|
The
2006 Torino Winter Olympic Games starts on February 10th,
2006, and once more the games industry feels compelled to go through
it's two-yearly motions and release an Official  Olympic game.
Unfortunately Olympic Tie-ins are generally a pretty hit-and-miss
affair. They rarely attempt to do anything original, with most using
the button-bashing system pioneered by Konami's Track And Field
games in the late ‘80’s. However, although hardly inspired, most
offer decent playability, especially when played with others. The
wide range of events involved in the Olympics help to keep games
fresh but, unfortunately several titles have managed to make a total
hash of gameplay, resulting in an annoying, uninvolving mess. Can we
expect Torino 2006 to change the age old Joypad beating
method? Or is it a case of the same old system with nicer graphics?
Being
the official game of the Olympics, presentation is of a high
standard. The Menu Screen has several options including Fifteen and
Nine Event Competitions, Single Event and various options for you to
tweak at your hearts content. In a Fifteen Event game, it would be
plausible to expect a decent variation of gameplay. Sure, you play
through various games based on the Winter Olympics, but to pass off
this as Fifteen Events isn't just an exaggeration, it's dirty lie.
In fact Torino 2006 only really features around Five Event
games. For example, the developers have counted Speed Skating as
three Events, 500m, 1000m and 1500m. The promising sounding Nordic
Combined Event is just  Ski-Jump and Cross Country Skiing together
and the Biathalon is yet another Cross Country Skiing Event with a
mediocre shooting Mini-Game. Thankfully most Events work fairly well
and yes, they do use variations of the Track And Field formula.
For example, Speed Skating involves tapping alternating buttons
rapidly to get the best start before holding each button down for a
certain amount of time to maintain a good speed. The events are,
however, very simple and lack any kind of depth at all meaning that
even with Multi-Player, Torino 2006 has very little in the
way of longevity. Combine this with the fact that none of the games
are particularly fun, the dire Cross-Country Skiing being a prime
example of this, and you start to wonder why the Olympic Committee
decided to endorse this obviously sub standard game.
Like
most other games, there are a number of unlockables to increase the
length of Torino 2006, which, to be frank, is around two
hours tops. These include alternate costumes… and that's about it.
God knows why they even  bothered since once you've played all of the
events, it's reasonable assumption that you won't want to go through
that experience again unless you are a) The world's biggest Winter
Olympics fan or b) Bored to the point of lapsing into a coma.
But
Torino 2006 does have a redeeming feature; it looks quite
nice. Aside from the occasional bit of dodgy animation, Torino
2006 features some decent lighting, polished models and 3D
crowds making it really look the part. There doesn't seem to be any
Slow-Down or Frame-Rate issues on the Xbox version and the title
appears reasonably free of bugging. But how does the sound compare?
The commentary rarely relates to the on-screen action and quickly
becomes highly irritating. The music is instantly forgettable, but
the effects do sound like you'd expect, although that is unlikely to
spur you into forgiving the person who convinced you this title was
a releases worthy of your Xbox gaming time.
To
put it bluntly, slapping five Mini-Games on a disc and charging
around thirty-quid for the pleasure is outrageous. Although not as
extensive as the Olympic Games, the Winter Olympics feature more
than enough events to make a decent game that really shines in
Multi-Player. However in this case it seems that the developers have
gone to so much trouble making the Screenshots look good that
they've totally forget to insert some form of excitement into this
lifeless package. If you see this title and start to fondly reminice
about Track And Field and broken fingers, do not for one
second think that Torino 2006 is a worthy substitute, there
are demo discs with more complete games. Avoid at all costs. 
|
