Article: Annel Lategan from women24

Developed by Eurocom and International Sport Multimedia (ISM) in close cooperation with the Organising Committee of the Athens 2004 Olympic Games (ATHOC), this game is one of a kind. It will become the love of every athletics fanatic. Covering seven different disciplines (Aquatics, Athletics, Gymnasrtics, Archery, Equestrian, Shooting, and even Weightlifting) with more than 25 different sporting events, this game will keep you busy until summer.

Athens 2004 is suitable for one to four players. One can see the spirit of the Olympics streaming through this game because it's only in competing against your friends, family or partner, that the real essence of competition starts pumping through your veins.

Even though one can compete with the option of your competitors developing a handicap when they do better than you - thereby levelling the playing field a little - it is still recommended that those among us who suffer from bad sportsmanship do not lose!

I suggest practicing the fore and middle finger, especially for the 100m sprint and aquatic events, because it will be the "light-fingered" individuals who will triumph at the end of the day. Who would have thought that dexterity would come into play when it comes to a simple video game.

The game features seven official venues, all perfect replicas of their real life counterparts. (Luckily the venues in the game were completed before it hit the shelves!) The venues include the Olympic Stadium for Athletics, the Markopoulo Olympic Shooting Range, the Olympic Aquatic Centre, the Nikaia Olympic Weightlifting Hall, the Olympic Indoor Hall for Gymnastics, the Markopoulo Olympic Equestrian Centre, and the historic Panathiniako Stadium for Archery.

According to official Playstation 2 Magazine, "All the venues have been recreated in the game using accurate architectural plans and photography to ensure an exact replication of the real-life environments". It would have been nice to take a rest once in a while in an ultramodern Olympic village...

Just like the six dedicated channels offered by Supersport, Athens 2004 offers a sporting event to suit every palate. Whether you like running, jumping, swimming or shooting, the game has it all. And it is not all pressing buttons as fast as your little (by now cramped way past the point of Special Olympics) hand can handle. Most of the events involve timing and control to succeed.

The 1500-meter event for instance has a heart meter which runs down as you run the race. The left analog stick controls your speed. Run too fast and you tire too quickly with your heart meter dropping too soon, stopping you from receiving a big enough second wind to win. Run too slow and you get left behind. You can even sit in your opponent’s slipstream if you like.

As for the rest of it, every event uses different controls and motions to complete, hampering me from going into too much detail. Suffice to say that it really takes time to become successful in any event and this will have you playing this game well after the real Athens has packed up and changed the Olympic village into low-cost housing for poor Grecians.

The events include: