User Reviews (1 - 11 of 42)

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Stick with 2003

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 148 / 158
Date: January 02, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Each year, Sierra and Hoyle have released a new version of Hoyle Casino. Each year, they have added additional casino games or new modes of play. The 2004 release of Hoyle Casino breaks this trend. Hoyle Casino 2004 adds no new games into the mix, and offers little value compared to the 2003 edition.

Other changes from the 2003 to 2004 edition include not being able to play the game without the CD in the drive. This is highly annoying for those who may wish to play the game on multiple machines that they own. Previous versions allowed you to play the game without the CD in the drive (internet play and player voices were disabled.) Sierra would have been wise to pay attention to the furor of the customers for Intuit's 2003 TurboTax release and their complaints about copy protection methods.

An additional change that I find particularly annoying is that the game pauses itself if you open a different window during play. While playing poker in Hoyle Casino 2003, I would often open a web browser and switch to it while the computer plays out a hand I folded out of. In Hoyle Casino 2004, the AI players do not play while the program window does not have focus.

While the gameplay is still the same great gameplay that one would expect from Sierra and their Hoyle Games line, the 2004 edition does not present enough value to make another purchase worthwhile.

Something's Wrong Here..

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 54 / 58
Date: January 16, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Shortly after installing the game, I start up a $1000, 14 hand Draw Poker tournament, with 8 players.

I lost profoundly. Those eight players managed to come up with SEVEN four of a kinds. Over 14 hands.

In all years of real poker playing I probably see a 5-card draw poker four of a kind one in every 100 or maybe 200 hands. Not 50% of the time.

Next tournament, first hand, I managed a three of a kind, and lost to a flush and two full houses. Just how many cards are in this deck anyway?

The graphics, sound, game choices, and presentation are nice, but with such a skewed random number generator, who needs it?

Find the 2003 version in the bargain bin instead, which looks and sounds almost identical and at least played a fair, fun game.

Cheaper than Losing in Vegas

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 30 / 32
Date: October 08, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I find the Hoyle Casino 2004 game remarkably diverse and charmingly addicting. Yes, the CD must be in the drive for the game to work. Pity the pirates.

The games seem very Vegas like and it's enjoyable to try out many of the options I would never have the guts to play in a real casino. The computer players can be amusing, but unlike other reviewers I find them dumb and unlucky. I can routinely beat them in Poker (and that's the best way to rack up lots of money quickly). To the other reviewer who felt the computer players were biased: Pal, learn when to fold!

I did find the "talking" feature to be really insipid. Hoyle needs to hire someone with talent to script the other players, so I think for the future talking computer players could be a real riot. (The drunk, the flirt, the unintelligible foreigner, etc.) And the silly "Dealer" makes comments no real deal ever would, "Player loses!" Fortunately you can turn that nonsense off.

Overall: Very fun, well worth the price. Recommended.

Copy Restrictions & Bugs (Hoyle Table Games 2004)

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 24 / 27
Date: January 24, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I've owned several Hoyle games in the past and simply cannot recommend this one. The games themselves look interesting, but the intrusive copy restriction strongly weakens the value of this product. The fragile CD must be in the drive whenever the game is played (the copy restrictions also defeat virtual CD type programs).

While this may seem like a minor issue, it isn't for me. I was burned once by Sierra when they decided to drop replacement disks for another copy restricted game years ago. I refused to buy another product from them for several years, up until Hoyle Casino last year. Needless to say, I'm not exactly thrilled to see these types of copy restrictions again. Now that I've had a sample of the new copy restrictions, this alone will prevent me from buying any more Sierra games.

But that is not all that is wrong with Hoyle Table Games 2004. I was not able to get Maximum Pool to even run (WinXP). Sierra's solution (on their web site) is to disconnect any gamepad or joystick connected to the computer. Sadly, my computer throws a fit when the gamepad isn't attached (I often have to reinstall when I want to use it again).

Finally, like many Hoyle games, the AI seems heavily weighted in favor of the computer players. I've virtually given up on Hoyle Casino because of this (I almost always lose), and Hoyle Table Games may join Casino in the closet if I don't see better results. I like a challenge, but not to be defeated virtually every single time.

Anyway, that's my take on Hoyle Table Games 2004. Hopefully some of this will prove useful for you.

No more!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 28 / 34
Date: January 19, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I have purchased Hoyle card games in the past, but after this one, I done with them. I was unable to install this game properly using Windows XP. The suggestions the "techs" gave me were of no use and almost condensending.

Stay away from Hoyle Casino 2004!!!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 15 / 18
Date: February 10, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I really wish I had read the reviews here about Hoyle Casino 2004.

I bought the game this week, and did a full install on my laptop. I use my laptop for travel, so I expected to be able to play this game on the long flights.

Lo and behold I was shocked when I found out that I could not play the game without the CD inserted in the CD-Rom.

As a frequent traveller I find this unacceptable. I tend to lose CD's when I travel, or damage them due to the hectic packing and unpacking of my personal things. I tried to make a backup copy of the CD, and found out that I have to buy a program that will defeat the copyright protection like Alcohol 120% or CloneCD.

Even if I do spend the extra money and time to make a portable copy of the original so I don't lose it or break it, I will still kill the battery if I'm on a flight that lasts more than a couple of hours. The other solution is to make an image of the CD on my hard drive, and point the game to that. This would take up more precious space on my hard drive, when the game already took up 455 MB of space on my drive with the install already.

All in all I am very fed up with Hoyle and their disdain for paying customers. I don't want to be treated like a criminal, and I will boycott all future Hoyle products.

Stay away from this product!!!

Newest revision of Hoyle Casino is the worst yet

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 32 / 53
Date: September 28, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Part of the problem with Hoyle Casino has always been that the odds have been heavly weighted toward the computer players. With this new version, it is even worse. Playing in a poker tournament, the computer players are constantly getting 3 of a kind, full house, straights and flushes, while you never seem to be able to catch these. And when you do get a good hand, they somehow end up with a better one. Also, if I was playing at a blackjack table in Vegas where the dealer was continuously getting 20 and 21 every single hand, I would leave that table. I would recommend that you go somewhere else for a casino game, this one is terrible.

I wish that I had been able to play the game somewhere before I bought it, I never would have!!!

Two thumbs down

Hoyle 2004 Card Games OK

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 9 / 9
Date: January 28, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Hoyle Card Games 20004 is OK and I got around its "Insert CD" while playing by using Alcohol 120% (version 1.4.8) putting it in a virtual drive. Now my only real beef with it, is you cant change the background when playing Crazy Eights. The Hoyle Bucks
(I used a cheat) and Facemaker is neat. If you dont like having
to put a CD in all the time, get Hoyle Card games 2003-its
basically the same game, just without the "insert CD". Odd though, I still play a 1996 Hoyle Cards version, which except for a minimum 4 players in every game, is still far superior
to the 2000 generations, IMO.

Better than I thought

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: July 16, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I have the other versions of these Hoyle games, mainly I got new ones because they had new games. This one did not so I avoided buying it.
I got the puzzle games and hated it because of the display style everything seems to tiny and you can't make it more full screen like you could in the old versions. I was really hesitent to buy this but I did anyway.
I am enjoying it. The "Hoyle Bucks" makes the game more interesting as you try to do certain things to make the money plus collect the backrounds and such. (now you are "paying" for card back and backrounds that used to be "free") I like the talk back feature. There have always been characters I wish I could tell off and now I can ;). If that gets old I can always turn them off.

So if you are new to Hoyle Card Games then get this. If you have previous versions then only get if you have the extra money or these features sound tempting to you and you dont mind having to have the cd in the drive to play.

Hoyle's little money maker

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 11 / 15
Date: October 25, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Boardroom:

Suit A: How can we rake in lots of extra dollars from unsuspecting gamers?

Suit B: I Know, lets change the year and the box, throw in some different backgrounds and sell it.

Suit A: Brilliant! why did we not think of that last year?

Suit B: We did.

Suit A: Did we? OK lets roll with it.

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