Reece Hoffa Goes Virtual in Sega's Beijing 2008

by John Gaudiosi

With the Summer Games set to captivate the world in Beijing, Sega has released a new PC Olympics game from developer Eurocom -- Beijing 2008. One of the athletes gracing the cover of this new game is U.S. Olympian Reece Hoffa, whose sport is shot put.

Hoffa is expected to take home gold in men’s shot put, when he makes his second Olympic Games appearance of his career in Beijing. A member of the U.S. Olympic Team in the Athens 2004 Games, he has earned a number of prestigious titles in his shot putting career including 2007 USA outdoor champion, 2006 world indoor champion, 2004 world indoor silver medalist and 2003 Pan American Games gold medalist. Reese is the reigning world champion in shot put and currently ranks 11th on the world all-time list for the sport.

When the athlete is not preparing for competition on the field, Hoffa logs a lot of time playing video games. He talks about his love of gaming in this exclusive NZONE interview.

NVIDIA: What video games did you play growing up?
Reece Hoffa: The first video game that really grabbed my attention was Chopper Command, and then I moved onto Mario. When I got the Sega system, that's when Madden took over. With Playstation I got into the Metal Gear Solid games and stuck with Madden and the sports games.

Did you ever play any of the Olympic video games?
I did. I played pretty much every single track and field game I could get my hands on from International Track and Field, Sydney 2000, Athens 2004, even Carl Lewis Track and Field. I even did the little stomp pad thing (Power Pad) for Nintendo's track and field game. I've played quite a lot of those games.

Have you played Sega's Sonic & Mario: Olympic Games on Wii?
I did play that. It was a lot of fun. I didn't get to play very long because it was one of my friend's games. That's a very taxing game. It's a little more active than I wanted to be at the time. It's really fun, though.

Based on what you have played of this game, what has new technology and graphics cards brought to this game?
I think there's a new skill level. The 2008 Games are the next genesis of Olympic games. Gameplay works a lot more on timing and the graphics are actually incredible. I can't wait for them to actually put real, honest-to-goodness track and field athletes into the game, which I think is going to be the next evolution. I know that with the new football games they allow you to create athletes and watch them evolve from a rookie that's not very good to being a spectacular player. I'm hoping that's going to move to the next generation where you take a track athlete and he's going to go to college and he may be good, but he gets beat a lot. Then you start building up his skills to make him an Olympic champion or maybe a world champion.

What's you involvement and input been with this new Beijing 2008 game?
When they approached me with the game, I think they already had a base model off the 2004 game. So the gameplay is going to be similar, but the difference will be the button part of it. I got to sit down and play the game a little bit. It's reasonable hard, which I think will keep people's interest. Right now, officially, I have the record for the 100. I ran the first 10-second 100 on the game. Tyson Gay and even the game developers couldn't get under 10 seconds and I was able to do it within an hour. I think with it being that difficult a lot of people are going to really, really want to try hard to beat some times. With the world record being 9.72 now, being able to do it on the game will be a prize, but you're going to have to work for it.

What other games do you like to play?
I'll play Madden 09, but I'm better at NCAA Football 09. That's my game. The thing is, my friends stay up all night playing these games, and I'll get a few games in. But for the most part, if I can win a game, most of the time I'll lose the next game because they know the game so well they can pick the team that completely goes against my team. They really study it.

What's it like when you're out there in front of the crowds at the Olympics?
It's actually pretty exhilarating. I've gotten reasonable big in the tour so when I go out there to compete and I can get a clap going and it seems like the entire stadium is clapping for you and it just feels. I get really energized and pumped up whenever that happens. I'm extremely lucky. I can almost feel what it's like to be a professional football player where you have 60,000 or 80,000 people cheering for you. It's awesome.