[minsc_tdp]

I liked ERT. It is the reason I am here today. I'm very interested in truly new approaches to things, like the Wii controller, and often spend more time examining the technologies rather than actually playing. ERT caught my attention due to the voice command.

I bought one copy of ERT, played for a bit, and re-bought the gold edition later. I have both boxes. I was a little disappointed that there wasn't much noticable difference between Gold and Standard, but I didn't really check and didn't mind supporting the genre a bit.

I've spent many hours in SH3 and I must say, nothing can compare to the level of immersion when you are using solely your voice to engage in a battle. I never actually ran the subs much, mostly I hunted them. After a particularly long battle dropping hundreds of charges on two subs, an hour or so had gone by. I would stop my engines to hear better, and it was quite intense. I stayed still a bit long and spin around and see two subs surfacing simultaneously at my rear. I fired up the engines and as they're starting I see fish in the water. I'm frantically screaming into the microphone: "Start engines! Ahead flank! Right full! Engage! Engage!" It was too late and I was sunk.

ERT makes me wonder if being hunted 1 vs 1 (or 1 vs 2) by subs is more exciting
than commanding them. It's hard to be paranoid when you're the one stealthing around in the deep and know where everyone is - but above the waterline, it's like looking down into a brick wall. You know they're down there.

The voice was done well (smart move using the built-in windows speech libraries) and it added a level of immersion that is unmatched in SH3 or SH4. If SH4 had all its bugs fixed and added ERT's voice support, I'd never leave the house.

I've fired up ERT now and again to try to get into it, but lately it crashes and unfortunately that has discouraged me. But some of those experiences were truly unforgettable!