It's a popularity contest.

Solitaire is hip, cool, and way more popular than Half Life 2. Don't believe me right? Well, the numbers don't lie. According to two of the biggest search tracking tools on the web (Wordtracker and Overture) more people are looking to play Solitaire then Half Life 2. Almost twice as many. Wordtracker says that every day 5,031 people searched for Solitaire, while only 3,610 looked for Half Life 2. Overture says 3,095 searched for Solitaire, while only 1,180 searched for Half Life 2. And these days, Half Life 2 is in its prime. It's having its 15 minutes of fame. Within 6 more months, when all the buzz has worn down, Half Lifes numbers will drop. After those same 6 months, Solitaire will be just as popular as ever. It's a classic; it never goes out of style. It's retro, old school, and bleeding edge all at the same time.

Save your money.

Ya gotta read the fine print folks. Flip that pretty shrink-wrapped box of Half Life 2 over, and take a peek at the little letters. You know, the ones with all the tech speak, that only the 14 year old in the family understands. Don't bother trying to read it; I'll translate for ya. It says, "Not only will you have to shell out 59.95 for this glitzy box in your hands, but prepare to cough up another $150-$ $200 (plus installation) to upgrade that pathetic outdated machine you have at home". Yea right. Is there a big "L" burned into my forehead? I'm willing to bet however, that if you can read this article, your PC has all the juice it needs to run the biggest baddest version of Solitaire ever created.

You'll never be bored.

If your looking to expand your Solitaire experience head on over to your favorite search engine, type in Solitaire, and hit enter. Google finds about 6.8 million sites. Pick one, and have a blast. I'm sure you can find one that's way cooler than the one that came with your windows machine. Now, how many variations of Half Life 2 are there to choose from? Umm I believe the title suggests there are 2. Not much choice there.

You don't have to train with the circus contortionist.

You'll really need to get your fingers limbered and loose for all the crazy keyboard commands, combinations, and permutations you'll need to master for Half Life 2. The original Half Life had 49 different keyboard / mouse control combinations to play the game. I suspect that version 2 has even more. Last time I checked, the version of Solitaire installed with Windows, only needed 2. Point . . . and . . . click. Once again, if you're reading this article (and obviously you are), I think you've got all the training you need for Solitaire. Ever seen a deck of playing cards before? Ok then, your trained!

Slingo, Platypus, Breakout, Tetris, Zuma, Magic Vines, etc, etc, etc.

If Solitaire doesn't get you all worked up, then look around a little. Don't just settle for the latest hype from today