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135 of 138 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great game that could be improved, December 10, 2003
This is essentially the crystal box game (Scrabble 2) made compatible with Windows XP. It will not freeze up and works smoothly on my machine. (Some of the people below who have experienced freeze up under Windows XP are probably using Scrabble 2, not this version. They need to double-check.) There are no improvements, however, that I can see, and the claim on the package that it "Includes Merriam-Webster's Official SCRABBLE Player's Dictionary, 3rd Edition" is not quite correct since the program continues to disallow many words that are actually in that dictionary, including the frequently used "da." Use "da" in a play and Maven will dissolve it, spin your letters back into your rack, and take her turn!
Of course this is a disappointment. Also disappointing is the new music, which is as bad as the old music. Fortunately it can be turned off. Maven's annoying chortles after scoring are gone, so I suppose there is some improvement! But basically infogames or Hasbro or whoever is responsible for the software missed an opportunity to make this into an outstanding program.
Still it is a very good program and a lot of fun to play. It automatically saves all your games and under the Mini Games menu allows you to retrieve each one and have Professor Maven critique your play (and her play as well, actually). The four basic comments she makes are, "xxx is probably best," "xxxx is one of the best moves," "xxxx is a good move," and "xxxx was played." She follows the latter three comments with the question "Can you find a play at (e.g.) 8H"? or something similar.
Well, I could find the better play now that you mention it, Maven, if the board displayed the coordinates! (Squares on the 15 x15 Scrabble board are identified by "A" through "O" across the top and 1 through 15 vertically. Thus 8H is the center square while 1A is the square in the upper left corner.) Plays that go across are identified as starting at the square beginning with the number, e.g., 8H while the beginning square of plays going down begin with the letter, e.g., H8.
Anyway, you can click on "Next" and Maven will reveal what is probably a better play. And then she gives an analysis of that play, your play, and other plays comparing the points scored and the value of the letters left in your rack. This "value" is NOT how many points the letter is worth when played, but how valuable it is to have in your rack on an average basis. Thus playing "orang" is not as good as playing "along" as an opening word because, although they both score the same, if you play "along" you keep the "r" which is considered more valuable than the "l."
It would help if the program displayed these average values, but it doesn't. Incidentally, when Maven gives a play in her analysis she gives a complete identity to the play. For example, "LIMITED (5E,20,O)." The characters in the parens stand for where the word started and which direction it went (5E: across), how many points were scored (20), and which letters were left in the rack after the play (an O).
Another nice feature is that Maven gives you a National Association Scrabble rating for your play in the last ten games. Go to Mini Games menu and click on Professor Maven, and there it is. This is not the same as your rating against Maven, which is displayed on what the program calls your "Player Card" as you set up a game along with your best single play, your highest scoring game, and the number of games you have won. Maven will keep these stats for your spouse and kids as well. Of course these stats can be fudged by quitting games you are losing before they are completed, which will keep your rating higher than it would otherwise be.
A couple more points: You have to have the CD inserted in order to the play the game. Bad! Also the game works only as a full-screen game. This is also bad, but you can actually get to some other computer task while keeping the game by hitting the flying Windows key on your keyboard. Scrabble Complete will then be a minimized icon at the bottom of your screen which you can click to resume play.
One more point: you can make Maven go first by passing. Sometimes however she will just exchange some letters and you might have to pass again, which would be VERY dangerous, since after Maven exchanges letters she is increasingly likely to score a BINGO! which is very annoying. Best strategy in my opinion is to play what you can on the first play, being careful to arrange your play so that Maven cannot get a double-word score by adding an "s" (or "r" or "d," etc.) to your play. If you have an "s" you don't use it of course (unless you are going BINGO! yourself or otherwise scoring a monster). Instead you save it and align your opening play so that you can use your "s" to advantage--that is, if Maven doesn't get there first! Your having an "s" cuts down on her chances somewhat.
By the way, Scrabble Complete includes a Boggle CD-ROM game that I haven't had a chance to look at.
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76 of 81 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Engaging, educating, fun, November 7, 2002
I wasn't sure what an electronic version of Scrabble could offer me that I couldn't get sitting around a table with friends. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that not only is the Scrabble game itself very fun and well presented, but the game "extras" are comprehensive instructional tools! The many "mini games" offer opportunities to expand your word knowledge, practice making good plays on the board, improve your anagramming skills, and much more. Each mini-game breaks down a facet of Scrabble into an enjoyable practice session. There's even a very impressive "professor" tool that provides a move-by-move analysis of your past games. It can analyze your moves over successive games and offer specific suggestions for improvement, then guide you through a series of mini-games structured around your growth areas. These features offer more than just playing the game and enjoying it, and if you would like to improve your Scrabble game, or just increase your word knowledge, this is an incredible program! I had no technical problems with the software, and I find that I am playing two Scrabble games a day followed by several mini-game sessions. As a result, my Scabble scores have risen from an average of 200 points a game to 350 points a game in a very short time, and I'm encouraged to keep getting better. The only major complaint I have about the game is the astoundingly shmaltzy background music, but once I turned that off, all was fine! If you're a casual Scrabble player who wants to be a better player, or someone who loves word games, I highly recommend this software! It's thoroughly enjoyable and surprisingly instructional.
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40 of 43 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Scrabble Comp. Only Works With Administrator Accounts in XP, April 21, 2003
I have read many reviews stating the program gives a black screen and you need to do a hard-boot. I have found this to happen if the user has a limited account in XP. I installed and played the game as administrator and it worked fine. My wife tried the game under her "limited" account profile, it froze up after trying to write a registry key. This indicated to me that it may have to do with her user rights. So, I changed her account to administrator and voila, it runs Scrabble no problem. I went back and forth a couple of times to see if any thing changed. Sure enough, everytime I tried to run the game on a limited account, it didn't work. There was another review about the game playing itself using the human's name. This happened right after installation of the program, but went away after I restarted the computer. It appears that you must restart after installing the software, but the instructions don't tell you to do so.
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