Conclusion:

There are perhaps two main reasons for people to choose playing an Olympics videogame: the entertainment provided by a decent computer game and the desire to try the thrills of competing in a world class sporting event without the huge effort of training for it. The repetitive gameplay that forces you to tap frantically 2-3 keys in virtually every event greatly reduces the fun factor while the insane difficulty of some contests makes the entire experience an exhausting one, pretty much like competing in the real thing.

Gameplay: 44

The control schemes are so outdated and very frequently the athlete fails to respond in the expected way that even the otherwise insultingly simple mechanic the game uses can cause you headaches. In addition to the exhausting affair of button mashing during most of the contests you'll have to put up with extra clicks just to skip the boring and repetitive acts after each event which ultimately leads to excruciating pain in your fingers and wrists.

Graphics: 82

Beijing 2008 clearly derailed from its track to become one of the most exciting sports game of the year but the only thing that prevents it from becoming a total train wreck is the graphics, absolutely the highlight of this game. The animations are lively and convincing, and although repetition takes its toll, with recurrent character models and the same faces in the audience with identical routines and gestures, the visual effects are sharp and attractive.

Sounds: 72

On the rare occasions when you actually manage to complete an event and earn a high mark or even a medal, the loud ovations coming from a roaring crowd will greatly increase your shattered morale. Overall the sounds are good and fit in nicely, the commentary is not very appropriate but the music compensates and it pretty much gets you in the mood to try again for a better result.

Multiplayer: 63

Sports game have always been much more exciting when played versus a human opponent, but although Beijing 2008 supports multiplayer both online and offline, most of the events are turn-based so a lot of patience is needed to wait for the opponent to fail miserably. It is obviously fun enough and it makes one feel less pathetic after the string of personal mistakes but its lasting appeal is very limited and it will soon weed off even the most tenacious gamers.

Hardware: 78

It takes quite a while to wait for the game to load and the cut scenes are also time consuming which is very disturbing especially when you fail repeatedly so frustration grows fast. Nonetheless during the actual events this games runs rather smoothly on nowadays computer, with decent frame rates, so technical and hardware issues should be the last thing to worry about if you decide to give Beijing 2008 a try.