Month: May 2011

Tomorrow sees the launch of Codemaster’s excellent rally game DiRT 3,. If you want to decorate your phone, PC or even your website with images from the game, this fan kit is ideal for you.

Codemasters has put together a pack of wallpapers, icons, banners and more in a zip file of 26 files.  The game looks great from what we’ve seen. It seems Codemasters has listened to fans and has re-focussed DiRT 3’s action on point-to-point rallying, while adding a cool new Gymkana event to mix things up. Check out our preview, and download the fan kit here.

Can playing games to increase your intelligence? In fact, there are quite a few ‘brain training‘ games for PCs. The primary goal with all of them is to exercise your mind’s logic, memory and overall thought.

OK, there’s no actual scientific proof that any of them actually enhance your mental capabilities. Good thing they’re all fun! Either way, these games will definitely feel like you’re giving your mind a good work-out.

Memoriad Simulator: Related to the Memoriad international tournament that tests mental calculation, memory and photographic reading, this set of desktop games is amazingly thorough. It comes with eight games to test your mental skills. A word to the wise though. Memoriad Simulator doesn’t allow you to change the complexity level so beginners should try not to get overwhelmed by the sheer amount of memorization required from the get-go. A little practice goes a long way with this game pack.

gBrainy: As simplistic as the interface of this pack of games outwardly appears, it’s certain to keep your mind engaged. gBrainy tests logic, memorization and vocabulary skills. Questions are both written and visual to suit all types of learning styles. When paused, gBrainy also compiles a detailed list of statistics on your weak and strong points. While the interface is pretty plain, the breadth of questions more than makes up for it.

Brain Exercise with Dr. Kawashima: If the name of this brain game sounds familiar, don’t be surprised.  Brain Exercise with Dr. Kawashima is a PC demo version of the popular Nintendo DS game. This demo may be shorter than the original game, but it gives you a taste of what playing the full game is like. Brain Exercise with Dr. Kawashima tests your memory capabilities in order to calculate your brain’s true age. It may not be scientifically accurate, but it sure is fun!

Brain Workshop: Get ready to test your visual and auditory memory all at once with this basic but challenging recall tool. Not only do you have to memorize what order each square is presented to you in, you also need to remember what alphabetical letter is said at the same time. It’s harder than you think!

Sudoku: In the past few years this numerical logic game has gotten increasingly popular, so much so that there isn’t just one program to recommend but an entire page of them. Sudoku requires you to put the numbers 1 through 9 in order throughout an entire multi-squared box. It seems simple at first – until you try it and realize there are any number of combinations that could trip you up. This game will certainly keep your brain occupied and challenged for hours.

Do you know any other brain training games or apps?

[Via: OnSoftware Spain]

Lots of Tanks is a really simple, yet deceptively addictive arcade game. Essentially, you control a tank which you can rotate, move and fire. In Arcade mode, you will face waves of increasing numbers of enemy tanks to destroy. There are also survival, time attack and death match modes. Two players can play from the same keyboard, in any of these modes.

Each game has scattered boxes that act as cover, and lots of power-ups with a wide range of weaponry to try out, including the time honored annoying power up that just makes your life more difficult!

Clear out your diary and play Lots of Tanks over at Kongregate. You have been warned.

The Windows taskbar is that thin button bar at the bottom of your screen, which you normally use to minimize and switch applications,  and bring any of them to the front. It’s probably one of the Windows features you use most often, but unfortunately it’s also quite limited. You can’t rearrange buttons, customize the calendar, or extend the taskbar to a second monitor… unless you install the appropriate utilities to overcome these limitations.

Arrange and organize buttons

Every time you open a folder or run a program, the taskbar displays a button for it. These buttons are automatically organized according to the order in which you launched those folders and apps, but sometimes that’s not the optimal way to arrange them. If you’d like to freely rearrange buttons on the taskbar, you can use Taskbar Shuffle or TaskBowFree, which also lets you colorize buttons and organize them in groups.

Customize calendar and clock

The taskbar calendar and clock are quite basic – they only display the current month and time. If you want to expand their capabilities, use Chameleon Clock. This program adds alarms, birthday reminders and skins to customize the system clock’s appearance.

Continue reading “Improve your Windows taskbar with free apps”

Image sharing apps are really popular, with Instagram probably at the top of the pile with it’s mix of cool effects and easy sharing.

Viddy basically does this, but with video clips. You can shoot 15 seconds of video, or choose a 15 second video clip from any iPhone video, and share it via Facebook, Twitter or YouTube in seconds.

Once you’ve chosen your video, you can add effects like vintage, black and white or even ‘3D’. They may be a bit gimmicky, and the optional music isn’t really worth using, but the end results can be quite pleasing.

Check out our full review of Viddy here, and share your videos with us!

One year ago we were desperately waiting for Red Dead Redemption to come out. Two years before that, the countdown was for GTA IV. Now in 2011, Rockstar has done it it again: we’re drooling over their new title, L.A. Noire, scheduled for release this week – Tuesday in the US, Friday in Europe. And just like we did with their previous hits, we’ve compiled a complete L.A. Noire fan kit to help you get in the mood for this awesome adventure set in post-war Los Angeles.

An inspiring wallpaper is a good start for any fan. Check out the L.A. Noire Wallpaper Pack we’ve prepared for you in Softonic, and choose the one that suits you best. If you have a dual screen computer, remember you can use DisplayFusion to have a different wallpaper on each monitor.

All these wallpapers have a 1600×1200 resolution, so if you need a different one or want to download them for your mobile device (PSP, iPad, iPhone, Blackberry) be sure to visit the game’s official website. This site also offers a varied collection of buddy icons and avatars with characters from L.A. Noire, which you can use in your favorite IM client or social network.

For those who prefer actual gameplay images, don’t miss the L.A. Noire official launch trailer, made entirely from in-game footage and which shows off the impressive character facial animation techniques used in this title. Previously released videos about other topics such as performance, game features and story progression are available on the game’s official site.

Finally, L.A. Noire’s website also includes some extra elements to get you even more immersed in the game’s universe: first, a collection of detective fiction short stories, many of which use characters and cases from the game and give them a new spin; and second, an interactive crime map set up by Rockstar and Los Angeles Times, where you can check out all the details about real criminal cases that shattered Los Angeles society in 1947.