There may be a downside to this which should be mentioned as well. If you add a third party game to Steam, Valve is surely going to know about it which can be a privacy issue.

If you still want to go ahead you need to do the following. Start up the Steam software and wait until you have been logged in. Locate the Add A Game link in the lower left corner of the interface. A menu pops up if you click on the link.

Three options become available, one of them offers to “add a non-Steam game” to Steam.

When you select the first option to add a game a new window opens up with a listing of all programs installed on the computer. This does not only include games though. Chance is that not every game on the computer is in that list. You can use the Browse button to open a file browser to pick an executable from the computer that is not in that list.

You can check all programs and games that you want added to Steam. Once you have done that you click the Add Selected Programs button to add the games to the Steam game listing.

You can then launch the game just like any other Steam game in the listing. You may furthermore set a category for the custom games if you make use of categories to access games more quickly this way.

And that’s how you add third party games to the Steam gaming platform. Are you using Steam? Have you added games to Steam?

Game Booster 3.0′s installation should not pose troubles. Users should take note however that it will install a toolbar unless declined during installation. The developers have once again changed the interface which now displays a single button dominantly on the start screen.

A click on the button performs the optimizations automatically. Users who want more control need to click on the Configure button.

Here they can select the processes, unnecessary services, non-windows services and other items that they want disabled when a game is started on the system.

Processes include web browsers and other third party programs that are running on the Windows PC. Services are divided into unnecessary core services and third party services. Others finally offers options like clearing the computer’s RAM, killing explorer.exe, lowering the process priority of other processes or changing the power settings to high performance.

The edit button can be used to add services to the list of available services, and to edit the services and process whitelist. All edit options link to a plain text document that needs to be edited for that.

Gamebox mode offers a list of games that will automatically trigger the game boosting mode when executed. You can add new games either by dragging and dropping their shortcut into the program interface or with the help of the Add button in the program interface.

One great feature of Game Booster’s game mode is that it will restart the closed processes and services after the end of the gaming session. This is done automatically without user interaction.

The program offers additional features and services. This includes a Diagnose option which you can use to create a very detailed report about the PC, and a Tools section that offers system tweaks, defragmentation and a drivers updater.

If there is one thing to criticize it is the text-based editing of services and processes that you want to add or whitelist. The ability to optimize system resources with one click, and the automatic option to restart processes and services after the game ends should attract lots of gamers who never bothered with programs of this kind before.

While Game Booster 3.0 has been primarily designed to improve gaming performance on Windows, it can in theory be used for other resource intensive tasks as well. Just add shortcuts of resource intensive programs to the Gamebox to benefit from the same optimizations when running applications.

Game Booster is a software for 32-bit and 64-bit editions of the Windows operating system. Interested users can download it from the official program site over at IObit.

This machine sports a 17.3 super-bright inch screen, a 2GHz core-i7 SandyBridge processor, a huge 6Gb of DDR3 RAM and no less than two 500Gb hard disks.  It’s all topped off with switchable graphics which include an nVidia GT540M card with 1Gb of dedicated DDR3 RAM.

Rather than being a sexy little thing for the jet-set, this is a hulking great 2.6kg of desktop replacement entertainment laptop, complete with Blu-Ray drive, USB 3 and all the trimmings.

So what is it like to use and is it any good as a gaming machine?  I’ve written a full review on our sister website Windows7News, but I was certainly impressed with the machine.  It handled Call of Duty Black Ops at medium-high settings without breaking a sweat, though it did complain when I turned everything up to maximum.  It’s a very powerful and very pretty machine, with an all plastic case (very high quality plastic I might add) contrasting a dark grey case and black lid with high-impact silver surrounding the keyboard.

It’s a good keyboard too with generously proportioned scrabble-tile keys and good travel.  It has a large easy to use trackpad too, which you can switch off for gaming and a screen that, while not full HD at 1600 x 900, is very usable in direct sunlight.

It’s easy to see where compromises have been made with the RF711 but this keeps the price affordable and it comes in around $1,000 cheaper than equivalent specification laptops from Dell, Lenovo and Sony.  You can read my full in-depth review here where I talk about the important things like battery life and what it’s really like to live with.

I quit after the overhyped Unreal Tournament successor came out, which turned UT from a competitive team game into soulless eye candy. E-Sports on the other hand thrived and became mainstream eventually.

BlizzTV is an all-in one E-Sports news app. The desktop application pulls news and media from various sources on the Internet and displays those in the application interface.

Listed in the last beta version are Feeds, Videos, Events, Podcasts, BlizzBlues and Streams. The name indicates it already, most of the pre-configured streams are linked to Blizzard and its popular franchises Warcraft and Starcraft. The application is on the other hand customizable, more about that after the break.

The software updates its information regularly, and indicates additions and news with a small mail icon and a system sound.

Lets take a look at the categories before we delve into the options.

• Events – List today’s, upcoming and past Blizzard game events. This includes Battlenet games, leagues and cups.
• Feeds – News feeds from Blizzard sites and third party sites, only titles are readable, articles open in the default web browser.
• Videos – Youtube videos of
  Blizzard games, play directly in the application.
• Blizzblues – Blues are official Blizzard employees in the Blizzard game forums. Their latest posts are listed here.
• Podcasts – Audio news and reports that play directly in the application window.
• Streams – Live game streams are linked here.

You are probably thinking right now why you should bother with the application if you do not play any Blizzard games. The answer is customization. Several news streams can be customized to suite your gaming preferences.

The categories Videos, Podcasts, Streams and Feeds can be customized. Video providers can be added from Youtube or BlipTV. A click on Catalog displays a list of available options including the World Cyber Games, Intel Extreme Masters or ESL.tv. These providers are then added to the video listing and you will be informed about updates via the application’s notification system.

It is similarly possible to add feeds, podcasts or streams to the program. All sections offer a catalog button that lists pre-selected items and options to add custom feeds, streams and podcasts manually.

Events and the BlizzBlues category cannot be modified but disabled if they are not needed.

BlizzTV is a godsend for Blizzard gamers, especially those who follow E-Sports or play actively in clans and teams that compete in leagues or events.

Gamers who do not play Blizzard games on the other hand need to customize the program before it becomes useful. It still has some strong points, but most feed readers and news applications can handle those as well.

BlizzTV is currently offered as a beta version for Windows. The program requires the Adobe Flash Player and Microsoft .NET Framework to be installed on the system. It will launch the installers if those programs are missing on the system.

Quite a few PC boosting applications have been released in the recent past, among them Game Booster, GMA Gaming Accelerator or IOBit Game Booster which all use the same concept that GBoost uses as well.

GBoost promises to “temporarily strip down your slowing PC to its bare essentials for gaming”. While gaming is mentioned it may also benefit other resource heavy applications. Performance increases can mostly be seen in the following two scenarios:

• Users on low end systems can benefit from the software as it frees up ram and cpu cycles for the game or application.
• Users who run a lot of “stuff” in the background, from Instant Messengers to music players, Bittorrent clients and backup software.

Users won’t see much of a difference on PCs with enough ram and power to run the game fine.

A click on the red button in the middle of the interface runs the optimization (which is temporary). The program will perform various operations, from killing processes and services to terminating open applications. Experienced users should check the advanced mode option to see what the program closes on run. Among the programs are instant messengers, music players, internet browsers and download apps. It is possible to use a slider next to each listing to either add it to the list of apps that are closed on optimization or to the list of save applications. If you want to listen to music you for instance need to set the music players slider to no to block their termination.

Is it working? That depends largely on the PC, how it is used and what program the user wants to run. It is definitely worth a try. PC users can download the Windows software from the GBoost homepage.

The seal of approval, that was carried in a banner across the top of boxes for games that participated in the programme, was intended to convey that the game had been tested by Microsoft and would work happily, but also that it would integrate with the Games Explorer in Windows Vista and Windows 7.  Here it could be launched easily and the games explorer could also handle extras for you such as parental controls, patches and updates.

Sadly it was let down by poor support from the games industry, but today Microsoft are relaunching the brand, as reported by CNet, and wants gamers to know that Microsoft is serious about PC gaming.

A new Games for Windows Marketplace will allow people to buy games via download from the Internet.  There are about 100 games available so far but Microsoft is very keen to turn Games for Windows into a full-on gaming app store.

The store will also integrate with the Xbox and Zune stores and allow gamers to use points they have collected in the new store to purchase content.  People can also pay by credit and debit card if they so wish.

The developers of Game Booster have now published a beta version of the upcoming Game Booster 2, and boy have they changed the application. The most obvious change becomes visible right after startup: A new and modern looking interface that displays an overview on the start page, and the available features in the left sidebar.

game booster 2

Game Booster 2 displays advice on that page as well, listing the services that can be stopped and drivers that need to be updated.

The program’s main feature, the ability to improve game performance, is largely achieved by turning off services in Windows that are not needed while gaming. The number of services that can be deactivated in gaming mode depend on the operating system’s configuration. Users who never tweaked their services may find that Game Booster suggests to stop 20 or more services.

A click on details next to an entry under Advice leads to a configuration page. A click on details next to services will display the services that can be stopped in gaming mode. It is important to take a good look at the suggestions, to prevent that services are stopped that need to run all the time.

A checkmark next to a service indicates that it will be stopped if the game mode is activated.

game booster 2 services

Game Booster 2 does not stop here. Running processes are displayed that can be stopped in game mode as well. The processes are limited, and system processes are automatically excluded from the list.

The program scans the system for installed drivers, and will suggest driver updates if newer drivers are found in its database.

The page lists the driver name, installed version, new version and release date in the Game drivers section. A click on Go to download page opens the manufacturer’s driver download page in the default web browser.

game driver download

It again pays of to check the scan results prior to downloading and installing the suggested drivers. Game Booster 2 detected an update for the installed Ati Radeon 4870 video card to Catalyst 10.8, even though that version was already installed on the system.

Game Booster 2 integrates several additional features:

• Game Essentials: Download links to software related to gaming, at the moment TeamSpeak 3 and Xfire.
• Game Defrag: Offers to defragment game files and game directories only.
• System Tweaks: One click tweaks for top performance, will make changes to some Registry settings.
• Game Tools: Links to Windows tools related to gaming.

The effectiveness of Game Booster 2 relies heavily on the initial state of the operating system. It will not be that effective, or effective at all, on systems that have already been optimized for gaming or performance. Users who run their system with the default settings on the other hand may see improvements in gaming mode.

Game Booster 2 can be downloaded by clicking on this link, the official website can be accessed here.

A major problem in Windows XP was the missing central location for all installed games. It was up to the user to place all game shortcuts in the start menu into one folder, to access the games without having to search for them first in the depths of the Windows start menu.

Microsoft tried to tackle the problem with the Games Explorer, which was introduced in Windows Vista (see Windows Vista Games for pointers). The Games Explorer acted as a central hub for games installed on the PC system.

Microsoft made the decision to include an updated version of the Games Explorer in Windows 7, which now included options to inform the user about software updates and game related news.

The Games Explorer in its current stage has several weaknesses. First, only supported games are added to it automatically, which means that portable and unsupported games are not added to it. This is for instance the case for most games that are offered via the popular Steam gaming platform.

Even worse is the fact that it is not that easy to add games to the Games Explorer if they are not supported.

The Games Explorer link is hidden deep in the Windows Start Menu. It is however possible to move it from the start menu to the desktop, or another location on the computer system to access the installed games faster.

To do this click on the start menu orb, the All Programs, Games, and drag and drop the Games Explorer program link to the new location.

Another option is to enable Game Explorer directly by creating a new folder in the location the games should appear, and renaming it to Games Explorer.{ED228FDF-9EA8-4870-83b1-96b02CFE0D52}.

The Games Explorer may not be the best option yet, considering that it may miss installed games. And Windows XP users have no access to it anyway. The solution is a custom folder that contains all game shortcuts. That’s easily done by creating a new folder in the location you want to access the games, e.g. the desktop. Right-click the desktop, select New > Folder and name it Games.

Now drag and drop all game shortcuts from the start menu, desktop or Windows Explorer into that one folder. Et voila, all games are accessible from that folder directly. It may require more work initially but the benefit is that no game is left behind, if you know what I mean.

Most games of today are still offering options to play on a LAN instead of the Internet. Great for LAN parties for instance. Some old games on the other hand can only be played over LAN and not the Internet.

That’s were LAN gaming emulators can be very helpful. But those programs are also very popular with players who download their games from the Internet as LAN gaming is often possible whereas Internet gaming is not (most games require a unique serial number which gets checked on the Internet but not on LAN).

Please do note that it is not legal to download and play games this way.

All three solutions that are reviewed in this guide use virtual private networks to extend the local area network. Users from all over the world can join the same LAN this way.

Hamachi

The free version of Hamachi allows up to 16 clients to be connected to the same network, sufficient for extensive gaming sessions with a bunch of friends.

It is the only program of the three that requires initial communication between the participants before it is possible to connect to the virtual LAN.

LogMeIn Hamachi² is a hosted VPN service that securely connects devices and networks, extending LAN-like network connectivity to mobile users, distributed teams and business applications. You can easily create secure virtual networks on demand, across public and private networks. Hamachi² is managed and maintained from anywhere via the web, securely.

hamachi

Every Hamachi users needs an account. Networks are created in the Hamachi client and the other participants need to know the name of the network (and password) to be able to connect to it. This is a one-time process as all previously used networks are recorded in the software for easier access in successive sessions.

Hamachi can be difficulty to setup, depending on the order of network adapters in the operating system. Basic PC troubleshooting skills may be needed to run it properly.

Hamachi is available for Microsoft Windows operating systems only. A Linux beta version is available on the developer’s website, it is currently only available as a command line tool. It is immediately obvious that

All clients in the selected network channel who have launched the game are able to create and join LAN games. Hamachi uses 256-bit AES encryption to secure the communication between clients.

tunngle

Verdict: Hamachi offers lots of configuration options that the other programs do not offer. It offers better privacy thanks to the fact that only clients who know the network name and password will be able to join it. The downsides are that it may require some troubleshooting before it can be used and that there is no option to play with strangers.

Tunngle

Tunngle uses a similar system to offer a virtual LAN to clients. Users need to create a Tunngle account before they can connect to the software and the virtual networks.

Tunngle is a different breed of program. Every user connects to the same server that offers access to channels and community features via the network explorer menu.

Channels are divided into gaming categories and chat lobbies. Gamers who want to play a round of Warcraft 3 would for instance need to click on Strategy, then Warcraft 3 Frozen Throne to join the virtual LAN and chatroom for that game.

Every client who joined the channel is available for gaming, the maximum number of clients is 255 for every channel.

The basic game setup works like this. The client launches Tunngle, switches to the channel of the game, and starts the game afterwards.

All people in the same game room will be available for LAN play. The main advantage of Tunngle, and Garena for that matter, over Hamachi is the fact that they provide access to a gaming community on top of the virtual LAN gaming capabilities. This makes it possible to play games even if friends are not available at that time.

Tunngle uses 256-bit AES encryption just like Hamachi does to secure the computer connections.

Tunngle is currently labeled beta. The developers have announced plans to offer a free basic version and a premium version with advanced features after the beta phase.

Garena

Garena is similar to Tunngle in many regards. It was available before Tunngle and offers additional community features and a bigger community at this point.

garena

The underlying technique is the same. Players create an account and use the Garena software to connect to the virtual network.

Game rooms are available that need to be joined to play with the other people over LAN.

The community features are extensive, Garena features avatars, message logs, tournaments, blocking users, friends, replays, ladders and more.

The available game list is considerable smaller than that of Tunngle, the gaming channels on the other hand are filled with players, which is not always the case on Tunngle.

Garena is only available for Microsoft Windows operating system.

Verdict

Hamachi is excellent for users who only want to play with their friends. Tunngle offers the largest assortment of games while Garena the largest player count.

Have you been using any of the applications reviewed in this article? Share your experience with us in the comments.

In a rare occasion, Ballmer apologized to the masses of gamers who were let down after the excitement of the news of an upcoming next generation console. After reports of gamers talking about the “new console” arose, Aaron Greenburg of Microsoft stated, “We’re not going to be launching a new console any time soon.” This devastated many excited gamers who are looking forward to any hints of next generation consoles to come in the distant future.

“I confused the issue with my poorly chosen words,” Ballmer told IGN. “There is no news in my comments.” Microsoft hasn’t officially confirmed a date for the release of the add-on peripheral for the Xbox 360, but Ballmer’s comments have led many to believe the “controller-free gaming and entertainment experience” will arrive sometime in 2010. Although, the confusion over the “new console” disappointed gamers, many are still excited about the upcoming feature for Xbox 360 which is likely to release in late 2010.

Project Natal, which was announced on June 1, 2009 featured many demos including a game called “Ricochet” where the player can use his or her body to bounce balls at blocks. Natal also allow players to log in to their console faced on facial recognition and try on clothes in 3D. Other demos shown at E3 were “Paint Party” where players can “throw” paint on walls using body motion and “Burnout Natal” where players can race in cars using their body motion to steel the wheel of the car instead of a controller that current gaming technology requires. Because of the new technology behind the project, the announcement has caused the Xbox 360 to gain more ground in the market.

The name Natal comes from Microsoft’s tradition of code naming products from cities. The name Natal, a city in Brazil, was chosen by Microsoft’s director, Alex Kipman, as a tribute to his home country. The word natal also means “relating to birth” where Microsoft shares its view that the addon is the “birth of the next-generation of home entertainment.”

Microsoft demoed the technique at the E3 which means that the technique is already existing and working. Information on the techniques itself are scarce. From what could be gathered a hardware device is needed that will send the body’s motion and sounds to the Xbox gaming system. The system is able to follow the moves of every person in the room. It can easily identify and distinguish people. Natal cannot only identify people but also objects in the room.

This leads to some interesting new applications. Think of a quiz where the moderator addresses the gamers by name and repeats their answers.

Take a look at the videos below to get a good first impression on what Project Natal is about:

The official Youtube channel offers tons of videos showcasing Project Natal.

There are two factors that can influence the success of the new hardware device. First the price of the device. If it is expensive than it might become a niche product instead of the new default way of gaming. The second is game support by game developers. Game developers need to produce games for Natal or make their games compatible with the product.

What are your thoughts on Project Natal?

The new game brings a huge change, instead of going for realism, they went for a cartoon look, which looks pretty stunning I think. Many will be deterred by this, I suspect especially hardcore gamers, but if I want realism I’ll jump down to a war zone and take a look myself. I think it’s quite unique and it makes the game more accessible to other ages and our friends of the female persuasion (I might be able to get my girlfriend to play a round with me!).

I haven’t played a lot with this series, I spent an hour or two with a newer one, and from what I can tell, the experience is much the same, but obviously very different due to the environment. I’m actually still waiting for my beta key, but to me the screenshots radiate much more of a fun factor than I’ve seen in games for a while.

Let us know if you’ve tried the game, I’ll add a comment as an update as soon as I give it a go, I can’t wait to shoot every one’s cartoon bum out of the sky, woohoo!

Essentially it does what you could do manually, it finds the services and apps running that you don’t really need, and switches them all off with the push of a button. It switched off Launchy for me, the Aero theme for Vista, which apparently eats away at the CPU, some tablet services I didn’t even know I had running, etc., so it does quite a good job.

I actually didn’t notice a huge increase in performance, but the difference is there. I tested on GTA 4 which runs away on my system, but not very well. On minimum spec I can play pretty well, with only a few effects added. In very intense areas I noticed some performace issues were less prominent, like less lag and jittery camera, so it definitely did help. The best thing about this app is that it is so easy to use, no need to go through 20 services and shut them down, but even better, they can be restarted with the same one click action. This is also great for trips to prolong battery life!

You have to move people between cities and move goods like oil and coal between the relevant industry. This probably sounds easy, but it is strangely fun!

The game requires the user to have a copy of Transport Tycoon Deluxe, as it relies on that game’s data for graphic files. If you have lost your copy, a bit of googling should return a few copies.

The game is highly extensible and users can modify vehicles, add and make maps (some available ones are real-life, such as one of the Boston metropolitan area or of the UK) and add new types of vehicles. These modifications and maps are on the OpenTTD Forum.

The default vehicles are planes, helicopters, hovercraft, ships, trucks, buses, railways, electric railways, monorail and MagLev train. The vehicles available, and the models of them, vary as the game progresses – you obviously can’t have a supersonic jet in 1950!

OpenTTD can also be played multiplayer over a LAN or Internet. This is a nice thing to play with a friend whilst bored.

The game isn’t very challenging; you can easily go from a balance of -€200,000 to hundreds of millions in green figures in about 50 in-game years. Yet, it remains fun. Online gaming is much more challenging.

It can be played on all major operating systems and developmental ports exist for portable devices like PocketPCs and Nintendo DSs!

It decodes neural signals into unique commands that are used to interact with the computer. I found a video on Youtube that was taken on the CEBIT 2007 (a year ago) were someone was playing an ego shooter with a mouse and the OCZ Actuator. He did not have to press buttons to shoot, he did not have to press the forward key to move, all he needed the mouse for was to look around.

That’s a whole new level of gaming in my opinion. OCZ will be present on this years Cebit again which takes place from March 4th to 9th in Hannover, Germany. The release date (planned) for the device is mid 2008.