Freecell (PC)

FreeCell is another of the games that comes free with versions of Microsoft Windows, and has to be one of the difficult and brain using game out of all the free ones. It's hard to learn what to do and once you know what to do, you need to keep your brainpower going to try and complete the game. You are not always
guaranteed to complete every game (there are
32000 different card layouts to play), the help files state that this card game is completable on every level but it hasn't been proven, you'd need a lot of time to go through them all! You need to be thinking about your current and the moves you are going to be making ahead of that. I really enjoy this game and this one I play most often out of the ones on offer.

-- My Experience --

I remember this game being in the list in the program menu, but I always overlooked it. I opened it, tried playing it and never understood it. I saw it was like a solitaire kind of game but I never took the interest in finding out how to
play it. It wasn't until a couple of years ago that when I was at work and Minesweeper and Solitaire had got boring that I decided to sit and read the rules and really try to complete one of the games. I noticed that you really had to think
with this game and there was no quick way of doing it, there always seems to be a time when you get stuck and try and make things easier for yourself by trying to release some better cards. If you read my instructions outline below it might make a little bit more sense of what is needed of the player to win the game.

--Object and rules of the game --

Here is the object of the game, quoted from the help files that comes with FreeCell

"The object of the game is to move all the cards to the home cells, using the free cells as place holders. To win, you make four stacks of cards on the home cells: one for each suit, stacked in order of rank."

This still makes it sound complicated and makes it no clearer, but that is the object of the game. I've written the rules in my own words so hopefully I can make them understandable! When you start a new game every card in the deck is face up and in eight columns. To the top left are four spaces and the top right there are another four spaces. The spaces on the right are for stacking the cards by suit starting with the ace, ascending all the way to the king of each
suit. Every card that is in the columns are all mixed up, you have to move around the cards so that you release the cards you need to go on the top right pile. Moving the cards from column to column can only be done if the card that is
going to be placed on another column is one lower and of a different colour. For example, if you have a eight of hearts, the only card that can be placed directly on to is a seven of a black suit. You can split columns and take more than one
card to another row as long as the cells at the top left are free to the amount of cards you want to move. The top left empty places are there to move the odd card that cannot be placed anywhere else, or to move a card to release one
underneath. You loose if you cannot stack all the piles, there are no moves left or your stuck yourself! If you manage to complete it, a big King icon appears within the application.

-- Conclusion --

The help files give just about enough information to go on and try the game, but it
is trial and error to see how the game really works and what is needed to free the cards. There are some tips in the help files that are useful, but once again experience with the game is what enables you to get better at it. Which is like anything in life. This is not a game for a hardcore game player, even though they've probably played it sometime in their life! But if you're a fan of the solitaire game that is included with Windows this is another patience game for
you.

There are some good games that come with Windows and this is one of the best, later
versions of Windows have included free internet based games and other knock-off solitaire games, but this is the best.

I've tried to explain the rules but it was difficult but hopefully there is enough their to get you started and make you want to have a go at this game. It is a very enjoyable game if you like strategic and card games. This will never be an
easy one to complete because there are so many ways of playing each level. Like I said at the beginning this is my favourite game at the moment because you can really get involved with it and the time flies.