Rob Zacny

Episode 265: Tally Me Bananas

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Pork sandwiches. Salsa music. Awesome hats. Politically motivated murder. Tropico is back again and Polygon's Charlie Hall is here to talk to Rob and Troy about the latest installment in the long-running series. Has the well been tapped? Is the series still going strong? How awesome would Rob look in a white linen suit and hat?

 

Listen here.

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Yes! I've been waiting for this episode before deciding whether or not to pick up Tropico 5! I know what I'm listening to while watching the Colombia- Cote d'Ivoire match tomorrow...

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I think if there weren't so many games I wanted to play at the moment I might pick this up, but as it currently stands I don't really have time for a Tropico of modest incremental changes.

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Ah yes...the Tropico series. Such fabulous potential wasted or left brutally unrealized anyway.

My ten year old and her friends love playing 4 so I'm cool with it. Maybe that's where the dumb jokes and easy game play comes together.

Anyway, I'm going to wait for this one to get patched up, and probably a steam sale w/dlc before I go for this. It sounds too exasperating to pay full price.

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Well, I think I'm glad I listened to the podcast before I picked this up during the Steam sale. I think I would have been very disappointed had I dropped $30 on this. There must be a big enough market for a city builder that doesn't challenge the player very much. Maybe with the lush graphics people like building a pretty looking city with very mild roadblocks. Nothing wrong with that, but it's just not what I'm looking for. I agree that the humor is so old and juvenile. Maybe this is a city builder for pre-teens - although I don't think I'd want my child to play a game where offing a family is a tool to manage discontent. I tend to try and play games following the benevolent path and not murder indiscriminately, but I don't mind that being an option for those who choose to use it. I'd probably use it if was my only option to keep my game going. I mean no disrespect to Charlie Hall's feeling about the executions, but I don't really equate my actions in games to actions in real life. How would I ever play a shooter or even many of the strategy games out there if I let tasteless violence in a video game bother me. 

 

That's not to say I've never been disturbed by a video game. I found Limbo to be pretty unsettling, but I loved it as a game. I find Grand Theft Auto distasteful, but if there was good gameplay behind it I would play it. I just find driving around the city pretty boring and it seems like there is a lot of driving to get to the mediocre action bits.

 

After reading Rob Z's review, I thought he was going to have a little bit more positive impression if T5 on the podcast. Maybe I read a bit more into the positives in the review than he intended.

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