Girls love peripherals, don’t they? Now, we’re not trying to be sexist, but give most members of the fairer sex a DualShock 3 and chances are they won’t know what to do with it (bar the rumble, but that’s another matter). But shove a plastic guitar/fishing rod/steering wheel/stupid golf club thing at them and suddenly their interest is piqued. Easily amused? Probably, but just check out their smiles when someone suggests a bit of Buzz! at a get-together. It’s bordering on the insane.

Thankfully then, for all our readers, male and female, Sony and Relentless have made the best Buzz! yet. By a country mile in fact. Over 5,000 questions, five different categories, really nice presentation and wireless buzzers. It’s all there, and it’s all great. As before, proceedings are introduced by the amusingly energetic Buzz, still voiced by Jason Donovan and still happy to deliver a cutting put-down whenever you mess up.

Unlike before though, Buzz!: Quiz TV adds a couple of layers of depth to proceedings. First, you can pick categories – and even make your own quiz – from the Buzz TV sofa, which is the game’s menu screen. From there, you can also play online in a first for the series, and most excitingly, download new 500-question DLC packs, which will add continued support for months to come. It instantly overcomes the number one criticism levelled at quiz videogames – repetition of questions. And with a healthy 5,000 in there in the first place, encompassing sport, music, TV and geography, and using a mixture of audio, visuals and plain old-fashioned generalknowledge questions to tease brains and tempt itchy buzzer thumbs.

The overreliance of point-stealing rounds is still a little irritating, where five rounds of dominance can be undone by lesser players, but Buzz! has never really been a game to take seriously. The irreverent nature of the questions, characters and, of course, Buzz himself help to inject a much needed dose of personality to what is essentially a board game, and the new wireless buzzers eradicate the awful tangled mess that the old Buzz! games subjected your living room to.

So there you have it. It’s pretty much the same game that it’s always been, but with nicer presentation, a slightly pointless online mode and the brilliance that is downloadable content. Your summer barbecue might just not be the same without it.

Jon Denton