Customer Reviews

Vancouver 2010 - The Official Video Game of the Olympic Winter Games

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

SEGA have done a great job with the graphics and gameplay with Vancouver 2010 on the PS3. Everything looks incredible in HD on the PS3. You can tell a lot of attention to detail has gone into the way it looks and feels/plays. The movement of the skiers down the slalom is very realistic, there's a good learning curve with the Parallel Snowboard Slalom which will keep you busy, and the sense of speed on the bobsleigh events is really well done. Unlike Beijing Olympics 2008, the mindless fast-tapping on controller buttons is kept to a minimum on Vancouver 2010. Online play is a lot of fun as this game seems to be very popular in Europe, so you'll get to play against some good (European) players.

That's the good. Now let's check out the bad...

The biggest disappointment with this game is the number of events that are included. The range of events is really quite poor. There is NO halfpipe snowboarding event for example meaning no opportunity to perform tricks or show off your snowboarding skills. Snowboarding is probably going to be one of the MOST WATCHED events, yet SEGA only decided to include the Snowboard Cross event and no HalfPipe. There's no figure skating event, no ice hockey content, no curling, no biathlon, and no cross-country skiing. Yes, I appreciate something like Ice Hockey is so complex that it would need a whole game/disc by itself, but not even some small presence such as a penalty shootout? While the game lists "14 events", most of these are very similar. The Bobsleigh, Luge and Skeleton are practically the same event (just a different vehicle/sled) and most of the skiing and snowboarding events are the same.

Vancouver 2010 is fun to play, especially online, but it quickly becomes monotonous playing the same events over and over. Pricing this game at $49.99 is ridiculous. They would sell more copies AND it would be more value for money if they sold it for half that price, $25. But when will we learn? We all know that any licensed Olympic game is fun short term, but quickly loses it's appeal. If you are curious about this game, I would say give it a miss. If you are a die-hard Olympics fan and want to immerse yourself in the Winter Olympics, then I would say ONLY get this game if you can rent it or buy a used copy. It's simply not worth it for $[...]. All-in-all, it's a very disappointing game and totally overpriced. Save yourself $[...] and just watch the real Winter Olympics on TV.

Surely with the current generation of video game consoles, game developers could include more of the Olympic events instead of just the ones revolved around downhill motion (skiing, snowboarding, bobsled, etc...) Where's the Curling, Hockey, Speed Skating, etc? I would have gladly traded off a bit of the extremely detailed graphics if it meant more events and ultimately a more complete game. If I remember correctly, even the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics game for the Nintendo 64 had Curling and that was 12 years ago and two console generations ago.

Believe it or not, I read the reviews on Amazon before I bought this game and yet I still bought it. With the SSX franchise apparently dead, I just wanted to play a winter sports game and thought this would suffice. Boy, was I wrong. The reviews here are spot-on. There is no redeeming value to this game whatsoever. You get absolutely no feeling that you are part of the Olympics other than a little flag that is next to your name. The events are not very good either. The skiing events and the snowboarding events use the same controls and they're terrible. The speed-skating is so hard to do that I played it once and never did it again. The whole game is awful. I have nothing positive to say about it. It feels like SEGA just rushed out a game in time for the Olympics to make a quick buck without putting much time or effort into it. My recommendation would be that you DO NOT BUY THIS GAME.

They didn't have many events, the events they did have did not have did not have the right format. Snowboard cross for example was just a timed run, not a tournament style like the real Olympics. You have no idea how you're doing, there is no suspense as you see if your time is good enough.

In short I had a version of this game for the 1994 games and this one isn't improved by any extent 16 years later. Sega should be ashamed.

I think Sega should take a few notes from EA Sports. The 2010 FIFA World Cup game is coming out on April 27th in North America and has already attracted the attention of thousands of potential buyers online, not to mention a few hundred thousand who don't usually lurk around the internet. So what's the point I'm trying to make? The point is... When you want to build an international sporting event video game, you must do your best to ensure it really does represent the 'world'. What this 2010 Vancouver game did was pretty much isolate itself from what Olympic events should be all about, i.e. international unity.

Let's be honest, shall we? Not many countries participate in the Winter Games. So is it really hard for Sega to include all participating nations, instead of the elite stereotypes such as USA, Canada and Britain? I mean, cant they go a little further than that and try to diversify their game? The furthest theyve been from their own sphere of influence was in Beijing 2008, when they added Jamaica as a country that supposedly defined the meaning of diversity. Sorry Sega but thats not good enough.

Where's Iran? Where's Lebanon? Where's Algeria? Where's Pakistan? Where are better known winter teams such as Turkey, Kazakhstan or even Greece? How could you call this an olympic game when it doesnt even include all participating nations? I doubt Sega wouldve had difficulties acquiring flags and colours for each nation that joined the real winter games. I mean, its not like they had to buy licenses or anything, seeing as most of their teams are simply generic and the only factors that make them look seperate of each other are the flags and colours attributed to them. So Im sure its no big deal trying to add more countries in the mix, is it? No, its not. Its simply a matter of pure and utter lazyness which made Sega producers think the Olympic games are Anglo-European games instead of a 'World' event.

So besides not having too many nations to choose from, this game also lacks a more serious aspect. It lacks proper events. For gods sakes, they even missed out on biathlon. They missed out on curling. And I find it funny your front cover has a Canadian female speedskater where in fact speedskating isnt in the game! You just short track inline skating as a replacement. Good on ya, Sega! Real clever stuff!

I understand that Olympic games usually dont incorporate well-known team sports. So missing out on ice hockey is pretty much the same as Beijing 2008 game missing out on soccer and basketball. Its no big deal cause these sports already have their own successful franchises by EA Sports, Konami and 2ksports. So NHL 10 probably owns the rights to the selection of international hockey sides, so Im not sadened about its exclusion from the official olympic game, since you can simply recreate the ice hockey olympic tournament on EA's NHL 10 instead. BUT, when other sports that are usually synonymous to olympic events get excluded, i.e. cross country skiing, then it really gets embarrassing. When you miss out on curling, biathlon, cross country and long-track speedskating, then you obviously dont deserve producing this game.

Furthermore, this is kinda stupid but I thought all sports were universal to both genders? Why is there no lady's skeleton? Why is there no men's short track skating? I dont understand this logic by Sega. They have really utterly produced this game wrong!

My future advice for Sega, look at what EA Sports are now doing to the world cup soccer franchise. Theyre including 199 national teams in the world cup game, with full qualifications, regional stadiums and the whole package. The whole experience of an event! Thats how games are done. It saddens me that ONE of the most important sporting event in human history (olympics) is recreated so badly on a game that it doesnt represent the true beauty of what sports should be all about, regardless of what sport you intend to follow or play.

In conclusion, dont even bother! This game is terrible, and I only gave it 2 stars because 1 would be a massive insult and Im just not the kinda guy who insults people in massive scale.

I initially gave this two stars based on the lack of track variety. While this is true for the "Olympic games" mode (there's only one track per event) the challenges mode is rewarding and trophies somewhat easy to get.
Graphics are also good but the sound track selection is dull with no variety in genres (rock only). On the bright side, music can be muted altogether which makes the game play more bearable (Olympic athletes don't listen to music while competing anyway).
The game can be played online, on a LAN and on PSN but at this time there are no games to be found. For what the game is offering I'd say it's worth $20 rather than $40+.

I bought this game because i wanted a winter game, but when i played it , it did not like me very much

limitations ruin it events are limited difficulty is high to stretch length and limited content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..

I don't understand the bad reviews. This is a great game, you can play this game over and over. It has very good online play. This is one of the best games that I have played in a long time.

My family is a bunch of Winter Olympic junkies. This game keeps the magic alive and it will be fun playing again years from now. My son was happy to find speed skating included, which he didn't see listed until after he loaded it up. Nice surprise for him.