Beijing 2008 boasts a wide variety of events, and it’s likely you’ll find most of your favorite sports within the game. Much attention has been given to track and field; players can compete in everything from the 100m to 1500m races, all three jumps (high, long and triple), all three throws (discus, hammer and javelin), hurdles and pole vault. Most of these events require alternately pressing buttons or rotating your thumbstick to build up speed, then using triggers to set angles for jumps and throws if necessary.

While the track and field events make up a majority of the games, there are plenty of other options as well, such as swimming and diving events, and most of the gymnastics disciplines. For dives, the real challenge is to keep the athlete perpendicular to the water upon entry by matching the rotation of the thumbstick to moving circles on the screen. The gymnastics events require more precision, just as they do in real life. Other sports you can try include shooting, cycling, table tennis and weightlifting. Unfortunately, you won’t find any of the “team” sports such as soccer, basketball or volleyball in Beijing 2008.

Using the Xbox Live system, players can find out how they stack up against their international rivals. Even during the single-player campaigns, when connected to Live, statistics are consistently recorded and evaluated after every event (even in Training Mode), so that you can see exactly how far you are from being a true world-record holder. Just don’t be intimidated the first time you run a race if you learn your starting rank is 67,893 out 67,895. Also, you can link up to challenge your friends to individual events and find out who is the best online.

All of the arenas and other Olympic venues have been modeled precisely on the ones used in Beijing, and with a variety of nations and events from which to choose, gamers can truly create their own unique Olympic experience and get a sense of what it’s like for athletes competing from around the world. So does this official 2008 Olympic video game grab the gold, or will it have to attempt to qualify in another 4 years?