Beijing 2008 adorned with gold-medal hopefuls

By Tom Magrino, GameSpotPosted Apr 15, 2008 4:39 pm PT

Olympians Amanda Beard, Tyson Gay, Nastia Liukin, and Reese Hoffa will be featured on the US cover of Sega's world-class competition sim for the X360, PS3, and PC.

Last year, Sega split the difference on which iconic superstar would cover Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games. For the Wii and DS games, both Nintendo's mustachioed plumber and the publisher's own blue hedgehog were featured front and center. For the game based on the real deal, however, Sega has been faced with an Olympic-size pool of world-class athletes to pick up from.

Rather than risk a gold-medal debacle to rival Marion Jones, Sega has opted for four promising athletes to cover the US edition of Beijing 2008 - The Official Video Game of the Olympic Games: Amanda Beard, Tyson Gay, Nastia Liukin, and Reese Hoffa. Beijing 2008 is expected to release for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC sometime this summer. Opening ceremonies for the official 2008 Summer Olympics are scheduled to commence August 8.

Each athlete represents the best the US has to offer in different events. Four-time Olympian Amanda Beard has ascended the podium seven times in the swimming competitions, having won her first gold medal during the Atlanta Games in 1996 at the age of 14. Sprinter Tyson Gay was selected as the IAAF's male World Athlete of the Year in 2007. Nastia Liukin is a two-time world champion gymnast, and is tied for winning the most medals at the World Championships with nine. Lastly, Reese Hoffa represents the US's field competition and is the current shot put world champion.

Beijing 2008 looks to re-create more than 35 different events from this year's summer games. Adding an extra touch of realism, several of the official venues from Beijing will be featured in the game, including Beijing National Stadium and the National Aquatics Centre. Sega promises a variety of game modes will come packed in with Beijing 2008, including online competitive play.

32 Comments

  • NND1

    Posted May 15, 2008 1:10 pm PT

    I love olympic games.... this is going to be a hot summer.

  • otanikun

    Posted May 15, 2008 6:06 am PT

    Meh

  • Gameboy2k

    Posted Apr 24, 2008 8:11 am PT

    I hope this game isnt controlled like Track and Field was back in the day. Those games messed up alot of controllers on the NES. This generations controllers cost too much money to be breaking on one game.

  • truenextgen

    Posted Apr 23, 2008 2:16 pm PT

    Aghhh, will the ever grab the magic of a Commodore 64 hooked to my little 12 inch TV. With my old Coleco vision controllers plugged into it. Playing Summer games, Winter Games, World Games, and California games again haven't seen a good one like those since. But they were great back than. Good old 1985 or 84?

  • taj7575

    Posted Apr 16, 2008 7:40 pm PT

    that is true Proust. all countries are corrupt in a big way. its just some are more corrupt than others. but, in a way i also feel like China's human rights laws and other laws are bad.

    but, it is true. we all in a way need to stop being hypocrites

  • Proust

    Posted Apr 16, 2008 4:01 pm PT

    Some of you people are funny. The US is slaughtering in the Middle East at a much larger scale than China is but I don't remember anyone boycotting COD4. People should just relax and not let the media turn them into emotional puppets so easily. Every country is evil, it's best to pick on your own before picking on other peoples.

  • nytemarex

    Posted Apr 16, 2008 2:46 pm PT

    Nice, Tyson Gay is in it. We'll see if he takes the 100m/200m gold.

  • jack278

    Posted Apr 16, 2008 7:12 am PT

    First of all they didn't ban live broadcasts of the Olympic it self, they might ban live broadcast from the Tiananman Square during the Olympics, there is a difference there. Secondly even here in the U.S. we don't have true live broadcasts, we have a lag of 7 seconds on all "live broadcasts" thanks to all the whinny b******, so until you've seen and expierenced in person what's really happening on the other side of the planet, all your expert opinions don't mean a damn thing.

    I don't know the history of Tibet enough to have an educated opinion, I've never been there and I don't have a desire to go yet, but I doubt majority of the people who are jumping on this Chinese government bashing have beent here either.

    All I know is it I can't trust political exiles like the Dalai Lama, then're usually extremely biase, but who wouldn't if they had to flee from their home, for any reason, good or bad.

    Also some of our media outlets are biased as hell as well, how many of you saw pictures of protests against the Dalai Lama that's happening right now during his U.S. trip?

  • Merc1319

    Posted Apr 16, 2008 7:04 am PT

    i wonder if there will be a "silence" tibetan protesters minigame ;-)

  • snoz_dawg

    Posted Apr 16, 2008 5:11 am PT

    hehehe Tyson Gay He must of had a fun childhood.

  • thekodaman

    Posted Apr 16, 2008 2:53 am PT

    In Soviet China, games play you!

  • galduke

    Posted Apr 16, 2008 12:39 am PT

    Game's probably gonna have MAJOR lag even if you're just playing single player, considering that China is banning live broadcasts of the Olympics.

  • Adam_the_Nerd

    Posted Apr 16, 2008 12:16 am PT

    I like how news about sports is being featured on GameSpot.

  • HamsterOfFury

    Posted Apr 15, 2008 11:36 pm PT

    Let's hope that on the UK release they put on at least one out of Chris Hoy, Mark Cavendish, Victoria Pendleton or Bradley Wiggins - the best British sports team there's been in a LONG time and I can't wait to play the cycling in the game.

  • BradBurns

    Posted Apr 15, 2008 10:33 pm PT

    I wanna play as Tyson Gay.

    On an unrelated note: Chinese people rule, because Chinese swords rule.

  • Ra-Devil

    Posted Apr 15, 2008 10:20 pm PT

    You know that whole thing, you know, the one called MLG... just get that on TV... you can put it on G4, but putting it on something like ESPN would be better for overall production quality and a better audience (not a loyal audience, a more robust one).

    There, once that's done, wait for it to pan out. There'll be some ups and some downs, but in the end, it'll boom, because I don't think people truly understand how good some people are at games. Once it becomes really big, make it international. Once it's international, make a special event that occurs once a year that will comprise itself similar to the Olympics. After a few years of that, it'll get invited into the Olympics, and games will have truly become as common and accepted as walking or polo.... why is polo a sport? Anyway, yeah that's what the future would hold if this happened.

  • StricerOokami

    Posted Apr 15, 2008 9:04 pm PT

    What about the talks of making videogames a demonstration sport?

  • PiNwOrM

    Posted Apr 15, 2008 8:52 pm PT

    @Gooshnads I'm not American, so good job making yourself look ignorant by making presumptions. My god, it's almost like you're stereotyping.. Like a racist!

    And yes, the chinese government is absolutely a disgrace to this planet. Absolutely pathetic what they are doing to the tibetons. Pathetic beyond all measures.

    And your stance of "oh well, me doing something won't change anything" is a pathetic one. It's what's wrong with the world. Ever heard of Revolution? It all starts with one person.

  • Gamecube_LV99

    Posted Apr 15, 2008 8:51 pm PT

    lol @ people being brain washed by the Western media.

    The monks weren't peaceful protesters. They were looters who were committing arsons against the Chinese in Tibet. The government had to crack down, otherwise it would have escalated into a full scale riot.

    But please, keep your ignorant political rant off a video game site.

  • jon181

    Posted Apr 15, 2008 8:44 pm PT

    If it only has skankee yankee characters in it shouldn't it becaused "US track meet in beijing 2008" doesn't seem very olympic like to me.

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