Hoyle Table Games 2004

My first order never arrived; I bought another. Finally it arrived, after searching and searching for a PC Dominoes game that I can learn myself. This game is so elementary and limited, you cannot even decide for yourself when you have a choice of which end to lay the tile, the computer makes that decision. Darn it. The search goes on. Dominoes has many games, complex variable games as well, and this should have supplied the options.

The games are good; however, the CD did not arrive in a box as it appears in the picture and stated in the description by the seller. It arrived in a small paper holder that one would use when burning a CD. The downloading instructions were printed on top of the CD itself. Using Windows Vista causes problems with accessing the help menu of the games. I had the original Hoyle Table Games 2004 made by Sierra but lost it. I purchased this one to replace it but this CD game stated it was an "Encore" game.

This is a good collection of games for a break in the day, or a brain challenge to keep you on your toes. It's quick, fun, and provides a variety of choices for you to spend a little "play" time.

I have heard a million reasons why inserting the CD is annoying or it could get lost etc - all of which are great reasons against requiring the CD in the drive. I always go back to consoles and think the PC has every right to require the same as the consoles. There is, however, a MAJOR thing that Hoyle/Sierra forgot and they are frankly dumb as dirt to forget this:

Who plays this game? I'd wager a very significant percentage of the purchasers are people like me that wanted the game for our LAPTOPS! I just bought a new tablet PC and would love to sit and play some simple games on the plane that don't require action or awesome CPU power and I can play while I fly or wait at the airport. I have truly abused the poor poker players on Hoyle Casino 2003 for this reason, yet never loaded it on my desktop (which plays Doom 3 quite well thank you) ;)

So, now Sierra lost me as a customer simply because I *cannot* play this game. I have no CD drive in my laptop. My other laptop I've been using has a CD drive but I take it out and replace it with a battery. Putting the drive in means I can't play the game cause it would suck my remaining battery dry. plus, other than for the game, I haven't travelled with a CD drive in years.

What a group of dummies running the marketing department at Sierra.

The Hoyle board games appear to use loaded dice in order to manage the level of expertise. Alternatively, maybe they just have a really bad algorithm. You guys understand random number generation don't you? In any case, the games can be very frustrating because the AI opponent seems to get an ideal roll of the dice way more than logic or statistics would permit, and rolls sometimes repeat themselves over and over, especially doubles.