Torino 2006
It gets the Bronze.
Tags: Torino 2006 Categories: Reviews, Xbox Reviews
Posted by Mike Morgan on Feb 12th, 2006
| Title | Players | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Torino 2006 (title page) | 1 - 2 | ||
| Developer | Publisher | Genre | Online |
| Sports | No | ||
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This month the Olympics begin anew, crowds from all over the world will flock to Italy (best known for being shaped like some form of footwear I’m told) and will cheer their country’s team to victory. It’s an exciting event that cannot be captured by just one game. Too bad for 49Games and 2K Sports I suppose, but at the very least the game isn’t that bad. Of course you can expect, well hope anyway, for better graphics on the Xbox. That’s like saying cheese is awesome or that pepperoni goes better with said cheese. The PS2 version felt somewhat… dull, and compared to the Xbox version, well the ‘box blows the PS2 out of the water. On the PS2 version you have no weather, it’s either night or day but still perfect weather. Now I know Salt Lake was about as perfect as anyone could hope for, but come on, two winter Olympics without one snowstorm? PAH! The Xbox actually has snow that falls down in some events. The luuuuuuuge is good fun and with the snow zipping past your field of vision? I applaud that little addition. Mostly because the luuuuuuge rocks and something like that makes it just a bit better.
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Another thing done to help fill out the game was the inclusion of more crowd and even camera and support crew to several events. In the PS2 version it would give you a sweeping shot of one of the areas before the start of an event and the area would be quiet as a grave. Not a soul to be seen. The Xbox has added crowds (but unfortunately suffers from the same lack of diversity seen in the PS2 version) in these areas and on the ski jump and bob sleigh they have added the camera crew up there at the start gate. It’s a small thing, but it makes the game feel a bit more natural.
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The character models feel a bit more natural as well. The PS2 had this whole, crinkly plastic wrapped thing going on with each of the models that, while in the context of the game looked fine, compared to the Xbox’s models just looked wrong. Now don’t get me wrong, these models aren’t very spectacular, but they are better lit or have a bit better skin to them. Something just makes them a bit better. Also, the Xbox version tends to give you a bit better feel for the entire field rather than just your athlete. Sweeping camera movements before and after each event help make it feel just a tad deeper.
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The sound however is where the Xbox falls short. There were several points where the sound just decided to drop out or change randomly whilst competing. As you speed skate toward your final few meters the crowd drops out and the sound of the wind rushing past your ears becomes somewhat choppy. Or they crowd just sounds a bit more tinny in a few of the scenes. It’s a few small differences in the sound, but they are noticeable. The commentators? You can probably do with turning them off. They have nothing to say and their feelings aren’t hurt by you doing so. Same goes for the music. Where there is music it’s pretty crappy, so just kill that and leave the event sound going. You’ll have a much better time.
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As for gameply, Torino 2006 for the Xbox also suffers from the same stale one button simplicity of the PS2 version. Simple controls aren’t a bad thing, per se, but they can get pretty boring event after event. The speed skating is really just the A and the B button again and again. The ski jump requires you to keep your balance, but really its just the analog stick and A. There isn’t a lot to the controls and you should be pretty near expert in about ten minutes. It doesn’t hurt that about 40% of the games you play are rehashes of the events that came before. Its not the full range of Winter Olympic sports, but its sports that you don’t see often translated to games. Score I suppose.
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There are plenty of things to unlock in the course of your Olympic career as well, why I unlocked Jamaica which rocks more than it probably should, but I’m happy about it. With the extra stuff to unlock you are probably looking at about 10 hours of gameplay max on easy. It has a fairly comprehensive stats list as well listing the top scores in each event, what medals you’ve won and other various numbers.
| What Works | Score |
|---|---|
|
+ Better graphics than is PS2 counterpart + Snow! + Still nice and cheap |
7.0 |
| What Doesn't | |
|
- Somewhat worse sound than the PS2 counterpart - Same old same old gameplay, gets tired fast. |
|
| Under the Shrink-wrap | |
| Its a fairly solid game that knows what its doing, isn't hard and doesn't hurt the ol' checkbook. So it's not that bad at all. | |
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Tags: Torino 2006
Posted by Mike Morgan on Feb 12th, 2006 and is filed under Reviews, Xbox Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.
