1. This is a Forbes contributor, not Forbes itself. Is relatively easy to do this things and various videogames forums have banned Forbes contributor articles because they are nothing that mere opinions and most of the time they are wrong.
2. He is also wrong about the RCT franchise. You really couldnt create a lot of themed lands with the first, because there was no piece by piece building mode. There were some themed pieces and bushes, but it was not enough to create something convincing. The meat and potatoes of RCT1 was the management apsect.
Funny because he is talking about creating better theming in these types of games while he forgets that the BIGGEST addition RCT2 brought to the table was the piece by piece system where you could actually create real park in an isometric view.
And even more ironic, he backhands totally RCT3 when it was the summum up until now of the theme park simulation builder. While the management gameplay, the most casual friendly aspect of the RCT franchise, was not the best. Take out the management part and it was RCT2 in 3D, so now, it wasnt much different at all. And talking bad about the cartoon style, of course. He also adds, and this is why the article is really bad for a Frobes one, becuase that's what is important for Forbes, that the last RCT game that sold "relatively" well was RCT3. Excuse me? "relatively" No. Its the best selling game in the franchise. That si not "relatively".
And then he talks about the beta of RCTW being good (yeah right) but generic (this is probably one of the only correct statements of the whole article).
And how Frontier, the guys who got it wrong, according to him, the first time, and that they are actually trying to modernize RCT3, using a similar, but better done, cartoon style he hated so much becuase it was "casual" are doing now the perfect game for him.
If he liked so much RCT1 I think he is going to dissapointed when this game comes around, maybe he find a better game for him if someone points to him Parkitect. Yeha, he likes how is looking but we have gotten to a point where Frontier can actually recreate pretty well the real world of theme parks, but its going to have the same "casual" problems for him, that RCT3 had.
And Im sure the management gameplay of Planet Coaster its going to be better this time around, if just becuase of the new guest AI, that it was one of the biggest problems (the family AI) that RCT3 had.