Mankind has a love/hate relationship with terror. On the one hand we're fighting a war against it, on the other, we seek it out - bungie jumps, Friday nights on the piss in Bridgend and rollercoasters. Combine this with a seemingly insatiable appetite for god games, simulations and Theme Park-a-likes, and you have Rollercoaster Tycoon 3.
The brainchild of designer Chris Sawyer, the first Rollercoaster Tycoon was 1999's biggest-selling PC title in the US. But this had less to do with an overwhelming demand for a rollercoaster maintenance simulation, more with the fact that it was a clever, addictive and, above all, fresh management game. Five years on, do these accolades still apply?
Update 1.12 - Planet Coaster: Ghostbusters Coming Soon. News Update 1.11 - Carowinds Copperhead Strike & Classic Rides Collection Coming Soon. Nov 17, 2016 Planet Coaster is designed to take full advantage of your CPU and GPU. Don't think we have plans for a demo right at this time. Nov 17, 2016 #4. Planet coaster has my interest, but I'm not really sure what to expect. I'd like to try it before committing any money if possible. If not, one question to start - where is the focus of the game? A lot of posts on here are of buildings people have designed.
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The 'fresh' part is the problem, obviously, as the basic Rollercoaster formula remains unchanged. Essentially, you have to build an amusement park from scratch into the most popular recreation destination this side of Disneyland. This involves constructing rides, shops, restaurants, bars and toilets, linking them all together with paths, and then making sure it all doesn't fall apart or get buried under a pile of litter when the screaming kids arrive.
When we say 'rides', naturally the coaster is king. These are what really pull the punters, and you get to place every twist, dive and loop in the track, saving your designs for use in other games. Make it look like a willy, or spell out a rude word - you can let your imagination run free.
So what's new? Well, Mr Sawyer has stepped aside, and in comes the man behind the classic Elite, David Braben, and his company Frontier. And they've brought with them a topnotch 3D engine. So now you can zoom in and watch those families squabble, gorge themselves on ice creams, and best of all, hurtle round your pride and joy - the rollercoaster.
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With a really solid, 'toy town' kind of feel, the detail is superb. The facial expressions of visitors - or 'peeps' - change from joy to anguish when they can't locate the loos, kids cry when balloons pop, and you'll even spy young lovers sticking their tongues down each others' throats. We're also treated to flexible difficulty levels for each mission, a sandbox mode, the added headache of visiting VIPeeps to keep happy, as well as scenario and visitor editing tools.
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It's the most polished version of the game so far, and those who've never made a small child puke before will be in store for hours of fun. But the new interface with its streamlined minimalism hides a baffling array of build options, and is not the best for the newbie. For vomit veterans, RC3 is like a visit to Alton Towers; you know what's in store, but it doesn't stop it from being a laugh. After all, when a game this popular isn't broke, you don't fix it.