Well I'm smack in the midst of my T-Day week stay-cation and though I planed to play many, many hours of Civ VI and maybe visit Universal a couple of times this week, instead I find myself devoting virtually all my computer game hours to a game which also serves as a digital quenching of my theme park thirst as well. Planet Coaster is the king of the current iterations of the RollerCoaster Tycoon like games, including RollerCoaster Tycoon World which is that publisher's newest and much yawned over entry. Planet Coaster is actually the spiritual successor since it's made by Frontier who also made the highly-praised RollerCoaster Tycoon 3.
I'm sure there's a sufficiently bawdy tale of corporate fucking over to explain why the maker of the third and arguably most successful game in a well-beloved series has ended up making the next logical brainchild of that series without the well-known RT title but I really have zero fucks to give about it. All I know is I'm satisfied my $45 went to the right guys 'cause I'm frankly mesmerized by this freakin' game. Like RT3, the magic is all in the building. And this game doesn't disappoint. Add a robust and prolific support community churning out a ton of content and adding it for everyone to use free from the Steam Workshop and well, good buy Universal, I'll see you later. Much later.
At the head of this post is a screenshot of the entrance to my first sandbox mode park. It's called Westworld. And like the great HBO series it's filled with all sorts of thrilling mystery, thus the very dramatic entryway. I haven't figured out how to make my own sign but when I do I'll throw it up on this archway, of course. My park has both an old west theme and a futuristic robot theme. I have both a western gunslinger and metal robot as entertainer employees roving around thrilling the guests. If only I could make a Dr. Ford character with the menacing grin of Anthony Hopkins, well, I might actually scare myself, come to think about it.