Keeping Track: Roller Coaster Tycoon 4

Last week's announcement of Roller Coaster Tycoon 4 for mobile devices caused a great deal of despair in my private headspace. I have fond memories of the first two entries in the series (none at all of the third for some reason) and the trailer for the fourth, which you can see below, didn't inspire confidence. Speaking to Digital Spy, Atari's Anthony Chien confirmed that a new PC Roller Coaster Tycoon is also due by the end of the year: "We can't share that much, but [PC] will definitely be a completely different game...There's a lot of diehard RC fans that want a PC experience, they want all different sorts of things." That's the good news. The (potentially) bad news comes later. The PC version will be an "online multiplayer experience".

That trailer only covers the mobile versions but I thought you might enjoy shaking your fist at it anyhow, while trying to work out if it's actually a new game or just a repackaging of an older one. Rest assured, changes have been made and Atari confirmed that in-game currency can be used to hurry along construction of rides and other work.

As for the PC version, all we know is that it will be at least slightly different to the mobile version, and will run online but not through Facebook. I suspect persistent parks, leaderboards and a raft of 'social' features will all be included, but my suspicions are those of a weary cynic still waiting for the first coffee of a new week.