Chessmaster as an engine isn't that great, but its training features are excellent, such as its diagnosis of tactics, strategy, endgames, etc., and seeing where you stand and guessing the move played in famous games. However, if you want a top quality engine for analysis and databases go with Chessbase. Shredder, Houdini, and Rybka are great for this, and Chessbase starter package is good as it contains half a year of Chessbase magazine (meaning annotated games) and big database 2013, which frequently updates.
Back to Chessmaster: If you see your tactics are 1600, strategy 1400, but endgames are 1200 guess what area of the game you should work on next to fix holes in your knowledge? Even if the estimations are inflated 200 points higher in one area than another is still just that.
I have been using chessmaster 9000 for years and found it to be very helpful. The problem is that they do not make a versiion that will run well on windows 7. I am willing to buy Houdini or rybka or Fritz but cannot find a store where I can go and see the products. I don't want to order one on line and find it doesn't measure up to chessmasters functions and then can't take it back.I live in Saratoga Ca Zip 95070. Can any one suggest which program I am likely to be happy with and where I can buy it loclly?