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| | Genre: Simulation | | Min OS X: 10.5  CPU: Intel @ 1800 MHz RAM: 512 MB Hard Disk: 1500 MB DVD-ROM Graphics: 800x600 @ 32-bit, 128 MB VRAM |
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Headline enhancements RCT3 Platinum brings the following major new features to the game:Building underground: The initial ability to build underground actually came with Soaked!, which permitted tunnels to be created in vertical walls, but Wild! expanded the game's underground-building facilities a lot further. The distinction isn't important, given that the Platinum pack delivers the features of both expansions all at once, but clearly it's an important enhancement over the original game. Water features: In a sense it's stating the obvious to say that the new water features of Soaked! add a lot of interest to RCT3, because that's the whole focus of the expansion pack. But I want to draw attention to them particularly because of how well integrated into the game they really are. The relatively independent and self-governing nature of the individual peeps (despite their potentially huge numbers) has always been one of RCT3's notable features, and this is underlined by the new water features in the expanded game. Individual peeps will enter pool areas, using the provided facilities to change out of their clothes and into swimsuits, and then go swimming in the pools, splashing around, climbing out and ascending the stairs to the water slides. A well-populated park will have pools crammed full of independently swimming peeps, just as the paths are crammed with independently wandering ones. Even birds take advantage of the water: I'm not sure whether this was in the original game or if it's a new feature of Soaked!, but I was amazed to see ducks landing on water, swimming around for a while and then flying away again. The independence of the in-game characters, be they peeps or other creatures, is very impressive. As for the pool facilities, you have to take care of them: the more peeps that use the pools, the faster they'll get filthy and have to be cleaned, and you'll need to hire appropriate staff to look after those aspects. MixMaster shows: The MixMaster is no longer just for fireworks; there are now facilities for creating both water-jet and laser shows. The lasers in particular are pretty impressive, not least because of their flexibility. You can define multiple types of individual laser effect and edit the timing, angle, speed and colour of the beams, as well as setting how their parameters vary over time. All this is achieved within an interface that, surprisingly enough, isn't overcomplicated once you've understood it. Certainly, there's a basic level of complexity here, but it's been well thought out, and you can save your creations for reuse later in other games. That includes the interesting ability to create single- or even multi-frame laser images: with your mouse pointer, you can sketch out a rough pen-and-ink-style drawing, or series of frames, and then incorporate it/them into your parks. The drawing facilities aren't at all sophisticated, but that's partly because the lasers need to recreate your mouse movements as vectors. (You can see my crude attempt at a duck in the screenshot.) Being able to watch as your own drawings, which originated as mouse movements, are traced out by laser beams within the game is really pretty cool. Animal shows: The new animal shows (dolphin, killer whale, lion and tiger) provided by the expansion packs are somewhat similar to the MixMaster, in that there's a range of tricks available, and you can schedule them on a timeline. Although less sophisticated than the facilities of the more open-ended MixMaster, it's nevertheless fun and interesting to be able to determine what tricks the animals in your shows will perform. In each case there is one peep in the role of keeper or trainer, and the show will consist of that peep interacting with the animals on display, whether it's getting them to jump through hoops or balance on objects. You can zoom the camera in quite closely, too, and watch the show in detail; the tricks are choreographed quite convincingly. The low resolution of the animal and peep models, when viewed close up, is the only aspect of the shows that's a little disappointing, but from a distance they look just fine. Coaster refinements: Both expansion packs add a lot of new rides, and some of the new Wild! coasters have extra features that require new editing features in the game interface. Splitting coasters allow the track to be split and recombined freely: the cars, which start off together, separate according to the half of the track they're on. It was already possible to build double coasters, of course, but the new splitting coaster option is a neater alternative. More interestingly, robotic coasters have cars with a robotic arm that attaches the seats to the track, and the positioning of the arm can be adjusted in four different ways, potentially for each section of the track. The new arm-editing interface is quite sophisticated, but also surprisingly easy to use, and adds interesting new possibilities to coasters. Other new coaster features include spinning towers, rotating cars whose spin can be customised, vertical chain lifts, and coasters with lifting and tilting track sections.
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