Practice makes perfect in these Olympic games.

Byline: Jim Schaefer

_ "Athens 2004," PlayStation 2. Price: $39.99. Players: 1-2; up to four with multitap accessory. Web site: www.olympicvideogames.com. Rating: E (Everyone). Three stars out of four.

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The Olympic ideal is purity, grace and sportsmanship, and that's exactly what you'll get from "Athens 2004." I wonder, though, if that's enough for today's gamers, who are accustomed to flash, spectacle and unabashed trash talk.

"Athens 2004" is an unusual game, stripped of the consumerism and star power of big-time sports. As an official licensed product of the Olympics, it carries the ideal of the Olympic Games professionally and proudly. It rightly focuses on the competition, and it allows very little room for individual grandstanding.

But will you want to play it? The answer may be spiritual. This game is pretty basic. But so are the Olympics, and that's part of the reason they've always moved me.

This new PlayStation 2 game is just in time for the Aug. 13 start of the real Olympics, making this a timely and interesting product, if one that may not hold much replay value once the games end.