What series of quiz games have topped the charts as one of world's best selling party titles on the Playstation 2? If you answered BUZZ! , you'd be correct. After six key releases on the PS2 in only three short years, BUZZ! is finally making the jump to new platforms. This winter we have been treated to the simultaneous release of BUZZ! on both the PSP and a PS3. With Matt K dishing up his thoughts on the handheld edition, I took it upon myself to round up the PS3, a case of beer and the Games Network's best and brightest quiz masters to put BUZZ! Quiz TV through its paces.

Coming across to the PS3 has its benefits. Straight out of the box you'll notice the brand new wireless buzzers and USB dongle receiver. The mass of cords attached to the original set of buzzers was always a tangled mess waiting to happen, so it's certainly a much-appreciated improvement. With the greater flexibility to spread out when playing the game, the wireless buzzers are definitely a benefit in a party situation. The buzzers themselves work great, delivering all the functionality, lights and weight of their outdated cousins. The only downfall of going wireless is the issue of battery power. The buzzers do not feature inbuilt rechargeable batteries and so each buzzer needs 2 AA batteries to get things started, which have been kindly supplied in the box. You're not using the buzzers as much as a traditional controller, so you will get a lot of life out of a single set of batteries, but it is still a nuisance to be aware of. If you don't feel like splurging on the new bundle pack, then Quiz TV works just fine with the wired set of buzzers.

Don't let the title fool you. Quiz TV concerns far more than the shocking revelations of Summer Bay and washed up Australian Idol finalists. Rather than limiting itself to any one-subject area, like previous games in the BUZZ! series have typically done, Quiz TV covers a wide variety of subject matter from general science to modern media. There are over 5000 questions on offer, divided across the game's five channels: The Music Channel, The Movies and TV Channel, The Sports Channel, The Knowledge Channel, and The Lifestyle Channel. You can either jump straight into a game revolving around a specific channel or enter Channel Hopper mode for a random mix of all five. BUZZ! Quiz TV certainly offers the most diverse range of questions in the series, but being spread out over multiple subject areas, the amount of questions for each individual Channel isn't as comprehensive as The Music Quiz or The Sports Quiz instalments for example which are devoted to just one. The unfortunate result is that it didn't take long for repeat questions to start cropping up, especially if you continue to stick to the same questions sets.

Fortunately, this is where the other big addition to Quiz TV comes in to play, with a plethora of downloadable content available right from the get go. Already available for purchase include a Sci-Fi Movie Quiz, Rock Legends Quiz and Australian Culture Quiz. Not only do you have thousands of extra questions available in packs released by Sony, but also you are able to download and create user made question sets for free. The sheer possibilities for content are endless, allowing you to prolong Quiz TV's life indefinitely.

The user created quizzes are certainly a great idea, letting you to share your niche tastes with the world. There are already question packs on topics such as Simpsons quotes, 80's Toys and The Fifth Element, allowing you to release the nerd within. The user-created content is entirely moderated by the gaming community, encouraging you to rate other people's quizzes and report any inappropriate content. As great as the concept of creating your own quizzes is, they are no match for the packs released by Sony. Questions in user-created quizzes are not read out onscreen by Buzz, which is to be expected, and as a result, a lot of the atmosphere of the game is lost. Perhaps the ability for users to record the questions themselves (through use of the SingStar microphones maybe?...) would have been a nice way of adding that much needed personality to user created content. Atmosphere aside, user-created quizzes are never really allowed to become more than a minor distraction. You are limited to creating a quiz with only eight questions, which is barely enough time to settle in for a game, let alone have any real sense of competition. Fortunately some clever users have been releasing their quizzes as part segments.

Online play is the other big new addition to the series, offering 'sofa to sofa' multiplayer for quizmasters around the world. This is great if you want to have a game on your own, but it really is intended to be more about 'sofas' competing. This concept of competing sofas is something that is really diminished by the restriction of only one buzzer being able to be used though. It would have been great if you could have had multi team play online with multiple buzzers, for some Family Feud type action. Sure it is much better to play against a human opponent than A.I., but even in the worst case scenario that you don't have any real life friends, Online play is made under-whelming by the inability to communicate with your opponents first hand. It's a party game after all and you really lose a lot of that atmosphere online. You can't intimidate your opponents or try to fool or distract them, which is really where all the fun in the game comes from.

Being a PS3 title, BUZZ! has finally received a well deserved facelift. The studio itself looks fantastic with terrific lighting aplenty, but the game still retains its simplistic charm. Buzz, the host himself, still looks just as much the muppet as he always has. Sadly his lovely assistant Rose is nowhere to be found. Many of the familiar game modes return including Pie Fight, Point Builder, Pass the Bomb, Fastest Finger and Point Stealer. A new game round has also been included called High Stakes, allowing you to wager a bet on the next question depending on how confident you are: The bigger the risk, the bigger the reward. The game ends with the Final Countdown, where the player's point total for the game determines how much time they have before the player falls to their doom. Answering questions right boosts your time and answering them incorrectly reduces it. The match can truly go any way in the last round with many a surprise finish to be had. As fun as these games are, there are a number of previous game sadly absent in Quiz TV and the number of game modes can feel rather lacking. With all the added space of the Blu-Ray disc, I really would have liked to have seen more video based questions or just simply more game modes, as it is far to easy to grow tired of the same format of questions in the same old game mode.

BUZZ! is a game best played with friends and best played infrequently (and best played in the presence of beer for those of drinking age!). It's not something you can play and enjoy day after day, but it's as good as always for a few laughs and quick game with friends. The game is certainly the most refined instalment in the series and brings with it innovative online features that fans should enjoy. With the near limitless possibilities for question packs in the future by download, you may never need to buy another BUZZ! title again. Both competent and polished, the game will please prior fans after more of the same. As someone who has only really played the BUZZ! titles in passing at parties and get togethers, I can't help but feel bored of the same recycled game modes and tired old format. There are plenty of other ways to construct a quiz game and BUZZ! could really do with a shake up.