If you don’t know what RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 is, read my review. The review needs updating, and it is of the older Platinum edition, but it looks like Complete Edition only updates it a little bit. It is great to see RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 back since the Platinum edition was removed from stores. The game still stands at number one for variety in my game rankings. Time to get back into theme park building.
RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 Complete Edition is available for free until 01 October.
Build and manage your own theme park in this very extensive theme park simulator. Build your own rollercoasters and see what it is like to ride in it. Manage everything from the price of root beer and how much sauce to put in the food to where to place toilets and handling your staff.
Release Date
November 2006.
Pros
The game is very extensive. There are so many rollercoaster types to build, so many other rides to build, so many shops that sell so many things. You have to manage your staffs’ wages, work zones, tasks and morale. You have to set prices of goods for sale and cost of rides.
Physics plays a big role in coaster design. I am not sure how realistic it is but you must ensure the vehicle has enough speed and momentum to keep it going to the end. This is where the testing phase of the rollercoaster comes in handy.
Almost everything is customisable. You can customise the rollercoaster colours, staff uniforms even the balloons you sell. You can even put custom image billboards which earn you money in the game. You can also use your own music for the themes of different rides.
There are good tutorials that teaches how the game works and how to build your wonderful creations.
The sounds are excellent. The closer the camera is to the ground the more it sounds like a theme park. There is general noise, the sound of cash registers taking in money, people cheering and vomiting, everything you would expect to hear in a theme park. You can also hear people scream and yell from the rides.
The ride cameras are very good. So good that it can give some people motion sickness.
RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 Platinum comes complete with the Soaked! and Wild! expansion packs. Soaked! provides swimming pools, water slides, more water rides and other water park type stuff. Wild! adds animals to your theme park.
The graphics are excellent. Although the polygons are visible for most things, the sheer amount of different things are represented well in the game. And everything is completely 3D and can be viewed from any camera angle.
Sandbox mode allows you to build the theme park of your dreams with unlimited money. You can also set up custom scenarios to your own liking.
Rides and parks can be shared. Check out RCT Grotto. If you are familiar with Dreamworld on the Gold Coast, Australia, I highly recommended looking at this excellent re-creation.
Cons
The business management side of the game seems too easy. Unless you are very reckless with money, it does not look like you can lose. Either this game has a very tame business management model compared to Theme Park, or my business management skills have increased dramatically.
Other Points
You can record video to WMV files. Unfortunately it slows the game down and sound does not get recorded. Here is an example video.
I found the Wild! update patch 3 here which is the only one that I could install(because it is a manual copy over), but it does not look like it does anything.
From reading around it sounds like depending on which version you get you must patch the game differently. My experience with the Platinum version of RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 is, no patch is necessary.
Minimum Requirements (as stated in the manual)
Operating System Windows 98/ME/2000/XP (Windows XP recommended)
Processor Pentium III 1 GHz or equivalent (1.3 GHz or higher recommended)
Memory 512 MB RAM
Hard Disk Space 1.2 GB Free
CD-ROM Drive 4X speed or faster (8X recommended)
Video 64 MB Hardware T&L-compatible video card*
Sound Windows 98/ME/2000/XP compatible 16-bit sound card (PC audio solution containing Dolby Digital Live required for Dolby Digital audio)
DirectX DirectX version 9.0c (included) or higher
* Video cards that do not have hardware shader support, such as the GeForce 4 MX or Intel Extreme Graphics, are not supported.
Computer Played On
Core 2 Duo 2.16GHz
2Gb RAM
ATI Radeon X1600 256Mb RAM (laptop version)
Realtek HD Audio(no idea what model) with Altec Lansing ACS41 speakers or Logitech ClearChat Premium PC Headset.
Win XP Pro
Graphics settings are set to whatever I feel comfortable with playing on this PC. They are usually not set to the highest settings. All screenshots are taken with my settings.
Handy Tips
If you rename a peep’s name to be “Jonny Watts” you get to view the world from the peep’s point of view. Actually you view the world from above the peep’s head, but the camera basically follows the peep everywhere. This is supposed to be a cheat code, but I reckon it is more of a different experience of your creation.
