Tropico is PopTop Software's newest contribution to the real-time strategy genre. Following in the footsteps of Railroad Tycoon II, Tropico takes the engine of the latter and adds new graphical treatments, including support for 3D acceleration and higher resolutions, all in Caribbean setting, where you control the population under your dictatorial rule.

　　As part of our trip to Gathering of Developers' Promised Lot, we climbed into one of the silvery motor homes to take a close look at Tropico. Those of you who have played Railroad Tycoon will recognize Tropico's roots. However, PopTop has added support for 3D acceleration, which basically means better lighting effects and specific antialiasing features applied to objects such as traveling clouds. Does this make a difference in the game? Yes, it does. For example, when our demonstrator turned on software mode (and hardware acceleration off), the clouds lost their fluffy 3D quality and looked more like 2D illustrations. The game also supports a resolution of 1600 by 1200, so having a video card with plenty of memory will help if you want to play at that resolution.

　　As for gameplay, politics constitute its core. How you rule affects a number of variables, including the quantity of tourists who come to your island and leave with favorable or unfavorable impressions. In fact, players will be able to select dictator qualities like "installed by CIA" that will influence the happiness of citizens, and needless to say, if your citizens become unhappy, there's always the risk of revolution or coup to threaten your rule. In addition, if you choose to install communism as the dominant form of government on your island, your challenge will be to balance conflicts between the rich and the masses. According to the PopTop representative, the rich may resent communism and flee the island, leaving it impoverished in terms of medical care and educational opportunities, for example.

　　From what we saw of Tropico, the game looks this far like it will balance different forms of government quite well, and it will also offer a new setting in which to construct your buildings, commerce, trade, government and citizenry. Something we haven't mentioned yet is that PopTop took inspiration for this game from Cuba circa 1950 - the game covers 1950 to today - but Tropico isn't based on historical fact.