Published by: Eidos Developed by: ATD ESRB Rating: Everyone Min System Requirements: Pentium 2 233 64 MB Ram Windows 95/98 Direct X 7.0 16 bit color Da Introduction: Back in the days of my youth I owned a Commodore 64, and one of my favorite pastimes was playing Summer Games, an Olympic button masher with various events that took strong, fast thumbs and fingers to break the top 3 or win gold. But back then things were different. It seems anything we could get our hands on in the video game realm would be enough to satisfy. I'd spend mindless hours on end playing these types of games, but that was then and this is now. We've come a long way since and now we expect more. What I've seen and read about Sydney 2000 so far on other platforms has left me to believe that the innovation of this game is lacking in most respects and seems to repeat the style of gameplay found in Summer Games—a mindless button masher. Let's see how the game stacks up on the PC. Da Graphics: Actually, I found the visuals in Sydney 2000 to be fairly pleasing, although this is the PC version so the resolution can be bumped up rather high to satisfy your graphical needs. The characters are rendered in 3D but you don't need an accelerated graphics card to run this game, you can select software rendering if you lack a 3D beast. In accelerated graphics mode the characters look, well, great, and the motion capturing on the athletes' movements in the various events is very well done. The game is also saturated with vibrant color and each athlete represents his/her country with the proper uniform colors and emblems. But, you don't have a choice about what YOU want your athletes to look like. Some events will have you assuming the role of a male, while others a female. It would be nice if you could build your own athletes in a set-up option choosing sex, build and facial appearance etc., but no such luck. What's more, these guys and gals are pretty much anonymous aside from three initials representing their names (you get to fill this part in); there is no real-life athlete representation in this game. Sydney 2000 was evidently pushed out the door before the Olympics began, so this does make some sense. They obviously couldn't predict who would qualify to participate in the real games but a patch download or an update would be nice to fix this (sorry consoles dudes!) Da Sound: There's not much inspiration going on in the sound department. There are a few different techno sounding dance pieces but the music is basically the same in all the events and it's fairly generic. It can drive you batty if you listen to it for a lengthy period of time. The various appropriate sound effects, including fans cheering and athletes grunting, are all there, as well an announcer who calls all the events. But nothing stands out; it's pretty standard. Da Gameplay: There are 32 countries represented with 12 events to compete in as well as two main modes, Arcade and Olympic. The Arcade mode lets you compete in the events right away, but the Olympic mode is a little more challenging. Here you need to build up your character's abilities by taking him/her to the gym and pumping him/her (well more like an it—in this section of the game your character looks like an androgynous android) up in three different exercises and going through trials in order to compete in the Olympics. Your athletes become more skilled as time goes on. You can also train yourself in Coaching mode and there is a multiplayer option as well. Unfortunately the multiplayer consists of keyboard and gamepad swapping with up to 4 players, making things a little difficult. There's lots of variety in the events department, but you're going to like or hate the main concept of the game. All the events end up feeling the same aside from the different competition environments, because the game consists entirely of button mashing to build up power, then executing the proper moves with the enter button on the keyboard. Some events require split second timing to get the execution just right, but in the end you're going to end up with sore tired wrists and fingers, and your keyboard pad will be a little worse for wear. After awhile the challenge of thumping your fingers can become a little more than tiring and boredom will set in for those looking for more in-depth gameplay. Overall the staying power is just not there. Da Conclusion: I actually didn't mind the simple arcade style gameplay because it was reminiscent of Summer Games, a game I played often in my youth on a system that I adored. But I can understand how mindless button mashing may not cut it for most gamers seeking something with a little more depth. Still, the graphics are sufficient in this version of the game, but you may want to try before you buy. The Joystick is up, barely. Graphics: 8 Sound: 5 Gameplay: 6 Tilt: 6 Sydney 2000 for the PC was reviewed by DA GAMEBOYZ Drakaland