AVENGERS:
AGE OF ULTRON
By Ash Harrison
TROPICO 5
by Kirk McKeand
REVIEW
Have you ever wanted to build your own city,
or wondered what kind of leader you’d be?
Tropico 5 can help.
Y
ou begin Tropico with
a humble colony based
on an island paradise
and you must harvest the
land’s resources, building
farms and plantations and
mining ore from deposits.
An army of teamsters run
these resources across the
little winding dirt roads you
create, depositing the goods
at your dock – here it gets
hauled off by a ship, bringing
you the profits when it
returns and starting the
cycle again.
You must balance these
profits against your expenses
and you have to balance
that against keeping your
increasing population,
which is influenced by
child birth and immigration,
happy enough to not
revolt against you. Unlike
most city builders, you are
physically present in the
game as El Presidente, and
you can be usurped by a
8
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band of rebels – only your
palace guards and military
bands at your various forts,
compounds and guard
towers can protect you.
Even with protection, it’s
a good idea to control the
population; whether you do
this through adulation or fear
is completely up to you.
Once at least half of the
population is on your
side, you can declare
independence. At this
point, you can draft up
constitutional rights, deciding
on whether you want a fair
democracy or a totalitarian
regime with child labour and
forced military service. You
can even only allow the rich
to vote. Or just men. Or you
can decide there will be no
elections whatsoever. Each
of the island’s inhabitants
have their own wants, needs,
jobs and allegiances – at
any time you can view this
information. Armed with
this you can choose, if you
so wish, to banish, bribe or
even assassinate them. Viva
El Presidente. Tropico 5 is all
about choice. I generally ran
a fair democracy, creating
a paradise for tourists, full
of attractions, casinos and
sandy beach escapes. But
it’s just as valid to create
a nightmarish island of
pollution, industry and
ramshackle huts, subduing
the unhappy populace
with force.
You can issue edicts
whenever you want, which
are special actions that can
offset a danger. For example,
if you were to build the
hellish island in that latter
example, it might be a good
idea to issue marshall law
and military drills, increasing
the effectiveness of your
army and keeping the
populace ruled by fear.
Tropico 5 has so much
personality that it’s hard
to not like. As well as just
creating what you want in
a sandbox mode – you can
also adjust various settings
like your starting money,
time period or the resources
available on the island –
or you can play through
a lengthy campaign that
teaches you all the facets
and various nuances of the
game. On top of this is a
co-op mode where another
online player can build their
own city on the other side
of the island. Interaction is
pretty limited here, but it’s a
nice addition nonetheless.
Overall, Tropico 5 is a lovely
little game, and it’s currently
the best way to scratch
your city building itch on
PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
What kind of leader are you
gonna be?
7/10
Avengers: Age Of
Ultron is one of the
saddest movies I’ve
seen in a long time.
Not the film itself,
but the fact that
it marks the end
(for now at least)
of Joss Whedon’s
tenure with the
Marvel Cinematic
Universe. The
Russo Brothers
have some really
big shoes to fill.
REVIEW
E
ven though the movie
has been out for a while,
I’ll avoid spoilers as much
as possible, but some may
still remain. I’m also assuming
prior knowledge of the
preceding movies. Consider
yourself warned.
After their solo adventures,
Iron Man, Thor and Captain
America – along with Bruce
Banner/Hulk, Hawkeye and
Black Widow – reassemble to
take down a new threat, Ultron
(James Spader). Designed by
Tony Stark and Bruce Banner
as an overall protector of
Earth, Ultron gains a form of
consciousness and garners his
own ideas on how to protect
the world – namely destroying
the planet and starting again.
Age Of Ultron opens big and
loud, straight into a huge
battle with the team taking
on a HYDRA stronghold while
looking for Loki’s sceptre. Right
off the bat we know exactly
what kind of movie we are in
for. The action is spectacular
and fun and the dialogue,
as we’ve come to expect
from Whedon, is snappy and
laced with wit, with a brilliant
running gag established in the
first couple of minutes. The
humour is definitely a strong
point, with Jeremy Renner’s
Hawkeye providing much of
the comic relief.
It makes sense that Hawkeye
would get so many good
lines as there’s a lot of focus
on his character, possibly to
make up for the lack of his
own stand-alone project or
real contribution in Avengers
Assemble. The trailers
strongly suggested that this
movie would be a lot more
Hawkeye-centric, to the point
where I became convinced he
wouldn’t make it to the end.
It’s not just Renner who is onpoint – the entire cast nails it
from start to finish. None more
so than James Spader. Spader
is nothing short of superb as
Ultron: he’s menacing, creepy,
scary and hilarious in equal
measure; the sarcastic nature
of Ultron was something
I was very surprised at but
also pleased to see. In recent
interviews, Scarlett Johansson
has described Spader’s Ultron
as almost Shakespearian, and
I can’t think of a better way to
sum him up.
There are a couple of standout
scenes that must be talked
about: One is a scene which
every fanboy was wetting
themselves with excitement
about (or was that just me?) –
Hulk vs Iron Man. It