Over the past decade, Sierra has used the Hoyle license well, releasing numerous titles including Hoyle Board Games, Hoyle Card Games and Hoyle Word Games. The latest Hoyle product is Hoyle Crosswords, your basic paper and pencil word game that you commonly find each and every day in your local newspaper.

Hoyle Crosswords is set up in a calendar format. It offers a daily crossword puzzle and in some instances more than one. In total there are 500 crossword puzzles, each offering a level of difficulty ranging from easy to hard. If you get stumped on a particular word or puzzle, Hoyle Crosswords offers hints to help you along. If that still doesn't do the trick, you can have the computer reveal a single letter or the entire word if need be. When you fill in a word, Hoyle will let you know if it's the correct word or not via a set of buttons at the bottom of the screen. If worse comes to worse, you can also have the computer reveal the entire crossword puzzle. In either instance, Hoyle Crosswords provides a good challenge for both the beginner and expert alike.

Visually, Hoyle Crosswords is very un-spectacular. It looks like any previous Hoyle title with its cartoon players, but in this instance I don't see the need to select a character to portray when all you're doing is filling out a crossword puzzle. The background and overall presentation is rather bland. Hasbro Interactive has always done a fantastic job bringing life to the most mundane of word and board games, a task Sierra needs to improve upon. This is supposed to be an interactive take on crossword puzzles, but it comes across as plain as a crossword puzzle in a newspaper. Character animations and speech just don't add enough flavour to the mix.

Hoyle Crosswords comes with a number of neat little features. Webster's New World College Dictionary is provided in order to look up definitions and correct spelling. A two player mode allows you to compete against your buddies or play cooperatively. There are five levels of puzzle difficulty provided to ensure that each skill level is met. You can even print out each puzzle if you wish to start or finish them away from the computer. Finally, Hoyle Crosswords offers a Face Maker that allows you to customize your character representation.

All in all, Hoyle Crosswords is simply a crossword game for the PC. There's relatively little glitz and glamour, just the usual setup you'd find in any crossword magazine or newspaper. Bottom line, it's a crossword puzzle, nothing more, nothing less.

[ 12/20 ] Graphics
[ 11/15 ] Sound
[ 20/30 ] Gameplay
[ 13/20 ] Fun Factor
[ 03/05 ] Multiplayer
[ 06/10 ] Overall Impression