Just around the corner are the Winter Olympics. As an Olympic time honored tradition, there must be a video game rendition made to capture the spirit of the games, and a small bit of change from your wallet. SEGA has been given the duty to take these captured essences and transform them into something commercially viable, for gamers that catch the Olympic fever between now and February.
The Good:
The Controls - Vancouver 2010 controls surprisingly well. Most of the games have a straight forward control scheme, meaning one or two button controls. The pick up and play factor is extremely high in this title. Most of the events in Vancouver 2010 are fun to play, if you aren’t “going for the gold”. Yet even if you are, a few practice runs on any particular event will give you a pretty strong grasp on the controls.
Graphics - Vancouver 2010 is excellent in this department also. You could put this up against any of the snowboarding titles out there and this game can hold its own. While not as detailed in some regards, because there is no exploration factor or alternate conditions, like in other titles. Vancouver 2010 is bright and colorful, with realistic and convincing character models.
Speed – Some games do it well, others don’t. Conveying the feeling of speed when barrelling down a mountain, bobsled track, or luge run, feels as you think it should. With a near blinding speed, many parts of the game you are playing from a sense of feel rather than sight. A blurring effect works well in the game to give you that rush.
Addictive Gameplay – It’s one thing to pick up and play Vancouver 2010, and it’s another to actually win the Gold Medals in events. The level of difficulty between a Silver and Gold Medal is quite gaping. You are going to need to learn the ins and outs of a particular event, and the game becomes much deeper as you attempt this. This forces you to retry events over and over looking to shave valuable seconds off of each turn in attempt to trim your overall times.
Challenge Mode – Challenge Mode breathes new life into the game after you have played through the events a few times. Giving you an Easy, Intermediate, and Advanced mountain of challenges to conquer Vancouver 2010 manages to extend it’s replay value quite a bit in this regard.
Online via Xbox Live & Leaderboards – The game will keep track of your best times and scores via Xbox Live. You can also play competitive multiplayer via Xbox Live.
The Bad
Lack of Replay Value – Let’s face facts here, the Winter Games are much less popular than their summer counterpart. That being said this game has a shelf life of about two months. There is a very small window of relevance for the casual gamer. Unless you are die-hard fan of any particular Olympic event that is included in the game, it’s gonna lose its appeal pretty quickly, regardless of how good it is.
Some Events Not Included – Not everything makes for good video game material, but some of the events that were not included definitely could have been. Popular Events like some of the Snowboard events, Ice Hockey, Figure Skating, and Biathlon are no where to be found. I wanted to go all Will Ferrel and get busy on the Figure Skating Event.
Adding bad pop music doesn’t make the game more fun – It’s probably going to be a matter of preference to most people, but personally I didn’t need the added background music to spice up the game. If the bad pop music isn’t stroking your Olympic Flame, you can always turn it off through the audio options.
Well at least it’s not full price – It’s not a full 60.00 but at 50.00 Vancouver 2010 still doesn’t have enough game play packed in to make it a worthwhile purchase. The events can get old after awhile. The feeling of the actual Olympics isn’t conveyed as the focus is much more towards individual events. There is no medal tallying per country, and after each event you are just given the option to try another one. I would have liked to see a more involving “Olympics”.
Overall,
Vancouver 2010 is far from a bad game. Though it does try harder than most to capture the essence of the individual sports of the Olympics, it loses some of its Olympic feel in the process. The skiing events are by far some of the most realistic video game skiing I have probably done ever. The venues and vistas capture the beauty of Vancouver B.C. and if you do catch the Olympic fever this February, this one will be waiting at your rental location of choice. Eventhough its 10.00 off the going rate, that extra ten might be spent better elsewhere in the coming weeks, considering the lack of replay value in the title.
Events Videos
