Beijing 2008

Beijing 2008 is the official Olympic video game of the 2008 Summer Olympics held in Beijing. Developed by Eurocom and published by Sega, the game was the second video game based on the 2008 Summer Olympics to be released, the first being the fantasy-based Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games which appeared in late 2007; however, Beijing 2008 is a realistic sports simulation.

Beijing 2008 features 32 national teams and 38 events. In addition, a career mode similar to that seen in Sydney 2000 returned, and for the first time in Olympic video games, an online mode is included.

Disciplines
The following events are in the game:

In addition, the game supports competition in the male decathlon or the female heptathlon, 5, 10 or 20 random events, or all of the events. It is possible to take part in all male and female events individually.

Critical reception
Beijing 2008 received a wide range of reviews. 1up gave the game an "A+", IGN gave the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 a 7.5 but 5.6 for the PC version, commenting that "They scored big here with the authentic presentation and the great selection of events but then they married it to a series of mini-games with such poorly designed controls that favor luck and callused fingers over skill and insight. Video games based on the Olympics always seem to rely more on the visibility of the actual games than about delivering inventive gameplay and Beijing 2008 is sadly no exception." GameSpot gave the game only a 3.0 out of 10, stating that "rapidly pushing buttons is not fun", and pointing to excessive difficulty.