Sydney 2000
Score: 100% ESRB: Everyone Publisher: Eidos Interactive Developer: EA Games Media: CD/1 Players: 1 - 2 Genre: Sports
Graphics & Sound: Graphics and Sound: Sydney 2000 packs a punch! Graphically this game is one of the most intense sports games I have ever played, and I am still playing it! It is very hard for graphic artists to give us the graphics we expect these days, but Sydney 2000 delivers completely. One of the unique features of the game is an accurate particle system. What, you would like me to speaka da inglish? These are tiny little things that they put into the animation to make it more real. Fireworks have them, ground being thrown up from the ground when the hammer falls in the Hammer Throw have them. You hardly notice them, but they make it look so much better. Sydney 2000 has a real time water technology which basically means that the water graphics look and act like real water. They supplement the water with bubbles and splashes and even the bubbles created by the swimmers breathing. Another unique system of Sydney 2000 is called Good Technique/Bad Technique. If you are competing in an event, and your not doing too well, your athlete will start to sway; the legs will not work correctly. These little nuances can be seen really well in the replays! These replays are taken from 600 camera positions in the venues that mirror the real Olympic games. The Olympic venues that you will be competing in are correct down to the blueprints from the real venues in Australia. You also have your movie sequences that even include the opening and closing ceremonies. The sound is very realistic with music to inspire you down the track in the 100-meter sprint. Crowd noises, commentators and such all add to the enjoyment of the game. One thing to be aware of before you buy the game are the system requirements listed above. You pretty much have to have a big computer to run Sydney 2000. If you don't have a big machine, they don't leave you high and dry, because you can set the screen size and graphics so that it will play on your computer. You can even run the game with the software's graphics as well.
Gameplay: Have you ever broken a sweat over a video game? While playing Sydney 2000, I literally broke a sweat during a virtual gym exercise, but lets talk about that in the minute. Like all good sports simulation games today, Sydney 2000 has different modes of game play. The first choice is Arcade. This is for the person that does not want to draw it out or to take all day, they just want to get into the game and start playing. For those of you who like a challenge and you want to feel what it is like to train and qualify for the Olympic games, you have Coaching mode to start off with. This will allow you to receive coaching and practice in all 12 events so that when you are ready to qualify, you aren't left on the starting block wondering why somebody is shooting a gun. The main mode for the game is called Olympic mode. Here, you will pick one of the 12 events which include Javelin, Running, Swimming, Skeet Shooting, High Jump, Diving, Hammer Throw and much more!! After you have picked an event, you will go to the open trials. You now have the option of going into the Virtual Gym to train to improve the performance of your athlete. For example, if you are training for 100 meters, you will be trained on the treadmill, the bench press, and the starting block. This is where I broke out a sweat because some of the keystrokes and speed you need to have to complete these exercises are challenging. You will be given a task to do in a certain amount of time and if you pass, you raise the stamina, strength, and even the morale of your athlete. After you have completed the gym exercises you go to the Event arena to practice your event. Then it is off to qualify. Here you can compete against the computer athletes. After you have qualified in the open trials you move on to the Invitational to compete there. Here again, you will have gym exercises you can do to increase your performance, practice, and the qualifying. After the Invitational, you go to the Championships. Winning here will take you to the Olympic games. Before you start the actual games, you might want to qualify in all the events that you want to compete in because after you go to the games, you will only compete in those events you qualified in. Sydney 2000 also offers Head to Head mode where you can compete against your friends with different controllers and keyboard keys.
Difficulty: In Sydney 2000, when you want to make the game harder or easier, you set can set the ability level of the computer controlled athletes. You have to go through the training to give your athlete better performances, but set the abilities of the other athletes up to give you a real challenge. Some of the events that you will compete in are easier than others. I won't tell you the one that I haven't even been able to qualify in.
Game Mechanics: I am usually not fond of keyboard-controlled games, but Sydney 2000 seems to be designed for it. You have your Power buttons, which are the left and right arrow keys, you have your Action button which is the enter button, and various other buttons to accomplish specific tasks. When you get the hang of using these keys in the right combinations and at the right speed, you will start to win those gold medals!! You can also play the game with a game pad, but none of the instructions hardly even mention the controls for game pads, so you might have better luck sticking to the keyboard.
-Wickserv, GameVortex Communications AKA Eric Wickwire
Minimum System Requirements: Pentium II 233Mhz (266 Mhz w/3D accelerator) or equivalent, Windows 95/98,64MB RAM,50Mb Uncompressed HD space, DirectX 7.0a compliant 3D accelerated video card, DirectX 7.0a compliant sound card, DirectX 7.0a or higher (included), 4X CD-ROM Drive, Keyboard and Mouse   Test System: 997 Mhz running Windows 98, 512 RAM, Creative SBLive! with Altac Lansing THX speakers, STB Velocity 4400 with RIVA TNT chip, DirectX 7, 32 MB RAM, 6X24 DVD-ROM
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