I still have fond memories of the original Roller Coaster Tycoon, memories of building huge parks and near-lethal roller coasters which send guests plummeting down cliff sides and hurtling around tight bends so violently that the exit path had to be lined with toilets. I always wondered what it would be like to ride my own stomach churning creations and see the expanse of my park tear past in gorgeous 3D graphics. Frontier must have plucked these very thoughts from my brain - or at least taken the next logical step in the development of their sequels - because this new entrant into the Roller Coaster Tycoon arena is brought to you in full 3D graphics with lighting and weather effects. More importantly, to me at least, this sequel lets you actually ride your roller coasters and get a feel for what your poor, unsuspecting guests have to go through - with the coaster cam you can sit right at the front as your coaster plummets down a 150ft drop so quickly that nobody will even ride it.

3D graphics and a coaster cam, however, are superficial changes in the grand scheme of things. Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 offers so much more than that over the original games. To have a good look at exactly what it offered I decided to play in Sandbox mode, which lets you build any park you can conceive without worrying about your budget or scenario targets. Upon opening some of the item placement menus for a quick first look I was absolutely shocked at the sheer diversity and amount of different playable buildings, decorations, and even animatronics scenery that could be found. Rubbish bins, lamp posts, benches, burger stands, drinks stands and much, much more all come in a variety of different themes allowing you to build a consistent park based on one theme, place different themes around your park, or mix and match themes to create a western/futuristic hybrid of sorts where brave cowboys stand aside giant killer robots.

Peripheral park rides and decorations aside Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 is, as its name suggests, all about roller coasters. The list of available roller coaster types was the next thing to stun me; there are roller coasters of every conceivable type and then some of types I could not hope to conceive. Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 uses the same basic track construction system as the original games and the 3d graphics do little to make it any easier or harder to construct your roller coaster the way you want it. You can build your roller coaster in practically any way you can dream up placing loops, twists, twirls, dives and more. You can intertwine your roller coasters with the rest of the park, passing them under bridges and over footpaths making a real feature of them. Anyone who has played either of the original two games will know how flexible the building system can be and also how much skill is actually involved in creating a thrilling and viable roller coaster. On the subject of skill; Roller Coaster Tycoon 3, like the previous games, will let you build your roller coaster any way you like it - however your guests will be bored by a slow and unexciting coaster and will not even touch one that manages to pull 16Gs and drop 150ft into a chasm at several hundred miles an hour. Much thought has to go in to the creation of a coaster ensuring that it never becomes too extreme for guests to handle whilst still providing a thrill, a fine balance must be maintained for the ideal ride but can be tipped with little consequence as guests will enjoy both a slightly extreme ride and welcome a slightly laid back one. As it is impossible to feel exactly what it is like to ride a coaster by watching it through the coaster cam you must rely on test figures and your guests’ reactions to perfect each one. Once you have created a perfect coaster it is possible to save your design and use it over and over in new parks. A few default designs are available to use until you get the hang of coaster building so if you just want to sit and build a theme park the pressure is off until you are ready to try your hand at custom coaster design and give your guests something new.

Roller coasters are not the only customisable feature of the game, assorted structure parts are provided which let you build your own themed sets and truly customise your park beyond the limits of any previous game. Custom fireworks displays are also offered, letting you try your hand pyrotechnics and wow your guests with explosive entertainment. As if that was not enough you can even save your custom structures for use in other scenarios or sandbox games, letting you create your own set pieces and use them throughout your parks.

There are a total of 5 themes you can use to create individual worlds within your theme park, the generic theme provides you with a basic set of theme park scenery, rides and stands which you can use to create the entrance and main walkways of your park if you are creating a multi-themed extravaganza. There are also Western, Horror, Future and Adventure themes all with a massive range of scenery items, rides, and animatronics with which you can craft individual stylised areas within your park.

Back to the graphics and, to a lesser extent the sound the RCT3 engine pushes out some seriously good looking scenery, rides, terrain and lighting which began to slow my computer when I use the roller coaster camera view. You can literally zoom right in to see the reactions of your guests to various rides and watch them delight at your entertainment staff then zoom right out for a complete overview of your park to plan the layout and alter terrain. Zooming in allows you to listen to the general noise of the park, ride music, guests and attractions, whilst zooming out yields some pretty catchy music to keep you entertained whilst you get down to the nitty gritty of park building. On max detail the water in the park reflects everything from guests to the sky and looks quite impressive, as you move your cursor over the surface of the water you will even see little ripples. At night time the lighting effects become very impressive, even the roller coaster trains have onboard lighting – great to watch as they zip around the tracks. In short, graphically the game is quite stunning but you will need a monster of a computer to view a detailed park in its full glory – something that I would imagine not many RCT fans would possess. Regardless, those of you with performance PCs will enjoy everything the new engine has to offer, whilst those with lesser systems will benefit from better graphics on the whole and the ability to rotate the camera to get a better look at your park.

As well as the graphics and gameplay overhauls RCT3 demonstrates a long overdue interface overhaul turning the rather plain menu screen and subsequent menus of the original games into a very polished, great looking and easy to use interface which gives the final touch to the game making it the best in the series. Tycoon fanatics will be at home with this game alongside brand new players who will be eased gently into the game through a series of tutorials and scenarios and will be building huge, detailed theme parks in Sandbox mode in no time.

For any fan of the RCT series this is a must have game, and for anyone who likes a little strategic park building and loves theme parks it is definitely worth a look. For those of us who, like me, have fond memories of the first game in the series and were let down by the sequel, Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 is the game we wanted then and have now.

Philip Howard