Customer Reviews

Masque Solitaire Antics Ultimate With 225+ Games (Win/Mac)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I own both Bicycle and Hoyle solitaire games but I play the Masque games far more. The setup - each moveable card is highlighted - makes new games very easy to learn, and the graphics are great. I did have a problem with the games freezing up (which is why I gave 4 instead of 5 stars) but a patch from the Masque web site fixed it perfectly. I have learned dozens of new games on this software, and enjoyed them all. I hope they put out more games soon. I would buy them without reserve.

I bought this solitaire collection as a coffee break package when I'm not on the net or working on reports and it is a fine piece of software for what it is. It is highly customizable and allows you to even make your own games based on rules in place for other games. The ant animations are humorous but get stale after a while. Different backgrounds, card backs, and other options make this game fresh. Recommended.

I have one problem though. The 3D option although nice, is flawed as it uses software rather than hardware acceleration which means, when playing a game like Alaska for instance, moving a large stack of cards from one area to the other causes a very jerky motion. The customer service rep who emailed me on this issue said a 2Ghz machine was required to solve this and even then it would still be slightly jerky. Certainly not a problem that should be had graphically with a solitaire game.

I still recommend the product and am looking forward to trying their card game collection to see how their canasta stacks up to Hoyle and Bicycle.

While the games themselves are OK but Masque misses the mark with its unfriendly program installation. On a Mac, the program install in a users folder (whoever is installing) rather than the Application folder. If there is more than one user on the computer you have to install the program that many times (for each user) or drag the program to the Applications folder. If you take the latter option, the user must have Admin privelages on the computer in order to save game stats. Not an option in my household. There are no installation options other than what is hard-wired so if you do decide to place it in applications folder you have to manually move it after the install. Why chew up disk space with multiple itterations of a program and why use anything that requires you give Admin privelages to a user so they can get full benefit of the game features? It doesn't make sense.

The four of diamonds has the number four, but five diamonds on it, which is irritating. More irritating are the cartoon characters wandering on and off, which I would definitely like to turn off if I could find a way to do so. There are not enough options on the plays.

I do like the choices of styles for the face cards, and am currently using the Maya royalty.

Bouth this as an upgrade from Antics Deluxe. This version fixed some shortcomings of the earlier game. I play Sea Towers almost exclusively; my wife plays a variety of games. All of our playing is local, not on-line.

Lots of unique games as well as spins on some of the old classics. I purchased this for my Grandmother and appreciated the fact I was able to adjust video settings and the size of the cards for her. She was reluctant at first, but once she started playing some of the games she has enjoyed it.

The games seem to have help functions that can't be turned off. The screen is not easily modified. Very disappointed. I have already donated the cd to charity.

There are many options to choose from for solitaire games on the market, but none come close to the Masque system. Many tout their games/programs as "the best," etc., but they're not even close. I know. I've tried them. Masque has it all right. Don't be fooled by the claims of others. I was. Now I have the best one and I enjoy it on a regular basis.