The Monopoly Here and Now edition brings one crucial change as well as many minor ones.

Changes:

Properties - the properties have been changed from the classic London locations, to worldwide locations, changing from neighborhoods and train stations to cities and airports. This is a welcome change as it makes it a more satisfying experience buying whole, much more recognizable cities rather than locations around London, even though they are well know locations.

Chance/community chest - another minor change, the events are much the same but the scenarios are different, foe example, rather than collecting $10 for you birthday, you collect it for St Paddy's day. There are no significant benefits or drawbacks of this change, however if anything it makes it less recognizable by using some country specific events.

Credit card system - there is an electronic game unit and plastic visa credit cards rather than the classic Monopoly money. This is a huge change in terms of gameplay and brings with is both benefits and drawbacks. The benefits are that you will never lose you money again, unless of course you lose all the credit cards. This is a big advantage for someone like me who is always dropping, ripping, damaging and losing the paper money. Another great thing this does is stop those cheats! It's much harder to steal from the bank because of the persistent beep the game unit makes as you type that additional 0 on the end of the rent someone pays you. The drawbacks however are significant as well. The credit card system detracts from the classic game in the sense that, taking someones card and typing numbers in doesn't quite give the same satisfaction as seeing them hand over their last dollar. It is still fun, but the physical money is what makes the game. Also the game unit can be fiddly and without a doubt takes longer than handing over a couple of notes.

It is the same game, just based on a very new and different gameplay style. I personally don't like it as much as the classic version and always end up going back to it, but that may just be because I grew up with it. This could be the way forward for Monopoly, but for anyone who owns or has even played the original, this probably won't be the magical improvement it seems to be at first sight.