Patron vs Virtual Families
Patron
Patron is a medieval-themed city-builder that is quite similar to Banished. In this game, you play as a pioneer sent by your King to colonize a new region. With a group of peasants to help, it is up to you to build a town from the ground up and develop it into one of the most prosperous colonies of the empire!The game is all about optimizing production chains and subsequently, pursuing advancements. So, at the beginning, it’s important to produce enough raw materials so you can have enough materials to “fuel” your other production facilities in order to craft more profitable items. As your town expands, you’ll need to make sure your production scales up accordingly, be it by upgrading existing structures or building new ones. This is where the challenge really comes in.
Of course, besides upgrades and expansions, you’ll want to invest in research so you could unlock better and, hence, more productive buildings, as well as new production facilities which will then allow you to produce items that are usually more luxurious and lucrative to trade. From time to time, you will receive various edicts from the King or news of certain events. You’ll then be expected to choose between the two decisions provided.
All in all, Patron is definitely a much better version of Banished in every way, and this saying something since I’ve enjoyed playing Banished. This game’s a solid medieval city-builder with a nice level of difficulty which matches what a midcore gamer like me can handle. The game is definitely worth the cost!
Virtual Families
Virtual Families is a fun family simulation game where you'll be in charge of taking care of a virtual family. Somewhat similar to The Sims albeit in a much smaller scale, you'll get to adopt a virtual person of your choice and encourage him or her to do what young adult humans do - find a stable career, meet a suitable partner and settle down to start a family. Instead of ordering your sim around though, you'll encourage certain behavior by praising and discourage others by scolding. In some way, you can say that you can actually shape the personality of your little virtual person.Aside from the sim, you'll also get to improve the newly-wed's home. There are even multiple hidden puzzles all over the place for you to find and solve. Sometimes, when you least expect it, an event will pop up threatening to turn the amazing virtual life you've built for your sim completely upside down! All of these provide some respite from the usual daily routine of your sims as they go about their day.
Virtual Families is an incredibly fun game especially for fans of life simulation games like The Sims. If you got the chance, you should really check this game out! The demo is free to play, but for the full experience, you'll need to buy the game.