RollerCoaster Tycoon® 3: Complete Edition

This is a really really great game and retains a lot of the micro-management of the original game, while bringing it all into 3D. The game has loads of things to do, scenario editors, sandbox mode, coaster designer and loads of genuinely fun missions and all packed full of loads of rides, shops and activities. There is a lot of game here. I'd question the price point for a game that is 6 years old and think $14.99 would have been more appropriate. There is only one failing to the game in my view, but it is a rather spectacular flaw. The AI does not respond well to mega park designs. In my experience of having produced a number of large parks in this game, I'll quickly find that nobody actually goes on my rides :( They are good rides, but the AI gets confused and over-whelmed with decisions and will often spend hours walking back and forth between food attractions or just wandering around aimlessly, only having paid for 1 or 2 rides. It's still possible to make money in this scenario, but a lot of the joy of seeing people queuing to get on your rides is lost. This won't effect the scenario missions to any noticeable degree in my experience but on custom, Mega sized parks it becomes very obvious once you get to 1300+ visitors. The economy is also a little relaxed from the first game, making it easier overall to make money but that doesn't detract too much from the challenge.

The Rollercoaster Tycoon series is awesome. It's a series that will leave you wanting more. But Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 is now on sale for $7.99, which is highway robbery for how old this game is. Do not blame GOG, entirely. Atari most likely made them price match other services that offer the game to be able to sell it. I will not buy it here, I can find a disc version of the game for $5 new. Sorry GOG, you lost my money on this one.

I have this game on cd and it is a good game there is no doubt about it, the graphics are pretty good for the time and the game play is pretty much the same as the previous tiltles in the series. But for me there is somthing very important missing, it just does not have the same feel or atmosphere that I get from RCT 1 & 2, I cant explain this in real terms its just how I feel. With the previous titles I really wanted to complete all the scenarios, I experienced a real buzz on completion of each of them, but with RCT3 that just wasnt there. If your a big fan of the previous games then you might want to purchase it but for me its too pricey for what you are getting and that is not something I say very often on gog.com.

Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 Platinum has decent audio (the thrilled screams of children on the rides, the cha-ching of purchased food and gifts) and pleasant 3D visuals that become a bit ew when zoomed in too far. The sound gets repetitive and the graphics are nothing to write home over, but it's difficult to keep the audio consistently fresh when dealing with a game that has basically the same set environment for the player to engage with over the course of thirty to several hundred hours. Also, it's easy to tell what's what and who's who when visually panning over any given park, so the graphics are certainly doing their job (just try turning on Majesty 2 and comparing its 3D “upgrade” to that of the original Majesty and you'll see how this particular endeavor can go very wrong). That said, the meat of Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 Platinum is the gameplay, and for tycoon fans, the measure of success in that area is whether or not you still enjoy milking visitors for their dollars after dozens of hours of designing, selecting, rotating, and building. For me, it's a huge success. This is the type of game that I will play for hours and then come back to, even years later. It caters to both the micromanagement-heavy players and those that just want to sit back and rake in some cash without going to a lot of trouble (but who still want to build a beautiful and functionally rewarding park). What's the low point? There is at least one game-breaking financial factor that can ensure you endless money and which doesn't make a whole lot of sense. It's a single feature that you can avoid building in order to keep your game balanced and any veteran of this game knows exactly what I'm talking about. Also, the missions can slog on a bit and the terrain can get unnecessarily frustrating when trying to build a good coaster. Often you won't know why a certain section can't fit somewhere and you might spent way too much time trying to figure out how to get around or over or under a certain spot. That said, buy this game. Every title has its rough spots and the rough spots here are small in comparison to how fun this game is overall. Enjoy it. Love it. Play it with your family. This is definitely a game to be shared.