Samsung Doesn't Love GTA 5 Mod That Replaces Bombs With Galaxy Note 7s

Samsung has forced a video of the GTA 5 mod offline.

Grand Theft Auto V saw the addition of a new user-created mod earlier this month, when one player replaced the game's sticky explosives with Samsung's Galaxy Note 7. Now, the electronics company has issued a DMCA takedown against a YouTube video that featured the mod (via The Verge).

The mod is a pretty simple one. You throw the Note 7, and it explodes. This is a joke on the phone, which has been the focus of some attention for its tendency to catch fire and blow up. Samsung issued recalls when this first popped up but has since discontinued the product entirely after continued defects.

Despite the removal of one video, there are still several that haven't been taken down yet. You can take a look at one in the embed below. Additionally, the mod can be found here. As always, you should be careful when downloading anything from the internet.

In related news, Grand Theft Auto V publisher Rockstar Games has revealed a sequel to 2010's Red Dead Redemption. It releases next year and will feature "a brand-new online multiplayer experience." A trailer is scheduled to launch on Thursday, October 20, at 8 AM PT.

Source : Aces up solitaire

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Improve your winrate in Overwatch's ranked mode

More wins, less salt.

Ranking up in Overwatch’s competitive scene can be difficult, especially if you’re trying to coordinate your efforts with random players. It can be utterly infuriating when a game based purely on team synergy feels like a solo experience, and even being placed within a decent team can feel like an uphill struggle. While Overwatch’s competitive play can have its frustrating lows, it’s the exhilarating highs that keep us coming back. So what can you do to increase your winrate and maximise the odds of your team succeeding when playing ranked?

Attack and defend as a team

Don’t trickle in one at a time. Your chance of surviving and your overall impact are greatly diminished when you jump into a teamfight solo. Walking single file into the enemy is such a common occurrence in both competitive and casual levels of play that it’s easily one of the main reasons people lose games. When you die, your instinct is to rush back to the fray, but this is rarely the best option. If there are five or six opponents alive and they’re holding down a position, you will only make matters worse by engaging them one at a time. Never think you can take on the enemy team by yourself.

Turn on your killfeed to see which teammates died recently. This will allow you to gauge whether it’s best to get back to the fight and support your remaining allies or whether you should wait and regroup. If you find most of your teammates keep getting picked off it’s better to simply regroup and re-engage. Attacking and defending as one unit is much stronger than just two or three heroes trying to take on the enemy team. You’re better of waiting for your team and attacking together.

Take care when flanking

If you flank and find yourself waiting for your team or end up in a precarious situation just disengage or deny your enemy the kill. There’s no point wasting valuable time waiting for your team to push and distract your opponents. You’re of little use to your team and easy pickings for the enemy who will capitalise off your bad positioning. Only flank if you're certain you won't get caught and if you can actively communicate with your team so they know when to engage. Flankers run a very high risk of being killed before the initial engagement and can result in an instant a 5 vs 6 fight for your team. A flanker should participate in the team fights but prioritise picking off high value targets from the sides or behind.

Communicate

Don’t be afraid to communicate to your team. Tell them that you’re being flanked by an enemy Tracer, tell them that your ultimate is up and you want to engage, let them know enemy positions. You will increase your chances of winning a game if you are proactive in your communication. We all know how useful Widowmaker’s Infra-Sight is for the team, but you don’t need to be able to see the heat signatures of targets through walls to relay similar information. The more details and information your team has on your opponents, the easier it is to coordinate and repel potential attacks.

Be flexible

Refusing to switch heroes when your team lacks a certain role can lose you the game before it’s even started. If you decide you’re playing Genji and disregard your team's overall composition the enemy will simply capitalise on your weaknesses, and use your stubbornness against you. Instead be more flexible in your picks, choose Mercy if your team requires a support, go for Reinhardt if you need a tank. There’s no point refusing to change or demanding others to if you’re not willing compromise yourself. Master a hero from each role so you can fill and switch effectively, it’s no good picking Lúcio if you’ve never played him before, instead use quick match games as a testing ground to learn a plethora of heroes. Having the ability to quickly change your role to counter your opponents will instantly put you leagues ahead of those that main just one hero.

Try not to hesitate 

Don’t hesitate when you see an opportunity to punish the enemy team. Again look at your kill feed and see how many players are alive and then decided whether it’s worth pushing the payload or jumping onto a control point. If you’re about to die don’t bother using your ultimate as a last resort. Yes you may get a kill or two from it, but at higher levels of play teams rely on synergising their ultimates to lock down and neutralise the main damage threats.

For example, Zarya's ultimate pulls in all nearby enemies and when this is combined with Pharah’s Barrage, Hanzo's Dragonstrike, Tracer's Pulse Bomb or McCree's Deadeye you will absolutely devastate the enemy team. If you hesitate to follow up on an engage or miss an opportunity to kill multiple enemies you are likely to get killed as a result. We all make mistakes, especially at high levels of play where the pressure to perform increases, but this doesn’t mean you should be afraid to go through with your initial instincts.

Check your kill-cam

Your kill cam is a valuable feature that provides you with a few seconds of game changing information that you can use to your advantage. Say if you die to Pharah and you see she has access to her Barrage ability you can relay this information to your team mates. Tell them not to group up so they can avoid her ultimate and negate its overall potency. You can see turret placements and even where Symmetra’s Teleporter is located. Watching the kill-cam not only gives you a better understanding of enemy movements, it also helps you improve as a player to see how and where you went wrong. So instead of outright skipping the kill-cam make it habit to check it occasionally. After all, you never know what information is hidden behind the lens.

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Battlefield 1 Intro Cinematics Show Life Before and During the War

The intro cinematics set up two of Battlefield 1's single-player missions.

Battlefield 1's single-player campaign will consist of five War Stories, and we got our first look at one of these stories' intro cinematic this past weekend at TwitchCon. You can watch it below.

The video contains two scenes. The first kicks off the "Through Mud and Blood" campaign, which puts you in the shoes of a tank crew member. The cinematic shows the driver character, sitting in a luxurious car presumably before the war. It then flashes forward or backward to the war, where the driver is taken to the tank and introduced to the crew. Watch it for yourself below.

The second scene in the video above was originally released by Westie. It shows a soldier in bed before awakening in the midst of battle. It plays before the Storm of Steel mission in "Through Mud and Blood." You can watch 12 minutes of gameplay from that mission here.

Battlefield 1 releases October 21 on PS4, Xbox One, and PC, but you can play a portion of the game even earlier than that if you're an EA/Origin Access member. Additionally, you can gain three-day early access with the $80 special edition. Last week, EA released a trailer for its single-player campaign that gave us a look at the single-player stories of five different characters. Another short clip was recently released that teased a battle against the Ottoman Empire.

Developer DICE explained that featuring multiple playable characters helps the game's immersion and respects the setting better than having "one character hopping through those different" places around the world.

"[W]e decided on an anthology format; a set of characters with their own more focused stories," the developer explained. "That way we can have immersion and variety--a double win."

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Graphics card comparison: which offers the best bang for your buck?

Getting the most out of your next graphics card upgrade.

Our guide to the best graphics cards for gaming is broken up into categories. If money's no object, the Nvidia GTX 1080 is today's no-brainer pick. It runs circles around the AMD RX 480! Then again, the RX 480 costs less than half the GTX 1080—they were never meant to compete in the first place.

But without those categories, which card is actually the better value for your dollar? As a companion to our overall recommendations in our graphics card buying guide, this is our breakdown of how every current graphics card delivers on performance-per-dollar.

If you want to make sure you're spending your money as efficiently as possible—well, we've got charts.

The GeForce GTX 1060 3GB may end VRAM limited in some games.

Before I get to the data, a few things are worth spelling out just so everyone is on the same page. First, while I've tested all of the cards, deciding how to best compare cards of different performance levels can be tricky. A card with 2GB VRAM will choke on a lot of games if you run at 'ultra' settings and high resolutions, but it might do great at 'high' settings and 1080p. The games you test—and the APIs used while testing—can also play a major role. If you want to skew things heavily in favor of AMD or Nvidia, there are ways to do exactly that.

I test a collection of 16 games, of varying ages, at settings that tend to be more demanding than budget cards can really handle. I'm working on retesting a few cards at lower settings (specifically, cards that cost under $200), but those results aren't ready yet. I'll keep this piece updated on a regular basis to reflect the changing prices and hardware as well, so you can check back any time you're in the market for a new graphics card.

My primary focus is going to be on upgrading your graphics card, so I'm eliminating the rest of the system cost from the picture. I've checked prices in the US and UK at the time of writing. All of the charts are also using my 1080p Ultra results for relative value, rather than averaging 1080p, 1440p, and 4K results. This is to help keep things relatively fair among all the competitors, though it potentially penalizes both the fastest (and most expensive) cards, where the CPU can become a bottleneck at lower resolutions, and the least expensive cards, where limited VRAM can be a problem.

If you're looking for the best bargain on a new graphics card, Nvidia's GTX 1060 3GB card comes out on top in the US. While there are ways to penalize a card with 'only' 3GB VRAM, in practice it just doesn't seem to make a huge difference right now.

With cards readily available at close to MSRP ($200 / £190), most games are easily able to break into the 60fps or higher range at 1080p and nearly max settings. If you fall a bit short now and then, tweaking a few settings should make up the difference without a drastic drop in quality. And you get all this in a card that uses less than 120W of power—unless it's a factory overclocked model, which many are.

But maybe you don't care for Nvidia, you want an extra gig of VRAM, you think DX12 is the way of the future, and/or you live in the UK. In that case, the RX 470 4GB is an excellent alternative, with significantly lower pricing than the 1060 3GB in the UK ($199 / £175).

I'll say this: Hitman DX12 and Doom Vulkan both give the RX 470 a clear advantage over the GTX 1060, and new releases with DX12 support like Deus Ex: Mankind Divided and Forza Horizon 3 appear to continue that pattern. (Interestingly, Ashes of the Singularity, the oldest DX12 game, actually favors the 1060 3GB by a few fps.) Ultimately, the RX 470 rates either slightly behind or slightly ahead of the 1060 3GB, depending on price, with very similar performance. And if you want to run CrossFire, you can do that with the RX 470.

It shouldn't be a surprise that the $200 GPUs place near the top of the value charts, but if that's still too much money, the RX 460 is an excellent budget alternative. Performance ends up being pretty similar to the GTX 950 (slightly faster or slower, depending on the game), but the card is a power miser and sells for around $110 / £105.

Just know that running 1080p ultra settings will present difficulties; set your sights for 1080p medium-to-high and you should do okay—or run lighter fare like LoL, DotA2, or StarCraft II, where the card has ample performance to hit high fps. There are 2GB and 4GB models, but you'll typically run out of GPU performance before you run out of VRAM.

Moving down the chart, after the 1060 3GB and RX 470 4GB, the GTX 1060 6GB and RX 480 8GB are the next best 'modern' cards to consider. The 1060 is about ten percent faster than the RX 480 8GB and costs less, so it's the better value at $250 / £250. If you want AMD's 8GB alternatives, though, I recommend the RX 480 over the RX 470; you can find it for around $270 / £245. As with the above 1060/470 comparison, the RX 480 tends to be faster in DX12/Vulkan games, but slower in DX11 games.

For high-end gaming, the GTX 1070 is another good option. It combines blisteringly fast performance with a high price of $400 / £380. It's slightly faster than the previous generation GTX 980 Ti at a lower price, and while it won't do 4K at max quality, 1440p ultra and/or 4k high are certainly within reach. The fastest current consumer graphics card, the GTX 1080, is a questionable value if all you're looking at is bang for the buck, but we'd expect no less from a card that costs $610 / £575 or more.

The remaining cards are mostly on their way out now, with prices fluctuating but in most cases increasing over the past month or two. The R9 300 series cards have definitely gone up in price, and the R9 Fury/Nano are trending up as well. GTX 970 is still a decent value, though I wouldn't go buy one at this stage (get a GTX 1060 instead), and GTX 980 is now effectively dead in the US market—you can find a GTX 980 Ti for a lower price! Basically, there's not much reason to bother with buying a new GTX 900 or R9 300/Fury series card these days.

There are other factors to consider beyond pure performance for your money, however. Even though it tops the charts right now, the 3GB VRAM in the GTX 1060 could prove limiting in a year or two, particularly with the next-gen consoles offering more RAM than ever before. I'd rather get a 6GB 1060 or 8GB 470/480 if possible, simply because they're less likely to run into memory limitations over the coming years.

Those who already have a decent card like a GTX 970 or R9 380 (or faster) don't need to rush out and upgrade, but if you're in the market, look to the latest models. Investing in the previous generation of graphics hardware several months after the next generation appears is generally a bad idea. And if you need additional advice, our best graphics card and idiot's guide to buying a graphics card can help.

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Mafia 3 Extended Gameplay Video Provides a Good Look

Mafia 3 comes out on October 7.

Get your system ready for the series' forthcoming return to horror.2K Games has published an extended gameplay demo for open-world crime game Mafia III. This video, which was shown to some at Gamescom and the Tokyo Game Show, provides one of the best and most in-depth looks at the game to date.

The 16-minute video shows main character Lincoln Clay taking out one of bad guy Sal Marcano's underbosses, Tony Derazio. There are shooting, driving, and melee combat sequences on display--and it all looks pretty good. You may want to stay through until the end, as the video wraps up with a particularly intense shootout. Take a look:

This is not the first Mafia III video that came out this week. Days ago, 2K released a trailer that showed off the ways you can make money, while another video showcased Clay's deadly arsenal. Additionally, 2K recently announced its post-launch DLC plans, which includes free content in addition to paid expansions. If you're planning to pick up the game on PC, you can see the system requirements here.

For more on Mafia III, which comes out on October 7 for PS4, Xbox One, and PC, check out GameSpot's new feature that covers seven things you need to know. You can also read GameSpot's interview with composer Jesse Harlin.

A mobile version of Mafia III, called Mafia III: Rivals, has also been announced.

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WORLD OF WARCRAFT: LEGION REVIEW

World of Warcraft: Legion bears a terrible weight. In some ways, it feels like an apology for the mistakes made during the previous WoW expansion, Warlords of Draenor. Those mistakes also led many to believe World of Warcraft's days were numbered, and now Legion is tasked with not only making up for lost time, but also proving that World of Warcraft still has time left. Despite all that, Legion is the most confident expansion Blizzard has ever made.

The Burning Legion's invasion of Azeroth might be one of the most dire conflicts explored in World of Warcraft, an impression driven home by the Broken Shore intro that pulls a few pages from Game of Thrones by nonchalantly killing off important characters. But that confidence I see in Legion doesn't just come from going all in on the story—it comes from understanding that this is Blizzard's sixth time releasing an expansion. As I imagine the Lord Illidan would say, they are prepared.

Above: Stormheim is a bleak coastal zone populated by a race of totally-not-vikings, the Vrykul. 

On the broken shore

The pre-expansion introduction to Legion starts and, if you're with the Alliance, ends with a bang, but I was a little disappointed that it doesn't keep up that D-Day-style tension beyond its opening chapter. Where Warlords of Draenor captured the feeling of invading a hostile land and establishing a tenuous foothold, the first few hours of Legion feel safe and not nearly as dramatic. I was let down at first, but as I ventured out into the new zones and began digging into their respective questlines, I hardly cared.

There are times when Legion is outright silly despite its apocalyptic main story, injecting a wonderful sense of personality into the characters I meet.

Each of the new zones demonstrates Blizzard's experience in storytelling and world design at its best. The new zones are gorgeous, and effortlessly funnel me from one quest to the next. The rainy coastline of Azsuna is my favorite. The crumbling elven ruins that dot its sombre landscape evoke a sad beauty, like a classical painting weathered and broken by time. The quest about the ghost of a prince seeking redemption is just as tragic. A generous sprinkling of voice acting and cutscenes throughout these quests help me sympathize with the characters I fight alongside.

It's almost odd that things seem so bleak when, at the same time, I'm having so much damn fun. At their heart, the quests in Legion remain focused on collecting and killing, but each one takes a chore and turns it into a game of charades where you'll never know what you're expected to do next. Where there isn't a unique wrinkle, like using a squadron of drakelings to destroy defensive towers while an insane mage rains magic missiles on my head, there's always some oddball character stuck in some bizarre predicament, like a pack of stranded sailors being used in Pokémon battles by giants. Even a simple escort quest became delightful when the scheming, mana-addicted elf I rode alongside had to frequently stop to feed his cravings.

 

Above: A slight update to WoW's lighting does wonders in some areas. 

There are times when Legion is outright silly despite its apocalyptic main story, injecting a wonderful sense of personality into the characters I meet. Because of that, Legion achieves something kind of remarkable for an MMO: I don't see a question mark on my map and consider it some chore to be completed on my quest to level 110, but an invitation for fun.

The meat of Legion's endgame raids won't be available for a few weeks, but the world quest system is a smart revamp of daily quests that won't supplant the need for new updates down the road, but should keep Legion from feeling stale during the months in between. World quests are essentially Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls' adventure mode stitched wholesale onto Warcraft, and turns the entirety of the Broken Isles into an endgame zone at 110—meaning I'm not stuck in the same area repeating the same quests over and over, but rather jumping around the Broken Isles day to day completing a variety of objectives for better loot drops. Once I've had some time with the full endgame experience, I hope to have a better idea of whether or not Legion will become stale months down the road. For now, I'm optimistic that as long as Blizzard can keep pace, Legion's endgame will be more accessible and satisfying than Warlords of Draenor ever was. 

Staying classy

Still, questing for hours on end can be a grind no matter how inventive the quests are, so I'm always relieved when Legion gives me an excuse to take a quick break. Tending to the new 'order halls' that serve as my headquarters breaks up the questing every few hours. In the most reductive sense, order halls are the garrisons of Warlords of Draenor. While I still have followers that I send out on missions that can take days to complete, there's only five to manage instead of dozens. I like not having to worry about erecting and leveling up buildings, instead focusing on a simple, more focused system of researching new upgrades to my base. Best of all, I'm no longer alone when I'm in my order hall like I was with garrisons. It's fun to return home and see all my druid brethren hanging out together.

While the functionality of order halls is great at establishing some longer term goals, my favorite aspect represents something that World of Warcraft has been lacking for years: class identity. Each order hall is unique to each class, and they all evoke the associated mythos and personality in powerful ways. The Dreamgrove, where druid players call home, is an enchanting meadow that feels heavy with ancient mysticism. By comparison, The Fel Hammer, the demonic spaceship where demon hunters kick back after a day of murder, is burning with nefarious green energy amid the gnashing of the demon prisoners chained to its walls.

There's a generous helping of quests associated with each class that further help establish this renewed sense of identity. I love digging deeper into the lore of my druid, and many quests require using abilities unique to my class, even ones I would never use in any other context. It's a great feeling to dust off an old spell for some clever use in a quest, but, more importantly, there's a selfish satisfaction in knowing that I'm doing something not every class can do. 

 

Above: Some order halls also have extra perks, like the Dreamgrove having portals to various locations in Azeroth.  

That sense of affection I'm beginning to feel for my character might just be the most rewarding part of Legion for me. For the first time, I don't just feel like I'm playing a druid—I am a druid. Not that I'm frolicking around in the forest behind my house and trying to commune with trees, but Legion has me more curious about roleplaying in World of Warcraft than I've ever been.

There's no better way to see Warcraft's improved class identity than to take the new demon hunters for a spin. They are, without a doubt, the most well-realized class that Blizzard has ever created. I'm not fond of their dour emo nature, but that's easy to ignore as my demon hunter transforms into a savage monstrosity and obliterates a pack of murlocs with laser beams that shoot out of his damn eyeballs. While I don't find them quite alluring enough to consider switching from my druid, demon hunters are badasses of the highest order.

What makes demon hunters so fun, especially their damage-dealing specialization, is how agile they feel in and out of combat. Whether I'm dashing through a pack of monsters, backflipping away from an attack, or just using their bat-like wings to glide through the air, I always feel like the coolest thing to walk Azeroth since the Arthas first took hold of Frostmourne.

 

Above: Step aside Cyclops, there's a way cooler hero who shoots lasers from his eyes. 

Legacy and lore

If there's one element of Legion that attempts to contribute to that fantasy but falls short, it's the new artifact weapons. Each class specialization now has its own unique weapon that will stay with them until the next expansion, growing in strength alongside the character that wields it. I'm somewhat indifferent to the way artifact weapons work, however. On one hand, I like that they earn their own form of experience points that I can use to unlock nodes in a talent tree, augmenting my abilities. On the other, I resent the way they attempt to appear so legendary and one of a kind when every other player of the same specialization shares the same weapon.

That sense of affection I'm beginning to feel for my character might just be the most rewarding part of Legion for me.

There are cosmetic options to alter the appearance of the weapon to try and make it more unique, but I'm not convinced it's a better system than the traditional method of farming better weapons from dungeons and raids. Fortunately, the weird disconnect that artifact weapons create isn't powerful enough to detract from the enthusiasm I have for what Legion accomplishes.

 

Above: Druids are extra cool because their artifact weapon also alters their shapeshifted forms.

When it comes to that enthusiasm and those accomplishments, however, there's one massive caveat that hangs above them: Warlords of Draenor had me just as excited at launch before Blizzard ignored it for over a year, leading to one of the darkest times in Warcraft's history. With the quality of questing, order halls, and restored class identity, I feel optimistic that Blizzard is keen to win back my lost faith, but an expansion isn't wholly defined by its opening chapter—the updates that follow will ultimately determine how we remember Legion.

But while much of the endgame, like raids and 'Mythic+' dungeons aren't available yet, Legion already represents World of Warcraft at its all-time best.  Even after the weeks spent in the beta and now with the official release,  its weakest elements, like artifact weapons, can't get in the way of how much fun I'm having exploring the Broken Isles. Legion's ultimate legacy may depend on what’s to come, but what's available now has me excited about World of Warcraft in a way I haven't felt since my dwarf hunter took his first steps into Dun Morogh a decade ago.

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Three More Decks for Your Collection--The Story Of Solitaire

Three More Decks for Your Collection

The United States Playing Card Company recently added the Bicycle® Warrior Horse, Brosmind, and Zombified decks to ShopBicycleCards.com.

Zombified

Graaaugh! Zombies are back in the third Bicycle® zombie-themed deck. Billy Tackett, an award-winning artist known for his zombie art, illustrated the Zombified Deck.

Warrior Horse and Brosmind, previously available only in overseas markets, are now easily accessible for fans North America.

Warrior Horse

Warrior Horse celebrates people born in the year of the horse; these people are active and energetic, charming and cheerful, hardworking, self-possessed and sharp. The design is rooted in Chinese style and tradition, and was released in time to celebrate the Chinese New Year. Find yours here.

Brosmind

Brosmind is a design studio in Barcelona, Spain, founded by Juan and Alejandro Mingarro in 2006. Their bright illustrations draw inspiration from street art all over Spain—and now you can find their whimsical designs on every card in the Brosmind Deck. Grab yours here.

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Forty Thieves Solitaire -The Story Of Solitaire

Forty Thieves Solitaire - one of the most challenging and skillful solitaire games that you can find.

Rank of Cards

The ace of hearts is always third-best trump. There are 13 trumps when hearts are trump, 14 when any other suit is trump. Rank of spot cards is different in red and black suits.

Rank in trump suit:

Spades and clubs: 5 (high), J, A, A, K, Q, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.

Hearts: 5 (high), J, A, K, Q, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 4, 3, 2.

Diamonds: 5 (high), J, A, A, K, Q, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 4, 3, 2.

Rank of cards in plain suits (no trump):

Spades and clubs: K (high), Q, J, A, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.

Diamonds: K (high), Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, A.

Hearts: K (high), Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2.

The rule to remember is, "Low in black, high in red."

The Deal

Deal five cards to each player clockwise - three, then two (or two, then three) in rotation, to the left, beginning with the player on his left. After the deal is completed, the next card is turned over to indicate trump.

Robbing the Trump

The player holding the ace of the trump suit may exchange any card in his hand for the turned card. If the player does not choose to make this exchange, he must ask the dealer to turn down the trump card, thus announcing who holds the ace (otherwise that player's ace becomes lowest trump, even if it is the ace of hearts). If an ace is turned, the dealer may discard at once and take the ace into his hand after the first trick, or may play with his original hand, announcing this intention.

Object of The Game

The goal is to accumulate the most chips by winning tricks.

The Play

The player on the dealer's left leads any card. Each player, in turn, must follow suit if possible, or trump. If unable to follow suit, a player may play any card.

When a lower trump is led, a player is not required to follow suit with the five or jack of trumps or the ace of hearts.

A trick containing a trump is won by the highest trump played. Any other trick is won by the highest card of the suit led. The winner of each trick leads next.

How to Keep Score

The side taking three or four tricks scores 5 points; five tricks, 10 points. An alternative system is that each trick counts 5 points, and the score of the side taking the fewest tricks is deducted from that of the side taking the most tricks. Thus, three tricks count 5; four tricks, 15; five tricks, 25 points; 45 points is game.

Irregularities

There is a misdeal if too many or too few cards are dealt, if the dealer exposes a card in dealing, if the deal begins with an uncut pack (provided a new deal is demanded before the deal is completed), or if the dealer counts the cards on the table or in the pack. If there is a misdeal, the deal passes to the player on the original dealer's left.

Irregular Hand

A hand with an incorrect number of cards is dead, and the other players continue play. However, if a player has won three tricks with an irregular hand before it is discovered, he wins the pot.

Revoke

If there is an illegal exposure of a card after any player has won two tricks, the offender's hand is dead, and he does not receive cards until the pot in progress is won. However, he must still add to the pot when other players do.

Source : http://webofsolitaire.com/solitaire-news/73-the-history-of-solitaire-freecell-card-games.html

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Pepper--The story of Solitaire

Pepper

The Pack

24 cards containing each 9, 10, J, Q, K, and A in each suit.

Rank of Cards

J (of trump suit, or the "Right Bower"; high), J (of the other suit of the same color as the trump suit, or "the Left Bower"), A, K, Q, 10, 9.

Dealing

Cards are dealt one at a time to each player, starting with the player to the dealer's left. Each player receives six cards.

Bidding

Starting with the player to the dealer's left, each player can bid or pass. A bid indicates the number of tricks that a player (with the help of their partner) will contract to win if allowed to choose either the trump suit or no trump. The possible bids are the numbers from one to five; above five is 'little pepper,' which is a bid to take six tricks, and the highest bid of all is 'big pepper,' which is also a bid to take six tricks, but the stakes for that hand are effectively doubled.

Each player in turn must either bid higher than the previous bid or pass. The auction continues for as many rounds as necessary, until a bid is passed by all of the other three players. The highest bidder then either names a trump suit or chooses 'no trump'. This fixes the trump suit, if any, for that hand.

The Play

The highest bidder then makes the opening lead, and may lead any card. The other players each play a card (playing clockwise) and must follow suit if possible. If a player cannot follow suit, they may play any card. The trick goes to the highest trump or, if there are no trump cards, to the highest card of the suit led. The winner of a trick leads to the next trick.

How to Keep Score

Teams scores one point for each trick taken if it makes at least its contract, but loses six points if it fails to make its contract, regardless of the value of the contract.

A team can have a negative score. An exception to this is the "big pepper" bid. With this contract, if all the tricks are taken the contracting side wins 12 points. However, if the contracting side fails to take all six tricks, they are set back 12 points. The opposing side always scores one point for each trick taken.

The first team to score 30 or more points wins. If both sides reach 30 or more points on the same hand, the side with the higher score wins. If their scores are equal, the game is a tie.

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How To Play Quadruple War--The story of Solitaire

How To Play Quadruple War

The Deal

The deck is divided evenly, with each player receiving 26 cards, dealt one at a time, face down.
Anyone may deal first.

Each player places his stack of cards face down, in front of him.

The Play

Each player turns up a card at the same time and the player with the higher card takes both cards and puts them, face down, on the bottom of his stack. If the cards are the same rank, it is War. Each player counts out four cards face down, and the next card turned face up by each player determines the winner of all the cards.

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