The New York Times Crossword Puzzles (PC)

GameSpot editors' review

• CNET editors' rating: 3.0 stars Good
  Detailed editors' rating
  Overall score: 6.0 (3.0 stars)

• Reviewed by:
  Nicole Freeman
• Reviewed on: 05/19/2000
• Updated on: 05/17/2006
• Released on: 04/30/2000
• Originally published on GameSpot: The New York Times Crossword Puzzles (PC) Review

Anyone who's worked in a large corporate office environment knows that the best way to start the morning is to get the team together and solve the New York Times crossword puzzle over coffee. Trouble is, it'd often take half the morning to complete, and you'd need to call on as many resources as possible, both human and literary, to complete it.

The New York Times Crossword Puzzles for your PC is an electronic compilation of many of the hard-copy books you can get of these famous crosswords. The game is very bare bones. It includes around 1,000 puzzles (about two and a half years' worth), which are easily sortable. Anyone who's become hooked on NY Times crosswords knows that the puzzles start out easy on Monday and get progressively harder, until the nightmare, double-sized Sunday puzzle. The sorting engine lets you pick which day of the week you want, solve puzzles in order, just try all the Monday puzzles, or whatever your brain is in the mood for. You can also save your partially completed puzzles, which is especially handy for those tricky Thursday-through-Sunday games.

Beyond that, the gameplay is exactly as you'd expect. Compared with other crossword puzzle games, the developers have added several features to make playing easier. You can zoom in on a particular section so you can see the words more easily. When you're typing in your letters, the game lets you know right away if you've got the correct answer - letters are X'ed if they're incorrect. Unfortunately, it's all too easy to get help with a letter or word. Two large, shiny buttons in the menu at the top let you get a letter or word whenever you want. It's tough to stay away from those cheats when they're so tempting to use.

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