GC '07: Buzz! Quiz TV Impressions

LEIPZIG, Germany--Buzz! has been quite a big hit for Sony, with a series of music, sports, and general knowledge quizzes in the series so far. Its move to the PlayStation 3 was always pretty much assured, but it's encouraging to see that its graduation will be more than just a mere port. Buzz! Quiz TV intends to use as much of the console's online functionality as possible, with multiplayer games, question-pack downloads, and even the ability to create your own questions to upload them to the Internet.

Not much has been revealed about the game at this stage other than a short promotional video at this year's Leipzig Games Convention. Given its planned release date of early 2008, the game was unsurprisingly not playable at the show, but the video itself gave many hints as to the plan for the next-generation iteration of the series. The core gameplay will remain the same, with players using a custom buzzer controller with one large red button on the top and four coloured buttons running down the face. The video didn't indicate whether these controllers would be wireless (as the tangling of four cables to one USB connection was one of the more painful features of the original Buzz! games), nor do we know how many players will be supported. Given that later Buzz! games on the PlayStation 2 supported up to eight players on one console though, it's a good bet that the PS3 version will offer the same or more.

The format for the game will be familiar to anyone that's spent (or rather wasted) time watching gameshows, such as Wheel of Fortune. There's a cheesy host, a glamorous assistant, and a tacky-looking set, while the contestants are lined up behind podiums that display their scores. Buzz! Quiz TV will retain the look of the previous games completely, albeit in shiny high-definition graphics. We were also able to glimpse two of the rounds that are making it to the PS3: pass the bomb, where the aim is to answer the question correctly to pass the point-destroying bomb on to the next player so as not to be left with it when the timer runs out, and pie fight, which was less obvious from the video but seemed to involve the host throwing pies at the contestants.

The big change for Buzz! on the PS3 is how the questions will be themed and sold online. The retail pack will include questions on music, sports, movies, and TV. You'll also be able to pick your specialist subject to tip the balance slightly. However, the plan from there is to release packs of questions online, meaning that you can expand the game as you please. From the video we saw, Sony plans to release packs centering on golf, tennis, and football, with many more that the company promises will offer an "endless" series of questions.

Much like it's doing with SingStar and the SingStore, Sony is creating the MyBuzz! community for Buzz!. This will allow people to play "sofa versus sofa" games with other groups of people live online. The game will also allow you to create your own questions from scratch and upload them for others to play. This means creating the questions and four possible answers from scratch. From the taping we heard during the video presentation, we presume that you'll be able to plug in a USB keyboard to speed the process up a bit.

Buzz! Quiz TV certainly has a lot of potential, and we can't wait to get our hands on finished code. Like the game itself, we have a lot of questions at this stage, and while the video did give a lot away, we're still itching to find out more. We promise to be as annoying to Sony as the host of the quiz himself, so keep an eye out for more in the coming months.