This Will Make You Fail School and Lose Your Job

My friend Caleb and I sat watching the computer screen. I have always been a big fan of Roller Coaster Tycoon. I enjoy the first one and lost a good week of my life to a mega coaster when I decided it was time to build to world's largest coaster. I liked the second even though it was much like the first because they added the Six Flags parks to the list, and I used to work at Six Flags. A game that allows you to be the boss (more like theme park god) of a place where you used to work is a great satisfying thing.

When the menu came up we let out a small gasp. We both knew that what we saw before us was a bad thing. Not bad in terms of a bad video game, but bad because our lives were over, and this game would cause us to throw away any potential we might have. In fact, since I first opened the game, I have been playing it and not doing much else. I have left my responsibilities behind for a world of amusement.

One of the best improvements for the game comes with the ability to ride the roller coasters you create. Technology has allowed Atari to create a graphically pleasing and at times intense ride of your creations. After a few trips around the digital coaster you can get a feel for what makes a good coaster. It also makes it easy to tell where the trouble spots are and lets you fix them.

When building roller coasters, you can also use an amazing time saving tool called the auto-build. The computer, when this little button is pressed, finds a way to connect the coaster to finish the track. This can be useful for when you have a hole in the track and don't want to have to search for the one right piece of track, and when the track just needs to be connected to the dock, one click makes it happen.

You can also add ride events, which cause something like a T-Rex to attack when the train passes by. It adds excitement and can make for a cool ride when you hop on.

The shops have another added level of complexity. You can add more pickles, less pickles, or let the customer choose how much pickles he/she wants. You can sell multiple items, all with different adjustments (color, amount, etc.) that can be made. The number of shops you can build also went up, with new additions like the Bison Burger and Croctails (the shop is in the shape of a huge crocodile).

Another new feature that adds great value and game-play is the ability to create your own people, buildings, and scenarios. If you don't really like what they give you with the original game, with a little patience you can create an entire new environment. With the scenario builder you can set your own objectives, money, theme for the park, and layout. You can even build an entire park with no money limitations, then let it run and see if makes any money.

The graphics in this game are amazing. Compared to the first two Roller Coaster Tycoons, this one is by far on of the most visually stimulating games. You can zoom in to each and every person in the park and see the expression on their face. When riding the coasters you get amazing views as the sun sets and as you whip past other parts of your park. Seeing the reaction on people's faces as they ride your ride is always fun and you can do so, seeing them scream and stick their hands in the air.
Of course, with such amazing graphics, you computer has to be a mega machine to run it. I played it on a custom 1.89 Ghz 1 GB ram and it worked fine, with only a few slow downs once my park grew to be a massive beast with 3000 people. If you plan on really getting into the game I wouldn’t trust anything slower, because it will get really frustrating when you are trying to build a coaster and it keeps freezing up.

The game-play view takes a little time to get used to. It is a 3d type environment, and using your mouse you can move the camera view to pretty much any angle and distance. This is great and allows you to see a lot of neat things, but it can be a real hassle to get the camera to look at exactly what you want to look at. They have a solution to the problem; a button that centers on whatever you have selected, but that only works in some cases.

Another problem I ran into happened when I built and huge coaster with lots of tricks and turns, but when I made it back to the beginning platform, the track was at a different level, and no matter what I tried I couldn't get it to connect. According to the height indicator, it was only a few tenths of a foot off. The auto-build option didn't work either. I tried to delete a lot of track and see if I could fix it, but in the end I have to destroy the coaster. I hate when you work on something that long and don't even get to finish it.

Overall, Roller Coaster Tycoon III is a great game. The improvements they made from the first two are so amazing and add so much to the game-play that the game is addicting, fun, and fulfilling. For any gamer who loves to build, create, and control, this is a must have game.