Sony Athens 2004 - Platinum

Participate in the sporting event of the year without having to train for years or even go to Athens. You could still work up a sweat, though...

This August, the Olympic Games are coming home. No, we're not talking about the Grecian city of Athens, but your own home - Athens 2004, The Official Videogame of the Olympic Games is sprinting onto PlayStation 2, and it's the only home computer entertainment system you'll be able to play it on.

Developed in close cooperation with International Sports Multimedia and the Organising Committee of this year's Olympic Games, Athens 2004 promises to capture the exhilaration and realism of the real event. Before you start thinking that this means you won't have to get up to any exercise except frantic button-bashing, however, Athens 2004 is designed with dance mat compatibility in mind.

So, if you really want to get the most of out of it, we'd advise grabbing a mat, getting on your feet and running on the spot as fast as humanly possible if you want to smash those world records like a true Olympic champion.

Athens 2004 The Official Videogame of the Olympic Games offers the broadest range of events seen in any multi-event sport title to date:

Aquatics: 100m Backstroke, 100m Breaststroke, 100m Butterfly and 100m Freestyle.

Athletics: High Jump, Long Jump, Triple Jump, Discus Throw, Javelin Throw, Pole Vault, Shot Put, 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m, 1500m, 100m Hurdles, 110m Hurdles, Combined area (featuring Decathlon and Heptathlon).

Gymnastics: Floor Exercise, Rings and Vault.

Miscellaneous: Archery (Individual 70m event), Equestrian (Individual Mixed event for Jumping), Shooting (Skeet event) and Weightlifting (Clean and Jerk event).

All of these events take place in one of seven venues: the Olympic Stadium for Athletics, the Markopoulo Olympic Shooting Centre, the Olympic Aquatic Centre, the Nikaia Olympic Weightlifting Hall, the Olympic Indoor Hall for Gymnastics, the Markopoulo Olympic Equestrian Centre and the historic Panathinaiko Stadium for Archery. All have been recreated using actual architectural plans and photography to ensure that all venues look as accurate as possible.

The same goes for the athletes - advanced motion capture techniques have been used to ensure that each of the game's 800 characters (including horses - a motion capture first) will move with the complexity, flexibility and subtlety of real-life competitors.

- Over 25 events, covering six disciplines.

- Dance mat compatibility - run to win!.

- Fully motion-captured athletes.

- Accurate recreations of seven Olympic venues.

- The only official game of the Olympic Games for home consoles.