While I'm not a huge fan of the series, after seeing this I somehow get the feeling that it's more of a graphical update than a sequel... I also can't help but be annoyed at the fact that you have to SCROLL through the goods' list. Sure - it might not seem like a huge deal, until you have to do it every single time you buy and sell stuff, not to mention that you don't get an overview at a single glance.
Any GOGers actually following the development ?

Personally, I'm a fan of this game style, and quality products in this genre are few and far between, so I'm rather happy that Patrician 4 is in the making, and am looking forward to its release.
Oh, and I'd much prefer a simple graphical update (not that I deem it so necessary, mind you,) than a "dumbed down so that more people will buy it" version.
Thanks for the link, BTW, I haven't seen this video yet.

I've followed it a little. A bit odd how little it has been marketed and now suddenly it's already available for preorder at GG with a release date of 14th September. Oh, and there's aparently a german demo available at Worthplaying.

I almost regret not learning enough German through the six years I had it at school ;P...
Then again - what were they thinking ?! Even the TRAILER is from the English version - why only release a demo in German ?

Thanks for the link, Petrell.
I don't speak a sound of German, but I do Dutch, and tend to comprehend parts of texts in German, so I'll probably check that demo out.

To anyone who considers getting the demo, a warning...
Of the three mirrors provided, the first German one has a very slow download (~60-70 KB/s), the second German mirror doesn't find the file, and the American one (FileFront) has a corrupt file (140 MB instead of 700+MB). Hope this situation will be fixed soon.

I love the series, so I'm definitely going to get this. But I still have my doubts about it. The 3D graphics seems a bit cheap, and as I've enjoyed multiplayer in every single Patrician-game so far, it's a bit disappointing that they've dropped it. I hope it's not just a quick project to capitalize on the nostalgia people have for the series.

I agree on the 3D part; let's hope it's not going to be the selling point of the game. As for multiplayer, I'm a single-player person myself, so MP won't be that much of a loss for me. I can understand why you (and I suppose a good number of other players) enjoy the MP part, though.
From Kalypso, we've seen some pretty decent games (like Tropico 3), and missed opportunities as well (Disciples 3). Hopefully, Patrician 4 will fit in the former category, not the latter.

So... is it going to be available on the official release day in Norway? Here, in Hungary, it's not even on pre-order; it's like it isn't planned to appear anytime soon. (If it stays that way for a wile, I may consider getting it from Game.co.uk.)
If you happen to get it before me, could you make a quick overview of wether it lived up to your expectations, especially gameplay-wise?

Not 100% sure of when it'll be released here. I'll probably import from the UK anyway, if I find a decent price. I don't know when I'll actually get around to playing it, though I'll post something here when I have some opinions on it.

Edit:

Can't add a new post since mine is the last in the thread. Even when it's over a month old.

Anyway, anyone played it yet? Any thoughts?

more of these games are always welcome right now, especially this generation when for some reason so many people want games only to be SHOOT SHOOT SHOOT, KILL, SWEAR, SHOOT SHOOT HURRRRR DURRRRR

There is incomplete playthru at youtube that. Unfortunately it's 'silent' one without narration. But I too would like to hear wether or not it's worth it especially with latest patches applied.

Wow, that demo video on Youtube is a major turnoff. Less cities, a horribly worse trade interface, and all towns look the same now? What a downgrade...

Hey now, it's not that much of a bad game - it could be very good, but it's marred by some design flaws.

What I positively like about it is that they've mostly kept the mechanics of the previous two Patricians (so they didn't dumb it down, at least not much), but they made the interface more user-friendly. I especially welcome the progress bar - now I can see just how much I still need to achieve before the next promotion. In Patrician 3, I always felt I was feeling in the dark when it came to the popularity in my home city needed for the next level. Also, I think it's a good idea that now you have to own a certain number of ships, businesses and employees to achieve ever higher ranks.

About the design flaws... One I don't get (what did they think when they decided buy/sell prices should be the same?!), but two are positively frustrating. Of these two, one is your inability to please the prince of the region - sure, you can do their quest, but they appear so rarely that if you miss one, you can more or less count on the prince besieging a town (or even all of the towns in his region), since his goodwill will diminish way before a new quest appears. The other is that they've seemingly tried increasing the difficulty by making random, damaging events all too frequent, especially freezing ports. I know, ports were prone to freezing, especially Northern ones, but if literally half of them froze up in a few weeks' time, I think the Hanseatic Leage would have gone broke way earlier.

One more annoyance I forgot about... when building a ship or building, you have to actually BUY the materials from the marketplace, even if you have more than enough in your warehouse. I really don't know how it made sense to someone at Gaming Minds...