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The PopTop site has had a recent update, providing links to many Tropico-related items around the web. In case you haven't heard, Tropico is a game looking much like other city-building sim games, except it has a distinct dictatorship twist. Instead of a benevolent god or city mayor, you play the role of a flawed (but perhaps lovable) dictator, who must rule of over a tropical island and control a miriad of different people.

GameSpy has a new preview of the game, giving a much deeper look into how it will work. Here's a clip from the article that described your predicament as ruler of the island:

Tropico's main premise is to influence, and not control, your island's inhabitants. With a deformable landscape (the game uses a modified version of the Railroad Tycoon engine), and camera zooming to view anything from a small shanty home to the entire island itself, this is achieved by looking at what serves your own best interests while still keeping the poor subsistence farmers and other minimal wage workers from lynching you in your luxurious palatial residence. Which, as you'd expect, can be extremely tricky, especially as there's 46 different characters and 35 different occupations for your inhabitants to choose from.

Lastly, the PopTop site itself has a new character highlight for the week, this time covering the fisherman. While they appear to be a sort of cross between Shaggy and Gilligan, their industry will certainly help out your island's economy. Tropico is set to be released next March for the PC and then the team expects about a month after that for the Mac version to be completed.

Gameplex Screen Shots

GameSpy Preview of Tropico

Tropico Paradise Screen Shots

Tropico Character Highlight

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