The latest Settlers game is pretty good. It's sort of a shame that ubisoft doesn't have NA distribution rights for Anno 1701 because it's better, but I liked Settlers: Rise of an Empire well enough. It's certainly pretty and attractive. I think most of the naysayers of the game were people who just wanted Settlers 2 remade again w fancier graphics.
That being said, if you are looking for a citybuilder on Steam you might want to check out Children of the Nile, which I played the everliving shit out of this summer. One big caveat, though-the game is not fast paced and has a lot of downtime-so much so that at times I would read a book while the workers built my pyramids. Ingenious game though and a terrific simulator of an actual community and society, complete with things like a real socioeconomic ladder and a fully contained supply chain. There is a demo out on Steam if you want to try it. Oh, and it certainly doesn't look as good as Settlers:RotE, which is gorgeous.
