RollerCoaster Tycoon 3

RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 (or RCT3 for short) is the third installment of the RollerCoaster Tycoon Series. The gameplay is based on managing amusement parks. The player must build rides, paths, food stalls, and scenery to attract guests to their park and fulfill a set of objectives.

RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 is the first game in the series to use 3-dimensional graphics, as opposed to the 2-dimensional isometric graphics of the first two games. Players can now view their park at any angle, which helps players build in crowded areas. Players can also "Ride the Rides", which allows the player to simulate riding most of the attractions in the park.

Gameplay
The player manages construction and maintenance of their theme park. The main game play aspect is building rides, scenery, shops, and paths to entertain guests. The player must also hire staff to maintain rides and the park grounds to make the park more appealing to guests.

Game Modes
Players can choose between three game modes to build parks: Career mode, a pre-designed objective-based set of scenarios; Sandbox mode, a non-restrictive building mode; and editors, which allow for the customization of specific game play elements.

Career Mode
In career mode, the player builds their theme park in a pre-designed park, and must meet a set of objectives. These objectives include number of visitors, park rating (popularity and satisfaction), roller coaster specifications, and successful VIP visits. Each scenario has 3 sets of objectives, apprentice, entrepreneur, and tycoon. The higher the level of completion, the more scenarios are available.

Career Mode scenario

 * 1) Vanilla Hills
 * 2) Goldrush!
 * 3) Checkered Flag
 * 4) Box Office
 * 5) Fright Night
 * 6) Go With The Flow
 * 7) Broom Lake
 * 8) Valley of Kings
 * 9) Gunslinger
 * 10) Ghost Town
 * 11) A National Treasure
 * 12) New Blood
 * 13) Island Hopping
 * 14) Cosmic Craggs
 * 15) La-La Land
 * 16) The Money Pit (needs Entrepreneur status in ALL of the previous scenarios)
 * 17) Paradise Islands (needs Tycoon status in ALL of the previous scenarios)

Sandbox Mode
Sandbox mode is a free-form building mode, which allows players to build nearly anything. There is unlimited money, no objectives, and the largest available amount of land.

In sandbox mode, all rides, scenery, and other attractions are unlocked from the beginning, which allows players to create parks of any design and any theme.

Editors
The editors allow players to design rides, guests (peeps), and scenarios that can be used in other modes.


 * Coaster Editor - The player can design rollercoasters in an unrestricted environment, without any obstacles. The player can save ride designs if they choose.
 * Building Editor - The player can create buildings and scenery layouts without obstacles or monetary limitations. The player can save layouts if they choose.
 * Peep Editor - The player can create custom families of guests (peeps), and specify the exact clothing, name, and age of the guests. These guests will appear in all parks after they are saved.

Ride Construction
There are two distinct types of rides that can be constructed: tracked rides, and non-tracked rides. Players can build both, but tracked rides can be custom designed, while non-tracked rides are prefabricated and are simply placed on the desired location.

When building a tracked ride, players can design the path of the ride with the built in ride editor. The most common components are:
 * Straight sections
 * Curved sections (of various turning radii)
 * Sloped sections (of various angles)

Roller coasters have more flexibility, and include more advanced components, including:


 * Curved and sloped sections
 * Inversions
 * Banked curves
 * Breaks

The sections can be built by double clicking on the orientation of the desired track section.

The game has been criticized by some for not allowing for even more precise control over the track, while others criticized it for being too complex.

"Ride the Rides"
The 3-dimensional graphics allow for many different camera angles and movements, and one of the major features that is showcased by these capabilities is the "Ride the Rides" function.

The camera can be fixed to almost all rides, so the player can simulate riding roller coasters, gentle rides, thrill rides, water rides, and many other rides. This feature was one of the major selling points of the game.

Terraforming


The land editing in RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 is substantially improved from the two previous games. Instead tiles that are edited by the corners and are limited to a single angle, the tiles can be positioned at any angle, which allows for more realistic landforms, such as mountains, craters, mesas, valleys, and canyons.

In addition to the flexibility of the land tiles, there are numerous tools that make land form creation and ride creation easier. Tools can raise and lower land in a large radius, with different styles. There are also smoothening tools to remove irregularities, and "snap-to" tools that position tiles at the level of ride height increments.

Land can also be textured, with different types of grasses, rocks, sand, and ice. The sub-surface textures can also be changed to differing types of rock.

Water is no longer raised or lowered tile by tile, each body of water is uniformly raised and lowered. In the Soaked! expansion pack, waterfalls that connect two bodies of water at different altitudes are possible.

Time of Day
Games can now be played with day and night settings. The level of brightness changes over time, from complete darkness, to partial light, and then bright light. Rides and stalls have lights illuminating the structures, but paths must be lit by placing lampposts.

While building rides or placing scenery at night, the ambient light is increased to make construction easier.

Fireworks
Custom-designed fireworks can be built in-game using the Fireworks Editor. The game comes with about fifty types of fireworks, each with distinct formations. The user places the various fireworks in a timeline. The fireworks go off in the sequence the user creates when started.

The fireworks can be scheduled to play at a certain time every day. Guests will stop walking on the path and watch while the performance is playing.

Expansion Packs

 * RollerCoaster Tycoon Soaked! - Adds pools and water themed rides


 * RollerCoaster Tycoon Wild - Adds animals and zoos

System Requirements
Operating System Windows 98/Me/2000/XP

Processor Intel Pentium III 733 MHz or compatible (Pentium 4 1.3 GHz or compatible recommended)

Memory 128 MB RAM; 256 MB for XP

Hard Disk Space 600 MB free

CD-ROM Drive 4X speed or Higher

Video ATI Radeon or 32 MB GeForce 2 or higher

Sound Windows 98/Me/2000/XP compatible 16 bit sound card

DirectX DirectX version 9.0 or higher