Park / Busch Gardens San Simeon

67 Comments

  • Corkscrew%s's Photo
    (note from Corkscrewed)
    This is the official Spotlight topic, split off from the "Fatha Grinch Stole Christmas" news topic.

    ...Holy *beep*...

    Best park ever, without a single doubt.
    It just had everything the ultimate RCT park should have in my opinion... Creativity, originality, details... and of course a custom flat ;)

    I have no complaints... altough the bridge between Canyon Runner's area and Machu Picchu looked bare and rushed (but I guess it may be like that because of the sprite limit) and it's just plain too bad that Tempest missed a set of cars :/

    But whatever, it's a fabulous park, Fatha! Definately #1 on my list...
  • artist%s's Photo
    Fatha this is without a doubt the single greatest LL park ever created. My love for Busch Gardens is sooooooo big and when i saw you were rebuilding SS in rct1 i knew it was going to be great but i was wrong, this was fucking amazing. Every area was themed perfectly and the coasters and rides were very very Busch like and had brilliant layouts. I only have two problems there was NO splash boats :o :o :o you should have had a splash boats with a mighty drop that would have been perfect or a longer mine train and you should have used the RCT queues throughout, i found it so hard to follow the queues in this park and using the RCT queues would have shown how beautiful they really are, you had some wonderful queue lines were i could really imagine myself queueing and admiring the beauty in this new busch gardens park and it was just ruined by the path that you used to create the queue lines. :( but yeah overall best LL park i have seen in a long time and you are without a doubt my fav LL player of all time, well, you and natelox :) :)

    9.8/10 - 0.2 let down by the queues and no splash boats :( i will have a much longer look round the park later dude and then i might even do a little miny review/walkthrough on it. :) great stuff man
  • X250%s's Photo
    That was an amazing park Fatha, everyone of the areas had their own unique atmosphere and little ideas that kept me looking at the park for a long time. I am not usually a fan of LL work, but this easily swayed me- the time and effort that goes into every block of land on the park is astonishing. 'Amazonia' had one of the best atmospheres i've ever seen in any RCT park, and the cocoa 'cups' idea, well, that was genius!

    City of God impressed me too, because it was so different from every other area, and the coaster in the area too had a good inversion order, speed and fitted in perfectly with its surroundings, reminded me a bit of 'Drachen Fire', but with extra bite. The entrance area was crafted very well, extremely colourful and welcoming, and all that roofing and 'hackery' must have really taken ages!

    Congrats on a superb park, definitly worth its spotlight placement... Even though Cork seems a bit reluctant to let that fact be known... ;)

    [This part censored by the "Keep the Surprise a Surprise Committee :D ~ Cork]

    -X-

    Edited by Corkscrewed, 25 December 2005 - 01:18 PM.

  • Janus%s's Photo
    Well...

    I'm sort of dissapointed. My expectations may have been set too high, but this park didn't live up to them at all. The park was underwhelmingly overwhelming, or vice versa. Not sure.

    First, the entrance area. Starts good, but then - my eyes! The whole thing just melted together in a large, bright yellow mess. There were no contrasts or negative space at all, which really killed it. Each building or hack in this area might have been wonderful on their own (and I liked it more when it became less busy towards the red canyon area), but here it was way too much. Might have been the point, but I didn't like it at all.

    I got that feeling from most of the areas, actually. They didn't engage me at all, with a few exceptions. Either it was too much detail and too much chaos, or not enough detail.

    Machu Picchu was the best area, as it achieved a good mix between the over-top detail of most of the other areas, and the subtle niceness of the red canyon area (and most of Fatha's earlier work). Really the only area I liked. I also liked the large-scale elevation changes in the park, but a lot of that felt obscured by the stuff on top of it. I dunno, I would just have liked to see some more focus on the landscape, as it was a good landscape.

    Perhaps the park becomes better after repeated viewings, but I didn't really like it. Good job, anyway, and a cool Christmas present.
  • Loopy%s's Photo
    That is absolutely amazing! Its definetly the best LL park iv EVER seen. I now have something to try and aspire to, if i could build like that id be the happiest man on this earth.

    Excellant job fatha!
  • ACEfanatic02%s's Photo
    Holy Fuck.

    -ACE
  • tyandor%s's Photo

    Well...

    I'm sort of dissapointed. My expectations may have been set too high, but this park didn't live up to them at all. The park was underwhelmingly overwhelming, or vice versa. Not sure.

    First, the entrance area. Starts good, but then - my eyes! The whole thing just melted together in a large, bright yellow mess. There were no contrasts or negative space at all, which really killed it. Each building or hack in this area might have been wonderful on their own (and I liked it more when it became less busy towards the red canyon area), but here it was way too much. Might have been the point, but I didn't like it at all.

    I got that feeling from most of the areas, actually. They didn't engage me at all, with a few exceptions. Either it was too much detail and too much chaos, or not enough detail.

    Machu Picchu was the best area, as it achieved a good mix between the over-top detail of most of the other areas, and the subtle niceness of the red canyon area (and most of Fatha's earlier work). Really the only area I liked. I also liked the large-scale elevation changes in the park, but a lot of that felt obscured by the stuff on top of it. I dunno, I would just have liked to see some more focus on the landscape, as it was a good landscape.

    Perhaps the park becomes better after repeated viewings, but I didn't really like it. Good job, anyway, and a cool Christmas present.

    View Post


    I think the same here. It is good work, but it's like I'm seeing Jkay's latest spotlight again: chaos. There isn't enough spacing to let the detail do their work properly... Strangely enough it looks so much like rct2 in a way. The effort spent on it makes it worth spotlight though. Congratulations.
  • Magnus%s's Photo
    This park made my LL crash and it now gives me an error trapper when i start the game.

    was to lazy to reinstall the game yet, cause i'm doing something else.

    what i saw from the overview and the 3 or 4 times (mainly the dark area) i zoomed in was fantastic, but very chaotic. as already mentioned, maybe a little too much.
  • JKay%s's Photo
    oooo....what a nice Christmas gift Corky!

    I dusted off my LL disc and got a chance to look at this today.

    My first reaction wasn't quite as good as I had hoped, which I think is mainly due to the amount of screens I saw during advertising; kinda like the surprise wasn't there. Still though, this is a superb park with loads of details and distinct , lush and organic themes. Here's my pros and cons

    Pros:
    -The entire El Dorado entrance area was just stunningly beautiful. It was just so immersive with intricacies of color exploding on my screen. Technically solid too. Just the right amount of rides, attractions, theming and details. Easily the best LL area I've seen since CoD or WOMB
    -The next highlight for me was the City of God area. I think you did a great job here. You used all the tools LL had to offer here to pull of this messy urban ghetto in elite fashion. It wasnt my favorite theme in the park (El Dorado was), but I think it had the best execution and refinement of all the areas
    -Superb hacking, nuf said...
    -TRACKITECTURE! Fatha, You own trackitecture in LL!
    -There were lots of little details that I really enjoyed. Namely, the Cocoa Cups, Inti's Reach (beautiful queue line btw) and Tempest. All great additions to the park.

    Cons:
    -While I hate to say it, the themes in this park reminded me of several other LL parks (mainly Twisted's most recent spotlight) which took something away from it. I also can't say there was any particular themed area in this park that I could say was totally "innovative", well, except maybe El Dorado, but the rest really didn't jump out at me as anything special.
    -Another con is the obvious, which were the more neglected areas of the park due to data limits. I know you had no control over it, but it really did stand out as a flaw.
    -Some of the foliage hit me as random in areas, but considering its South America, I can respect it. IMO, a bit more uniformity would have helped a bit, but thats neither here nor there.

    Overall, I must say this is definitely your best LL work to date Fatha' and I really hope you continue to play RCT at this elite calibur. I can't say its my favorite LL park ever, but it easily makes my top 10 list and maybe even the top 5. Congrats on the spotlight and hope to see you hangin' around NE in the future.
  • Blitz%s's Photo
    pretty standard fare.
  • Panic%s's Photo
    I've said it before and I'll say it one more time. Bloody well done dude.
  • Geoff%s's Photo
    There was nothing conventional about this park.

    FUCKING AWESOME. The coasters and the landscaping were so dramatic--nothing I have ever seen executed in this way.

    Sets a new standard for both games. Well done Fatha'.
  • Splash-0%s's Photo
    Wonderful park, I really liked it. No doubt one of the best parks ever in my opinion.

    So much to look at :D. The wooden coaster was really amazing, and there was so much more to see. Although maybe a bit too much, some areas were too small but packed with details and they were immediately surrounded by another area. That's what I disliked a bit, I rather have a park with only a few themed areas but stretched out. Ah well that's just me, I will never be able to build a park like this so congratulations. For the rest it was a fantastic park which I will be looking back at for manny times. :)

    Edited by Splash-0, 26 December 2005 - 09:57 AM.

  • tracidEdge%s's Photo

    holy christ that's a long write-up on the spotlight page. the park looks awesome, i'm about to go look now. i'll edit with my thoughts.

    Damn. This is, without a doubt, the best LL spotlight since SWA. The areas were so immersive and atmospheric it was breath-taking. Savage Current and Bacillus were some of the funnest rides i've seen for a long time, and the theming in those two areas was amazing as well. Tempest was a very well executed swat, in my opinion, and the entire Aruba area was very convincing. The City of God area was, as well. That had to be one of the most detailed things I had ever seen done in LL. All of the areas were amazing, and you still managed to make the area that wasn't there still look good. the only area that let me down, really, was the area with Aconcagua. I liked it much better when you released it earlier and it was more sandy and more desert-like. Other than that, however, this has been one of the best parks I've seen in a while. Absolutely amazing job, Fatha'.


    missed one, cork. ;P
  • Corkscrewed%s's Photo
    doh. oh well, you caught the ball I dropped and put it in the right place, so now I don't have to do anything. :D
  • Phatage%s's Photo
    The park was fantastic, really amazing. Its like you took the best parts from tropico and dmm and put them together, and what you got was a great Busch atmosphere with a huge sense of realism and beauty at the same time. The areas varied in size and content, and the landscaping and terrain totally spelled out South America, I love those mountains especially. Honestly, I think that a section where that lake was may have been too much if you did get to put it in, although it would be cool knowing that there was a section behind those mountains when in the park.

    The thing that keeps this from being one of my favorites is that the transitions between areas were not clever. They were well placed and everything, but it seemed like each one was pretty much the same, even like they were a departure from the atmosphere the park offers. If those had been more cleverly thought out, say make one a grand bridge that fits with the theme or putting more emphasis on the mountain passage in the back of the park, I would have honestly put this up there with rob.
  • Toon%s's Photo
    It's beautiful. Truly makes me wish I had time to build something, but alas...my life has become too hectic. Still having not checked the site for about a month this was a great way to come back. I shall be checking this park out in a little more depth, time permitting, and perhaps can give some real commentary.
  • Corkscrewed%s's Photo
    :OMG:

    Toon!!!!

    :wub:
  • Ride6%s's Photo
    This park, lovely and astonishing as it is this park is neither my favorite (that honor belongs to Mt. Sinister by Mala) nor does it contain my favorite themed area (Pavonis Mons in WOMB by Mantis)...

    In fact I think I'd put this at either 2nd or 3rd in my favorites list (Mt. Sin, Womb, BGSS-duh, City Of Dreams, Rob)... Not nessisarily in that order either. Other than Sinister ruling.

    I think the hype of advertising hurts this park greatly as the best areas had already been revealed, and though that makes for an exciting run towards the park it took a lot away. More depressing was the fact that the areas I felt best immersed in lacked a coaster (!). Those of course are Machu Picchu, Aruba and Galapagos.

    Aruba being a coastline, which for me is always an A+ when done right and this one is done superbly with excellent pavillions, a custom flat and some clearly thought-out bumber cars.

    Machu Picchu is the only area of the park to strike a perfect balance between the overbaring extravagance of say Eldorado, the grittiness of City of God and the subtle pleasentness of Andes Village to create the single most representitive area of the park. Stunningly beautiful I even hunted down shops and spent quite some time enjoying the architecture and searching for the same building from different angles.

    Finally I love Galapagos for the reason everyone should, the red jungle flowers. They're most pleasent now aren't they? Well that and the carefully integrated architecture, flat rides and one of the best rapids rides out there... Still those flowers really stuck out to me as a beacon of love in the dense jungle.

    All of the coasters were spectacular in their own way and in such a manner as to best inhanse the strongest properties of the coaster. Nazca for example does a good bit of weaving about erratically between masses of solid objects. Canyon Runner hugs the terrian as to threaten ones feet before soaring into another sky-kicking inversion. Bacillus works the cliffs, valleys and theming in a way that's beyond fluid and intense; just straight up good fun. Same goes for Vigilante and O Criminoso, which other than having delightfully speedy pacing, good landscape, theming and architecture interaction including muiltiple tunnels (all good things of course) fail to take advantage of the particularly enhansing attributes of rides of their type. That of course being thanks to the fact that wooden coasters and Arrows are both straight forward balls to the wall thrilling experences.

    However, like SWA this park fails because of it's successes. Failure is nessisary in order to make success sweet. Negitive space must be there. Imperfections must be evendent to make the perfections stand out. Light can only be seen in darkness.

    The main thing Fatha now needs to wok on is playing with negitive space, it's a more abstract thing than the mind blowing mastery of all the games elements that the Grinch already possesses. Something that he must master if he wishes to reach an even higher plain of parkmaking which only a few others have ventured to, though I will not name them as it should be a rather obvious extrapilation from my favorite parks, which I've listed. Of course my opinion is wrong however because yours is correct, just as mine is correct only to me.

    ride6
  • Meretrix%s's Photo
    I actually reinstalled LL to look at this..........I LOVED the coasters!!!!

    The entrance was one sea of yellow which I found too distracting. City of God, while an interesting concept didn't look like anyplace I'd actually want to visit, in terms of theme parks. The coaster though was brilliant.

    The beemer was fantastic, almost escher-esque the way it molded to the terrain, which in itself was an optical illusion delight.
    The woodie was interesting, but I wish some of the transitions in RCT allowed for a smoother "flow"....this isn't your fault...it's the games'.

    From a zoomed out view, this park really does not grab me at all......but the rides, when zoomed in are awesome.

    Good job sir.