Buzz! Quiz TV

The addition of online play is certainly welcome, particularly since Microsoft's Scene It? didn't venture into these waters, but with no real communication between the teams - apart from the pre-scripted jibes from your character - it does feel like the concept of team play is being undersold. Relentless has assured us that voice chat and EyeToy support are both things it's looking to add in the "near future". It really can't come soon enough, especially as far as EyeToy is concerned, since they would seem to be a match made in heaven. When even the most basic Xbox Live Arcade quiz games are offering camera support, it's something of a glaring hole in the Buzz arsenal.

The HD makeover is very agreeable, with familiar characters popping off the screen in their new coat of shiny graphical paint, and with 5,000 questions it's the best-stocked Buzz so far. Despite playing countless games online and off in the past few weeks, I've yet to see a single repeat. I have, however, encountered a curious situation where the subject of questions will repeat - at various times I had two different questions in a row concerning Fatboy Slim, David Bowie and South Park. The law of averages dictates that this will happen sooner or later, but it's happened often enough to be noticeable. It's not as game-breaking as repeated questions, but it is a touch distracting.

On the hardware front, the wireless Buzz controllers are exactly the same as the old PS2 version, but thanks to a generous attitude to backwards and forwards compatibility, both controller types work with either console. So if you've already got the old buzzers, and aren't fussed about wireless, you can pick up the game solus and make a nice saving. Equally, if you're still playing the PS2 games, but quite fancy wireless controllers, then you can pick those up separately as well. The little dongle pops into a USB port and you're off. It's obviously not the same as Rock Band and Guitar Hero - and I doubt you'll ever be able to use the Scene It? controllers in Buzz or vice versa - at a time when peripheral compatibility often seems like afterthought, it's refreshing to see a product being as inclusive as possible.

Now, you may have noticed that most of my criticisms revolve around things I wish they'd included, rather than problems with the things they already have. That's because while Quiz TV may seem a rather timid evolution of the series, there's very little that it gets wrong. Buzz has always been an excellent quiz game, and that's also true of this version. The ability to create your own quizzes, however small, and play against other families (or households of lice-riddled students) is certainly a notable evolution for Buzz, and for quiz games in general, even if the implementation is more of a tentative step forward than a giant leap.