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Buzz!: Quiz World

Question time.

Buzz also stores up information about how each player performs so he can make yet more snide comments. "Welcome back, Pete! Hello Ellie, last game's tycoon of trivia has returned!" he might say. "She certainly is the cleverest person in this relationship and should make all the decisions!" he is disappointingly unlikely to add.

Being called by your name really does enhance the Buzz! experience as it makes the whole thing feel more personal, and it's easier than trying to remember which one of you is player 3 or 4 and so on. Buzz's historical comments also add a dash of fun. They're better than his usual one-liners anyway, which are worse than ever in this game.

Some don't even seem to make sense ("With reactions like that, you could rule the world! No, really, you could"). Others are just plain unfunny ("Like the stake in the vampire, we're right at the heart of this round") or odd ("You were quick, but your answer was lamer than a crisp left out in the rain"). Also: "interweb". No.

Shouldn't that be, 'Which writer's idea did Dan Brown nick?'

Speaking of which, the online options have also been spruced up for Buzz! Quiz World. You can now use voice chat to communicate with other players and Sofa vs. Sofa works with eight contestants. There are more than two million additional user-created questions thanks to the MyBuzzQuiz service, all available for free via your PC or PS3. More rounds are compatible with MyBuzz questions this time and it's easier to search for quizzes by category or popularity. This is a welcome enhancement as a great number of them are stupid.

But like so many of the other changes in Buzz! Quiz World, it's a minor tweak rather than a fundamental twist. There are no attempts to head in any bold new directions here. Three new round types, one of which isn't very good, seems a bit stingy, as does the addition of only three new characters. The single-player mode is still weak, offering just two round types to choose from. And the visuals could do with an overhaul - four years on since the first game was released, Buzz! is starting to look dated.

Perhaps Russell Crowe could be the new Buzz! Failing that, Stefan Dennis.

Then there's Buzz. You can't blame Jason Donovan, he's doing the best he can with the script he's been given. Besides he's still traumatised after being lured into Nolan and Katona's terrifying sex dungeon last Christmas with the promise of jumbo tempura prawns and mini blackforest gateaux. But Buzz needs replacing with a character who's fresher, funnier and less likely to induce homicidal fantasies about reindeer. Will Smith, perhaps? Zac Efron? Ben Fogle? Failing that, an option to turn Buzz's endless wisecracks off would be good.

But some people do enjoy them, and even I am able to put up with his gurnings in order to play Buzz! That's because it's fundamentally a great game and the best option for console-owning quiz fans. Buzz! Quiz World is not radically different to previous instalments in the series - all you're really getting is 5000 new questions in a slightly slicker package. But with an RRP of 25 quid (or nearer to £20 if you shop around a bit), that's not a bad deal. If you've never played Buzz! before, and you fancy a bit of family fun round the PS3 this Christmas, it's well worth investing in Quiz World and a set of buzzers. Or, for those on a budget, perhaps just one buzzer and a couple of tree branches.

8 / 10

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