Despite some mechanical flaws in this version, Trivial Pursuit is still a fun way to hang out with a group of friends.
They've implemented some cool gameplay to change up the TP formula and adapt it well to a video game, like occasionally choosing from photographs and map locations instead of just phrases, or illustrating a question with a photo, which livens up the game from just a wall of text. The tokens/gamepieces and the board itself are animated, and on two modes, the board itself shifts and changes, which is neat. The announcer was a bit repetitive after a while, so we turned him off in the options. Since audio is involved in the game, I'm curious that audio samples aren't used in questions, but that may be a data storage issue.
I do have a few issues with the game design, however. The timer in the single-player mode does not stop or even slow during the token movement animations, some of which are slower than others, and that, after a wedge is won, the timer resumes countdown before the player regains control of the dice to roll. If you're playing the timed single-player mode, Clear the Board, your lack of control over the board during the game's animation sequences add to your time. The timer is a minor issue, but it's a point of fairness.
My biggest gripe is that the interactive questions are erratic. On map questions, without maplines, the cities and locations in question seem to move depending on the question, while on some maps you get to choose the correct map "pin" and sometimes you have to place it yourself, so if you don't get quite close enough (good luck trying to see it well enough to suit on a CRT television), you lose. Also, in the numerical slider bar questions, being five years off will get you a wedge, but coming within .04 percentage points won't. The winning criteria range seems erratic at best, and we've not yet figured out how it's calculated. Apparently, it depends on which stickler wrote the question. Incidentally, Will Smith is 6.16 feet tall. 6.20 won't do it.
I do, however, love the bonus gameplay modes in the Facts & Friends mode, and the way that, unlike Classic game, turns alternate, and your turn involves your friends betting on your knowledge, so nobody is ever really out of the action and getting bored while someone runs the board on a good streak.
We have started to see questions repeat after only playing for a couple days, so the question database isn't nearly as robust as one would think it should be, certainly not as much as the two boxes of cards in the physical version. There are only two content packs currently available for download (not a fault since it's only four months after the game's release), the (often obscure) Movies freebie, and Television for 400 MS points. It would be nice to see something less pop culture-y and more substantial up there, assuming EA plans to release more question packs in the future.
Trivial Pursuit has been a fun way to spend an evening with friends for nearly 30 years, and the video game version is no exception. (Be advised you can't play online if your friend is at their own Xbox, however. Multiplayer is local only, an odd choice for a game that is multiplayer at its heart on a system famed for its online capabilities.) There are still trick questions that will make you facepalm yourself, and the aforementioned technical difficulties, but at its heart, this is still Trivial Pursuit, with which everyone gets to show off a little and have fun. Perhaps the best part is that while you're playing, nobody can smack the table and knock your pie piece off the board!