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Not Even A Bronze
Attention to Detail first caught my attention with their arcade racer, Rollcage. It was a simple action game that was entertaining and kept you coming back. Since that project was published by Psygnosis, they have signed a deal with Eidos Interactive, who published their last title, Sydney 2000. It depicted 12 events of the summer Olympics held two years ago. Unfortunately, it was far below par for the world's most grand sporting event. Its only redeeming feature appeared to be its aesthetic appeal.
Essentially, the same is true for Salt Lake 2002. Only this time, the event count has been dropped from 12 to six. In this game, you get the chance to participate in Men's Alpine Skiing Downhill, Ladies' Alpine Skiing Slalom, Men's Snowboard Parallel Giant Slalom, Women's Freestyle Skiing Aerials, Men's Ski Jumping K120 Individual, and Men's Two-man Bobsleigh. It's understandable that an event such as hockey was omitted because it is very complex and EA Sports pretty much has that market cornered anyway. What about Curling, or Speed Skating, or Luge? People might say that the Luge is similar to Bobsleigh, but isn't Skiing Slalom similar to Snowboard Slalom? For goodness sake, they could've at least given us the Halfpipe! The lack of events could be forgiven if the developers had created entertaining presentations and control schemes for the events that are included. Sadly, this is not the case.
It's quite obvious that Salt Lake 2002 was designed from the ground up as a game intended for consoles. The manner in which you begin a game is entirely linear, not meant to be navigated with a keyboard or mouse. Entering your name by scrolling through the alphabet with the arrow keys is frustrating to say the least.
>> Visuals/Sound
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