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Like us you may be wondering where all the reviews are for Sega’s latest Olympics game Beijing 2008. Considering the game came out on the 27Th of June and so far not one major online site has reviewed it, initial perceptions due to this are that the game is sub par and being sent out to die on the shelf, falling into all good bargain bins very soon. Games of this type always have a habit of receiving poor review scores when in reality they usually offer a very good simple and fun multiplayer experience.  While we haven’t had much time on the game so far but we wanted to put our initial impressions out early given the lack of coverage on any other site.

With this being the first proper Olympics game of this console generation all of us here at ButtonBandits HQ had high hopes for the online mode. As you will read below the implementation of this is disappointing but good enough to offer a decent enough competitive experience in the form of it’s many online leader-boards. 38 events are offer in the game ranging from all the standard track and field events to the more unusual kayaking and Judo. Some of the new game modes work well, others not so much. Basically Beijing 2008 is a fun classic button basher offering a good mix of both button bashing and skill games, with a few new elements thrown in to bring the game up to date for this generation.

If you enjoy games of this classic gameplay type then you will have fun with Beijing 2008 in single player modes thanks to the challenge of the online leader boards. It’s the multiplayer experience where as always the game shines and provides simple fun gameplay. For more detailed info on game modes and how the online is implemented read below.

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Crash Time is the worst demo ever to grace the Xbox 360 Marketplace. The graphics are decent but the demo makes no sense whatsoever, is terribly presented, has very poor gameplay mechanics and is generally just a mess of a game.

On loading the game up and once through the very cheap looking menus we’re given the mission briefing. The briefing says “TIP: try to to stop them. Try to get your oponents vehicle to spin. if you succeed your opponent will be confused. seize the opportunity to position yourself next to them”. A cut scene then plays which is basically a green car driving fast past a parked police car. We’re then treated to some appalling voice acting telling us to chase down the car to give them a ticket and So.. off we go with the game itself.

Within seconds of the actual game starting, it’s flaws are immediately visible, with the siren blazing from the police car, the numerous cars on the road just carry on regardless, you can drive right behind a car  forever and it will not budge an inch to let you past. Clearly the traffic is there purposely to get in your way, only it doesn’t. There’s enough space between the road and the crash barriers on either side to floor it with zero chance of anyone being in your way as they stick to the road while you drive down the side. Should you hit a car or even a big truck, your greeted to some appalling crash scenes where a few bit’s fall off whatever you hit and it promptly stops dead. One classic crash scene we encountered was where we hit a big truck carrying tree trunks which just exploded right in front of us while our own car just picked up a few scratches. Sadly the developer seems to think these crashes actually look good as without any announcement about whats going on, the camera changes to a cinematic view and gives you a replay of what just happened. Your then dumped straight back into controlling your car again.

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On Friday we had the opportunity to attend a Race Driver: Grid community day to get a look at the full version of the game before it’s release on the 30th of May. If you can’t be bothered to read the whole article then I’ll sum it up by saying that later in the evening I put my pre-order on in ready for release day.

Race Driver: Grid is getting a lot of attention and for good reason. It looks good, plays well, appears to have a good online multiplayer component and brings new ideas to the racing game genre that change the way you play the game. Codemasters are definitely onto a winner here. The biggest stand out and unique feature of the game has to be the highly original (in a racing game at least) flashback feature. When I first used it in the demo version I was amazed at how easy it worked and how it effectively changed the way you go about playing a racing game.

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