I think the biggest problem with most titles (traditional games or training-type software) these days is actually a small problem ... or rather, a series of them. Menus that aren't easily navigable, repetitive screens you have to click through constantly, and other small problems, when added up, can make a great game into something less.

Cooking Guide: Can't Decide What to Eat? has a lot of small problems, and one big one, and the big one is an issue of identity. What, exactly, is it? Who's it for? Many of the recipes are fairly advanced and require obscure ingredients, or equipment that the average person might not have around the house. Most of these recipes aren't labeled as difficult, either, but as just normal day-to-day fare.

Chris already touched on the incredibly-annoying mic sensivity, but what was, to me, worse about this was the fact that, on picking up certain noises, the Cooking Guide would skip back a few steps. Several times, I had to stop and guide the virtual chef back to the proper position. And while, like Chris, I found the handwriting recognition to be pretty good, there were a few things I had trouble with there. I had the hardest time getting the Guide to recognize the letter "T." It kept stubbornly insisting I was searching for "boner" or "bonex" instead of Bônet.



Perhaps the worst problem with the Guide, however, is the search function. Searching for a certain ingredient doesn't always bring up all the results that contain that ingredient or key word. I noticed this almost by accident, and then kept testing it. Part of this is probably due to the differences between British and American English, which the Guide takes into account (describing eggplants as both aubergines and eggplants, for example), but it doesn't always apply to search results. Sometimes it does, and sometimes it doesn't, and there's no way to predict how a given search will react.

There are a lot of good things to be found here, though. The best aspect, in my eyes, of the Cooking Guide is a very simple, but highly useful feature -- the ability to change serving size when working in a recipe. Here, it's just the husband and I; the whippersnapper isn't yet old enough to eat anything that hasn't been pureed, so for years, I've worked from recipes meant for four or more servings. With the Cooking Guide, you can adjust the portions for anywhere from one to six people and save yourself a bit of math.

There are a few other very useful features, too, such as the substitution list. Don't have agar-agar powder on hand? It's cool -- use gelatin instead. While it's easy to search for cooking subs like this on the internet, it's dead useful to have them right there with your recipes.

The array of recipes is nice as well. The Cooking Guide has common things, like the Chicken Teriyaki we made in our cook-off, and lots of recipes I'd never heard of as well, from all over the world. While this isn't always convenient, as stated above, it is interesting, and opens up a whole new world (pun not intended) of cuisine. Judging by the array of American recipes -- like jambalaya, crab cakes, clam chowder, meatloaf, and fried chicken -- it seems likely that the recipes from other countries represent a wide array of cooking styles, flavors, and regions.

It must be noted, also, that the aforementioned meatloaf is listed as one of the most difficult recipes in the guide. While I'm no meatloaf expert, a meatloaf recipe on About.com can be broken down to this: chop some onions, crumble some crackers, season some beef, put it into a loaf pan and bake. Maybe it's just me, but that seems like a carriage ride in the park next to the Bônet we made. Admittedly, the Guide's recipe for meatloaf is for a more high-end variety, but it still comes down to mixing up some meat and putting into a loaf pan to bake. In fact, I can't figure how or why any of the recipes were tagged as they were in regards to difficulty.

Overall, I find it useful, but really no more or less than a cookbook. The Guide offers some handy shortcuts, as with the servings calculator, and I like having access to recipes I'd have never thought to look up or track down, but some of the interface issues and the horrible voice navigating bring it back down again. For someone who already knows their way around a kitchen, a lot of the helpful tips and videos simply aren't useful. It's a great novelty item, but it's not going to replace the three-ring binder stuffed with recipes that I keep on the shelf next to the microwave.

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