Hoyle Card Games 2008 [OLD VERSION] Reviews

• What Hoyle Games 2007 should've been...

  
  By A2PQBEWW2Q03V7 on 2007-10-05
  As anyone who bought Hoyle Card Games 2007 is aware, it wasn't exactly the most... stable program in existence. It had a lot of sound problems--sound effects wouldn't play reliably on newer computers, the background music would play the first few seconds over and over, the animation lip-sync was like a really bad Japanimation.
  
  This new version fixes all that (at least for me) and in a way I'm slightly irritated this wasn't a free upgrade for 2007 users. While the sound effects aren't absolutely crucial, playing the game in silence isn't much fun either.
  
  The game is largely unchanged from 2007 (and from what I've read it's very similar to the 2006 version). I don't mind that; there wasn't anything really wrong with the basic design, it was just the screwed-up sound effects which made it a pain. It has the same face creator, same characters, same voices, same comments (though the comments do seem to be a bit more relevant and focused).
  
  Most of the characters are so annoying that I end up playing with the bear, T-Rex and "Chloe" the workout trainer. They're harmless when the player comments are turned off, and the bear makes me laugh when he tumbles over about six times in a row (he really needs to lay off the fermented honey).
  
  New games include respectable video poker, video blackjack and video "Texas Hold'em" emulations, and a separate program called "Miami Solitaire" with a ton of solitare variations--and, believe it or not, a story mode. I don't play much solitaire so I haven't looked at it very closely, but it might be interesting.
  
  I mostly bought Hoyle 2008 because it has a decent Canasta game. There are standalone Canasta programs available from other companies, but they aren't nearly as much fun to play (all of the ones I've tried have annoying sound effects, poor graphics, odd game variations, etc.) Many of the other Hoyle 2008 games are pretty good, and there are only a few I'd rate as "this is really bad". Some standalone card/solitaire games cost as much as Hoyle; if you are interested in only a few of the games it offers I'd say it's worth the money.
  
  Be aware that Hoyle 2008 comes on DVD, and uses SecuROM 7.x copy protection in a fruitless attempt to make you keep the disc in the drive when you play it.
  
  

• Perfect for your mac!

  
  By AUCFVHFTVNV3I on 2007-10-27
  I think Hoyle has finally hit their stride.
  
  For years, Hoyle was not compatible with Macs. This year they are. I can't tell you how happy I was to find this out!
  
  For years, you had to keep the CD in the drive. What a pain that was. Now you don't have to. All I can say is, that is so good, it should be wrapped around a side of beef! (Thanks Marvin!)
  
  I love everything about this game. I love the Marvin the T-rex, Harley the Bear, and Captain Scurvy the Parrot. They make me laugh with all their funny comments. And the other characters are pretty funny too. About the only character I don't like is Hedda. But everyone else is great.
  
  And the games are incredibly fun and addicting. I waste hours every night playing this after work. Get it, but only if you like having fun!
  
  

• Finally Compatible with Mac OS X

  
  By AALBBXVPD9JQ6 on 2007-10-09
  I've loved the Hoyle game series (Card Games, Casino, and Puzzle & Board Games)for many years. But, the last Mac versions were released in 2002 and were only compatible with OS 9. These older versions were still playable on pre-Intel Macs, but the newer Macs with Intel chips no longer have compatibility with pre-Mac OS X software.
  
  Finally, the long wait is over and new versions of the excellent Hoyle Games are available for today's Mac users! :-)
  
  

• Idiosycrasies.

  
  By AW0WAX0VMWC6F on 2007-11-11
  Hello,
  In general this seems to be a good card game disc. The graphics are good and the responses are good. I will admit that I am not deeply into PC card games, mostly Bridge and some solitaire variations. In these there are some idiosycrasies. In Bridge you cannot exit the card game upon completion of a rubber using the red X. If you call up a new Bridge game, then you can exit using the red X. A minor thing, but why?
  In some of the solitaire games, Penguin for example, one cannot tell which suit a card is on some of the cards (aces for example are all bad) because the card stack covers too much of the card. This is not only inconvenient, but introduces a difficulty not intended. Before I changed to a standard deck ALL of the suits were covered!
  Les W.
  
  

• dosen't work

  
  By A6OKB19K5L1K9 on 2007-10-30
  I got this game I tryed it on a windows vista and windows xp pc it didn't work on either one I got a replacement and it didn't work either so I can't give it a good review maybe someone else will have better luck then me THANK YOU!
  
  
• Better than 2006.
  By A1BPRRT5QIKU8J on 2007-11-05
  It is much better and has more games than 2006. I didn't buy the 2007 one because of all the problems with it. No problems with this one. I use it on Windows XP Home edition. It does use a 1 gigabyte of hard drive space (says it does). New games with it to.
  
  
  
• Hoyle Card Games 2008
  By A1H5FRNYS3I4VB on 2008-01-18
  I bought this game to replace Hoyle Classic Card Games, and was disappointed that many features I liked have disappeared. My main interest was bridge, but I don't like this version at all. Re-play hand and re-bid were good features for skill development and they're not there anymore. I'll have to buy a program devoted exclusively to bridge. Other games such as cribbage, gin and euchre seem to be pretty good.
  
  They went to a lot of trouble for character creation so you can customize your image: different hair styles and colors, features, accessories, etc. Not important to me.
  
  
• Hoyle returns for Mac OSX!
  By A1OD5F83ZA8O95 on 2008-02-23
  Shuffle the cards and get ready to deal yourself in.... I am so happy that Hoyle finally updated their card games software to include Mac, but I do have to say "shame on Hoyle" for neglecting updating to OSX and making Mac users wait so long.
  I used to play on the old software in classic mode, but once you update your hardware past a a certain point it won't work. But never fear -- all the same games and characters from the old version are back and are as mouthy as ever.
  
  I have been using this software for several weeks now and I have not had one glitch or anything.... I also love the fact that you don't need to have the CD in the drive to play anymore. That is a great improvement.
  I like the new Face Creator and I like the concept of being able to unlock other aspects of the games, although obtaining Hoyle Bucks is way too easy.
  
  This is a good software value - hours and hours and hours of gameplay.
  
  
• encore inproves
  By A22IZV226PIAG0 on 2007-10-06
  Hello Encore has improved all card, board, puzzle and casino 2006 titles had sound problems and animations lip syche was off and the soundtrack got stuck in a loop so I went back to the 2005 version. As to new content and face maker nothing new, some new games and new theme song for card game and new theme song for the board and puzzle and new soundtracks in both. Still it is much better then the 2006 versions the card theme is a great tune and I found myself toe taping to the tune.
  
  
• Great Game! Still has bugs...
  By A1TO13NWVJX573 on 2007-11-13
  I've been playing card games under the Hoyle name since the early 90s. the current versions are a far cry better than the originals (I think you might have had to put the floppy disk in the computer to get the game to play... definitely old school...)
  
  Anyways, I'm VERY happy that this is finally supported on the Mac platform, since any of the other card game programs for the Mac seem to be about the same level of graphics that the early 90s Hoyle card games had when I played them on a Tandy 1000... The interface is a whole lot more fun than the Masque games that are available for the Mac.
  
  I had to downgrade it to only 4 stars, though because there are several significant bugs in the underpinnings. Hoyle Bucks do not work in Cribbage (which is a real bummer for me, since that's my favorite game). Cribbage statistics are also not accrued. This has been a problem since the 2005 AND 2006 iteration of the game (played on a Dell before switching to Mac), so you'd think that they would have fixed it by now. And every time I start a new session and play the solitaire game "Penguin" it gives me the same deal, which since it's a fairly easy hand to win, I don't mind the extra [...] Hoyle Bucks for winning it every time. Hm... maybe I should start timing myself on it and competing with myself to see how quickly I can win the same hand.... At least all the subsequent games are different. I have contacted Encore's support with questions about these bugs, but so far have gotten no response.
  
  The video poker and video blackjack are fairly entertaining new additions.
  
  Overall, an excellent computer card game. Perhaps Hoyle should find a new programmer, though. One with some attention to detail this time?
  
  
  
• card lovers...
  By A1B258U4S34KC3 on 2008-02-18
  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!
  By A1HBWTHP3P0J74 on 2008-06-16
  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.
  
  
• Beware
  By A1A87R8XV2HVG7 on 2008-01-18
  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.
  
  
• Still good old Hoyle Card Games, but somethings need to be fixed!
  By A1L4PAX3YJI0JO on 2008-04-25
  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.
  
  
• Hoyle needs to program a shuffle
  By A33FFU9CERIRDO on 2008-01-13
  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
  
  
• Count error in Cribbage
  By A30QTKAT3QKD7V on 2008-05-15
  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.
  
  
• Hoyle Card Games 2008
  By A2RKS17JDMESW5 on 2008-06-03
  Don't buy Hoyle Card Games 2008 if you already have the 2005 version. The 2008 software has the exact same games programmed into the software for Bridge, Gin, Rummy 500, Pinochle, etc. No new "deals". What a waste!
  
  
  
• Save Your Money
  By A2MFQ75UT9AQB7 on 2008-08-27
  Save your money. The games are fun and work well. However, there are very few variations. The bridge, Blackjack and Solitare all only have maybe a dozen games and then repeats. It is pretty bad when you play bridge and by looking at your hand you know the winning bid and the play of the game. The same is true for all of the games. There has to be something better out there.
  
  
• Hoyle Cards Games 2008
  By AEY98APE94D15 on 2007-12-20
  If you enjoy Hearts this is not the software for an enjoyable game. I play to unwind and relax with winning great on occasions. Heartwood Hearts is much better. Hoyle Battleship is fine (on another CD)...I'm not a diehard player of anything and only play for relaxing...enough brain work during the day. Save your money.
  
  
• What a Blast!
  By AW7XEO5MVSZOR on 2008-01-08
  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
  By A30S1LK3GYKFJ0 on 2008-02-09
  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
  By A3PQBHBK9HL3I6 on 2008-04-11
  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
  By A2R3E8DW20PARP on 2008-04-27
  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.
  
  
• card game review.
  By A1HA5WNUAZDUEB on 2008-05-15
  I found the product to be very good.The information on the product before purchasing it was accurate and what I wanted to know.I like the graphics and the ease of use of the product.I like the casino games because It seem as though you are really in a casino playing with different people.All in all I found the product very entertaining and fun.And look forward to purchasing other products along this line.Thank You Very Much.
  
  
• Don't order this game if you have an HP computer
  By A154482EZUC9OK on 2008-06-16
  I recently bought 2 copies of this game. My brother's copy installed and works fine on his Dell desktop running Windows Vista. My copy installed and works fine on my Toshiba laptop running Windows XP. Neither copy will install on HP Pavilion running Windows XP. It crashes the computer everytime I try to install it.
  
  This is the only Hoyle game that has not worked on my desktop computer. It is also the only game of any kind that was designed to work with XP and hasn't worked.
  
  
  
  
• Bought it for Mac
  By A1MNC0HQKNI39 on 2008-10-03
  This is a pretty good game for the Mac; it's a card game, so you get pretty much what you expect. There is a nice selection of games, so you can switch around if you get tired of one. The downside to it is some of the cornball elements like cheesy characters that want to talk and give bad one liners during game play. Fortunately you can disable that. The graphics are also a little low grade, and the dealing of the cards is a little slow for my taste in some instances, like when playing spades or poker. Otherwise, a fun game and good distraction.
  
  
• Have time to kill!
  By A1W3ZBVGSPA4PJ on 2008-03-29
  Fun card games with silly and fun charactors to play with. They can be annoying though. Especially if you are loosing. Be sure you have a lot of time to kill. You won't want to stop. You are going to want to beat that annoying player that was just being rude to you.
  
  
• Lots of Fun!
  By A1HRWR9DGYBDMZ on 2008-04-02
  My mother had this game and brought it once while visiting. When she left I had to buy it! My kids ages 10, 7 and 5 all love it. I could spend hours playing it too!
  
  
• Hoyle Card Game
  By A26Q9CKGJWLHEE on 2008-04-20
  This works without a glitch on my iMac. Easy to install,easy to play. I'm so glad to finally have all these card games available.
  
  
• Works great with Vista!
  By A17W8HHVNRUCTN on 2008-05-20
  After the fiasco with the 2007 version, this one works great with Vista. Great fun for hours of entertainment. Runs solid - no errors or computer crashes.
  
  

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