User Reviews (11 - 21 of 44)

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card lovers...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: February 18, 2008
Author: Amazon User

If you're an old time card player like me, you'll appreciate being able to play all the old favorites like hearts, spades, bridge and pinochle. And you can still explore several variations of poker games or relax with a nice mindless game of war or crazy eights. Or, if you're really feeling wiped out, just pull up one of the video poker emulators and you can just spazz out for an hour or two. Plays on both PC and MAC.

I love these games!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: June 16, 2008
Author: Amazon User

From the first day i installed the games onto my mac i was addicted! Beware, you will have a hard time turning the games off! Love the gin games and the blackjack. I have tried other software for card games, but this is by far the best.

Still good old Hoyle Card Games, but somethings need to be fixed!

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: April 25, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I've always enjoyed the computer versions of Hoyle Card Games since practically 10 years ago. Up to around the 2005 edition, Sierra held the license to the Hoyle name. They released fine and generally bug-free versions. But unfortunately, later on, Encore Software got hold of the license. They must have been given the source code of the program from Sierra, since their versions are so similar to the original Sierra ones. But somehow, they managed to introduce a lot of bugs, especially concerning the sound. As everyone is pointing out, the 2007 edition was terrible on that aspect. This 2008 edition had some of the bugs corrected, but you can still find some missing sound bits. For example, when playing Hearts, when the queen of spades is played, one of the characters will always say some teasing comment. Well, I could see the lips move, but again, no sound was playing. Half of the fun of Hoyle Card Games is the various comments the computer opponents tell you or tell each other. If this feature is broken, the games become kind of dull.

Sierra was replacing some of the characters every few years just to bring some fresh new blood and new comments to the opponents lineup. (You can see the previous cast from circa 2000 in the pdf manual included on the 2008 disc on page 8. Although you can't play with them, since Encore is using the newer cast from recent years). But why wouldn't they do like Sierra and replace some of the cast every few years? Probably just laziness on their part. It's easier to just rehash last year's edition over and over.

Another thing that bugs me... Way back in 2000 or probably earlier, if you played this game in full screen, it would be in 640x480 resolution, if I recall correctly, which was fine back then with the early 8MB graphics cards we were using. Sometime later, they got improved to 800x600, which was great, but they never changed since then. If you play the 2008 edition in full screen, you're still stuck with 800x600! In today's age of 512MB (or more) graphics card, this is preposterous! Even the lowest quality graphics card available in stores today could display this game in 1600x1200 without breaking a sweat. Granted, it's just a card game, but still, why live in the stone age? Maybe hiring a decent programmer would be a sound investment for Encore Software.

If you can only find the 2008 edition, buy it! The price is ok, and it's still Hoyle Card Games, after all. But if you can, try to hunt down one of the earlier Sierra releases (2005 or earlier, I think), to see how good these games used to be.

Count error in Cribbage

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: May 15, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I came upon a counting error in the Crib. I e-mailed the info to Encore.
They ignored me! I have a picture of the error.The other games might be OK but I would not buy it for the Cribbage game.

Beware

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 3 / 5
Date: January 18, 2008
Author: Amazon User

This product does not work on my Vista laptop, it will not load at all and when you ask for support help, they never answer. It works ok on my windows xp desktop. At least the music glitches are gone.

Hoyle needs to program a shuffle

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: January 13, 2008
Author: Amazon User

More games and excellent competition, however since I have owned
Hoyle 2003-2008, I feel that an oncall shuffle is required to
reduce computer control as to outcome of the games whether it
is Bridge or Poker or Cribbage. When playing with people in a sit
down game my percentages run much higher.....please introduce a
shuffle button.
Chief McCurry
USN retired
6 submarines
30 Years

What a Blast!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: January 08, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Although I've never played this game myself, I gave it to two people (both men over 65) for Christmas this year and have heard tons of wonderful comments about it already. They LOVE not only the card games - both are card junkies - but also the comraderie from their fellow virtual players. They feel like they are playing with friends and can't stop thanking ME for the gift!

Hoyle Cards

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: February 09, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I love Hoyle products and this one is no different! I love playing and listening to the characters. The games are a lot of fun and can be a challange. I like that. Sometimes I wish they were more challenging. I almost wish they had Hoyle cards in an adult version. I find myself cursing and then waiting for a response back! lol You really can get carried away. It is fun for everyone!

Do not buy for a Mac

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: April 11, 2008
Author: Amazon User

The card games all restart with the same hand dealt every time you restart the game. It is a known bug, but they have only patched the windows version.
So unless you enjoy playing the same hand every time you play, stay away.

Hours of Fun

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: April 27, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I not only bought Hoyle Card Games for myself but, also as a gift. There are so many different card games to play that there is never a dull moment. I had fun just creating the faces. I recommend this item to everyone.

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