RollerCoaster Tycoon 3

RollerCoaster Tycoon 3, commonly abbreviated RCT3, is a strategy and simulation computer game. It is the third installment in the RollerCoaster Tycoon series, first released on October 26, 2004 in North America. RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 places players in charge of managing amusement parks; rides can be built or demolished, terrain and scenery can be adjusted, and prices can be controlled to keep visitors or "peeps" happy.

RollerCoaster Tycoon features two methods of gameplay. In career mode, players must complete predetermined objectives in predesigned scenarios. In the new sandbox mode, players have unlimited time and money to create their own custom parks. New features include the ability to import and export custom attractions, design custom scenarios and peeps, as well as design an in-game recorder and a fully three dimensional world players can view from all angles.

Gameplay
Like the previous games in the series, RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 is a strategy and simulation game in which players manage all aspects of an amusement park by building or removing rides, scenery and amenities, adjusting the park's finances, hiring staff, and keeping the park visitors, known as "peeps", happy. RollerCoaster Tycoon features two main game modes. The career mode features scenarios where players must accomplish goals, such as impressing a visiting celebrity or attaining a certain park rating. Each scenario has three levels of objectives, which are ranked as Apprentice, Entrepreneur, and Tycoon; the higher the level, the more challenging the goal is to complete. A third of the scenarios are playable from the start, with the rest unlocked when the player completes the objectives at each level. The second mode of play is the sandbox mode. Players are given a large, empty plot of land and unlimited funds with which to build their own custom parks.

RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 includes new gameplay features such as the CoasterCam, which allows players to "ride" roller coasters and other rides, and the MixMaster, which allows the player to coordinate firework shows and time them to in-game music. Unlike the two previous versions of the game, RollerCoaster Tycoon and RollerCoaster Tycoon 2, the guests, called "peeps", arrive in groups and show variation in gender and age, including children, teenagers and adults. A day/night cycle changes the demographics of the park's peeps; rides at night appeal to teenagers, while the daytime attracts families with children. Peeps can be harmed and injured by crashing vehicles, but will never die as they did in the previous titles, nor will they drown when placed in water. This change was most likely for user-friendly issues. Parks now have opening and closing times, and the time of day is displayed. Scenery is divided into themes to customize parks, with western-, spooky-, science fiction-, prehistoric-, tropic- (Paradise Island), Atlantis-, and adventure-themed pieces. Another feature is the ability to import coasters from previous games in the series into RCT3.

The game uses full 3D graphics instead of the isometric viewpoint of the previous games; this means that players can rotate and zoom the view of the park to any degree. However, there is an option to fix the camera's rotation to 90 angles, as in the previous games.

When cars derail from the tracks, they explode after a short period, whilst in the older games, they exploded on contact.

Development
Although the core features RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 is based on the previous games, Chris Sawyer, the developer of the first two games, acted only as a consultant, as the game was developed by Frontier Developments instead, and published and advertised by Atari.

Expansions
Two expansion packs for RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 were released - Soaked! and Wild!. A bundle, RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 Gold, was also released, including the original game and the Soaked! expansion pack; this was followed by RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 Platinum (Deluxe for the EU version of the game), including both expansion packs and the original game.

Soaked!, the first expansion, allows the player to build water parks, including swimming pools and water slides, and adds more ride types and scenery to the original game, along with the ability to add waterfalls. From the expansion pack, players can also make their own water jet displays and co-ordinate them to music, similar to the MixMaster.

Wild!, the second expansion, allows the player to build zoos and safari rides in which animals can be placed, and adds more ride types and scenery to the original game. Additionally, it addressed several criticisms of the first game, such as the inability to build underground, which is available without the expansion pack in the form of an update patch. Soaked is the only expansion pack currently available for Mac OS X while Wild! is not for Mac OS X.

Reception
Overall, RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 was well received. The game has an average rating of 81% at Metacritic and 84% at GameRankings. Publications such as GameSpot and Computer Gaming World judged RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 as the true sequel to the original game, stating that the second game was merely a retread, but that RCT3 broke new ground and offered a substantial graphical overhaul.

Sequel
On August 14, 2010, Atari posted up on their message boards what fans would like to see in the 4th game. This has lead to heavy speculation about the chances of a sequel. (dead link as of Nov. 2013)

RollerCoaster Tycoon 4 was also spotted on IGN. On August 27, 2011, a portable version for the Nintendo 3DS was announced called RollerCoaster Tycoon 3D, scheduled for release in Q3/Q4 2012 and the game was given an official website including a teaser trailer on September 7, 2011. Meanwhile, Frontier has been busy working on what many believe to be a spiritual successor. RollerCoaster Tycoon 3D was released for the Nintendo 3DS on October 16, 2012.

In October 2014, the company released the mobile version of the game for iOS and Android, RollerCoaster Tycoon 4 Mobile. The game initially had very poor reviews, achieving a score of 35 on Metacritic. The game has since been converted to a free-to-play game.

On August 13, 2014, Atari announced RollerCoaster Tycoon World, the sequel to RollerCoaster Tycoon 3, to be released for PC in early 2015.