Secretly, even those with strong "I'm working class, me" opinions, harbour dreams of hitting the jackpot. I'm sure a desire to see simple folk join high society by answering a few general knowledge questions lies behind the success of Who Wants to be a Millionaire?

Most of us will know at least one person who has dialled up to try and get in on the hugely enjoyable TV quiz, however, as your chances of getting through are up there with being attacked by a Great White Shark, those nice Playstation 2 people have given us another chance to play the game at home with the second edition of Who Wants to be a Millionaire - the game.

The first generation game release almost matched the phenomenon sparked by the TV show as it stampeded to the top of the game charts across all platforms and it looks set to be yet another festive favourite this year, perhaps even reaching the dizzy heights of best selling Christmas game again.

However, whether it deserves to is another question.

In case you've been on Mars for the past few years, let me explain the game.

You have to try and win a million pounds by asking a series of increasingly difficult multiple choice questions of increasing financial worth, ie you start on a £100 question and work upwards to the big £1m.

To help you on your way, you have three lifelines: ask the audience, phone a friend of 50-50, which removes two wrong answers from the potential four.

See, it's simple as well as addictive.

And the principles remain the same on the PS2. However, if the principles are the same the experience is not.

For a kick-off, the ubiquitous Chris Tarrant is present, but all he does is say how much money you're playing for.

He doesn't ask the questions, which incidentally seem to be printed in quite small text, which is a pity.

However, that famous tension-building music is there to help things along.

The graphics as well, are quite poor. There isn't actually much to see apart from the questions and thus, little to keep you interested.

I have to say, it took me a while to get through the game because I didn't feel tense enough to use my lifelines. Although, when I did I had something of a shock when I tried phone a friend, which most TV contestants keep until

last. You don't get to shout to a mate but instead get a bizarre pre-recorded voice having a stab at the answer, which doesn't really help anyone. However, apparently 100 people were polled for the ask the audience opinions, so perhaps that is a better bet.

However, perhaps the largest limitation with this game is the bank of questions. Although I didn't have a fully working copy of the game, I understand there are just a thousand questions and the same ones come around quite quickly reducing the shelf-life of the game quite considerably.

I'm loathe to sound harsh, but I think as a post-several sherries Christmas afternoon distracter it will work wonders, but I'm afraid the game will be hurled into a cupboard on Twelfth Night and left there until the next

Millennium.

To try and win a copy of the game, click on the link below:

November 14, 2001 10:30