Salt Lake is a collection of six Olympic events and after selecting a country, players can compete in time trials, compete in one event, or multiple events.
Downhill Skiing, Snowboarding, and Downhill Slalom are essentially the same game. You start at the top of the mountain and work your way down while going through gates. The problem is that the camera is at such an awkward angle that you cannot see the gates as they come up. Instead of using a behind the athlete view, the game instead uses an overhead view. What really surprised me was that the camera zooms in and out when you speed up or slow down - so my question is why not zoom back to show what is coming up. Unfortunately, this one problem makes these events next to impossible to play and sucks the fun right out of them.
Bobsled is the most visually impressive and fun event in the game. I was very impressed by the 3D engine the developers worked up for this part. Instead of an overhead view, Bobsled takes a first person view. The event is played by trying to keep a box as close to a blinking circle on a 'U' shape at the top of the screen as possible. It takes a bit of practice, but after awhile you will be gaining Gold.
Ski Jump is all about timing - just move the dot as close to the target circle as you can while jumping and you will do fine. I was able to win Gold on my second attempt here.
Curling...does anyone even understand this event? Until this year's Olympics I had no idea it even existed. Basically, this is shuffleboard on ice, only with a big rock. At the end of each round, the team with the most stones near the center of the circle wins. After getting used to the rules, I found this to be one of the more enjoyable events - but it was a little too slow and boring to hold my interest for long.
