Thoughts on the game and your opinion

[damodee]

Well seeing as this Christmas period has been the only time when I have been able to play this game I can definitely say its got to be the best game so far I have ever played. Even beats GTA 3 and I loves that. The biggest bugbear has got to be the computer slowdown when lots of details have been added, a crucial part of the game when your park actually looks interesting and the system starts to Slooooooow down! It puts me off playng and then loose interest because with this you can actually create some wounderful things and sights, and just looking at the American board those guys sure do know how to pay the game! and if you havent looked go take a look at the American forum, they post videos and everything, but then they would be the ones with the best computers.

On another note I have been hunting for a new pc, what do you guys reckon about this one, do you think that it would play RCT3 at a good enough speed?

http://www.meshcomputers.com/updated/review_feb05_mat643000nyx.htm


and again any help would be appreciated, and to everyone here do have a Happy New Year!

Damo

[Silkius]

Frontier have never hidden the fact that because this game was released without item limitations (as the last two did) largely due to the demand by the fans. It will unfortunatly be possible to build parks that could even bring the biggest baddest PC on the planet to its knees.
But witrh the advent of things like dual PCI express cards (two gfx cards running as one - doubling your GFX capabilities - wich is the biggest bottleneck we still have at present) it will be interesting to see how 'tomorrows' PC's will perform on games as demanding as this. (and this isn't the only game to do this - one's like M$'s Combat Flight Sim 3 also has horrendous stuttering again due to so many calcs all happening at once)

The specs for the Mesh look okay, (although I am no longer an AMD fan - all in all AMD PC's have caused me more grief than Intel's I am sorry to say) Personally I would try to opt for 1gig RAM over 512 (cos windows has always been greedy) and if poss a 256mb GFX card - using configurators is good though becasue you can normally drop all thise silly extra you don't normally need (i,e, when I bought my last one, I dropped the screen, mp3 player and things like modems and printers, speakers etc., - in exchange for more RAM a better processor and GFX card) I even went for on-board sound - even though I am not a fan of on-board anything - (but my PC is more work related than game related)
Basically (And this is a 'personal' opinion) I tend to go for the best basics I can possibly afford (MBoard, CPU, RAM, GFX, HD) - leaving the 'extras' (especially bits you can easily pickup pretty cheap yourself) for another time. i.e. a tft screen is all very nice (and expensive) but a good CRT monitor will still outperform it (it just takes up half the desk :) )

[damodee]

Thanks Silkius,

I appreciate your comments and you have made me think. I think I will forget the Mesh system and build my own as I wanted to do first. The one thing I never thought about is that I wanted a 17 inch Monitor and a Flat panel but had no idea that games would not look there best, as you have said and what some have said on the internet, and besides I have a big desk the space I would save I couldnt use it anyway. I dont need the DVD +rw either as I have a full one under my tele, I dont need the speakers, and I dont need that size hard disk.My main use of my system is the internet and games.

Another point is I dont need a 64 bit processor for the internet, do I need it for this game? And if i chose Intel what chip should I get? I have always had AMD as they always seem faster than Intel.

Thanks again

[Silkius]

The Intel/AMD argumaent has always been one of personal choice (but you can still get more CPU for you £ from AMD)
I have the P4 3.2 & untill recently a P3 800 that have (IMO) outeprformed the AMD equivilents I have also had at the same time.

Don't get me wrong, TFT's are good (if you can afford good ones with 600+ contention rations (black to white) and the DVI connections and better cables (i.e not the cheap nasty ones you get with them)

I have one myself and am after a 20" + for work (I need two desktops but only have 1 desk) but my wifes 19" CRT which was cheaper than my 16" tft does have the better resoloution, refresh rate and generally looks cleaner. (I work in GFX & Photos a lot - so I judge by them) so I tend to advise that again £ for £ you still get a better deal on a CRT 'if' you have the space for it (a 19" is pretty huge but is also so good you feel like you are falling into it on FPS games)

I agree that self build is the most adaptable (if you know what you are doing) but recenty I have leaned towards co's like simply with full PC configurators (as in you can almost build it from the ground up but they do the work) but that is probaly just because I am getting lazy in my old age (I have been doing self builds since the 286) - but in saying that my wife needs a new one (her AMD chip has a tendancy to overheat even with decent cooling and no-overclocking) and I am looking at doing that myself - but taking my time and buying the best main core comonents I can afford.

BTW you will always need BIG hard disks - what seems huge today is tiny tomorrow - I got 2x 120 gigs last year thinking 'I will never use that - and 1 is already 80% full.

[eddie_4720]

Well i haven't had an AMD PC simply because they didn't put the speed in Ghz in the processor description so how could anyone tell how fast they are. I think 512MB DRR is plenty, I check how much RAM my computer is using sometimes and it never uses the full 512MB. I say opt. for 512MB if you don't want to spend the earth on a new pc.

And the money that you have saved on RAM you can spend on a 17"TFT. I have one and they're great. You will deeply regret getting a CTR. The DVI connection on a flat panel is the best you can get. Especially when you get flashing movies because on CTRs you get lines across your screen when you get flashing images. This means DVI will come in useful for when your on the coaster cam on RCT3. Also you get sharper picture detail and they save 60% on energy (very economical). I have loads of deskspace aswell and I push my screen right to the back of my desk so as well as flicker resistant, i'm 70cm away from the screen so i don't get headaches. Also is you get ones that hang up on your wall (!WOW!). So get flat panel now.
I should get a job as a sales man for TFT monitors lol.

[LeeHaffenden]

To keep on track with your fist question (your opinions on the game)

I think this game is brilliant, they really did improve it.
the idea to go into 3D was a must and they did it so brilliantly, i was wrorried at first it might turn out like theme park world, but they kept it realistic.
all of the rides look so good and realistic to real life rides, the new scenery and landscaping is amazing aswell.
The scenarios are much more interesting and fun than the last games, infact on RCT2 i got bored with the scenarios and only ever completed a few.
The idea for a sandbox mode is good, also the new tools, e.g. peep editor, building editor is good, and the fact that you can save and share almost anything in the game!

But its not all brilliant, as everyone knows there are alot of bugs and problems with the game.
there is alot of lag and low FPS problems, but at least frontier/atari are trying ther hardest to bring out updates and fix the problems unlike alot of game companies.

even with these problems this game is brilliant and is very addicting and a huge improvement on the old games.

i think if they fixed all of the problems and brang out some expansion packs (good ones, not like the ones for RCT2) then this would be one of the best games out at the moment.

Just my opinion :p:

[TRAFMAN]

oooh i have lots of comments on this post:

1. AMD beat Intel Hands down, and the 64bit isn't used in anythoing (everything uses 32 still), but they have very fast processors (they beat the equivilent Athlon XP cores). especially the 90NM winchester cores.

2. there really isn't any need for an 256MB crad. esprcially as it can actually hinder the overclockability, just make sure you gat a 256BIT card (memory bandwidth).

i'd agree with getting the best main parts you can though.

3. TFTs can be very good for gaming as long as you have one with a good responce time. the recomended is 16ms or under. these are generally top of the range and very expensive though...

4. building your own system gets you much more for your £.

5. BIG HD - :D

6. AMD name thier chips as equivelent to the Intel chips. i.e. 2800+ = 2.8., whereas it is actually clocke at about 2.1.. this is because AMDs do more work per Hz, wich increases the productivity.

7. 1024MB RAM = :D

well thats my input on pc components, wheras i cannot judge on the game as it wont work properly!!