The Rodeo

I’ve been playing minesweeper on Windows Vista lately, and I have discovered an awesome new feature they have included, but have not made any mention of anywhere (that I can see).

You can’t get caught in a lose-lose situation.

I can’t prove this, but as far as I can tell, whenever you are in a situation where there is no way of clearing a space or marking a flag, no matter where you click next, you are guaranteed to not hit a mine. In previous versions of the game, the board was completely predetermined (past the first click at least – you weren’t (and still aren’t) able to hit a mine in your first move), so if you had two squares remaining and a single flag to plant, you had a 50% chance of winning or losing. No longer is the coin-flip win/loss an issue. This small addition removes so much unnecessary frustration. And even better – they didn’t even tell anyone they did it.

Is there anything you/me/we can do to improve something that won’t ever be noticed, but if we’d left it alone could cause frustration? Suggestions in the comments.

RodeoClown: well played, Microsoft!

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