Game Commander for Unreal Tournament Score: 85% Developer: Mindmaker Device Type: Miscellaneous

Function: I arrive home early. My last class had been canceled and it seemed like a good time for a little rest and relaxation. As I open and shut the door behind me and throw my booksack on the couch, my computer monitor comes to life. "You're home early," a familiar disembodied voice echoes, "Are you feeling ill?" "I'm fine - I just really want to kick some ass on the T1 today," I reply. "Excellent! I've taken the liberty of downloading some demos for you today, and I believe you'll find Unreal Tournament V: The Sect Wars of particular interest." I can feel the grin creeping across my face, growing larger and more evil. "You wanna ride shotgun," I ask. "But of course," my silicon ally replies readily. Then, without warning, I suddenly... wake up. Sorry to say, we're not quite to this level of technology yet, but with Mindmaker's Game Commander, we're one step closer. With the Game Commander for Unreal Tournament, you can simply speak commands such as the name of the weapon to switch to, or certain taunts, trash talk, etc. All the while, the software will 'type' the commands in for you.

Performance: Does it work? The short answer is, yes - very well. I've tried voice recognition products before, but I've largely been disappointed. This is partially due to the undaunting task of recognizing normally dictated speech. The task is quite monumental when you consider the endless number of words and combinations such software would have to differentiate between - not to mention different inflections and accents. In addition, background noise can render some of the best voice recognition software useless. It's impossible to determine what is being spoken if you can't determine where words start or end. Game Commander has a different approach to voice recognition. It is made specifically for games. The version I tested for this review was made specifically for Unreal Tournament. It has a profile specifically for Unreal Tournament, with a host of useful commands. All you have to do is run Game Commander, then play Unreal Tournament. Now, when you want to change weapons, just say the name of the weapon you want to use. (Of course, you have to HAVE the weapon...) You can also say some trash talk statements, such as 'loser' and 'Eat That!' with the template as is. Other commands can be added to the profile, allowing you to customize your gameplay to your playing style. I found that Game Commander worked very well straight out of the box. There is, however, a 'Train' mode, that allows Game Commander to better understand certain commands that it may have a problem with. The only commands it confused when I first tried it was 'Attack!' and 'Eat That!' - which actually do sound similar, now that I think about it. At any rate, choosing 'Train' for each of these commands quickly and effortlessly resolved this problem.

Features: Voice Recognition for Unreal Tournament

Drawbacks & Problems:: The problem with the Game Commander for Unreal Tournament software is that it produces keystrokes to enter the commands. While this keeps you from having to type it in personally, it still has to 'type' it in. While it's in the process of 'typing,' any keys you type will affect what is typed. This will result in letters added into the middle of your commands and scrolling backwards through old commands, etc., depending on what keys you press. It is possible to get around this problem in two ways. First, you can simply get a mouse or similar input device that uses Direct Input instead of keyboard commands. That way, there's no conflict if you're still giving movement commands when the Game Commander issues its commands. The other way to avoid this problem is to get used to the short bit of processing time it takes for the Game Commander to recognize your commands and respond to them. If you time it correctly, you can say your vocal command, continue moving for a bit, then pause for just a second or two to let Game Commander do its 'typing,' then resume playing the game as normal. After a bit of playing, this gets MUCH easier than it sounds.

-Geck0, GameVortex Communications AKA Robert Perkins

Minimum System Requirements: Microsoft Windows 95 or Windows 98, 133 MHz Pentium-class processor, 32 MB of RAM, 10 MB free hard disk space, Windows 95/98-compatible, full-duplex sound card, CD-ROM drive, Mouse   Test System: K6-II 400, 64MB RAM, Voodoo 3 2000 PCI, Aureal Vortex II A3D Sound Card