It’s been one hectic year for Mac gaming, but luckily before the year's end, here's one game that's an encouraging sign that life is good. Big Deck Solitaire is classic solitaire that most everyone is familiar with. This version has been simplified for easy access to the game. There are no bells or whistles to distract your concentration and relaxation, which is a welcome relief to some card gamers. It is your basic bare bones solitaire game with a few choices, stats and clear explanations to teach new players. Veteran gamers can review rules if necessary. So, be prepared to loosen your collar, get into your sweats and unwind your head full of noise.

There are six different games to choose from: Klondike, which is probably the solitaire game practically everyone plays, (two variations of Klondike are included), Free Cell, Spider (one suit), Spider (two suits), and Spider (four suits). The Klondike game has seven tableau piles with the top card only facing up. There are foundation piles at the top where you will place your cards starting from an ace to a king all in the same suit. Once you remove your face card the next card will flip over automatically. You can move your face cards to other foundation piles as long as it is in descending order and every other card must be a different color. For example you can place a red queen on a black king and then the jack will need to be red. You can also move blocks of cards as long as they are in order. In order to advance in the game you may need to play the stockpile at the top left of the screen. In one deal Klondike only one card from the stockpile will reveal at a time. In the three card deal Klondike, three cards will reveal at a time but you can use only the top card. After depleting the stockpile, you can replay the used cards by clicking on the curved arrow at the bottom of the deck. To win this game all the cards must be on the foundation piles.

In Free Cell all the cards are faced up on eight tableau rows. There are four foundation slots at the top left and on the right there are four reserve spaces. Any card can be moved to an empty reserve space or tableau pile. Cards can be placed on the foundation pile by starting from the ace in ascending order (A, 2, 3, 4, etc.).

The Spider games are played the same whether you play one, two or four suits. The open cards can be moved to other open cards in descending order (5, 4, 3, etc.). You build your sequence of cards from King to Ace and can be moved to the foundation at the top of the screen. When you click on the stockpile, it will distribute cards across the board on each tableau column. You can only move a group of cards from the foundation when they are in order with every other card a different color. To win in all the games, you must clear the foundation.

Big Deck Solitaire will display a sideboard with rules or statistics to view readily. The stats will show games played, victories, losses, streaks, number of moves, average times, etc. Once you are good at the games, you can challenge yourself by beating your stats. If you do not need the sidebar, click on the arrows at the top right to get rid of it. In addition you can zoom in or out making the cards smaller or larger. Big Deck will even size to cinema displays without losing graphic resolution, which means you can have a truly clear BIG deck on your BIG computer display! Another one of our favorite features of this game is the autoplay button; when you know you have won, hit autoplay to finish the game for you. This will avoid the obvious clicking of the few remaining cards.

Play Big Deck Solitaire to relax and entertain yourself or challenge yourself by timing your play or using the least number of cards to win. There are six different solitaire games to keep you interested, and you will not get distracted with a storyline or background scenes. Like Zen Stones you can om your way through the day in one soothing game play. All of us at macgames.org are happy to bring you Big Deck Solitaire, and we hope you'll enjoy it as much as we enjoyed developing it. So, sit back, launch the game, relax and focus on the mantra: now's the time for big fun...

Features: 1) Klondike (one card deal), Klondike (three card deal), Free Cell, Spider (one suit), Spider (two suits), Spider (four suits); 2) Statistics; 3) Customizeable background color; 4) Choose from two kinds of card decks; 5) Fits and sizes to screen / Mac display sizes small and large.

The tale of the wicked spider continues in Rainbow Web 2 at the royal palace. This time the play is varied with a mix of mini puzzles interspersed among the match plays. The match games are very similar to the first Rainbow Web where you click on an orb to match 3 or more of the same colored ones on the web. You are to match the balls with the letters to retrieve the names of magic things the spider has stolen from the castle.

The only blocks in this game comes when there is a break in the link of the web (same as the first game). This will interfere with you making a match. I noticed there are more chain reactions in this game and the sound effects when the orbs popped are better.

After each level you receive your statistics: # of balls you used, # of combos, score, time. This is a new feature to the game. I don’t know if it is needed, but it is interesting to note your scores. Also in between the plays are mini puzzles to breakup the matches. One is a puzzle where you slide the pieces to form a picture of a clue. Another was a hidden object game.

Whereas this Rainbow Web 2 game is much better than the first, I never felt challenged in doing the match games even in the timed ones. The 2 modes appear the same. It is a relaxing game to sit back and play, so if you need some R & R, try Rainbow Web 2.

Features of Rainbow Web 2:

-82 Levels

-7 Web Patterns

-Mini puzzles

-Fun Story Line

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars