Atari officially announces RollerCoaster Tycoon 3

Although I'm not going to pre-order due to being burned in the past...
I'm definately looking forward to this.
Once the E3 comes & goes, I'm sure a lot more will be revealed.

As such, what is shown currently, looks very promising.

The game looks fantastic! I love the Coaster Cam and the 3D stalls look great. The diversity in guests is a nice touch and I am very excited to get the game. I only hope Chris has control over the scenarios and the expansion packs. I liked RCT 2, but the sequels just sucked!

-Michael

If Chris had a large part of the creative control, I'm sure it will be good. However, I still haven't got and still don't see a need to get either expansion for RCT2.

I'm not sure how I feel about the 3d cam. I was pretty satisfied with the isometric view in the first two.

Liked how on the screen shots you can see what kind of track it was (Arrow or Vekoma). Hopefully they improve the AI on the people a lot so that way when you make double-wided paths, they don't get lost or they go to another part of the park to find the entrance of the ride they're looking for.

Just wonder what new ideas as far as coaster designs will be added. Just wished they could of put in some custom supports so you could make a B&M or a Intamin coaster look like the real things. Oh well.

Don't forget we havn't seen much yet in the way of screens so we can't be so quick to judge RCT3 just yet.

Imagine this: you've got a bunch of angry peeps looking for the exit of the park & they're coming your way down the path...now of course they're mad so they might decide to kick som butt on the way out,hopefully not that of the player hee hee.

I'm likin' it. I thought the shot with the wooden coaster in the background over the lake with the Enterprise shows a lot. If I'm not mistaken (had to take a quick look - message boards, yes, pictures, no at work!) there was a nice reflection of the scene in the lake itself, plus the coaster had that sort of "traditional" blocky RCT look to it, even though it was in a gorgeous looking 3D environment. So, I wonder if it's gonna be Paramount Parks RCT 3 since the blue Arrow looks a lot like Vortex PKI ;)

Looks nice... but PC only? Argh.
-R

Wow, those screenshots are impressive. This is just what I need to get me back into RCT after the lack of decent expansions for RCT2 quenched the fire.

Looks promising. I hope they don't exclude all the features that made RCT2 so good (scenery, scenario-editing).

Double inverter in the house...

I also see a drop tower, or observation tower, what looks to be a Space Shuttle America-type simulator ride, and I think the Vortex-looking ride is actually the Shockwave/GASM layout.*** This post was edited by Olsor 3/3/2004 5:42:50 PM ***

Ok, I already have problems with this thing... my two cents.

The flats and stalls look fantastic... really, really good looking. However, the coasters look like absolute crap. Just look at the transitions! They're exactly the same as the transitions in the first two games, made out of the same preset trackpieces, except now they're in 3D. The only reason those transitions and the preset trackpieces were tolerable is because we didn't have to ride them and see how truly rough and generally bad they were. Well, now we can, and I'm not looking forward to it. Sure they're easy enough to build with, but would I ever get on a coaster made out of them? Not a chance! I sincerely hope they chose to leave out any kind of accurate G-force readings... you'd never create an acceptable track, ever. Lets just say IF I decide to buy this game, it'll be for the ability to create a whole park in 3D, but certainly not because of the roller coasters (ironic isn't it... seeing as the game is called ROLLER COASTER Tycoon). For my coaster fix, I'll stick to realism thanks, and by realism I mean NoLimits.

-BB

It took longer than we expected... only 11 posts until someone complained about transitions and compared it to NoLimits! :)

:) ...call me a purist

"Just look at the transitions!"

Looks like a typical Arrow or Vekoma transition to me! Seems we'll be virtually headbanging peeps ;)

mOOSH

Pffft... I think you'll be surprised. Arrow and Vekoma ain't got nothin on Sawyer ;)

*** This post was edited by BBSpeed26 3/3/2004 6:59:40 PM ***

So are only the coasters going to be rideable or all the rides? Anyone remember the original Theme Park? Just think of the possibilities of the offseason and uploading peoples park recreations. You can spend an entire day at Cedar Point without leaving you computer. I just wonder if you will have to wait in lines for your coasters or just go up the exit ramp like the fast passes. I think this is the only possible step for the RCT series.

Yea, the transitions do look bad, but then again they are showing Arrow loopers. Since when do they have nice transitions anyway? Basicly it's a game that you can drop pieces together and have a cool coaster in about 5- 10 minutes. No Limits you can spend 5-10 hours perfecting a ride. RCT 3 should be perfect for younger kids that want to ride their creations without the complexity of No Limits.

Is it too early to start the wish list and new item threads yet? ;)

Nice! Very nice!

The looks are good, but will the operation of the game go well? Will the UI totally suck? Will the simulations change and all of the "rules" of the RCT that we know and love (or hate) go out the window?

That's too much to tell from screens. I do like the look, though.

-John, who's still hoping for a 3/4 perspective 2D, classic view for editing, too.

Whoo hoo...

Gamespot FINALLY has their official announcement on it
http://www.gamespot.com/news/2004/03/03/news_6090593.html

I highly doubt you will be able to ride all the flats & all... and basically, I dont think anyone really wants to. It wasn't all that fun in the original Theme Park, was less fun & just plain gimmicky in Sim Coaster & Sim Themepark... so it'd be a dumb idea.

I still say this'll wind up just being a 3D version of the exact same RCT game, with little changes to the core gameplay (which is actually bad, because there's so much they could add or improve upon).

have the details come out yet on whether or not we will be able to control the angle of the drop and turns...

What do you think?