At the Game Show Network (GSN-TV) they have a lot of multiplayer or computer player games, even some solitaire games to play, but I have a favorite and that is Lingo.
Lingo (if you have never seen it) is a word guessing game - it uses strictly 5 letter words and you and your opponent (real or computer) get the first letter of the word and you start guessing at the word BOTH at the same time, while the clock ticks.
You get clues 1) a solid colored square around a letter in the word placed in its correct location and 2) a circle is placed around a letter which is part of the word, but in the wrong location. The first player to correctly spell the right word wins points - which increase in value after each round of play.
When every you correctly guess the word, you go to a bingo like board and you can choose 2 numbered balls - the object to complete a line of 5 balls on a 5x5 grid either horizontally, vertically or diagonally. Be careful, there are RED "STOPPER" balls which when pulled from the bag cause you to lose your turn and the board control goes to the other player.
You have about 40 ONE-LINE catch phrases like: good luck, I like playing you, that was a tough word, etc.. that you can communicate with, there is no actual CHAT option which is the games only real draw back.
All in all, this is a great game to make you think - the clues help tremendously and when both players have trouble completing a word, a free letter pops onto the board, which OFTEN causes a race to the keyboard to solve the puzzle.
I give this a 4.5 out of 5 for overall game play and the best part is that THERE IS ALWAYS hundreds of people playing and if you always have the option to play the computer if you choose.
http://www.gsn.com/games/ is the link, you need to do a simple register (username and password only I think) and choose Lingo or any other games from the list on this page.
