The GameShark program is set up to look like the Internet Explorer browser, which is convenient because that makes it easy to navigate for most users. What's annoying is that InterAct decided that the familiar browser look also meant you probably wouldn't mind looking at more than a few advertisements. Yes, you pay for the product and you get to watch them make extra shilling ads, wheee! With the GameShark program you can connect to the company website, download new cheats and game profiles (each weigh 1k or less) and look at exclusive walkthroughs, reviews, previews and other game related content. When you're ready to play you can select the appropriate game from the drop down menu (assuming it's in the database, newer games aren't as readily available of course), choose which cheats you want to use, minimize GameShark and start the game as normal.
With every game I tried, my PC didn't mind GameShark running in the background, neither did the game in question, no slowdowns or hiccups. And the cheats worked perfectly for every game I tried. From Crimson Skies to Quake, and all the way back to Roller Coaster Tycoon, you can now safely and quickly take the challenge out of any game you want. But it really shines when you realize how specifically you can cheat at games like Baldur's Gate II: Shadow of Amn. Want all maxed out stats only and play the game straight from there? Go ahead. Want to give every party member dragon platemail and your paladin a Holy Avenger right away? Sure, you can do that too. No user made trainer is as easy to use as this and that gives it some value.
As a bonus of sorts, GameShark ships with a special GameShark-themed software MP3 player, which kind of assumes you never downloaded WinAmp or one of the thousand or so free players out there. Not to mention the one that came with your sound card and the default Windows Media Player. In short, not the most useful of “value added” additions to be sure, but it's attractive enough. One wonders why the added player doesn't do anything special, like rip CDs or organize playlists, but, well, it's there and that's something I guess.
GameShark doesn't bring the value to a platform it once did and the PC is a platform so adaptable, that all that the GameShark can bring is convenience, but maybe that's reason enough to buy it. The software is coded well enough and updated frequently enough to help you take advantage of most of your old games and games coming down the pike, and whether you think cheating is ethical or not, at least this shark lets you choose exactly how you cheat.