ahead become. Though, my most feared areas were the Precursor Basin, Snowy Mountain and the Spider Cave. The sad truth is that these days I can complete the game almost by memory if you give me about three days, I would play a couple of hours per day even though it's easy to get hooked and play for hours on end (which has been done before). I'm not bragging, I'm merely setting a challenge.

I've always enjoyed the simplicity of Jak and Daxter. The game is focused and built around helping people in order to progress and aid your own journey, only to find (SPOLIERS) that it may have indeed been all for nothing. I highly recommend this game if you have not played it already. It is certainly one of the classics and has the makings of a true game. Lucily these days it's not just available on just the PS2. The whole trilogy has been remastered in HD for the PS3 and I can only make bets that it is an impovement. More recently, the trilogy has become available for the PS Vita, nicely putting it into our hands to play on the go!

Great game! I give it 10/10 and the full five star rating