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As with the other games in this series there are many features available to the player. In addition to the many different chess boards, viewpoints and chess sets there are features that analyse the player's game, tutorials, a database of over two thousand named game openings. and an Opening Book Editor. The main new features in this release of the game is the audio feature. The game has something called Illustrated Voice Analysis which Analyses the game and provides feedback using ghosted pieces, arrows and the like. All of the game openings, the first three tutorials, and all of the in game dialogue boxes have been given the audio treatment. John Waitzkin, then a twenty year old International Chess Master, joined the Chessmaster team for this release and the product includes five of his voice annotated games. Finally there are some new sets of chessmen including a Staunton Brushed Metal set and a 3D Isle of Lewis set. Installation of many of the features, e.g. the tutorials, remained optional to minimize the space used on the player's machine. These features were still available to the player but, as they remained on the CD and were not on the hard drive there was a performance hit. The changes since Chessmaster 5000 were they added a separate service for network games, there are two additional sets of meshes for figures and voice Party Analysis (previously announced was only training) by Josh Waitzkin (known in the chess personality circles), as well as the author's training course from him. The sound choice and quality deserve special mention. If classical music is one of your pleasures, the mix of Beethoven, Mozart, Chopin, Scalatti and Vivaldi selections should delight you. As for the less aesthetically intentioned audio, the "InfoVoice" commentary and advice feature is particularly welcome and offers enough well directed tips to keep anyone up to par with their game. |
