Les Murray's World Football Challenge (2006)

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General		Extras
Category	Game	Interviews-Cast-Interview with Les Murray Gallery Credits More…-100 page book More…-Blank video tape
Rating
Year Of Production	2006
Running Time	?
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	None Given
Studio Distributor	Beyond Home Entertainment	Starring	Les Murray
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$39.95	Music	None Given

    First there was...Merv Hughes' Cricket Challenge and now comes Les Murray's World Football Challenge. This release follows a fairly similar pattern to the Merv Hughes one described in the review above, except that it's obviously based on football (soccer if you must). It is also quite similar to the Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? releases, without being as annoying.

    This is a trivia quiz game about world football, although a knowledge of Australian football is also essential to succeed. It is hosted by the face of Australian football, Les Murray from SBS television. As with the Merv Hughes disc each correct answer moves you up a level and you have three strikes before your game is over. Considering that there are only seven levels, three strikes seems quite generous, making it a little too easy to win. The Merv Hughes disc had 13 levels. Maybe I'm a trivia nut, however in the first dozen games I played, I beat the game 6 times. This gives you access to a code which allows you to register yourself on a website as a Grand Master. I tried to complete the registration but although it accepted my details, the hall of fame doesn't seem to update and as at the time of writing is totally blank - i.e. no names at all.

    The questions cover everything from the rules of the game to English Premier League to history to the Australian league, so there is something for everyone. The promotional material mentions that the game has 1200 questions in total, however, I did notice a few repeated questions in the games I played. Les makes comments as you go through about your answers including sometimes ranting at you in Hungarian. Unlike the annoying comments on the Millionaire discs from Eddie, these are quite fun and tongue in cheek.

    This is an entertaining game which is possibly a bit too easy to beat. It comes with extras on the disc plus some other items which are packaged along with it. See below for details of these.

Video

    The video quality does everything required for a game of this type. The questions were easy to read and the instructions clear. There are no noticeable issues. It is presented 1.33:1 non 16x9 enhanced.
    

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The audio quality is fine .

    This DVD has an English (except when Les is ranting in Hungarian) Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack encoded at 224 Kb/s.

    Dialogue was clear and easy to understand and there was no problem with audio sync.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    A surprisingly good set of disc based and physical extras are included.

Menu

    The menu was simple allowing you to play the game or access extras.

On the Disc

Interview with Les Murray (31:26)

    An interesting half hour interview with Les about football in general, his history and migration to Australia, the game in Australia and other worthwhile topics. Worth a look.

Gallery

    6 boring behind-the-scenes stills of Les making the disc.

DVD Credits

Other Extras

Les Murray's World Football Challenge Book

    A good quality 100 page book which includes the following:

• A transcript of the interview on the disc
• Les' favourite World Cup moments
• Rules of the game
• History of the World Cup (every tournament summarised)
• Australian soccer records
• Players behaving badly at the World Cup
• Les' 2006 World Cup Form guide
• 2006 World Cup players to watch
• Australian squad for the World Cup and details of their careers

Blank Video Tape

    Although this extra wasn't included with the review package, when you purchase this disc you get a 3 hour video tape to record games on. A bizarre mixture of old and new technology, but probably a useful extra for most regardless.

    This disc is only available locally but is coded for all regions.

    The video quality and  audio quality do everything required of them.

    A good set of disc based extras and bonus items.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall