We have thousands of visitors in RT3, all different, with facial expressions, each doing their own thing, telling jokes to each other, arguing - even bursting into tears."
The technology for the people is new, based on a principle we first used in the game Frontier, says Braben, where different body components such as clothing, hairstyles, and faces are put together to make a huge number of different possible combinations. Of course, the people who'll hopefully benefit from all your hard work are the thousands of fully-animated park visitors that you'll have to keep happy with spectacular attractions and state-of-the-art facilities. These show-stopping visuals can also be synchronised to the in-game music or your own MP3s imported into the game (see Fire In The Sky', right). There are whole new components to the game such as a day/night cycle, so you can lay out fancy night-time lighting, or make rides extra scary, continues Braben excitedly, and you can now design your own spectacular fireworks displays. Each coaster has a wider range of components and you can now add animatronics, triggered by the ride, including a T-Rex attack and an oil tanker bursting into flames. Based around five themes - classic, spooky, western, sci-fi and adventure - rollercoasters include the Thrill-lift and Tilt-coaster, and classic flat-rides' such as the Zipper and Skywheel. Obviously a Rollercoaster Tycoon game wouldn't be much cop without a collection of decent rides, so the team has spent a lot of time researching new attractions, which you can now climb aboard in 3D using the new Coaster Cam. We're also treated to flexible difficulty levels for each mission, a sandbox mode, the added headache of visiting VIPeeps to keep happy, as well as scenario and visitor editing tools. The facial expressions of visitors - or 'peeps' - change from joy to anguish when they can't locate the loos, kids cry when balloons pop, and you'll even spy young lovers sticking their tongues down each others' throats. With a really solid, 'toy town' kind of feel, the detail is superb. So now you can zoom in and watch those families squabble, gorge themselves on ice creams, and best of all, hurtle round your pride and joy - the rollercoaster. And they've brought with them a topnotch 3D engine. So what's new? Well, Mr Sawyer has stepped aside, and in comes the man behind the classic Elite, David Braben, and his company Frontier.
Make it look like a willy, or spell out a rude word - you can let your imagination run free. These are what really pull the punters, and you get to place every twist, dive and loop in the track, saving your designs for use in other games.
When we say 'rides', naturally the coaster is king. This involves constructing rides, shops, restaurants, bars and toilets, linking them all together with paths, and then making sure it all doesn't fall apart or get buried under a pile of litter when the screaming kids arrive.
Essentially, you have to build an amusement park from scratch into the most popular recreation destination this side of Disneyland. The 'fresh' part is the problem, obviously, as the basic Rollercoaster formula remains unchanged.
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