The graphics in translations from game shows to consoles are usually not particularly impressive, and Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? 3rd Edition follows that trend. A few movies of the camera panning towards and away from the screen, the question screen, and a scoreboard are just about all you're going to see as you play the game. It's a shame something like the engine from the Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! games weren't used. Despite the low-impact graphics, the game has surprisingly long load times, stopping in between each question to read in the sound and video data.

As unimpressive as the graphics are, the sound really leaves something to be desired. While you'll hear Regis chatter a bit as you play, he doesn't read the questions and answers to you, instead using generic responses when you pick the various answers. Come on, folks. This is downright lame. You Don't Know Jack, which has been around for years, has always had read questions--and lots more than are in this game. Considering the price gouging done with the game, you'd think a little higher production values would be in order. The music's all there, which is nice, but the game is just way too quiet for my tastes.

And while it's entertaining--and crazy hard--there's just not enough in Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? 3rd Edition to warrant purchasing the overpriced game. When the only real difference between this and the last version is the questions, you know that laurels are being rested on; unfortunately, gullible consumers are going to snap it up, despite the fact that they can get the same thing for half the price on the PC.

If you've ever seen the gameshow, you know just how this works; if you haven't, you're obviously not from 'round here. There's a series of questions, each more difficult than the last, each with four choices. You have three Lifelines that can help you out of a bind; one removes two wrong answers, one queries the 'audience', and one calls up a 'friend'. The last two are usually pretty useful, although the audience is wrong plenty enough; the Lifeline is nice whenever the person that Regis calls doesn't stall and not give an answer. 50/50 has a habit of eliminating the two you'd already eliminated, but it's good for a last-ditch effort.

And so the game goes. It's you versus the question-writers, and they start off easy enough but ramp off very, very rapidly. Indeed, I found the questions on here much more difficult than the ones on the show, at least from the start; it's frustrating when you can answer 90 percent of the ones on TV yet can barely get past the 5,000 dollar mark on your PSX.

Difficulty gripes aside, this version of the game just doesn't have much staying power. Sure, there are 700 questions, but divided up that's less than fifty games; considering the fact that many of the questions are 'top level' ones that you'll almost never see, chances are good that giving this game heavy play will have the questions repeat in no time. Considering the voice acting in the game isn't really geared towards the questions themselves, it's a shame; they could have fit a lot more on this disc without compromising the game's integrity.

There's a two-player mode, but it's pointless; Who Wants . . . is meant to be a single-player game, and taking turns is a much more sensible way of doing it than the pseudo-two player mode provided.

And while price isn't usually a factor, I was rather shocked when I looked it up and saw that this game is meant to retail for 40 dollars. Excuse me? The PlayStation is a dying system, and this game is nothing but a port of a PC version that retails for considerably cheaper. While I understand market dynamics, I feel a little dirty when I see Sony pricing something like this high, knowing that people are going to buy it.

Hard. Really hard. Chances are good that unless you're Mensa level, you're not going to get far, and even Mensa level folk have to get damned lucky to get much farther. The questions range from the trivial at the lower levels to the insanely obscure at the higher ones. You can lower the difficulty level a little by playing as a group, but many of the questions are so left-field that chances are good no one will know them anyways. Steer clear if you like easy games.

Selecting the answers is simple and intuitive; using your Lifelines is the same. The game has a few flaws with the mechanics, though. Regis starts asking if it's your final answer right after the first few questions; on here, he'll often not ask it, even on the hard ones. While there's definitely less tension when you play the game in this format, the Final Answer bit is where a great deal of the tension in the real show comes from; making it pseudo-random is not a wise thing to do. The game also has surprisingly annoying load times, considering it's not even reading voice data for the various questions.

I'd be lying if I said that Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? 3rd Edition didn't intrigue me at first, but as I got into it and realized that the game doesn't have one half of the nail-biting ambience that the real show has, I found my interest waning. One look at the price and my interest fell through the floor. If the game ever hits the bargain bins I could recommend buying it; it's fiendishly difficult, but the challenge is pleasant for those willing to get beaten down by the game. At its current price and with the complete lack of innovation it offers, though, consumers would be best to buy the computer version or wait. There's just not enough here to make it worth the time or money.