Beijing 2008
Amanda Beard, Tyson Gay, Nastia Liukin and Reese Hoffa appear on the U.S. cover art for the game.[1]
Developer(s)	Eurocom
Publisher(s)	Sega
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
Release date(s)	NA August 5, 2008 EU June 27, 2008
Genre(s)	Sports (Olympic)
Mode(s)	Single-player, Multiplayer
Rating(s)	ESRB: E
Media	Blu-ray Disc, DVD
System requirements	Recommended: Windows XP/Vista, Intel Core 2 Duo, 1GB RAM, nVidia GeForce 7800 or ATI equivalent Minimum: Windows XP , Intel Pentium IV 2.4 GHz , 1GB RAM, 5.5 GB hard disk space, nVidia GeForce 6600 or ATI equivalent with support for Pixel Shader 3

Beijing 2008 is the official Olympic video game of the 2008 Summer Olympics held in Beijing. Developed by Eurocom and published by Sega, the game was the second video game based on the 2008 Summer Olympics to be released, the first being the fantasy-based Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games which appeared in late 2007; however, Beijing 2008 is a realistic sports simulation.^[1]

Beijing 2008 features 32 national teams and 38 events.^[2] In addition, a career mode similar to that seen in Sydney 2000 returned, and for the first time in Olympic video games, an online mode is included.

Contents 1 Disciplines 2 Nations represented 3 Critical reception 4 See also 5 External links 6 Footnotes

[edit] Disciplines

The following events are in the game:^[3]

Track 100 m 200 m 400 m 800 m 1500 m 100 m hurdles (women only) 110 m hurdles (men only) Field High jump Pole vault Long jump Triple jump Shot put Discus throw Hammer throw Javelin throw Aquatics 100 m freestyle swimming (men only) 100 m backstroke swimming (men only) 100 m butterfly swimming (men only) 100 m breaststroke swimming (men only) 3 m springboard diving (women only) 10 m platform diving (women only)

Gymnastics Parallel bars (men only) Vault (men only) Rings (men only) Floor exercise (women only) Beam (women only) Uneven bars (women only) Shooting (all men only events) Skeet shooting 10 m Air Pistol 25 m Rapid Fire Pistol Other Archery, individual (women only) Weightlifting, +105 kg (men only) Cycling, team pursuit (men only) Canoeing/kayak K1, kayak single (men only) Judo, 81–90 kg (men only) Table tennis, singles (men only)

In addition, the game supports competition in the male decathlon or the female heptathlon, 5, 10 or 20 random events, or all of the events. It is possible to take part in all male and female events individually.^[4]

[edit] Nations represented

Australia Austria Bahamas Belgium Brazil Canada China Cuba Denmark Ethiopia Finland

France Great Britain Germany Greece Ireland Italy Jamaica Japan Kenya Mexico Netherlands

New Zealand Norway Poland Portugal Russia South Africa South Korea Spain Sweden United States

[edit] Critical reception

Beijing 2008 received a wide range of reviews. 1up gave the game an "A+", IGN gave the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 a 7.5 but 5.6 for the PC version, commenting that "They scored big here with the authentic presentation and the great selection of events but then they married it to a series of mini-games with such poorly designed controls that favor luck and callused fingers over skill and insight. Video games based on the Olympics always seem to rely more on the visibility of the actual games than about delivering inventive gameplay and Beijing 2008 is sadly no exception." GameSpot gave the game only a 3.0 out of 10, stating that "rapidly pushing buttons is not fun", and pointing to excessive difficulty.^[5]

[edit] See also

• Olympic video games
• 2008 Summer Olympics

[edit] External links

• Beijing 2008 at Eurocom

[edit] Footnotes

Preceded by Athens 2004	Official video game of the Summer Olympics 2008	Succeeded by London 2012
Preceded by Torino 2006	Official video game of the Olympics 2008	Succeeded by Vancouver 2010