Scrabble Fanatic Says: YAY!
Written: May 15 '00 (Updated Jan 21 '01)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Incredible vocabulary, improves personal skill, different levels to choose from, quick
Cons: Dictionary is not the official competitive scrabble dictionary
The Bottom Line: Recommend it to any person who plays the game casually or wants to get better.
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| KiwiNZ's Full Review: Scrabble for Windows |
I was pretty curious about this game-- I wondered if the computer would be challenging, or if it would have enough of a vocabulary to allow me to play normally.
It absolutely is and does.
At first it is a little aggravating to play against the computer (yes, *xi*, *pe*, and all those other annoying foreign letters are acceptable words), but in all honesty, it makes you a better player. Now when I play against real human players, I can easily beat them with my knowledge that the word *qat* does not require a *u*, and that the word *jo* is a handy way to dump the letter *j*. The game has a built in dictionary to verify the computers words (though do not try challenging-- it is always right), and helpful lists, like words with a *q* that do not require a *u*. (By the way, Epinions spell checker thought that *xi*, *pe*, *qat* and *jo* were misspelled...)
My game has tremendously improved since I bought this.
Apparently it has a feature that allows you to connect to other players via modem, but I have not tried this yet. The graphics are great, and play is quick with no lag, even on my 75 MHz computer. Even the sound is okay, with classical selections. However, after several days of continuous, uninterrupted play, Bachs Invention 13 was getting a little annoying (though it did inspire me to learn to play it on the piano).
When playing against the computer there are many levels to choose from-- beginner to expert. One has to wonder if the computer is cheating when it plays on expert level, though... too many 7+ letter words pop up, complete with 50 point bonus. Of course, in a sense it IS cheating, which makes it all the more impressive to beat (you need about 400 points to do so).
It is possible to play with real people on the same computer, but being able to see each others letters proves to hinder game play. And changing possession of the mouse can get annoying.
As a hardcore Scrabble fanatic, I am VERY pleased.
P.S. Check out http://beta.playsite.com to play Hasbro's Scrabble against real people on the web... WITHOUT paying anything!
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
KiwiNZ
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Member: Kelly Z
Location: Sunnyvale, CA AND Cambridge, MA
Reviews written: 29
Trusted by: 6 members
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