WWTBAM is the weakest computer quiz game, good-bye. (The Weakest Link (PS))

Member Name: R_Easton

Product:	The Weakest Link (PS)
Date:	31/10/01 (266 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: better than WWTBAM

Disadvantages: not many questions (but more than WWTBAM), poor graphics (but better than WWTBAM)

The Weakest Link, most of you will probably know is a BBC quiz show, which competes with the ITV Who Wants to be a Millionaire? Computer games have now been released based on both of them, the WWTBAM game was released about a year ago and the Weakest Link one a couple of months ago.

In case you are not familiar with the two shows he is a brief description (if you are familiar, feel free to skip this paragraph). Who wants to be a Millionaire? has one contestant, and they have to answer 15 multiple choice questions to get £1,000,000. The Weakest Link features eight contestants, who take it in turn to answer questions. As the money goes up, they have to ‘Bank’ to get the money. If they haven’t banked, and someone gets a question wrong, all the money that hasn’t been banked is lost. At the end of each round every player votes for the person they thought was the ‘Weakest Link’. The person with the most votes is got rid of and so now there are only six players. This continues until there is only one player left, and that player gets to keep all the money earned in the game.

The computer game is based on this, except with a couple of differences. The biggest difference is that you have multiple-choice questions, as typing in the answer would take too long and there is a time limit on each round. At the start you have to choose one of 20 players to control in the game. This is different to WWTBAM as in that you type in your own name to use. The reason for the 20 players is in the game you can see the characters round the room and they all have their own voices. In WWTBAM you cannot see your character, or Chris Tarrant, the presenter.

This brings us to the star of the Weakest Link, Anne Robinson. In the T.V show she asks the questions, and insults the competitors. In the game she features quite a lot, reading the questions, talking in the cut scenes and even staring at you on the loading screen. H
er insults and putdowns also feature, and there is even a slider on the options to control how often she insults you. The Anne Robinson character has a lot better graphics than the players, which is strange as you rarely see her face in the game. The character models are basic compared to modern F.P.Ss, with few polygons and lips that don’t move, even in close ups.

There is a multiplayer mode, but this isn’t Internet compatible, so you need to squeeze up to seven people round the monitor. This is fun as you get the joy of voting your friends out of the game! There is also a single player championship mode, where you can work through the series league, aiming to win the Grand Final.

The game has three difficulty settings, normal, easy and junior. The different modes give you different amounts of help, and have different questions.

This game is graphically a lot better than WWTBAM, and has more questions. It is also less like a boring pub quiz as the quiz is more complicated. If you want to buy a quiz game to play with your ‘mates’ (if you have any) this should be it.

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