The Pirate Review - Microsoft SideWinder Game Voice

There's just not enough juice for the retail price in this game peripheral

DISCLAIMER: I am not entirely free of bias when it comes to the SideWinder Game Voice. This is a family of former MicroSerfs. My hubby worked at Microsoft and was therefore able to buy the Game Voice at a greatly reduced price ($15) through the company store. I was, however, careful to keep in mind the fact that others would pay close to retail prices for this glorified headset, and rated accordingly.

What is it?
Well, as indicated, it's a glorified headset. The Game Voice comes with Walkman-style headphones—the kind that loop over the top of the head—and a small swing-arm mike which positions in front of your mouth. Think "telemarketer" and you've got a pretty clear idea of the technology. Instead of plugging directly into a jack, however, the Game Voice connects to a flat, circular black control center about the size and approximate shape of a chambered nautilus shell, with eight buttons and a toggle switch. The control center connects to a USB port, with two additional plugs—the audio out and mic in ports of your sound card.

What does it do?
Supposedly, lots. You can use Game Voice anywhere you use a standard headset—hubby uses it to listen to music or Internet radio broadcasts without disturbing me, and I've used it to place long-distance calls through Dialpad, with good results. The Game Voice is compatible with a number of speech recognition software programs, including the company's own Game Voice Share software. You could use it to vocally dictate a letter or translate vocal commands to your computer... but let's face it, the whole point of the Game Voice is to whup butt at games, right?

How well does it work?
To quote Han Solo, "Well, that's the trick, isn't it?" It's ironic—not to mention embarrassing—that the one task this peripheral was marketed for is also the one task at which it does not excel. The software works okay, but the hand is usually quicker than the mouth when it comes to firing off commands. Even in multiplayer games, where you might just want to use the Game Voice to chat with team members, things don't work very well. My husband, the Asheron's Call addict (and believe me, there's fodder enough there for several editorials...), just wanted to use the headset to talk to members of his allegiance group. For some reason, this never works very well; although he has no difficulty hearing anyone else in-game, his own voice comes through only very faintly to others.

The control center was meant to be used with the left hand; there are four programmable "channel" buttons, an "all" button which can broadcast to as many as 64 people at once, a "team" button for groups such as the above-mentioned allegiance group, a "hardware control" button that supposedly lets you tweak your hardware on the fly, and a huge "command" button to allow you to issue voice recognition commands.

First off, I can't tell you how many times I've accidentally bumped that huge, hair-trigger sensitive "command" button. The other buttons on the control center are neither intuitively placed nor easy to use in-game without taking a peek (and breaking your concentration, thereby allowing "Shandor the Grim" to blow you away). Finally, there's a little black toggle switch on the back of the unit that is meant to switch you from headset to speakers, and if you don't know it's there you will spend many frustrated moments trying to figure out how to get your PC speakers working again. I finally had to call my hubby at work and sheepishly admit the machine had outwitted me. Gahhh!

Bottom line:
I'd recommend the Game Voice if the retail price were $15. I might yet recommend it if the SideWinder team tweaks a later model sufficiently that some of the problems—counterintuitive controls, flaky software, etc.—are resolved. At the moment, though, you can get more bang for the buck with a good-quality headset and free Roger Wilco voice recognition software. And it's sad that this cheaper combination can beat the sleek, expensive SideWinder hardware hands-down.