You are, you are, you are, you are the weakest link! (The Weakest Link (PS))

Member Name: kingseany

Product:	The Weakest Link (PS)
Date:	30/10/04 (56 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Lots of questions, Good likeness to the show

Disadvantages: Repetition

I'm a little behind the times these days when it comes to games. Intentionally so of course, I mean who in their right mind would pay £30 or £40 for a few hours of fun. The trouble with most games these days is that they become frightfully dull after only a few plays - with some exceptions of course. I wait a couple of years until a console is "obsolete", and the games are abundant on the 2nd hand market, for a fraction of their new cost, I'll be a lot happier. Ebay is perfect for this search, with Playstation games going for as little as 50p (plus P&P). I picked up The Weakest Link on Ebay recently for £3 or so - pretty reasonable I thought. You can also pick up a playstation for under a tenner. Amazon also have this game available very reasonably now, so check out the prices before getting into a bidding war.

This game can be played by one "human" player, and up to 6 other computer players, or as many "humans" as you can get round the TV screen (OK, 7). You each choose a character to represent you, from the 24 different ones available. Each one has a little speech to tell you about themselves, and there seem to be representatives from all parts of the UK. Each has their own very unique personality (or not).

Once you've chosen, you can choose a level of difficulty, either normal, easy or junior. Each contestant is then introduced, in the same way as on the real TV show. In fact, everything seems quite close to the TV show, including the studio layout, and the audience - although they sit extremely still. The sound and overall graphics are pretty good, if a little blocky and slow at times. There are many real clips of Anne Robinson throughout the game, and at first these are quite fun, but it would be nice to turn them off, and cut to the questions for a quicker game at times.

The game plays in the same way as the TV show, with different rounds of questions, voting off at the end of each, and less time in the next. The final round is also the same, with the winner taking home the total pot. There are however a few ways you can "bend the rules", mainly involving the way banking can be done or the number of questions in a particular category there will be in each round. Annoyingly the contestants constantly say the same phrases each time they answer questions, and when interrogated by Anne.

Apparently the game boasts some 100,000 questions. This should be enough to keep you entertained for a while you'd think. Unfortunately the repetition of speech and video clips throughout the game means, you'll probably only manage to see a very small percentage of them. It'll be one to keep on the shelf for occasional play, but not something I'll get overly excited about!

Summary: