Rollercoaster Tycoon 3
Wednesday, January 5th, 2005 - 2:07am
Forgive me, i'm weak.
I've tried, for roughly three years to slowly wean myself off these "Builder" games. The SimCity series and RCT being the biggest offenders of the lot. Continually I find myself seeing the newest, shiniest copy sitting on the shelves somewhere, and I, with $40 too many and a sense of frugality short, end up waltzing home with a idiot's grin and visions of creating the new Metropolis/Mega-Coaster Park/Slum-Infested Hellhole/That Seedy Carnival You Went To When You Were Six And That Clown Who Smelled Scared The Holy Sh*t Out Of You.
So, on a trip to my local Gamestop, I saw Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 sitting on the shelves. New box, new packaging, new features, new coasters, new this, new that, and now... oh lord, now I can ride my own deathtraps?
Fast forward to about three hours later and i'm slowly piecing together my first coaster, setting up my own fireworks display and telling that snot-nosed punk working the Hot Dog stand to start pulling his weight or i'll strap him into one of the coasters and remove a strategic piece of track.
I've always had space in my heart for certain kinds of niche games, that are mindless time-wasters. RCT3 is that to a T. Since they've had the insight to add "Sandbox Mode" now, which gives you an unlimited bank account to build a park entirely of your own preferences, should I ever get stuck, or frustrated with Vampire or Pirates!, I can pop this in, and suddenly, two hours just up and dissapeared.
The fact that you can basically ride any of the rides in the game is a nice plus as well, although I was dissapointed to find that while you may be daring enough to hop onto the veritable centrifuge of a coaster you've created, the public at large is not as receptive to pulling 10 positive and negative G's in less than 5 seconds.
And it looks gorgeous. When the sun goes down and the lights go on at your park, music is playing (if you can convert your music files to .wma format, you can make all of your favorite songs the tunes that play on the rides), and the sounds of people walking, talking, screaming in delight, and of course that one guy who can't take the extreme rides but gets on them anyway vomiting for the 400th time.... it's very, very immersive, and nice. To the point that it's half the fun just to walk through a park once you've gotten it set up.
I really thought this was a mistake after I had grabbed it. I find myself often an impulsive idiot inside of a Games store (this lead to my ill-fated purchases of G.I. Combat, C&C: Renegade, and the almost inexplicably awful Combat Command 2) but herein, I was rewarded.
I have a certain preference for games that I want to have at my fingertips at any given time. A few "Campaign" games that i'm in the process of finishing, generally longer titles that take 20+ hours to complete. A shorter title or two, something that might take less than 10 and is naught but viscerally fast fun. A sports game, and, a title that I can just pop in, not think, and enjoy myself. RCT3 is definetly filling that void for me. And it will continue to do so, every time I get frustrated with getting slaughtered on my way to the Nosferatu Warrens.
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XBL Tag: Prederick
As a Sim* and *Tycoon addict myself, I''d say as far as habits go, this one is a ton of fun to cultivate.
Seriously though, RCT3 is a fine, fine game. They took all the good dynamics of RCT and enhanced them with the move to a gorgeous 3D world. I was very impressed.
By the way, you might also enjoy RailroadTycoon 3. It''s improved a lot even since the last version...
This game is ludicrously vague on it''s requirements. I had to help a brother-in-law for three days try to get it to run and then after he bought a new system in large part to let his daughters play it, he had to go buy a new video card anyway. Admittedly, some of that was him not knowing what the difference in cards was all about, but I''ve never run into so many problems with a game and by the looks of their support forums, there are an awful lot of other folks in similar boats.
Oh...I''m totally addicted to that type of game. God games, builder games...I love them. Haven''t tried RCT3 yet...but you do make it sound yummy.
*Legion* wrote:
Railroad Tycoon 3 is a lot of fun and is a much improved version of RT2. Think evolutionary not revolutionary, but still fun.
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Children of the Nile is a lot of fun too. quite different in mechanics from it''s predecessors.
"Sometimes I go around saying, 'Kommisar Paulson has seized the commanding heights of the economy!'" - Paul Krugman, asked if recent changes to banking are socialistic.
I played the demo. It ran like ass with the full park. Very choppy and jerky framrates.
I hope 2 things. One, that in coaster designer, the performance gets better since you arent rendering anything other than the coaster youre working on. Two, that my new radeon 9600xt can handle the bloated graphics better.
Those are the only things preventing me from getting this game. I know I will love it. I will have months of roller coaster making and riding fun.
Also, I pray that you can import coasters from rollercoaster tycoon 2 into 3 so I can ride the 50 or so coasters I made for it right off the bat.
Being fangoriously devoured by a gelatinous monster.
Deva - It is quite yummuy. Even to the extent that the Adult Contemporary Pseduo-Jazz they have playing at the intro screen is enticing. I believe this is how Kenny G got started.
As SpyNavy so succinctly put it, it''s an evolution of the game, not a revolution. I doubt that a serious revolution is coming anytime soon.
Fang has a point though, the game does get to be a little too big for it''s own tastes. I have a 9800XT and once I had filled the park halfway, the idea of riding my rides, god forbid at night, was a bit of a ""challenge"" for my Video Card. The gorgeousness, as with many things, comes with a price.
But you can import coasters from RCT2 though, which is nice. Although apparently, there are some friction problems, but there''s a code in the game that you can find over at GameFAQs that will help with that.
Even with the graphics issues, it is a lot of fun. I really can''t underline enough how much being able to ride the rides worked for me, as seeing my patrons actually enjoy a ride I designed and that wasn''t just a vomit-comet was immensely satysfying.
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XBL Tag: Prederick
I played the demo, I thought it was horse crap. Perhaps I was hoping for a pharaoh clone too much, I dont'' know, what I do know is that I felt like it was... too pushed. It ran really slow (even on the speediest of settings) and, seriously, I don''t play these games for the little people, unless it affects me directly in some way. I play them to build a city, and then add stuff that makes them happy, not friggin train one to do something and then send him out. Maybe its the same thing and I have yet to warm up to CotN... but, as for now, the demo is the only piece of it I will own.
Train them? Not sure what you mean.
The difference is that while in the first game, you set up paths and that determined relationships and goods transfers, now you simply plant buildings and whoever moves in takes those roles. They handle the economics themselves. You don''t even have to worry about money, just supplies. So the focus of the game has changed from micromanagement to goal-oriented planning.
For me, that''s a good change. But it''s very different from the earlier ones, so I can see how you''d view it differently. I like both, but I like this a lot better than setting up traffic cones and trying to figure out why the fish seller won''t go down a particular block.
"Sometimes I go around saying, 'Kommisar Paulson has seized the commanding heights of the economy!'" - Paul Krugman, asked if recent changes to banking are socialistic.
Thread bump from hell!
I bought RCT3 yesterday. I am having a total blast. Once you work out the quirks with the interface tweaks, I actually prefer the coaster builder in RCT3.
Riding your own rides from RCT2 is a ton of fun. There are a few coasters that will need tweaks once you import them. SOmetimes coasters that were able to barely make it over a hill in RCT2 wont make it over in RCT3. Also, by contrast, some coasters will gain momentum quicker, throwing off the balance completely and making the tuned ride ultra extreme in intensity when brought into RCT3.
The best part is there are more coaster types and you can now make water rides in the coaster designer. The lighting and simple textures are convincing enough to illicit thrills when speeding around in your own creations. I even find myself leaning sometimes with the turns.
The coaster designer runs great. Performance when riding a coaster is solid. Performance when building the ride is good as well.
Performance dogs if you try and move when the automatic ride finisher is running and understandibly so. Performance is also choppy when you are finding a location to plant your ride. You can rotate the camera to near any angle when editing but it will snap to a vertical 45 degree and the nearest horizontal 20 degree (or thereabouts) when you release the middle mouse button. The middle mouse button controls camera rotation when held and zoom when rolled.
Being fangoriously devoured by a gelatinous monster.
Yeah, my only gripe with the game is that it''s so graphically good it kills itself. If you''ve got a park with 1000 guests, 30 different concessions stalls and 10-20 rides, a noticeable bit of chug can develop, because it all looks so damn good.
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XBL Tag: Prederick
I''m working on the review for Children of the Nile right now for another publication, and so far I''m really enjoying it. Then again, I LOVED Impressions'' city building games.