SimCoaster

Rating:
Summary: Fast Frentic Fun
Review: This game is alot of fun, though it is more hetic than Sim Theme Park. It gives you much more control over the park, though it has its downsides. Alot of things like training and research that pretty much handled themselves, you now have to plan out. In STP, as long as you had adequate staff and a staff room, the employees didn't complain, but now you are showered with raise and strike demands. The coasters are cool, but where are linear induction coasters? The coaster design tool is a waste, since I design my coasters around existing constructions. Also the roster of available rides is much bigger, contingent on completing challenges and activating run down rides. Dealing with customers is more challenging in that you have a diverse mix of kids, adults and seniors. I wish though the three theme areas were laid out as one park, as money and golden tickets do not transfer between parks. I also wish the game would give me time to tweak the park, but it is constantly throwing new assignments.

Rating:
Summary: Very Very Disappointed
Review: This game is an extreme disappointment. It takes up a HUGE amount of space on your computer and then when you try to run it it is very slow and often freezes up. This is by far the worst sim game I have tried. Normally, I am a big fan of them. I would not recommend this game to anyone...unless you like spending more time waiting for the computer to catch up than actually playing the game.

Rating:
Summary: An Alright Game
Review: This game is fun and interesting to play, but the issues dealing with business kind of make it a turn off. You have to consistently answer to visitors at the park and keep them satisfied as well as the staff of the park. Good game, but hard to manage.

Rating:
Summary: A very good game
Review: This game is much betetr than RollerCoaster Tycoon- you can ride the rides, the graphics are 3-D, and it is much betetr than Sim Theme Park! The advisor in this game bugs you less than in Sim Theme Park, and the graphics are stunning. You have a variety of rides to choose from, and there are three themes (in Sim Theme Park there were four) but they are betetr than the ones in Sim Theme Park. It is more detailed and much more fun then RollerCoaster Tycoon. There is also a new worker you can hire- a gardener to water your trees and plants! This game is definetely worth the money, and is a great upgrade from Sim Theme Park.

Rating:
Summary: How Fun?
Review: This game may not be a game of eduction, but beleive me your children will love this game don't beleive, than beleive this I'am a 11 year old girl who played this game with my freinds and as I played I have notice that it is a great game for your children to find a bit of what a bussiness really is and how it takes to run and get one that will work, I know that right now you are saying "What no way I don't want my children to learn about bussiness in such a young age." Than you will still want this game because this game is a game that will also make your children to sit down and give you a break and if your children are not so crazy than still buy them this game. And if you don't take my word than who's are you going to take the news who said it was going to snow in NY and it never did like 10,ooo times or a grown up who didn't even play this game and say its bad. Ha I have to say that is just dum take it from a kid who tells the truth of what will happen and who ACTUALLY played this game.
(...)

Rating:
Summary: Sim Theme Park all over again
Review: This game should have beenan expansion pack to Sim Theme Park - and priced as such - as it'shardly a sequel. If there are any major differences or improvements,I haven't found them yet. You have three themed areas to choose from(Sim Theme Park had five) and you climb the corporate ladder bydeveloping your park with various rides, managing your staff, andcompleting challenges that will ultimately allow you to progress tothe next themed area. The system requirements are steeper in thisgame and the load times are excruciating. Don't listen to the box, you'll need at least a P350 and even then only if you have afast video card or you'll be struggling. If you do decide to changethe screen resolution, the game shuts down without giving you theoption to save your park first - a very irritatingannoyance.

Another annoyance is the constantly yapping announcer(you think Bullfrog would've listened to all the complaints peoplewere making in Sim Theme Park). For instance, one of the challengesinvolves increasing the attendance by a certain percentage. To dothis you may decide to lower the entry price (hey, maybe I'm notMichael Eisner and I don't want to gouge my customers!) Unfortunatelythis will cause the announcer to annoy you over and over that yourentry price is too low. Or maybe you've researched all the rides andattractions you can build. Doesn't matter, it'll yap incessantly thatyou need to put your scientists to work to the point where you want toslap its little blue face.

The rides don't differ much from onearea to the next; another consistent complaint about Sim Theme Park.I don't find fault in this as most amusement park rides really aren'tmuch different from one another, but it would've been nice to seeBullfrog step up to the plate and offer unique rides that violate thelaws of physics in the real world. One problem I ran into in this"sequel" involves the potential of rides interfering withone another. In the first park, I built a rollercoaster next to alarge rock formation. Unbenownest to me I found out this rockformation later became a ride I needed to build. Unfortunately, therewas no way of making this happen without completely destroying myexisting rollercoaster at considerable expense.

The last major gripefor some involves the gameplay itself. It's very evident thedevelopers did not want to make this complex to the point where youfelt like a Harvard Business grad by the time you finish. Instead thefocus is more on putting out fires minute to minute while still havingtime to enjoy the fruits of your labor. You can adjust the speed ofthe gameplay so it can be as slow-paced or as frantic as you want andthis function works well. Many people will be put off by the lack of"sim" in Sim Coaster, but now you can't complain because Iwarned you in advance, right? Also, the AI of your staff seems tohave improved considerably - puke doesn't dry for four hours on thesidewalk like it did in the last game.

The area where this gameshines is simple - camcorder mode. With a click of the mouse, you getto see the park and ride your coasters in first-person view as if youwere a visitor instead of the overhead "God mode" view.After spending an hour carefully designing every twist and loop,riding your creation is a nice reward for your efforts and a lot offun. You even get to see the other shops and rides you've built fromthe view of the front car as well as hear the kids screaming as you dothe triple corkscrew. Again, this was in Sim Theme Park and nothingmuch has changed. It would've been nice if they added the ability toactually go into the shops or play the sideshow games. A niceimprovement to this game is you can design the coasters in advance,then place them fully formed in your park later.

I still think SimTheme Park was revolutionary for its time but the lack of significantimprovements make me a little more critical this time around. Hope myreview helped.

Rating:
Summary: Great Coaster Simulator, but...
Review: This software comes with two modes - a mode where you can build and ride on a roller coaster, and a mode where you do that while you're also controlling a theme park. I love the coaster simulation part of it - you can build realistic coasters and then take a virtual ride thereon - that part is fantastic. One of the drawbacks with the coaster building part is that it can be very tricky to make loops and corkscrews work properly - you've gotta have a steady hand while you're building it. The editing features are powerful and fairly straightforward - and there's a helpful guy on your screen to point out when you've got problems.

In the amusement park mode, I found the elements they added to enhance the realism of the experience to be, well, annoying. You have to deal with hiring and firing staff, and trying to keep them happy. You have to hire enough janitors to keep the park clean, and deal with where each janitor "concentrates" their time - and the tools to help you find problems with these assignments are very poor. I found it difficult to figure out why a given restroom hadn't been cleaned when a janitor was right there, just sitting there.

Also, the researchers. You have to keep these "delicate genius" (thank you, Seinfeld :) types happy and motivated so they'll come up with new and fabulous rides for your paying public. You have to keep track of these folks - keeping them tasked can be a full time job.

I would have liked it if you could turn off the reality factor and just use all of the possible rides and attractions to build a super fantastic park all at once, then play with the park and deal with the janitors, security, and food service folks - in short, operate the park. I didn't find this to be possible.

Still, this is a fun game if you've got the patience.

Rating:
Summary: Build a Park and a Brain!
Review: Want to have fun with your computer-savy eight year old? This is the game for you! Personally, I would be bored by a game that was all about building the park and just watching it run. We love the interactive management; like trying to build the park and manage the money while kids are throwing up on the sidwalks (right click and call a janitor)and the entertainers are threatening to strike! When you're in the middle of building a complex curve on a roller coaster and you have to stop because you ran out of money (select from four loan options in the finance section) you are really building problem-solving skills in a very fun way. The only thing I do not like about this game is my eight-year old is so much better at the game than I am!

Rating:
Summary: SIM COASTER'S THE BEST!!!!!!
Review: What an awesome game! If you thought the other Sim's were good, you haven't seen anything yet! There is so much to see and build, you'll be hooked FOREVER!

Rating:
Summary: What Sim Theme Park should have been!
Review: When I got Sim Theme Park, I was very disappointed. It was very challenging to keep your money balance normal, let alone high. When I got Sim Coaster, I expected what Sim Theme Park was like. Man, was I wrong! Sim Coaster is like Sim Theme Park with everything it needed. You can finally charge for rides. Roller coasters and log flumes seem to cost a lot less. Sim Coaster is a more detailed version on Sim Theme Park. Yeah, it has an annoying advisor (female this time), but she isn't as picky as the original adivsor. In Sim Coaster, you can get opinion summaries to improve the ride easily. Gardeners are added in this game to water plants. Though there is only three parks in this game, they are better than the ones in Sim Theme Park. To open up different parts of the park, you must complete objectives given to you. Staff can be trained to do new things such as janitors being able to fight fires, or guards with first aid to cure sick guests. Challenges are given, too, but you don't have to start them right away, they are listed and you may start them anytime you wish. You can also do more than one at a time, and most of them have a preparation time which gives you time to set up before to challenge starts. Overall, this game is awesome, so don't buy Sim Theme Park and buy Sim Coaster!

<< 1 2 3 4 5 >>