The Beijing Olympics are about to get under way. And thanks to NBC and its assorted networks and Web sites, you'll be able to spend the next two weeks pondering the intricacies of sports you never cared about before.

But when video games become an Olympic sport, I'll be ready. Until then, I can participate in Olympic competition the same way I've come to enjoy football, baseball and auto racing: with a joystick in my hands.

• Beijing 2008 (Sega, for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, $49.99): This is Sega's second crack at simulating the summer games. The lighthearted Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games was a diverting collection of Wii minigames, but Beijing takes a more serious approach.

There are 38 events in this package, including track and field, aquatics and gymnastics. The racing events all require similar technique, requiring you to rapidly push two buttons to simulate running or swimming. Gymnastic events ask you to duplicate onscreen patterns, like Dance Dance Revolution without a floor mat. And events like discus or pole vault each have their own control schemes.

The action is beautifully presented, which almost distracts from the game's biggest flaw: It's very difficult. Beijing starts you off with ridiculously weak characters, and it takes a long time to build them up to a competitive level. The single-player mode is bound to frustrate all but the most dedicated Olympics followers. One-and-a-half stars out of four.

• Big Beach Sports (THQ, for the Wii, $29.99): Big Beach Sports brings six outdoor challenges -- volleyball, disc golf, cricket, bocce, soccer and football -- to the Wii.

As with every other Wii Sports wannabe, the games are a mixed bag. Disc golf is pretty good, requiring you to develop a decent sidearm throw, and volleyball duplicates the set-and-spike action of the real thing. Even if you're not familiar with bocce, it makes for a fun head-to-head competition.

However, soccer and football (even two-on-two) aren't well-suited to the Wii remote, and the inclusion of cricket in an American game is just weird. Big Beach Sports is a passable party game, but doesn't have the substance to satisfy a solo player. One star.

• Summer Sports: Paradise Island (Destineer, for the Wii, $29.99): The games featured in this anthology -- badminton, volleyball, miniature golf, horseshoes, lawn darts, basketball and croquet -- are ones you're likely to see Americans playing during summer vacations.

Unfortunately, only a few are good enough to make you want to stay inside and play on a hot day. Paradise Island looks like an inviting place, but beneath the lush tropical scenery lurks some dreadful programming. In lawn darts and horseshoes, for example, you're supposed to mime throwing with the Wii remote, but the game doesn't seem to register how hard you're throwing. Likewise, there's no connection between the way you swing the remote and the animations in volleyball and basketball.

Mini-golf and croquet are more accurate, and almost fun. But when you can play all these games (except for lawn darts) for less money in real life, why bother with the virtual versions? No stars.

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