The premise of the RollerCoaster Tycoon series is that you design, build and run a theme park. Pretty straight forward, you'd think - however the game makes you responsible for every aspect of the park's operation including advertising, cleaning, layout and maintenance. Therein lies the attraction for many gamers. The ability to micro-manage every aspect of the simulated park, and watch it grow and succeed has a surprisingly wide appeal.

RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 is the latest in what is seen as the epitome of the genre. What strikes you first about this game is its box. The fantastic hologram on the front promises an exciting 3D experience, and once you load the game it becomes obvious that it is a promise fulfilled. The new 3D environment gives players the ability to pan and zoom and to view every aspect of their park, and very smooth on our trial machine where we had set the graphics to the highest levels. It is fascinating to watch your park in operation, particularly given how well the graphics have been delivered. The cartoon like patrons (called peeps) are not just wooden characters but exude their emotions in how they run excitedly from attraction to attraction or slowly walk, shoulders hunched, toward the exit.

At the beginning of the game you are presented with the option to undertake a tutorial and this we highly recommend. There is a steep learning curve to this game and although it's a great tutorial there is a lot to take in. We found ourselves revisiting this a couple of times to pick on the bits we missed.

Initially we found the control menu awkward and this feeling never quite left us as we progressed in the game. The viewing controls were straight forward, but when it came to placing objects and laying out your park we found it was hard to determine what option we had open and what was active. The confusion is caused by how many menu options are opened to achieve even the smallest activity. You have an overall menu on the left from which you can open sub menus to select the desired object you want to build. Once selected, another menu set is opened for the build options at the bottom left and another on the bottom right for managing the object. You will find yourself bouncing between all three, and this can be confusing.

A key aspect of all simulation games is presenting players with enough options to hold their attention. RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 is chock full of options that give players unprecedented ability to influence every detail of your park. This is best displayed when looking at a 'coaster. A player has the ability to design his own or to pick from a huge amount of pre-designed ones. Designing starts with determining the type of 'coaster (hanging, traditional, water, steel, wood, etc.) and then laying out the first blocks of your station and then the rest of the tracks. This is not easy as you need to think in 3D with an overall goal in mind how you will get your ride back to its starting point (although there is a useful auto build tool to complete the ride if you are having trouble). If this all sounds too difficult, you can select from a huge array of predesigned 'coasters which are rated on their excitement level.

It does not stop there, however, as you can adjust just about every aspect of the ride. You can change its colours, the colour of the cars, the admission fee, the waiting times and the name of the ride. You can also add some predesigned special effects - such as a volcano errupting or an oil derrick exploding - to add an action theme to the ride. You can even determine the type of fence around the ride, the trees and features surrounding it and the length of the waiting queue and more. All of these aspects affect the popularity of the ride and the challenge is to find which of these tweaks will trigger the best response from the punters.

Park design is not just restricted to rollercoasters as you also have to provide kiddy rides, thrill rides, toilets, food stalls, shops, park benches and general park decorations. There is a huge selection of options available and what we particularly liked is how you can filter the menus into themes (spooky, alien, western, etc.). Some of the park decorations are animated or have special lighting effects to add even more appeal for the punters.

Why lighting effects? Well, the park moves through a day and night sequence so you will have to lay out a lighting scheme for your park as well. This is a cool feature as your park seems to come alive at night with some convincing shadows and shading. Night time also allows you to try your hand at designing your own fireworks display and setting it to music. This in itself can be absorbing as there is nothing as much fun as playing around with explosives. This is made easy through the use of an interface that is laid out like a music mixer.

There is a heap of other stuff to play with including a scenery editor, water rides, peep editor, VIP guests, cameras and a career mode. All represent hours of fun and enjoyment and by far this is the most option-rich game we have ever seen.

The graphics as we mentioned are great, and this is nowhere better demonstrated than in the ability to swap to an onboard ride camera and experience the thrill of your 'coaster for yourself. It's realistic enough to have you holding on to your chair and screaming (well some of us did). These graphics are supported by excellent audio effects including realistic ride sounds, peeps' screams and babble and the ability to apply a range of music to your park rides, and it is further enhanced by the ability to import your own music.

The game unfortunately shipped with some minor bugs that in certain circumstances causes the game to crash. However, Atari has quickly produced a patch to resolve these issues which should be installed prior to playing the game.