board games

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.

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.

I don't know what everyone is complaining about! First of all everyone complains about having to have the disk to play. How hard is it to it the open/close button on your computer. If any future post can tell me 5 games that have come out in the past year that doesn't have to have a cd in the drive to play, I will take it back. Secondly, everyone complains about the terrible odds. I have only seen 1 4-of-a-kind in the 10 tournaments I have played(2 of which I won.) I have turned the original 5k into a million dollars! I got this game in the 75% off bargain bin at Office Depot which made it $5. It would have even been worth the $20. This is my first Hoyle casino game so previous versions could have been better and I not know about it, but I think the game is fantastic!!!!!!