Buzz!: Quiz TV Preview

While we love to play mini PES and Halo Tournaments in the VideoGamer.com HQ, Sony's Buzz! series gets more than its fair share of game time. The problem we have is deciding which version to play, whether it be the all round Big Quiz, the Hollywood Quiz, Music Quiz or the most recent Pop Quiz. So when the PS3's Buzz! Quiz TV arrived, work stopped and the quizzing began.

Most noticeable at first are the new wireless Buzz controllers. Other than a lack of wires they seem pretty much the same as they were on the PlayStation 2, although it's worth noting that they need a receiver plugged into one of the PS3's USB ports. Once we'd stopped hammering the Big Red Button for long enough to notice the little receiver in the package things worked flawlessly and no one was at risk from tangling with cables strewn across the room.

Being a preview build of the game we weren't able to try out the game's online functionality, so we jumped straight into a four-player game. Before starting you're able to choose if you want a bit of everything or questions entirely from one category, be it movies and TV, music, sport, general knowledge or lifestyle. Effectively this gives you the options of the previous PS2 Buzz! games without needing to change game discs. Seeing as it was our first round with the PS3 game we opted for a bit of everything.

Choosing and naming your character is as it's always been. We did notice what seems to be a greater number of buzzer sound effects to choose from, but sadly there doesn't appear to be a way to properly customise your character. Still, the over the top characters on offer are brilliantly designed and look really great on the PS3. We probably shouldn't be overly impressed by character models in a pretty non-interactive quiz game, but they look great and are animated excellently.

The quiz played out as expected, with a mixture of rounds, including fastest finger, pass the bomb and the Buzz! classic Final Countdown in which your score up to that point represents your starting position on pillars. Answer first and correctly and your pillar rises, but answer incorrectly and your pillar will fall. The last standing wins. It's a great way to give all players a chance of winning, even if your performance until then has been terrible.

Sadly, the power of the PlayStation 3 didn't make us all more intelligent, but the overall increase in production values did make the game more enjoyable. It's a little touch, but with the game's surround sound the applause from the crowd makes you feel as if you're actually a contestant on a game show. Quiz show host Buzz is once again voiced enthusiastically by one-time Neighbours star Jason Donovan and the game moves along at a brisk pace to ensure you're never waiting for something to happen.

What's most exciting about Buzz! Quiz TV is the prospect of user generated quizzes and online play. This will have to wait for another preview as the functionality isn't quite ready for testing, but we could see that you can choose to filter out adult themed custom quizzes. Based on our time with Buzz! Quiz TV it's shaping up to be a fine evolution of the series, although we're yet to get hands on with the most exciting new features. Look for a full preview of the game's online and custom quiz functionality soon.