So far in this technology's development, even with the GC 2, there is a moment of lag. In action games, microseconds are usually way too long to wait for the computer to react. Why wait half a second when hitting the keyboard is instantaneous? So in that regard neither of the current voice software programs are usable. No action gamer is going to use the GC 2 to switch weapons or jump or activate anything that is extremely time sensitive. Instead, action gamers can use the GC 2 for all the commands that currently take them more than a second to activate, or are so difficult they take attention from staying alive for too long a period of time. A perfect example of this is usage in Team Fortress 1.5; with the GC 2 a player can bind voice commands to the many different team messages or special class-based actions. For instance a spy, can bind all the different disguises into the GC 2 and instead of hiding to use the menu, say the name of the disguise. Any action game that has a complex menu structure or contains commands that aren't usually needed in the midst of combat is totally applicable to the GC 2.

Strategy games, on the other hand are, in a completely different group; the GC 2 is almost a necessary requirement for getting the most control. Most folks can't remember every little keystroke that's possible in the more modern RTSs, and the GC 2 can take care that. Plus, a lot of games have multiple keystroke commands that only complete one action -- why not program them in as a single command? Say the word "house" and blam! a house gets built. We didn't try it out on anything other than games, but it's supposedly usable on other applications as well.

Programming the GC 2 is easy, and although you don't have to do it, training to a specific voice is easy as well. It's able to create macros that are 256 keystrokes long, far beyond anything we could dream up. Overall we had absolutely no problems with the GC 2. A demo version can be downloaded (http://www.gamecommander.com/), so try if out for yourself. You'll need at least a microphone to input commands. The retail version comes with a microphone headset (note that it's not a full headset with earphones). Our criticism is the size of the preprogrammed library of command files on the website; there should be more. Other than that, the GC 2 is the best product of this type on the market -- once the lag between command and action is reduced further, we can see voice control becoming as necessary as a keyboard and mouse.