Stop the presses and put on an extra pot of coffee. Major Nelson has let the world know that a demo for the upcoming construction simulator Tropico 3 has come to Xbox Live. In fact, you probably shouldn't even try to download this game right now, because I'm sure the rush of gamers running to their systems to snag it will crash Microsoft's meager servers, thus bringing an end to Western Civilization as we know it. The demo will put players in the role of "El Presidente", the leader of the Caribbean island nation of Tropico. In what I'm sure is a series of culturally sensitive methods, El Presidente must use the military to secure his power base, using tools that are described as "the best traditions of corrupt, unscrupulous tyrants everywhere". You also have the option of being a benevolent leader who can lead his people to prosperity, but really, who's interested in that?

Seriously, I can't understand why any company would attempt to get people to notice a game that I'm sure lots of people worked tons of hours on during this busy pre-holiday blitz. With games breaking sales records, and a slew of hugely anticipated new IPs and sequels coming to stores, it just seems like a bad time to attempt to get people turned on to a little-known sequel of a nearly forgotten franchise. It's not that Tropico 3 is necessarily a bad game. It's just that I fail to see the benefit of adding this demo today, when no one on Earth will take notice. Fortunately the full game doesn't ship until February, which means that if the demo is good enough, there's plenty of time for word of mouth to build.