2020 was a pretty good year for management games, but nothing released in the past 12 months has impressed us enough to squeeze its way into our best management games list. Don’t worry, though – it’s only because there are already so many classics to choose from. If you’re looking for something to sink into over the holidays, check out our picks below.

(more…)

There are only so many times I can say “cor, wouldn’t it be nice to travel again” in the pandemic-ridden hell year that is 2020. But I’m going to say it again here, because Tropico 6‘s sun-swept beaches are opening up all weekend. The irreverent, satirical city-builder is currently free to download and try over on Steam, with prices slashed on trips to the rest of the Tropico franchise.

(more…)

Wow. Look at that summer sun slapping the face of the planet, like a big 12-hour camera flash. So hot, so clear-skied. A blessed day of walks in the park, trips to the beach, picnics by the litter bins. What a glorious day for wasps it is out there. Let’s all go to the…

Oh right. Forget I said anything. Go back inside, lock the doors, and consider some of these perfect virtual holiday destinations. Please, trust us with your fake vacation. After all, what is a games journalist but a sort of really dodgy travel agent?

(more…)

Regretfully, Tropico 6 has become extremely online. “Big mood”, as the kids say. “Same”. This week’s Spitter DLC adds the faux-social network of the same name to Tropico’s banana republic management sim, letting your despotic leader post their way into fame, fortune, followers, and the lingering resentment of a population that wishes their state figurehead could just, for once, log off.

(more…)

Management games have been enjoying a bit of a renaissance in recent years, meaning there are now even better, more efficient ways to direct trains, corral visitors, lay down conveyor belts and profit, profit, profit than ever before. To that end, we’ve put on our builder hats and constructed a list of the best management games you can play on PC in 2020. Whether you want to be a budding city planner, wannabe farm herd or survive against the elements, there’s a game for you below.

(more…)

As this is my penultimate edition of Steam Charts, before I return to nuzzle into the warm infinite belly of Horace for all of time, I thought it might be fun to take a bit of a look behind the scenes of Steam Charts, to see how this weekly column comes together.

So, hey, join me as we step behind the curtain, and learn a little bit about the magic of Rock Paper Shotgun.

(more…)

As time inexorably ticks away, its guttural screaming horror counting down the seconds until our infinite deaths, it’s important we remember what really matters: that the game you like best isn’t as good as the game I like best. The game you like best, the game you like reading about the most, is indicative of how foolish you are, how you’re wasting your precious moments on this planet. Whereas I, liking my> game, am making the most of it.

(more…)

Islands change everything. What would be just a map option to split the landmass into sea-divided blobs in so many other city-builders or strategy games is, in cod-Caribbean management sequel Tropico 6, transformative. For this most conservative of management series – you’re a better man than me if you can easily tell the previous three games apart – even the smallest change can make a profound difference.

Tropico’s long been a game played as much for mood, a dream of eternal sun and a zen state of building calm, as anything else. Making the new archipelago format, an empire built across scattered shores, melt neatly into that sensory pleasure, rather than disrupt it, is not as straightforward as it sounds.

(more…)

If you’re curious about how banana republic build-o-management strategy series Tropico has changed (or hasn’t) since switching developers again, you can now see for yourself as Tropico 6 has an open beta running until Friday evening. It’s free to try, obvs, and includes several campaign missions, sandbox maps, and multiplayer too. Tropico has become staid, each game being largely a prettier version of the previous, but I still have a soft spot for it. Which other strategy game will let me play a wacky ruler stealing the Great Sphinx of Giza to decorate my tropical island? Not enough.

(more…)

Bad news if, like me, your response to dry January was going to be supping pre-mixed Aldi pina coladas at your desk while your monitor beamed sun-kissed beaches into your daylight-starved eyeballs. Caribbean management’n’despotism sim Tropico 6 has just suffered its second delay, missing the January release date it was eyeing, after failing to appear in 2018. Expect it in March now.

The reason? It just didn’t make the grade in its current state, reckons the boss of publisher Kalypso – this particular getaway was looking a little more Ryanair than Virgin Atlantic. So he claims, “Tropico 6 is good, but not very good>, or outstanding. Yet.”

(The total bastard in me came very close to running “Tropico 6 is not very good, says its own publisher” as a headline).

(more…)