London 2012 Review (360)

[MMChrisS]

It's one of the most elusive concepts in sports videogames — an Olympic Games product that is actually worth caring about. I've actually had some guilty pleasure Olympic titles in the past that have provided some fun — Nagano '98 on the Nintendo 64 and Lillehammer '94 on the Genesis and SNES — but these games just usually lack the depth and polish of sports games that focus on one specific discipline.

The potential appeal of an Olympic Games title is that it offers tons of events to compete in, but often this spreads the development so thin that all of the events end up suffering in their design or control scheme. I won't claim that London 2012 bucks this trend entirely, as it clearly lacks certain events and is presented in a fairly basic way, but there is actually some decent value, thanks to some smart controls and well-implemented online play.

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[RUFFNREADY]

Nice review.
cheers

[Zalf]

Interesting that the price reflects in the score. I agree that at $40 the score goes to a 8 or 9. Same for gamefly where I got it. I am kind of conflicted on what part price should play in a straight review.

[franchiseplay]

i believe it released at 49.99, and now Amazon has it for 39.99

[sportznut02]

Nice review. It`s a shame that no company will put in the work to make a great Olympic game. It seams like every Olympic game is average at best. I will definitely try to give this a rent as long as Blockbuster has it in stock.

[Wiggy]

Quote: Originally Posted by franchiseplay

i believe it released at 49.99, and now Amazon has it for 39.99

You're correct. The game did launch at $50. I'll correct that in the text. Still, it is essentially a full-priced game, which is why I took issue with it as a value proposition.

I personally think that price is a factor in reviwing games, as you could just sell a game for $400 under that pretense. I think there has to be a gradation in expectation, to some extent, when price is concerned, especially when it comes to sports games. Users are often looking for gameplay and value, and price has an impact on what you might get in that regard.

That said, even a $5 game can still be reviewed properly within its own limits, as it could provide gameplay and depth of a high quality, even for its lesser asking price.

[Profit89]

I have this game. It's pretty good. Some events suck, but the track and field ones are nice.

[Dazraz]

Many developers of annually released sports games give the excuse of short development times as reasons for limited year on year improvements. An Olympic game with a 4 year cycle certainly can't make this claim yet it's fair to say, that although London 2012 is the best in Sega's Olympic series, it doesn't do much more than any of the others.
The biggest single improvement is the addition of a commentary team that, although not brilliant, has certainly brought a welcome dynamic to the games audio. There is also a plethora of events across a number of disciplines although as stated the quality of each varies considerably. Despite this there are some odd omissions from the list, whilst supporters of sexual equality will wonder why all bar one of the track events are Male only.
The move towards more timing based controls, along with the addition of using the controllers analog functions, in games such as these continues here with only a handful of events requiring the archaic button mashing of old. Much more user & controller friendly.
Overall, as a multiplayer game there is alot of fun that can be had here. For a single player though the appeal is far more limited. A weak Olympic Mode that doesn't even allow you to play out each event (You choose 2 from a list of events for each day) once completed a couple of times won't give you much reason to go back to. If you've enjoyed such games in the past then there's no reason at all that you won't enjoy London 2012, however if you're new to the genre you may want to try before you buy.

[meltsnowcx]

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[brandon27]

Nice review. Thanks. I always liked Olympic games. I played the Barcelona one for Sega Genesis alot back in the day. I might give this a shot if I can find it cheap on Ebay, or a used copy somewhere.