ArchitectOnReview: 2017

The Founder

I can not remember being so angry at a film in my whole life. And I am sure I am not alone with may thoughts about this films.

If someone has to sum up the film in on scentence it would be something like "The founder is the real story of how the today in the whole world known fast food chain started out". Especially the first scenes where the brothers who founded the first McDonald's are introduced and where it is shown how they perfected their ideas and never gave up even after some failures are really good. But that scenes include pretty much all the positive felling the film gives the audience.

Its not easy being a cube and being a war cube is even worse, but you know what is the worst of all, that you are sent back to an old kingdom, Your Old Kingdom! By mister I am so funny narrator and everybody knows you and that you were the king. But given the fact that in this kingdom everyone is a cube and the fighting makes great fun and the fact that you are kind of a king, even if your mighty kingdom is run down by barbaric red cubes, it is not that bad.

That is kind of how the game of war cube starts, a small little combat game full of humor and all kind of medieval stuff. As already stated the game has good humor but I see the danger of this element becoming too powerful. In this state of the game the humor is hold back to an agreeable amount but if the game is going to define itself just through its humor, I may have to give it a bad review in the future.

I am an architecture student so when i found out this game existed I immediately bought it because İ said architect and I wanted to become an architect. And I was astonished the core game mechanic combines perfectly with some thoughts and processes of an architects design work. For example the designing of the user’s movements how and when they move where and way and which corridors are more often used and which corridors are dead corridors. Or the main usage design and zoning which leads to deciding which areas are going to be prisoner free and which are going to be for visitors and then of course this zones need to be more secured and easier accessible, but also richer furnished and so on. All together it can be played as the simplified and fun added version of how an architect really works and achieving this alone is a huge success in my opinion.

Age of war 2 works the same as the first part of the game as Age of war 2 fully transports the good working age change system from age of wars. With fully new 7 stages the game has definitely evolved. Factions like the Egypt, Spartans and fantasy elements in the medieval stage are added. Which all together give the game a good, improved, new look.

Sadly the good balancing of the first part did not make it into the second part. All different difficulties can be won in about 4-5 ages. And it is not the point of balancing to give the computer players more resources and XP points. Better would have been to teach the computer players the key mechanics of the game like the upgrading system, the tank/anti-tank situation and the evolving mechanic.

Age of war is the oldest browser game I could remember playing and it was awesome. But now a decade later I played it again to review it and I have to admit it is still awesome. But mainly due to the fact that the nostalgia feeling is to xxxx high. Still while playing it i found out that it is one of the best balanced strategy browser games of its kind.

But to start from the bottom Age of war is 2D, base strategy browser game where the aim is to recruit enough soldiers to destroy the enemy base on the other side of the map. To do this the player can chose between melee fighters, range units and tank type units. Throughout the game the ages change and while the player is fighting on dinosaurs and knights in the first part of the game in the later ages tanks and supersonic warrior take control over the battlefield. To give the player at least something to do apart from clicking the solider buttons, also special abilities are present which again change over time from an erupting volcano to an airstrike.

The first few hours into Tropico 3 were difficult for me as a Tropico 2 veteran. Because in Tropico 2 the for this game tailor made pirate scenario was a great purpose giving and (building up economy) motivating part as ships need to be prepared and raids need to be organized. I felt a bit lost after the start into the new Tropico universe as I did not know what goal to go for and in what direction to develop my island.

A bit into the game I realized that this game has a good branching system according to different development opportunities on different island. Like farming and farm good development on big fertile islands, mining in the resource full islands, fishing and oil industry on island with a long shoreline. Moreover a good interconnection between different game mechanic like military, education and foreign relation is present.

The 3rd part of the series is still faithful to the Tropico charm where all your citizens have different names, backgrounds, needs, views and wishes. That makes the new electing system that more fun and makes it a good diplomatic addition to the game. Moreover the citizen happiness needs are again solved very well but I have to say that I feel the micro balancing was done better in Tropico 2.

Awesome Seaquest is a real time strategy and upgrade browser game where you have to fight you battels on the sea and upgrade your "Arch" to unlock new units, get money, get research points and dock your unused ships.
Especially the late game phase gets boring because of a balancing problem. That occurs If you have 20 ships up to level 8 and one or two repair bots (which you will have after about half the battels). Then you are nearly invincible and the game gets useless. But prior to that bad ending phase the upgrading, leveling, money and research points gathering system works quit well as it is motivating to see everything come together.

A better battel system would help the game a great deal as the battels either requires no user interaction at all or just the clicking of one button in the right time. Other than that the 90 seconds "battel-pause" system is well thought out and something new as I have not come across other games that use this system. Unfortunately also here no real brainpower is needed (which is but acceptable as it is only the technical money collecting part of the game). But all together that leads to a game with no tactical depth what so ever and the easiest straight forward tactic will win the game for you.

I have to admit that I am emotionally quiet confused after this film and I started to write this review in the second I finished the film so i do not forget what I want to say. The problem now is that I feel I am not nearly good enough in writing to fully express what I think about this film but I have to try it.

The initial idea of the film is that two guys in the prime of their life (between 30 and 40) get an internship at google where they have to put up with "modern" young adults and all kind of "modern" stuff like internet, apps, instagram... And the film succeeds in using most of the subject that comes out of this comical situation to turn it into a quit good film. But the initial story idea which is phenomenal funny in my opinion turns into a worn down, often used story line where the underdogs built a team and the group has to compete in a (ala hunger games, or as it is said in the film "mental hunger games") competition. And in the end they magically win it even though it is often pointed out that they have no chance to succeed or what so ever. But all together the story is still good for a film with heart and a message which is transported to the audience in a comfortable way. Something many films do not succeed in at all.

Explaining my graduation project 2.1: 1/200 plan, living unit organization design, design development.

The independent living units were designed to take place in the larger tower. Here they could evolve around the courtyard opening. In the first few weeks this arrangement of living units around the courtyard was planned as a rectangular. Meaning that all the 4 sides of the courtyard are filled with living units. But after quiet a short time I had the feeling that there is a better, more beautiful and more architect like solution.

The improved idea was to arrange the living units in a U-shape. By doing this the badly situated north side earth faced units were eliminated and all the other units had direct connection to the sun at least some hours during the day. İn the higher stories of the building the U-shape was rotated. By doing this the feeling of a more open and comfortable space was increased as the sun could reach down into the courtyard and the whole body of the building was more fragmented. Also a more straight forward connection to the walking paths was created by bringing the blank side of the U-shape to the steep hill of the walking paths.

The relation of the outside walking paths to the living units was in general a very important part of the project. As you may see in the diagram the aim was to create not closed up, tube like corridors but opened corridors with light and space for elderlies to socialize, wait, talk and walk. Therefore most of the corridors have two components. The first one is the inside corridor where the inhabitants can reach to their private living areas and the second part is an outside equivalent to the inside park where on good weather days the elderly can also walk outside and make horizontal connections with the elderlies up or downstairs.

A definite problem while designing this rotated U-shape tower was the vertical circulation. A situation that was even more problematized by the different user profiles, the need of administrative spaces and community socializing. I already explained the need for community socializing in the first part of the series and about how I want to achieve it in the part before this. Just to explain the general approach to the vertical circulation I have to say that i tried to design it in the easiest and most simple way possible. But that is often times the hardest way to do it. Creating 5 staircases all around the building for every different user without considering the general design is easy but connecting all the users to 2 staircases whose situation is chosen precisely is quiet difficult. I am not going lie to you and say I found the best solution for this problem but from the plan views you can read what I thought was an adequate compromise for the project.

In the next part we are again going into more detail and look at the detailed drawings and design of the living units.

Knights of Honor

Before I start reviewing this game I think it is important to state that I did not play this game when it first came out in 2004, just recently while I was looking through steam I found it was on sale and thought it was worth a shot. So there are no nostalgic feelings attached to the game which concludes that the review is not clouded by overpowered childhood memories. To my own astonishment I was positively surprised that its quiet a good game and still playable even if it is already more than 10 years old.

I think it is also important to state some other games published in this years to be able to make better comparisons and really look at games place in gaming history. Other 2004 releases are: Lords of the Realm 3, Settlers: the Heritages of Kings, Rise of Nations and Rome Total War (of course I only listed other strategy games). Moreover I think it is good to also state some milestone games in the strategy genre and their date of publish: Europa Universalis 3 2007, Crusader Kings 2 2012, Hearts of Iron 2009, anno 1701 2006 (in my opinion some of the most important strategy games for the genres development)

The King was lying on his bed his once black hair was grey like ash and also his face did not hold many similarities with the beautiful face of the once young prince. The face looked like a carving wood as so many deep wounds were covering the lines of the face. İt was clear that the king did not have long to live. And it was in question how long the empire would survive without him. After his father had lost so badly against the undead army it was the former prince who succeeded in driving back the enemies. After many years of hard war the greatest enemy was defeated.

During the long war many human kingdoms joined the union of the west as they saw the greatness of the King. Also some orcish factions were more than willing to join the human alliance. But their Chief forbid it. That was reason enough for the young hotheaded king to make what he would claim was the biggest mistake of his life, to attack the orcs. The monsters stood no chance against this perfected warmachine and after a short time all the land was gathered in the hands of the young king and the empire was build.

The first thing that jumped into my mind while thinking about writing an review for "Männerherzen" was that the character development is phenomenal and therefore I think it is only just to start this review by mentioning it before getting into the details of the different stories. In my opinion the very good in depth character development is achieved by the great script. Each character is full of live, authenticity realism.

Another point that stands out is how the 5 stories and main characters are connected to each other. The good connection of the different stories in the film is mainly due to a good storyboard and scene design. For example the gym scenes where all 5 man go and workout without knowing each other, the "fight Tommy fight scene" where a swift shift between the Philip and Roland storyline is achieved.

The prince was standing on the balcony of the place. The guards of "The West Men King" were practicing in the courtyard below him. On the left side was the long sword guard. The man hat huge swords about 2 meters long and this sword were heavy. The prince new that because as a child he once tried to lift one but the sword was so heavy it fell on him and he could not move under the weight of it till a solider of his father’s guard rescued him. That was one of the most embarrassing moments in the life of the young prince. He still did not like to use the long swords. But he loved to watch the skilled men while they used them. And as his trainer often said "watching someone use the sword is as vital for training as swinging it yourself". So the prince watched the heavy blades looking like long feathers in the hands of the guards and he was astonished how precisely they could hit. Of course he could make it better with a short sword but that was not the point, the young prince knew. With a long sword it was possible to kill a man without him even getting in the ranch to strike, even without being on hundred percent precise with the placement of the blade.

In the last 3 parts I often talked about the 2 courtyards and the 2 towers evolving around this courtyards but I never got much into the details. This is going to change in this part as I want to show you my detailed design of the courtyards and what influenced my design. Therefore I am going to show you the detailed plans of the courtyards and what space were planned to be around them.

For these thoughts it was important to choose spaces with need of natural light and fresh air so i could arrange them around the courtyards. And most of these decisions I am going to talk about originate in the first diagram I made and which I explained to you (the diagram about activities, spaces and connection between spaces) in the first part of the series. The final decision was twofold.

Firstly I decided to arrange the wellness center and sport facilities around the smaller courtyard. This had defined benefits like:
-The ability to make sport in the open air and then use the wellness center facilities.
-I decided to evolve the assisted living units around the smaller courtyard as they would take less space and combine better with the smaller courtyard and the assisted living units had secondary relations to the wellness and health center.

3 websites for Game of Throne fans

http://www.theoriesarecoming.com/#/ (series based)

A great little website because it gets into totally unknown fields and opens the door for many new thoughts and ideas. Sadly it is only series based which makes the explanations oftentimes quiet shallow and disprovable by the huge amount of detail in the books. But as I explained above it also has some very good solutions.
I especially liked John Snow / is a time traveling Bran as the explanation states:

"When someone is the only product of ice and fire in history, and the key to defeating the White Walkers, can he be allowed to die? That’s why Bran from the future intervened when Jon was in that Schrödinger's Cat state between dead and alive. He warged into Jon to bring him back to life and will control him till the end of the story. As the three-eyed raven told Bran, he will fly when Jon (controlled by Bran) rides one of Dany’s dragons."

In Stronghold Legends with the good, the ice and the bad faction a whole of 3 new factions are introduced.

The good faction is rather boring, flatted out and pretty straight forward as only about 5 heroes with special abilities and better fighting powers are added. Even the connection of the heroes to the King Arthur saga cannot save these new additions from feeling very unnatural to the game. And it is clear that this faction was not enough to fill a whole campaign as the story is progressing very slowly, thinning out quit fast and concluding in boring economy and badly scripted fighting (and special ability using) missions.

In the last text explaining my graduation project I told you about my obsession with the green space connection of my building. This time I want to show you my detailed design about these outside walking path and my ideas behind it. If you payed close attention you may have noticed that i preformed a jump in the time line here (title 3.1) because the detailed design is generally a part of design which is concluded in the late phases of the project. But for the architect it is important to always think about these detailed designs and what he wants of them. As each little detail can and will affect the whole project. It is not like "oh let me figure out the general form of the building and I can add details afterwards." this is not how projects and design process work. So as I told you this is the first time we are getting out of the chronology as i am going to present the final product of the detailed design but during most of the project most of this part was only in my head and just the general assets were included in the design.

"Sire, you look different today"
"Realy! I also feel different. Its like the whole world has changed."
"Thats the exact thing my wife said in the morning Sire! We live in a new world."
"Yes looks like the grapich has changed. You know I am an 3D lord now. But let me walk in and out of the keep as i have done it in the 2 stronghold games before"
"If you wish Sire! I have nothing to do than siting here around the fire. But if the green bar here turns red I am going to be the first one to run away"

"Infidels are attacking oh Caliph! And they are led by the famous Christian Crusader. Richard Lionheart!"

"Nooo!" the cup of the kalif flew through the dark room and the content of it spilled on the floor. The ice water formed a growing small lake but steam rose quickly as the water evaporated in the unforgiving summer sun.

"General what shall we do?"

"Oh great Caliph! It would give the troop great courage if you were to show up on the battlements. All other preparations are made. The archer are already taking position on the towers and the flam throwers are also ready"

It took a time to convince the Caliph but after some time he agreed to at least go on the top of the keep and let himself bee seen by the archers. But as the general and his master got out into the open air it was already to late. Thick black smoke was covering the whole castle and the tops of the huge towers could not bee seen through the smoke. And the noise was unbearable the fire was ever growing and it made a sizzling noise and the screams of the castle inhabitants filed the courtyard. One of the flame throwers must have lost control over his pots and the content which was bound to hit the for coming enemies now destroyed the castle from the inside.

Learn Architecture Through Films: Mon Oncle

The difference between deifying the designer and using the designed object explained by the film Mon Oncle.

In the house designed by the most up o date technology the artistic spirit of people is lost. Because if every move is planed by the designer and by deifying this arrangement the user of a space losses his ability to rearrange the space to his personal need. This condition is visualized in the film called Mon Oncle. The space change needed due to the broken fountain, which makes the former designed space unusable, dramatically finds an end in the same space in a rather comical scene. The total lack of creativity (skill, knowledge or what you want to call it) to design spaces according to personal needs makes it impossible to shelter somewhere else as just one place is designed to do the job of sitting with guests.

As a real Harry Potter books fan for me every "Harry Potter" film is kind of a disappointment. As of course it is near impossible to capture all the details of a 700 paged book into a 2 hour film (which bring us back to the books vs. film discussion which I don't want to go into detail now).

But surprisingly in my opinion this film had many good solutions on how to make a good book based ("Harry Potter") film.
These spoken of solutions are firstly I think mainly due to the good directing and good (but not phenomenal) music which is integrated into the film perfectly.

The diagram shows the 2 courtyards in green, the gallery space in grey and the vertical circulation (which I am going to talk about in later parts) in black

The main design elements developed after the first diagram can be summed up in three points:
-Green spaces
-Concept of socializing
-Living unit design

The most important architectural element or design element of the project was my dream to ensure maximal connection to the outside by smart design and therefore create spaces with relation to outside factors like sun, light and fresh air. This idea possessed me so much that for quite a time during the process of designing the building i was only fixed on this idea. A situation that’s effect is definitely seen in the end result of the project.

So I was possessed about this need of green spaces and air and sun and light that i designed 2 courtyards and 1 galery space because the more openings there are the more sun is going to be brought down into lower stories and I decided I want a base of 2 stories and two towers coming out of it. Because by maximizing the facade area of the building the area for big windows and therefore again more light and sun is maximized. And I started to make my first model. As you can see in the picture it is only an concept-model but it summed up my ideas pretty good and i am proud that it has an resemblance to the final design as this is an indicator that I have been true to myself and my design ideas.

After hard work the lord could finally take a walk on the newly constructed palisade. And it was a joy, because behind the palisade were strange beasts. Many woodcutters did not return from their quick routes into the wood to collect the needed wood for the palisade. About half a dozen bowman were trained in the last days and one of them was running towards the Lord. As he stopped to sentences left his mouth. "Sire the wolfs are lazily laying behind our palisade! Finally we are safe sire!"

The rather easy start in the stronghold universe is one of the swiftest starts in any gaming series. The player starts by setting up a basic camp and afterwards fighting of wild wolfs (which most of the time lay around and do nothing). And this half an hour of the campaign of stronghold perfectly sums up the funny, sometimes ironic general concept of the game. But it gets more complicated than that. After about 8-10 missions most of the game-assets are introduced and the player is fully capable of using all of them. And now each time a new missions starts the player has more stuff to do and more things to look out for as he builds up his economy, sets up his main defenses, trains troops and waits for the first wave of attackers.

It is quiet obvious that the film makers had confident in 3 things related to the success of the film.

Firstly I think they trusted in their cast and especially in the actors for the two main roles. But I have to admit that the main actors performance which often makes the difference between a good film and a bad film, is only mediocre which is an achievement considering the awful scripted scenes and de badly written dialogues.

The graduation project in the fall semester of 2017 in the bachelor program in architecture (on Istanbul Technical University) was titled "Collective living for the elderly". Aimed were new design solutions for elderly friendly accommodations paired with health service and opportunities for social and personal interactions.

The Architectural program included
-green spaces: gardening spaces and open air areas for physical activities
-administration: Directors offices, assistants, office kitchen, meeting room, security etc.
-Common spaces: A social center with a cafeteria, cinema and TV hall, library and a wellness center
-Health services: for the elderly inhabitants with rooms for nurses and doctors.
-Living areas organized in 3 parts
=> Fully independent living units for 60
=> Partially supported living units for 20
=> Assisted living units for 20 persons
-Service spaces and technical rooms

But to not bore you longer I just want to explain how I set the relations between different activities and spaces to create my very own architectural program and smoothen the part for the space distribution and to estimate what I want to concentrate about in my project.

First of all I have to admit that I think this game is presented in a very appealing style. As an architect it is my day to day job to think about graphical appearances of drawings and diagrams so I see myself capable to state that the art and graphic style of the game is phenomenal. The greatness of the presenation starts with the use of pictogram's and symbols, includes great color management and concludes in a nearly flawless minimal design game.

After the snow is melted away by the lazily spring sun the BanischdTown people are heading to the fields and its time to decide what to plant. With potatoes, beans, corn and wheat a greater crop yield is achieved but the citizens of the town are healthier if they eat different variety of food, so a small compromise is needed. When the summer comes the fields manage themselves and the townspeople can concentrate on collecting building resources, make cloth for the winter, work in the iron mine and help the smith . When autumn begins everybody in BanishedTown is back on the fields again as autumn is the harvest season and if the crops a left to stay in the cold too long they are ruined. Autumn is also the time for the last preparations before winter the last bit of venison is carried into the stone houses of the hungry citizens and the wood cutters and foresters work newer stops. And Winter of course is the season to rest! No not really. First of all the hunters work in the winter as their products are one of the few that can still provide food in the cold month. Not much still because the wild is scared and in hibernation but something is better than nothing. Also an important part of the building activities of the town need to be done in the winter as spring and therefore plannting time comes always around if the year before was planed well managed good.

When we are taught how to write an essay in middle school, we learn that positive sides and negative sides of an topic are evaluated and afterwards in the end all these explored aspects are brought together into a final symbioses thus creating the conclusion and the main opinion of the author. But in game reviews this system does not work always as sometimes good aspects of the game set such an high standard of game fun that it can not be brought down by any negative aspects. "Mount and blade" is such a game in my opinion. So I wanted to evaluate X reasons "mound and blade" is a good and fun game in spite of many downsides. And I came up with 5 reasons which are as follows.

But firstly lets quickly sum up the downsides of the game which are as follows: very low variety in different quests, no over the top skill tree or leveling system, bad (too much texture based) graphics, lifeless surroundings, shallow economy, no in-story character development.

Take a look at the Admiralty building which is going to be situated in the Harbor-city of the game. The backside of the house is going to stand directly on water and therefore it has some steps before reaching the ground floor. The front is going to be directly connected to the main road and has a huge entrance for visitors. In general a rather intimidating affect was wanted to bee achieve as this is going to be one of the main government buildings of that area and therefore is build by the people in power of the capital.

The High Line: People can take an active part in their city’ s development

Generally people think their city development plan and decision making is up to city planners, architects and the local authorities, which is no surprise as this fields are difficult subjects to approach because they take a lot of time and effort to understand. Furthermore there can be hundreds of solutions and different approaches to different problems included in these subjects, which creates quit a mess. Therefore the language, technicality and expertise can be off putting for amateurs. However people can take an active part in their city’ s development by taking matters into their own hands changing their city and making it more sustainable as explained by the example of the High Line in New York an elevated park created out of unused train tracks.

-I remember the first thing I always did when playing a new Anno was to take the starting ship, direct it to the nearest enemy ship and look at the cannons firing, ships burning, mast cracking, wood splitting and in the and ships sinking. When I started Anno 2070 I moved on to do the same but I hesitated because this modern ship with its modern weapons had as much as zero charm to me. And I feared that the naval battle was going to be even worse. And it was like I feared. The naval battles in the new future world of Anno are no fun at all. I have to admit, that was a heavy blow for me.

After the job of getting the traps to stick on the wall was done Vini only had one thing left to do. Make as much noise as he can. And after some seconds he heard people coming upstairs. Quickly hidden behind a corner and he could watch with excitement how the enemies fell into his trap and were taken out one by one.

In "Sword with sauce" the players starts by choosing a hand full of gadgets he wants to use in his next mission. These gadgets include known weapons as a gun, a shield and a bow, but also real film like gadgets for example a black hole grenade or see-through walls glasses. By combining the destructive and deadly power of these different gadgets the player has to take out all 35 enemies on the map. While in the missions the player can also pick up the weapons of his fallen victims.

Actually I am not the right one to judge English literature particularly Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice" at it holds a great place in the English literature development. Therefore this review of mine may different from reviews of subjects (as gaming and films) where I am sure and confident of my judgment and knowledge and be merely a explanation of my humble opinion on this great piece of art.

The first thing I noticed about the book is the great sentence structure as the important part of the sentence or if you want to call it the kick is always in the end. Which is difficult to read (for a non native speaker like me) until you get used to it and afterwards it gives the reading pleasure a great flow.

Other than that I have to admit that I find that the "love" connection between Jane and Mr. Bingly is explained to loosely or (expressed differently) the reader is not allowed to really root for them. Through out the book it becomes very clear and quiet simply understandable that Elizabeth wants this connection of her sister to Mr. Bingly really much and we can also conclude that she wants it for the happiness of Jane. But in respect to Jane I do not get the feeling that she really wants to be with Mr. Bignly expect may be in the last parts of the books. This can be due to two things.

-The author wanted the reader to see and evaluate this connection through the thoughts of Elizabeth and in the ending bee certain that they were meant to be together

-This cold relationship is wanted from the author to even emphasize the main theme more, that runs through the whole book.

This film has a extremely stressful viewing experience for the audience, as many problems occur during the Apollo 13 (planed) flight to the moon. The film succeeded in keeping the viewers on their edge almost the entire film. This is mainly due to the fact that the different incidents are shown with great story-telling ability and the (compared with real historic events) dramatization of the situations. A fact we can witness when we compare the scene from the main incident ( in the oxygen tank) with the real audio footage of the astronauts report. And a situation also expressed by the real astronauts of the Apollo 13 flight. Amazingly we can hear on the historic audio tape that the astronauts were calm as hell, a fact that made my admiration for these men and the way they did their job even grow more. But that is more of a statement then a critic as I highly appreciated the excitement that is always on a peak but does not move the focus from other great parts of the film.

The integration of the scientific facts and explanation astonished me. First of all because it is not oversimplified for the film and almost all main problems and also little problems connected with the safety plan to return the astronauts were in a way present at the film.

Today I have a rather short review of a game called "Home behind" for you. Picking the refuge problem as a topic this game sets itself a nearly impossible task of handling the subject in the right way.

In "home behind" you play a father who lost his daughter while their home was attacked by the rebel armies. Promising himself he would find his daughter who has probably escaped together with his brother, the protagonist begins his journey. On the way he has to steal food, have an eye on his water reserves, fight enemies and therefore upgrade his weapon and armor.

To start from the positive, the game has a good crafting system. It is not phenomenal and does not give the crafting subject really new perspective but its a well carried out, modern crafting system. Extremely rewarding and motivation giving part of the game as the deep desire to get the new kitchen or workbench upgrade keeps the player moving forward. The problem in this is that the crafting system is but the only part that gives the player motivation to continue in the game. And in addition to the crafting system it needs to be added that the skill tree and skill points system is ill fitted for the game.

Hendrick Jorgensen awaits his allies ship on the farthest edge of his kontors dock because rumors were heard that the ship contains huge amounts of lamp oil. A joyfully panic overcomes Hendrick and he can not stay still. The last two days were hard work for the young man. He had to scrap together all the coin he could get to buy as much lamp oil as possible. The settlers were not amused as Hendrick ordered to sell all the wood and brick available in the depots of the city. "We need that for our houses. Don't you see they are getting too small for our families we need these materials". But Hendrick had no choice, he needed the lamp oil and all the islands in the north were already occupied. No! He had to do anything in his power to get this lamp oil even if it meant the ruin of his city and of himself.

The great computer controlled players in "Anno 1701" give the 3th game of the series a great bit of character and add to the cute comic style of the game with cities that burst in different colors and islands full of exotic animals and local plantation . But to start from the beginning in anno 1701 the old (and hugely appreciated) concept does not change. Only beginning with one ship and a few resources the player starts to build a small settlement, expand on other islands, get more resources, trade with others, rage ware and build the greatest city the world has ever seen.

It is difficult to work in the University of the "Anno town " as the king is very inpatient and always wants to be informed of new discoveries. Just half a year ago the Great Professor himself was a great part involved in the finding of a better arrow head that makes the archers even more deadly. But it is war and the enemies have sticks which let out steam and fire small metal balls in the allied ranks of men. Many brave warriors and some battles were lost to the invention of this new weapon. But the Great Professor was on the merge of getting their own "steam stick" up and working. When it is finished the bravery of our soldiers will not be withstood for very long.

The second game in the "Anno" series is "Anno 1503: The New World " in which we are again starting only with a ship and some resources to carve ourselves out a life from the uninhabited island formation. The second game stands out by adding even more resources and make it even more complex than the former game.

Alfred ran as fast as he could. "The ship is seen on the horizon" his friend told him and after this the whole town was in tumult. "AH! Finally the ship" said the old lady on the market place cause she dearly needed some new fabric from "fabric town" in the south. "Alfred! Here have some money and buy some spices. This is the ship from Fabric Town there must be at least 25 t on the ship". "Dear boy!" said Alfreds neighbor "Pleas look for me if there is any jewellery in the ships cargo, cause I need a birthday surprise for my loved on. This is the ship that takes the route from fiber town to Goldy and back to us. Please be so kind and look for me". "Ah! The ship from Goldy, my brother is a gold worker there. Will you ask the captain if he knows anything about him? Maybe a letter." requested the carrier from Alfred. And Alfred was happy to be of service, he only hoped he could keep all this in his mind. But what was that! The ship was on fire as it seemed and on second look it seem a bit crooked. As the evening came the whole truth was out. It was war! This was the last ship that got through the barricade of the enemy and the last ship that was to be expected from Goldy.

Captain Morgan is standing on his new frigate, because the "Pirate King" has ordered him to go on plunder in a heavy guarded Spanish region, the "caribbean islands". After the last man has fulfilled his gambling pleasure in the casino and the first mate finally came from the brothel , the sails could be set and the journey began. As Captain Morgan anticipated (not feared because what would a pirate be if he felt fear!) the journey was rather difficult and after 10 days on sea with only the never changing serration made of corn they Spanish armada took them by surprise and the newly made frigate joined the other wracks of former great ships on the bottom of the sea. Only Captain Morgan survived and swore to come back to the island where the new Rum Distillery was making the first bottles of rum and the Pastries were so delicious.

I often found myself supprised that I; was loudly singing to the soundtrack of tropico 2 which is phenomenal and is just a real great part of giving the caribbean, pirate, freedom, ANARCHY! feeling to the player. So lets dive into my review.

In " Tropico 2: Pirate Cove" the player gets into the role of a "pirate king". Only starting with a few pirates and some prisoners for the hard work, everything is in the hand of the player as the good interlink between different game mechanics gives grate variety of options and play style.
- Decide to let the prisoners be happy and satisfied their needs or let them bee unwelcome on the island and risk them running away and kill untrained pirates.
- Ask yourself the question if it is better to have happy pirates who survive a plunder and invest in their swordplay, canon, navigate ... Skills or use the pirates as disposable resource and let them go on a threatening plunder trip if they are to angry with you so they may "accidentally" die.
- Do you want to create a island where you produce what you use or do you want to live the "real" pirate life where you buy everything from the black market. And the gold? Yes the gold comes from many plunder trips
This many options and different style in gaming (with if chosen highly unorthodox methods) and the change in scene (being "pirate king" not El Comandante) helps greatly for the agony and sarcasm which is one of the main assets that connect all 5 games of the series.

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