Hoyle Casino 2009 problems

OK everyone here is my first Post. I have copied this directly from the Hoylegaming.com Forum

None of the below information is copyrighted or illegal to copy per the terms and conditons of their website or the Forum.

My name on there is RexLeo and the below is copied from their forum.

game issue questions

Posted: Wed Dec 10, 2008 9:16 pm
by RexLeo

OK I have been playing this game since it came out several years ago and I have never seen a poorer version than the 2009 version!

Points I am having issue with:

Fortune Pai Gow Poker - Inconsistent in paying and not paying to Fortune Bet. According to the rules of Fortune Pai Gow Poker, the Fortune Bet is only paid if you have a hand that qualifies. IE a 3 of a kind, Straight or better. I have seen the Fortune Bet not paid for a Full House. I have also seen the Fortune Bet remain on the table if you don't have a qualifying hand!

Texas Hold'em No Limit Tournament -

The table has 8 places for players. My table has only 7 players with a wierd white spot on my right where the other player should appear! Once I was playing a tournament all the way to the last table and I won and my display suddenly went wild ending up with a small black square and it said Hoyle Casino had to stop. Also during that tournament an 8th player would suddenly pop in with $1000 and they never took part in the tournament!

Also I have noticed that features are completely missing that were available in the 2007 version of this game. For example you cannot change or remove players at the table like you used to be able to. Also you can not click on your player during a gaming session and see how much you have won or lost like you used to be able to. Is this a part of having VISTA?! If it is bring back the good old days!

What is going on here! After the original game came out years ago with the great software and actions the subsequent versions have gone down hill. If this is an indication of the quality or lack of it of the software I am really not impressed. In fact I am DEPRESSED.

If there is a fix for the above mentioned problems I would love to know. Otherwise I will be returning this to my local store where I bought it and buy someone elses game for casino play. There ARE other manufacturers of software out there but it is a SHAME as I have always liked the Hoyle Casino in the past.

Re: I am ready to take this back to the store
Posted: Thu Dec 11, 2008 10:43 am
by Primetime

Your feedback has been forwarded to the developers. Many of these items are known issues that are currently being worked on by the development team to be released in a future update to the game. The game is currently at V1.50 and future updates are planned to be released. Please be patient while these issues are fixed and released as an update to the game.

Re: I am ready to take this back to the store
Posted: Thu Dec 11, 2008 11:06 am
by Kim_Henderson

I agree with Primetime and I apologize for your poor user experience. We are working daily to find and fix any bugs that are showing up in Casino and Cards 2009. The community is growing daily and we are working towards a good user experience for all.

Re: I am ready to take this back to the store
Posted: Fri Dec 12, 2008 5:03 pm
by BeatBlaster

I must concur with the statements above by the disgruntled user. I too am having the issue where, in a Texas Hold 'Em tournament, the very second I win the entire tournament I get kicked back to the desktop and an error appears stating "Hoyle Casino has experienced an error and has to be closed." Now, I'm going out on a limb here and am about to wipe everything off of my PC and reinstall Windows JUST FOR HOYLE CASINO 2009 because I did buy this software along with a new notebook. So, I'm hoping there's some garbage program running in the background that is causing interference between my video drivers and whatever it is that Hoyle Casino is trying to draw on the screen. I'm a little more understanding since this is a complete re-write of the game but I must make my feelings known: it's my belief that Hoyle's QA process is flawed or, quite simply, not playing the game enough on enough different systems to catch all of these bugs. I'm still pretty upset that the gameplay keyboard shortcuts are missing from this software as they were present in 2007 and 2008 but, being the loyal fan I am, I am waiting patiently for these to be re-added to the game. Look. I work for an IT firm and we custom code applications too so I can only imagine the pressure on the coders to produce a quality product but the fact that the game is being sold RETAIL with features missing, weird graphic anomolies and functional issues is detrimental to the business image of Hoyle. I trust Hoyle software management is hearing it's customers LOUD and CLEAR so I will continue to wait for a few more updates in the hopes that this experience will improve. Honestly, I bought the game so that I could play Texas Hold 'Em and that doesn't even work right. Don't let me down Hoyle! Save me from this mess!

Re: I am ready to take this back to the store
Posted: Sun Dec 14, 2008 12:08 pm
by Primetime

Please don't wipe everything off your computer, the tournament crash is a known issue that is being fixed by the developers and will be introduced as a fix in an upcoming patch.

Re: I am ready to take this back to the store
Posted: Wed Dec 17, 2008 12:52 pm
by BeatBlaster

Well now that's not fair at all. Hoyle has my money already and they sold me a buggy product. I consider this to be a showstopper. Is there an ETA as to when the patch will be released?

Re: I am ready to take this back to the store
Posted: Wed Dec 17, 2008 6:42 pm
by Primetime

They have been introduced near the end of each month. The bright side is that they have the commitment to continue to work on it and release updates.

Re: game issue questions
Posted: Thu Dec 18, 2008 1:02 pm
by BeatBlaster

That gives me hope. Good luck to the programmers.

Re: game issue questions
Posted: Thu Jan 08, 2009 8:53 pm
by RexLeo

Well!

Here it is January 8, 2009 and it seems several of us STILL have an UNWORKING version of the Hoyle Casino 2009 and on top of that, NO UPDATES have been issued to fix any of the problems many people are complaining about.

I deplore the fact that Hoyle sold the rights to this game to ENCORE. Obviously ENCORE cares little or nothing about this and even more obvious that Hoyle is uncaring as well.

The first version of this game that came out made by SIERRA was excellent. At least the games worked. As for that matter, the last game worked at least the tournaments in Texas Hold'em worked. So if this is supposed to be the NEW IMPROVED 2009 version why don't the things that worked on the LAST version work now? HMMMMM?!

I will bet you that Hoyle decided they could get away cheaper by having ENCORE do this. We lost many great features that were on the SIERRA version. I think Hoyle thinks about their pocketbook more than the customer.

I wonder what would happen if a class action lawsuit were filed against you folks? I brought up the fact that I was ready to take this back to the store where I bought it but you convinced me not to do so because updates were coming. Well, NOW it is TOO LATE to return it to the store. As you know return policies from stores that sell software have time limits. So now I am screwed with as one user put it "A buggy piece of software that you have my money from!" Also, if you KNEW this was an issue why did you release a NON-WORKING product? Why not keep the previous working version, and maybe add a few improvements which is what MOST gaming software companies do for the newer versions!?

I just want you to know I have told everyone I know about this. When I bought this game, I worked in a technology company doing technical support with THOUSANDS of workers. I told everyone there about it. Also every time I get the chance on line I mention it to my friends, e-mail buddies etc. So believe me word of mouth is spreading.

Now just to let you know, the $15 plus tax I paid for this is not going to make or break ME but the word of mouth from all your dissatisfied customers MIGHT make or break YOU. I am fedup waiting for updates/improvements or newer versions that obviously are not coming. What are you going to do about this?

A very dissatisifed customer!

Re: game issue questions
Posted: Fri Jan 09, 2009 9:06 am
by Primetime

Encore has had the Hoyle products line for some years now (since 2005 I believe) and has shown a willingness to fix issues by releasing updates over the years. Encore's committment remains as the developers are working on fixes and once the update is ready, Encore will release the update. If history tells us anything, updates are released at the end of the month so I would look for one around that time.

Re: game issue questions
Posted: Thu Jan 15, 2009 10:46 pm
by RexLeo

Primetime:

Your canned response makes no sense. My point was that the company released a version of the game that was not even as good as the previous Windows XP edition. They also knew in advance that Vista would be coming out. The very least they could have done was release a version that worked on Vista without these so-called "bugs" in it.

You are absolutely correct that Encore took over the software around 2005 and it was a sad day when they did so! Each subsequent verion of this program has had LESS detail than the 2005 version ever had. However, the XP versions at least worked.

It is obvious that the company DOES NOT stand behind it's products nor do they care. How much are they paying you to host this forum and spout your canned responses and platitudes? Perhaps they ought to hire some decent programmers and get the issues fixed.

If you are going to be a company that is ambitious enough to release a product with several games on it and many of them do not work then perhaps you are biting off more than you should chew and should stick to something you know. If I wanted just a version of Texas Hold 'em Poker I could buy that from someone else. In fact I have bought other poker programs and I play them now rather than deal with the messed up verision from Hoyle.

The whole draw or the feature that I liked about the Hoyle Casino games was several types of games being available together. How sad that this has degenerated to such a low. It is obvious that nothing of any substance is being done and nothing will be done. By the way "Primetime" it has been 2 MONTHS since I bought the software and there have been NO UPDATES so as far. Your claim in your silly and again canned response which you keep repeating from November that updates come "at the end of the month" makes no sense and means nothing.

I want a refund check for my useless piece of software and I want it yesterday. However, I know I will never see it. Just like I know I will never see any fixes or updates.

Sincerely Fed Up