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BUZZ! Quiz TV
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Graphics & Sound:
BUZZ! Quiz TV for the PlayStation 3 is the natural evolution of SCEA's BUZZ! series to high-def. The latest iteration in the BUZZ! universe looks really sharp and clean and your host, Buzz, is just as snarky as ever. Your avatars, of which you can choose the hot chick, the clumsy nerd, the vampirella and many others (11 in all), all look good and will do crazy things while they are waiting to answer questions, depending on which button you press. You can also choose from three costumes, so you have a little bit of leeway in changing up their look. When they win a round, they also have their own animations and they, too, will have off-the-wall comments to say.
Sound effects work well for the game and are quite fitting. You'll get to select your own buzz and these can range anywhere from a typical buzz-in sound, to a belch, to a dog bark, and anything in between. These aren't offensive, but rather pretty funny. As with the other iterations of BUZZ!, your host, Buzz, will make comments about your proficiency, or the lack thereof. Get used to being derided, even if you are doing well.
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Gameplay:
BUZZ! Quiz TV is a trivia game, one that can be played by yourself, or with up to 8 local friends or 4 online. There are 5 quiz channels to choose from, so there's something here for everybody. You can opt to answer questions from all channels, some or even one channel only. The channels are Music, Movies, TV, Braniac and Sports & Lifestyle. There are over 5000 questions, so there's a good bit of content here to digest. Needless to say, you shouldn't see the same questions popping up over and over. If you get bored with what's there, you can also head over to BUZZ! News and check out the user-created content from the PlayStation Network community. By logging into the MyBUZZQuiz website, you can create your very own quizzes, then upload them for others to play. The quizzes will then be rated as to how popular they are, how relevant they are, etc. There's a ton of stuff up there and what we saw was pretty cool.
In the midst of a game, you'll encounter various rounds within a game such as Fastest Finger, where the quicker you buzz in, the more points you score; Pie Fight, my favorite, where you earn cream pies with every correct question and you can then throw them in your opponents' faces; Short Fuse is like a game of hot potato, only with a bomb! Answer quickly so you can hand off the bomb to some unlucky competitor. If you answer incorrectly, you have to keep trying until you get it right... or blow up. Finally, there's Final Countdown. All of your points through the earlier matches will translate into time. The more points, the higher your pedestal is. As you answer questions, you can get a time bonus, but a wrong answer makes you lose time. When you lose time, your pedestal drops. When you hit rock bottom, you lose. He who has the highest pedestal, wins. Isn't that the way it always is.
If you opt to play online instead of locally or by yourself, simply sign into the PlayStation Network, which is free as opposed to Xbox Live. You can invite existing friends to play or allow anyone on the network to join your game. While in-game, you can play the existing quizzes or play MyBUZZ! quizzes. You can choose based on the topic or from the most popular or most recent quizzes. Playing is as simple as selecting a quiz and hitting the buzzer!
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Difficulty:
The questions in BUZZ! Quiz TV can be pretty tough, but then again, depending on whether you are playing the computer, your local friends or people online, your difficulty will vary. They are varied enough to keep you on your toes, but not so frustrating as to cause you to turn off the game. Of course, the user-created content can get pretty tough, but if you don't like what you are playing, just don't choose that quiz again. As for playing the game, its all a matter of selecting the correct color-corresponding button on your wireless buzzer. Easy breezy.
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Game Mechanics:
BUZZ! Quiz TV introduces wireless buzzers, finally! Instead of tripping over controllers that snake across your room, each player can sit comfortably, not worrying about their wires. Aside from that, the buzzers function pretty much like the old ones do, aside from the fact that you need to push the Power/Lock switch towards the Power position to turn them on. Oh, and you need to load them up with batteries as well. That was a downer, because we were all ready to play a game and we had to hunt down a stack of batteries. Now, you can still use your wired controllers also, enabling up to 8 players to participate, but the wired controller players will be jealous of the wireless ones.
Aside from that, its as easy as pressing the right colored button or simply hitting the buzzer first. There's not much more to it. Although there are over 5000 questions to play and plenty more user-created content, SCEA promises expansion packs to come, so there should always be something new to play, at least for quite a while.
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-Psibabe, GameVortex Communications AKA Ashley Perkins |
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