Much like its Hoyle Casino Games companion piece, Hoyle Card Games offers up a nicely comprehensive collection of card games to while away your time, either online or offline, with free online play, including no monthly fees. A clear and eye-catching upgrade to the boring game of Klondike Solitaire included in every version of Windows since Bill Gates first crawled out of his dinosaur egg shell, Hoyle Card Games has a little of everything.

Whether your interest is Texas Hold’Em, Cribbage, Memory Match, Whist, Minnesota Whist, Tarot, Hearts, Pinochle, Skat, Crazy Eights, Gin, Blackjack, Old Maid, Plum Trees, or one of dozens of variations on solitare, Hoyle Card Games is a vast collection of various ways to pass the time with a deck of 52 cards. About the only thing missing is that middle-school classic, 52-Pickup.

Now, while the graphics are a clear upgrade from the Windows version of Solitaire, there’s nothing here that most people will need to worry about in terms of pushing their graphics card to its limits. The system requirements are appropriately modest while still delivering a sharp-looking game. And the Hoyle Face Creator offers enough variety to create an avatar to the tastes of most gamers.

Granted, Hoyle Card Games isn’t innovative or ground-breaking, but it isn’t trying to be. The selling point here is the wide amount of variety and comprehensive nature of this collection, and in that goal, it succeeds. Worth a look, if this sort of game is your sort of thing.