Winter Olympics? They're snow fun at all

HAVE you seen the TV adverts for the Winter Olympics yet? Dazzling and imaginative, they make the idea of grown men hurtling down a tunnel of ice on a fancy toboggan seem quite exciting. The reality is somewhat more prosaic.

Maybe it's because the Winter Olympics could never be held in this country (unless mud wrestling ever became a winter sport) or possibly it's because the competitors are roundly ignored for the rest of the time, but the winter games have never captured our attention like the summer event.

None of which bodes well for the Eidos video game of this year's event, which is held in Utah.

Salt Lake 2002 hopes to do for the Winter Olympics what Nagano on the N64 so spectacularly failed to do four years ago.

First the good - it looks as spectacular as the real thing. The way the competitors' skis leave marks in the snow, the way their breath frosts in the freezing cold and the way they bend and lean into the cornering forces is superb.

There's a pretty decent commentary from the BBC reporting team, some excellent cut scenes and an all-round polished air that's light years beyond poor old Nagano.

Initially, at least, it all seems very promising. Whether or not that promise translates into lasting enjoyment depends on how much of a winter sports fan you happen to be.

There are six disciplines available - a decent enough selection but somewhat lacking when compared to the massive number of events in the real McCoy.

You can tackle the men's downhill, the women's slalom, the freestyle aerial, ski-jumping, snowboarding and, quite literally the icing on the cake, the terrifying two-man bobsleigh.

Even better you can plug in a PS2 multi-tap (fast becoming as essential a piece of kit as a memory card) and up to four of you can go head-to-head.

The only downside to all this is the game-play. It hasn't really changed that much since the last Winter Olympics.

This is a criticism that can be levelled at many sports sims. But driving games have advanced by throwing in a degree of money management, soccer sims have upped the managerial aspects and tennis games have boosted the level of control available to players. A skiing game remains pretty much a skiing game, period.

Even worse, the PS2 already has a sublime example of the skiing genre in SSX Tricky, a title that offers more of a challenge and more fun than Salt Lake's necessarily cut-down variation.

The saving grace, for me, is the bobsleigh run which has elements of a driving sim that make it exciting and addictive, qualities missing in some of the other sports on offer.

It's a problem Konami has with its winter sport title ESPN International Winter Games, only that game doesn't have the official licence and it relies on an even older control method, that of button bashing, for interactive enjoyment.

Of the two competitors, Salt Lake feels the more modern piece of software and fans of the real thing will find much to enjoy. After all, Nagano Winter Olympics on the N64 is the only game my pal Colin plays to this day. He can't resist elbowing his kids aside to have a quick blast before work.

Sad to say, just like the real thing, Salt Lake 2002 left me a bit cold.

Sky Sports Football Manager. Publisher: THQ Format: PC CD-ROM. Price: £29.99

WITH Newcastle United riding so high in the premiership table at the moment there are probably fewer fans than normal that reckon they could do a better job than Bobby Robson.

Sadly, the number of people that believe anyone could improve Sunderland and Middlesbrough's premiership fortunes are growing steadily.

But it's never as easy as it seems. Don't believe me?

Slip a copy of Sky Sports Football Manager into your PC and have a good look for yourself.

Compared to the grand-daddy of sports management sims, Championship Manager, this new title offers flashier presentation and a more instant fix of management action. Just like its television counterpart, really.

Players new to the genre will find Sky Sports a more accessible title than the somewhat stat-happy Champ Manager.

It's easier to dip into and out of as and when you want.

The tactical side of things isn't as comprehensive as the Collyer brothers Champ Manager masterpiece but then, what is?

GIZMO OF THE WEEK

Does anyone reading this column remember the Barcode Battler? For the majority who don't, it was a small hand-held scanning device that read the information from barcodes and translated it into a game played on a sub-Game Boy-esque LCD screen.

Some codes gave your creatures super powers, others actually cost you lives; the thrill was in the unknown as you scanned in your chosen code.

Unsurprisingly, after a brief period of popularity, the Barcode Battler idea died out. The culprit wasn't so much the idea as the rubbish technology employed by the manufacturer.

Jurassic Park Scan Command is a Barcode Battler for the 21st Century.

It's a PC game plus a hand-held scanner. Just like the old Battler you scan bar codes then download them into the machine where they can be used to up-grade your dinosaurs.

Once your dino is ready for action it's time to unleash him (or her) on Jurassic Park, which is mysteriously awash with genetically mutated monsters, all looking for blood.

This time, however, instead of watching your combatants do battle on a six pixel LCD, you watch them on a high-resolution monitor. The difference is remarkable and the fun quotient much higher.

Seasoned gamers will find Scan Command a childish diversion; the gameplay itself is rather shallow. But this isn't a game aimed at adults. It's for kids and it brings a new level of interactivity and fun to the PC.

* Jurassic Park Scan Command is published by Vivendi Universal and is available from all good games stores now.