It's become a holiday tradition of sorts, having a new release of the Hoyle series from Sierra. Last year the new editions mixed and resorted the games, with a few new titles, but no really new content. This year sees some new content, plus enhanced graphics.

Hoyle Table Games 2004 is the renamed Hoyle Board Games 2003, and offers eighteen board games: Backgammon, Battling Ships, Bump'em, Checkers, Chess, Chinese Checkers, Dominoes, DoubleCross, Gravity Tiles, Mahjong Tiles, Master Match, Pachisi, Masimum Pool Reversi, Rummy Squares, Word Yacht, Wordox, and Yacht. The only change is the deletion of Mancala and the insertion of Maximum Pool. As in last year's editions, there are two PDA games as well, Mahjong Tiles and Placer Racer (was Backgammon in the 2003 edition).

New to this 2004 edition are Hoyle Bucks, enhanced decorative game content available for download with "Bucks" won during gameplay; in-game tutorials, animated step-by-step tutorials on each game; and BackTalk, positive or negative comments that players can choose to commemorate a particular play. Not touted as new, the graphics do look to be updated, and offer a clearer, crisper look, plus bigger, easier to see cards.

The tutorials are wonderful! Clear, concise instructions accompanied by interactive examples during a card game really teach the basic principles of each game. Anyone can learn the basics with these lessons. The Hoyle Bucks is fun, and players can add strings of lights, backgrounds, sounds and card decks to the game after building up bucks by playing. However, this list is limited, and having new options added from time to time on the web site would be even more fun. The BackTalk feature is just a few comments that players can use to let out their frustration about a particularly bad/good play. Kids will probably like this feature more than adults.

As in all previous editions, many of the games can be played online and up to four people can play many of the games at the same computer, as well. The cool facemaker feature is also present, where users can design their own unique player appearance.