What's Good	What's Bad	4.0 out of 5.0
Responds to nearly any voice without training Minimal performance hit Really adds to immersion factor	Rather pricey Not available without headset Somewhat difficult to find at this time Not compatible with real time voice programs for multi-player Limited use for First-Person Shooters

The Hunt
The flight sim news group had been buzzing about this software for awhile so I decided to check it out anyway. I downloaded the demo available at Mindmaker's web site and quickly set it up for use with my Jensen headphones and microphone. I was initially intrigued, but not impressed.

The demo limits you to five single keystroke commands. It also appeared to have difficulty recognizing commands, possibly due to the ample background noise picked up by my mike. The demo came with some templates for popular games. After getting it to work in a few games my interest was peeked enough to go looking for the full version. This is where we find two of the first low points of the package. It can be hard to find in a retail store and expensive if bought directly from Mindmaker. Game Commander lists for $49.95 plus S&H on the Mindmaker web site. Many gamers faced with shelling out more than 50 bucks would probably opt for another game before buying a utility. There is a $10 rebate coupon on the web site, but this is only valid when purchasing from a retail store. The web site list several store chains which carry their product, but there are many online reports of people being unable to find Game Commander at these retail stores.

I went to my local Software Etc. (listed as a carrier) and asked the mall rat behind the counter for Game Commander giving a brief explanation of the product. The reply I received went something like, "Cool Dude. Never heard of it". On to Best Buy. After some explaining I was successful in finding Game Commander. Not in the gaming section as you might suppose, but on a bottom shelf in the productivity area. The sales person told me, "We have no idea what to do with this." I paid $44.99, which should work out to $34.99 after the retail rebate. So this big question is, was it worth my 35 bucks?

I think I can honestly say it could be worth the 50 bucks it commands online, depending on what kind of gamer you are. More on this later.

Getting Started
Included in the box are the CD, a decent size manual, and a unidirectional noise-canceling microphone, which turns out to be surprisingly good. Some buyers who already own good mikes may find this an addition that they would rather not see rolled into the already hefty price. I suspect that Mindmaker knew the secret to success would be the inclusion of a high quality mike to assure that the software has every opportunity to work. Without this essential piece of hardware their tech support lines would no doubt be overwhelmed.

The game installs easily as do the 2 update patches from the web site. Additional game templates also can be downloaded from the Web site. The full version is a vast improvement over the demo. The full version allows unlimited commands as well as long macros. No more wading through endless communication trees. Now you can simply speak a word and see your command performed. When using the full version with the included mike the voice recognition appears to be nearly flawless out of the box. I still find it amazing that it interprets this Midwesterner's twang without training.

When initialized, Game Commander loads a small bar onto the desktop and resides in memory. From this bar you can modify various templates, create your own templates, import templates, and perform voice training on those tricky commands. Programming is a breeze. Simply point GC to the .EXE file of the game you want to program for, then choose "add". It is as simple as typing the name of the command and the key or series of keys you would like to have executed. It is basically the antithesis of Thrustmaster programming.

The manual could have more detail on the finer points of programming macros. There are "step" and "delay" commands you can insert for programming some of the more advanced commands. The manual does not address advanced programming at all, however the subject is well covered in the excellent windows based help file. There are a few tricks you can use when programming to further enhance GC's voice recognition abilities. GC will often recognize commands more readily if multiple words are strung together without spaces. This is particularly true if you tend to get overly excited in the heat of battle or are from the East Coast. You can also improve recognition by spelling some words phonetically. This should come naturally to most of the 'dOoDz' found in Internet chat rooms. When programming a new template for 'Longbow 2' I found I only had to train two commands out of 16.

Performance
GC will run on a modest P200 32MB system and requires a full duplex sound card to function. I have heard at least one company representative warn that there may be a performance hit on the minimum required system. I tested CG with a variety of games including flight sims, a space sim, first person shooters, and the much overlooked hybrid, 'Battle Zone'. I was unable to detect a frame rate drop in any of these games when running GC. I used the industry standard 'Quake II' demo1.dm2 time demo to test GC for its impact on performance. On my Celeron 464 test machine Demo1 displayed 91.7 fps without GC running. I then started GC up and ran a second time demo. To really task the system I let GC listen to a hockey game on the radio and attempt to identify the color commentary throughout the demo. Demo1 displayed 91.6 fps with GC running. Inside the game there is a brief delay of approximately 0.5 - 1.0 seconds (estimated) from the time a command is spoken until it is executed. This makes GC more appropriate for some commands than others and better in some genres then others.

I was really wowed when using GC for voice comms in such games as 'Falcon 4.0', 'Longbow 2', and 'X-Wing Alliance'. This utility really adds to the immersion factor. It is so natural to speak a command and yet somewhat startling to here your wingman immediately reply to you. This also frees up joystick buttons. GC can also be useful for changing some views such as HUD/No HUD, but a hat switch works better for looking around. Targeting and such seems more realistic and quicker when using the buttons of a HOTAS system. I also found GC helpful in delivering menu driven commands in 'Battle Zone'. Although I did not test GC on other Real-Time Strategy games, I suspect it would be readily adaptable to many of the more cumbersome commands given in 'Command and Conquer' or 'Warcraft'. Just click on a unit and say a command or query. The biggest weakness I found was in First-Person Shooters. GC works well for issuing ROE commands and go codes in 'Rainbow 6', unfortunately it is really too slow for changing weapons and such. In a 'Half-Life' deathmatch a half a second may be the difference between fragging a friend and staring at the world from skewed view on the floor. GC is inappropriate for such commands as "Fire" or "Jump" because of the brief delay in execution. This makes GC of limited usefulness in this genre that has only a few simple commands that must be executed instantly. (Update: It IS possible to use 'Game Commander' in an FPS for non-action commands. For example, you could use it to lay mines, trip-wires, or even send pre-defined text and WAV-file taunts to your enemies.)

One more downfall for multi-play gamers is the incompatibility of GC with voice communication software such as 'Battlefield Communicator' and 'Roger Wilco'. Given the choice between voice commands and real time voice communications with their buddies, I think most players will forego GC. The good folks at Mindmaker say they are working on this and hope to have a compatibility fix soon.

Summary
GC is not for all gamers. If you're into multi-player voice comms and/or fast paced shooters you might want to consider if the 50 bucks could be spent better elsewhere. If you're into racing sims, flight sims, space sims, or Mech games, you've got to have this product. This utility should go right along with your programmable joystick, throttle, pedals and steering wheel.