Encore Card Games Collection

My review of this game is based on my many years of satisfied game experience with the old Hoyle Card Games series. This is the type of game I was looking for. This game looks similar but falls short in every way. I started with the Face Creator. In Hoyle, I was able to create a face that looked somewhat similar to my own. I could not come close to that in this game. The interface is clunky and too many steps are required to complete some simple tasks. I tried Klondike in Solitaire but could not choose the rules I wanted to play by (some options were available but not single card deal with infinite retries) and was not given the “deal a winnable hand” option like in Hoyle. That doesn’t mean you will win, it just means you can win if you play the cards right. It may give me an advantage that is somewhat unrealistic in terms of odds but as a gamer I should have the right to choose to play the way I want to. I tried Poker and I could not choose the number of players nor who the players were in the game. If that option exists, I couldn’t find it. And as a gamer for over 30 years playing all types of games that means this game has an interface that is not intuitive. Also if I was given an option to change a rule in a game I would always get a message saying “this will cause the game to restart, do you wish to proceed?”. I would select yes and the game did not restart but continued without interruption. Annoying. I didn’t care for the background options. I want a plain solid color background but everything seemed to have patterns in them which I personally don’t like. I liked the option in the old Hoyle games to be nice or mean to your opponents which you don’t get here. I like the Hoyle computer players like Captain Scurvy, Roswell, Harley and Marvin. The only non-human players I saw (I had no choice to choose from what I could find…again…not intuitive) were a dog and a dinosaur who were not appealing and had none of the character and charm of the old Hoyle games. I liked the Hoyle Bucks system where you earned “money” in the game that you could use to buy music, backgrounds, cards, face creator options, etc. None of that is here. Luckily, I still own that old Hoyle game on CD so I can still play it. If that is what you were also looking for here…keep looking…

I was really excited to get this game, which appears to be an updated version of the classic Hoyle Card Games collection. Unfortunately, there is a programming error in Spite & Malice that prevents the game play from following proper rules. This is really frustrating, as this is my favorite game in the set and it is not a common game, so it is really the reason I bought the collection. I don't know how many other games might have problems--I have only played a few of them. I contacted Encore Games about the problem, but the company did not respond to me.

A new and worse version of an old reasonable game. Hard to understand why it was developed. If its bridge you seek, Quick Bridge is far better and its free.

If you want some Solitaire games, then it's a good collection. It has 50 of various Solitaire games, and there are a lot of options for backgrounds and card designs, including high-contrast and big numbers on cards for better readability on small laptop screens. The graphics are pleasant enough. For other games, there might be some inaccuracies of how they work. It's worth noting that classic card collection is more polished and better: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1246930/Encore_Classic_Card_Games/ Except for the graphics - the new one has modern resolution support and everything looks okay on bigger screens. While the older one is low-res square resolution, which might be not comfortable for some.

I bought this game to practice bridge, but it is flawed. Dummy should reveal its cards after the lead, not before the lead. If you are looking for a decent game to play bridge, this is not the one. There are many other issues but this is a massive game-breaking issue, which should have been dealt with before this game was published. Hoyle's version of bridge was much better. I've also played Hearts, Canasta and Gin. AI is not good at all, especially at Hearts (or I play perfectly). Solitaire games are OK, if you want a solitaire games collection, it offers a lot. Overall, I don't recommend the game for an above-average or an average card gamer. However, if you are new to card-gaming, you can try a variety of games in one pack.

It did not work for my NEW Windows 11 Gaming Computer, do the math.

nooit een niet blote heer (met een of meer kleine kaarten uitkomen . Maar als het kan een § tot 9 kaart van die heer uitkomen.

Should have read the other reviews before buying... I bought this because it's clearly an updated version of the old Hoyle card game. All my old favorites are there, but this version has much more jank than the old one. Most of the games, there's no fanfare if you win the game, and then it just starts another game w/o asking if you want to continue. A lot of the variations/house rules that were in older versions aren't available, either, despite being explained in the help files (unless they are unlocked somehow... I've only played for a couple of hours, and there are unlockables, but so far it's just backgrounds and other cosmetics, so I doubt this is the case). As someone else pointed out, Spite and Malice is bugged; if you use all 5 sideboard cards, you're supposed to refill them and keep playing, but instead it ends your turn. And when the game is over, the scores seem arbitrary. Played for 45 minutes and neither person advanced beyond 11 or 12 points, despite me setting it for a 100 point game. That said, it's still the same old game, so if you liked playing Canasta, Pitch, or Skat (w/o any alternate options) in the old Hoyle, this will scratch that itch at least. I've enjoyed it for what it is, although I wish I had got it on sale; $20 is too much for a half-version of what I was expecting. I also used to have the Hoyle Casino game, and I see there's an Encore casino, which I assume is the updated version. I can assure I will not be purchasing that one unless I can get it on sale.

I played this game decades ago when it was Sierra based. I had it on my wishlist for ages and purchased it somewhat tentatively reading the reviews, but I thought I had gotten a lot of enjoyment from it over the years in the past and wanted to give it another shot now. I have to say that I am happy with my purchase. It does bring back memories of the old MS-DOS game but it also has additional new games added. Other reviewers' grumblings about different rules here or there - I wasn't too fussed about it. Look it is not the cheapest game on Steam but it is not the most expensive either. I have played it for hours. Improvements if I could suggest some - some better card fronts for those who suffer eye strain - most of them are too bright and garish and those which aren't are just novelty (i.e. the Victorian ones). Also the rendering of the full screen doesn't work on my gaming laptop. But aside from that, it is worth it. So I recommend it if you like playing a range of card games.

paid $22.00 for this game and because i selected full screen i cant get in it because the far left of the screen is all i can see>so i deleted it with plans to reinstall but now says already in library, but not on system. how do i fix this? there didnt seem to be a go back button to fix this, any answers would be of big help short of repurchasing, what ive already paid for. Anyway am stuck with no usable game cause the screen tripled in size and cant see any cards to play !!!!