Game Commander and Peripheral Perfection by Leonard "Viking1" Hjalmarson
	I've chosen an intercept mission in the Bf-109K in European Air War. Yesterday I installed Meatwater's Soundpack v.2.0 and I was amazed at the difference. Firing cannon now feels like... firing cannon! But best of all, Charles Gunst has enabled me to fly the K6 version with his ECA 1.2 upgrade. The K6 model packs an extra 2xMk 108 30mm cannon in the wings. Although it was less common than the K4 model that Microprose released in European Air War, it's pure pleasure to fly this aircraft. It now packs the fire power of the FW-190A8 but is far more maneuverable. (To download these add-ons see our Missions page.) Combined with the original v 1.1 patch from Microprose, I am flying at 1152x864 under Direct3d on my PII 400 with a frame rate that never drops lower than around 35 fps. EAW is gorgeous at this resolution as anyone with experience can attest. Single missions are great fun, and with a dynamic campaign system the missions remain unpredictable and fairly fluid in the campaign. European Air War is one of the finest simulations ever built, period. The above add-ons make it that much better. But add force feedback to the picture and it suddenly becomes even better. I am running two force feedback devices with the game: my Logitech Wingman Force, and the Aura Systems Interactor cushion. Both these devices have made my gaming life a real pleasure. Personally I still feel that the Logitech stick is the best feedback device on the market, and if you are a prop sim nut you MUST have this stick! Logitech Controller Setup But there is one more piece to this package that has just become a MUST HAVE for serious military gamers. It will change the way you play this year in ways you can only have dreamed up to now.... And it isn't a piece of shiny new hardware at all.. it's Game Commander. Game Commander (GC) is possibly the most revolutionary thing to come to my gaming experience in the past few years. The most amazing thing about GC is its ease of use and its accuracy. I expected it to be challenging to program, and only somewhat reliable. To my surprise and delight, it is neither of those things. Game Commander is about six meg of software that installs in an instant and you can be up and running fifteen minutes later. I built my own EAW configuration file in about thirty minutes (you can download it HERE.) Initially I simply experimented with views and weapons, then I added targetting commands and much of the wingman and flight command structure. I was stunned! Click to continue		I expected to have to train GC for my voice. No such luck. I simply typed in the commands that I wanted to use and they were recognized. I even tried raising and lowering my voice to see if I could trick it. Didn't work! Now imagine my delight flying in European Air War. The roar of my engine is in my ears. I'm closing on a flight of enemy bombers. I order one squadron to engage the enemy fighters, and I order my squadron to drop tanks and then order my wingman to cover me. Together we engage the flight of bombers. I accomplished these orders via voice interface. I call "ALL GUNS" and watch the selection appear on screen. Then I call "TARGET ENEMY" and watch the target box appear on screen, counting down the distance to my chosen target. I cut my throttle and feel the engine RPMs go low via the cushion at my back. The roar becomes a low growl as I close on my target. At five hundred yards I let fly an astonishing 20 pounds of lead per second. The thud of my cannons is heard and felt all through my body and half of the way up my arm via the Wingman Force. Friends.. THIS is immersion! I am brought back to "reality" by my wingmans call that he is in trouble and I roll quickly and loop to find him. I call "target friendly" and get lucky.. he is the first friendly I lock. I see the P38 Lightning on his tail. I am lucky and get a piece of him in my first pass, even though angle off the nose is close to forty-five degrees. I must have caught a control surface because the Lightning is sent spiralling earthward, out of control. Now I can back to the task at hand! After this experience I was eager to try Falcon 4.0. The results were equally impressive. We are in the throes of a gaming revolution. I can barely imagine how good it will be to use Game Commander in Super Hornet, Flanker 2, MiG Alley, B17 II and more. I tried it briefly with excellent results in Hidden and Dangerous. First person shooters will never be the same. Ed. Note: Test system was on PII 400, SB Live with 128 meg RAM. We've had mixed reports of success depending on the sound card and system, with recognition dropping as low as 75%, especially when programmed commands exceed twenty. It's a good idea to download the demo before purchase. Note also that a HARDWARE based product is looking very good, titled Voice Commander (K2 Interactive.) Watch for a review in the next few weeks.
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