Players: 1-2
Another sporting event, another game title, this time
celebrating the Salt Lake 2002
Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah.
There are six events, each of which are pretty much self-explanatory and you
can tell exactly what you're going to get, starting with Men's Alpine Skiing,
in which the fastest man down to the bottom of the course scoops the gold.
Then comes Women's Alpine Slalom Skiing - almost the same thing but
with a female character and having to dodge between gates.
Two-Man Bobsleigh sounds like a bit of fun, while Women's Skiing
Aerials is like a practice event with stunts being thrown in along the
way. The final two are Men's Ski Jumping and Men's Snowboard Slalom.
During each event the commentators make their quips about how badly you're
doing and afterwards you can choose to see the replay from fixed camera angles.
The graphics are reasonable and what you'd expect from the PS2, but are far
from outstanding. The atmosphere of the event is captured nicely in sweeping
camera shots, but what really matters is when it comes down to how it looks
when you're actually playing. You get a choice of a few camera angles, but
compared to other winter games like
SSX Tricky and
it just doesn't compare.
The sound is average. The crowd constantly cheer or show their disappointment
when you fail, the commentators' voices are clear but as you travel across
the snow it just sounds like a slight scraping noise. There's nothing in there
to make you feel involved like the aforementioned SSX sequel, even if this
title is meant to be mirroring real life and so wouldn't be as flashy as an
arcade game. Some rather indistinct rock tracks are included, but nothing
to get excited about.
And because there's an element of reality involved, it's one of those games
where you're meant to practice until you're good at it, which means it's not
instantly pick-up-and-playable sadly.
Definitely this is a case where anyone wanting a purely arcade experience should
look elsewhere because it just doesn't seem as much fun as it should be.
However, those still determined that practice makes perfect should rent it
for a day first to see if it'll have the longevity they're after, but be
quick as interest will wane once the games have ended.
GRAPHICS SOUND EFFECTS AND MUSIC PLAYABILITY ORIGINALITY ENJOYMENT
OVERALL
If you're after some more info on Eidos Interactive's games, you can check
out their official Website at
www.eidosinteractive.com
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
The graphics are reasonable and what you'd expect from the PS2, but are far
from outstanding. The atmosphere of the event is captured nicely in sweeping
camera shots, but what really matters is when it comes down to how it looks
when you're actually playing. You get a choice of a few camera angles, but
compared to other winter games like
And because there's an element of reality involved, it's one of those games
where you're meant to practice until you're good at it, which means it's not
instantly pick-up-and-playable sadly.
