Hard Core Simulation Roadmap by Leonard "Viking1" Hjalmarson
	Voice Recognition and Voice Comms Finally, a critical growth area is in voice communications. In the past six months at least three significant products have been released that allow real time voice communications while playing online games: Roger Wilco, Battlefield Communicator, and Thrustmaster's own proprietary software to name a few. Other companies are now incorporating real time voice into their simulation engines: Novalogic, iMagic and others. My own wanderings at E3 placed this into perspective for me when I ran face to face with Game Commander. This voice recognition kit comes with a small headset and software that allows you to use voice commands in ANY WIN95/98 game. I was pessimistic at first, but after seeing the software in action in Rainbow Six I became a believer. The ability to issue commands to a team mate, or swap weapons, or change views all by voice radically changes that game and will profoundly impact the way you play future releases. As this software gains an audience it may even impact the way that simulations are designed. (Watch for a special report soon.) The "A" List There are MANY candidates for the hard core crowd currently in development. For military flight simulation fans there is DI Super Hornet, Empire MiG Alley, Eidos Confirmed Kill, Janes F18, Janes A10, Microprose B17 II, Microprose Gunship III and M1TP III, EA Flight Combat, and DiD Typhoon. Click to continue		Janes A10 But that's not all! Try iMagic Warbirds 3, IL2 Sturmovik, GT Interactive Ka52 Team Alligator, Microsoft Fighter Ace II, Psygnosis Panzer Elite, Psygnosis Nations: Fighter Command, SSI Silent Hunter II, SSI Fighting Steel, SSI Destroyer Command, SSI Flanker 2, and coming in 2000, Harpoon4. And this doesn't even consider the FPS, Mech, or Strategy arenas! It doesn't seem to me that we are in great danger of becoming an obsolete fan club. Rather, I suspect that hard core gaming will be alive and well in the 21st century and that our ranks will continue to grow. Harpoon4 With the abilities of our hardware continually expanding, what do you want to sim today?
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