The arcade mode is a frustrating experience to say the least. It begins with an initial selection of events, while the rest of the events remain locked. In order to unlock further events, you must qualify to compete and win a medal in other related competitions. For example, getting a medal in a jumping event will unlock a new jumping event, rather than a sprint event. While this unlocking technique might work well in arcade racers, it has no place in a sporting game such as this. Why you're unable to participate in your favourite events right off the bat is beyond me.

The other mode available in Millennium games is the training mode. This feature allows you to train a decathlete by choosing their training tactics, creating their training schedule for a full year, treating and healing injuries and making managerial decisions in regards to which events they'll train for and which competitions they'll be entering. The training mode acts more like a simulation as opposed to the arcade mode. You won't actually have to compete in the events, you can simply watch your athlete perform on their own. The overall design of this mode is fairly poor, however, as messages constantly appear on the screen whenever you try to do anything. For example, you're managerial assistant seems to have something to say every time you plan an event to take part in. The trainer isn't short on words either, as he continually nags about check-ups and training dates. This wouldn't be so bad at the beginning, as you feel your way around the framework, but it never stops. The object of the training mode is to get your athlete at their peak physical condition every time a competition approaches, but it's not an easy task to perform when your so-called assistants complain about every little tidbit.

The controls in Sergei Bubka's Millennium Games are a little awkward. If you've played some of the much older Olympic-style titles for the PC, you're probably well aware of the punishment your keyboard receives by the end. Millennium Games is no different, as key-bashing is the order of the day… unless you wish to use your mouse. The mouse driven control system is a welcome addition that requires you to hold your mouse button down over a little green circle that appears underneath your athletes. The circle moves during the game and it's your job to hold the mouse button down and follow the green circle around. The more adept you are at this, the more power your athlete gains. Sound realistic? Yeah, my thoughts exactly.

I'm not going to touch much on the audio and visual departments. The audio is as poor as it comes with absolutely horrible crowd sounds and effects. The graphics aren't much better with glitches all over the place, including shadows that don't match the actions of the athletes in question. The game is presented from a variety of camera angles that do a great job of bringing a television style presentation to each competition, but Millennium Games does little to make that presentation easy on the eyes. The environments are crisp in most instances, but the interaction of the athletes on those backdrops is hard to swallow. In terms of multiplayer, you can play with up to two players in a hot seat mode and up to eight players over a local network. Unfortunately, the gameplay is as painful in multiplayer as it is in single player.

With the Sydney Olympics just around the corner, I'd prefer to watch the gala than play Midas Interactive's mind-numbing variation. A game like Sergei Bubka's Millennium Games would never see the light of day in the US without proper licensing, so it comes as no surprise that this title is only available in the UK. With Eidos Interactive's Sydney 2000 just a few weeks from release, I can't recommend Sergei Bubka's Millennium Games to anybody, including those who have waited years for the Olympic experience to arrive on their PC again.