Monopoly Party (PS2)

I bought this game as something to do on cold winter evenings and now I am totally hooked. You can play against your (human) friends or against computer players such as Granny, Baron and Creosus. You can customise most of the Monopoly rules and have the choice of including auctions, trading properties between players and a jackpot on the Free Parking space. I have had this game for quite some time and still enjoy playing it. The only bad point is the annoying little man who provides the commentary to the game but you can keep him quiet if you want to.

...because it was actually really good.
If you want an authentic Monopoly experience and a fun way to sharpen up your Monopoly skills, then this is it. If you've never played a console version of Monopoly before then perhaps it's just as well, because this one is the best yet.
It allows a fair bit of flexibility for playing the classic with menus allowing you to choose variations in the rules, a choice between the UK & US boards and several other themed boards including Sci-Fi, Prehistoric and Fantasy.
There is also the choice of Party and Classic modes. The Party mode allows all the players to roll the dice simultaneously, so as you can imagine this makes the game whiz by and you need to be careful to keep track of who's bought what, that's why I personally like to keep the classic mode for the usual pace of the game which is extremely fact if you're only used to slow family board games with your doddery old grandma playing. In fact the pace is one of the main reasons I would recommend this game, if you think that you find Monopoly boring then try this, no more counting out of miniscule rents no more arguing over who's turn it probably is and no more searching for crappily thrown dice which is now under a hole in the skirting board.
The real joy of this version comes from the comments Mr Monopoly makes as you throw the virtual dice around the board while listening to such gems as ''an excellent decision, if I say so myself'', but you might not find ''when you need the money, you've got to sell something!'' write as charming when you're having to sell off houses on the only set that might give you a chance to win.
But there are always flaws and what follows are the only criticisms I would have with this otherwise perfectly fine Monopoly simulator.
1.It's remarkably easy to discover tricks to beat the AI players, so after a few games it becomes much better to play another human player.
The AI even on the hard setting will trade almost anything at the right price, even it'll be detrimental to their game. I use a strategy of grabbing the four stations and getting a nice steady income throughout the game, it's usually a lot more effective at bankrupting the opponents than a fully hotelled Boardwalk seems to be. Even more frustratingly if you have several AI players they'll trade full sets between themselves for peanuts and bankrupt themselves and take you with them.
2. For this game to be perfect, in addition to toughening up the AI I think it'd would have gained a lot more replay value if you were able to edit custom rules yourself. Eg set the amount paid on passing go, the values and names of properties and the ability to set up your own rules for Chance/Community Chest cards.
3. Not going bankrupt quite so abruptly would add some much needed depth into the game, if it were possible to owe up to $1000 and be able to take out loans from the bank as in many board games.
4. The dice simply doesn't seem as ''random'' as it purports to be, just try building a full set and then actually getting anyone other than yourself landing on it.
Luckily this avoiding trick also happens in your favour even when practically every set is developed to the max, the computer just seems to love artificially either opponent's games or yours. Throwing a double 3 times in a row would be a rare occurrence don't you think, it's a 1 in 6 chance of throwing a double and to do that three times is more like 1 in 216. But in this game it occurs frequently, as does landing in jail, in one game I landed in jail a record 6 times, almost immediately after landing in jail I landed back in.
Music 6/10 Not bad tracks considering they are for a monopoly games
Story 2/10 One day in the 1930's a man called Mr Monopoly has a brilliant business idea, what if I were to buy up a like colour set of properties and build plush hotels on them and force people to land on them while for some unexplainable they keep walking round in circles in the same few streets.
Gameplay, if you're a monopoly fan 9/10 given the flaws, if you're not even the slightest bit interested in board games and would rather be blowing heads off in Soldier Of Fortune 0/10.
Replay. If you love monopoly 9/10, if you hate it you won't even play it once, so why even give a score for a replay.

SUMMARY.
In short it needs a bit more depth and customisation, some polish to the AI, but all-in-all the best Monopoly game yet created.

When I first heard that Monopoly would be released on the PS2/Gamecube/X-box I wasn't that bothered, quite happy with the PC version or even the board game! I decided to order it though, and now I can't get off it! This is completly different from the PC version, apart from the fact you can now play monopoly from the comfort of your arm chair, this game brings the worlds most famous board game to life, with great graphics and new playing tokens. Its great to play with your friends, or against the computer. Finally a PS2 game for the whole family, any age, any time its a great game!