Display Time In Games

Good games can suck a player into the game world. Players can lose the feeling for the time and the Internet is full of stories of gamers who stopped playing in the middle of the night because they lost track of the time. Not many games provide access to the time while playing. Some players might have enough self discipline to look at a watch or cell phone for the time but many don't.

Those players would probably prefer a way to display the time directly in games. Applications that can do that are limited to a handful. One of the better solutions is to use the free software Xfire which is some sort of Instant Messenger for gamers. It's like Steam in many aspects as it provides access to a chat and the installed games even when playing a game.

One of the features of Xfire is that it displays the time in the screen overlay. The feature can be activated by pressing the chat hotkey while playing the game. This opens up the time and other interfaces. Don't worry, everything can be closed so that only the time remains on the screen. Once the overlay has been activated each element of it can be moved around the screen.

Move the time to a location where it does not interfere with the gameplay. A corner at the bottom is usually a great spot.

Click in the tiny pin to pin the time to that location. Now close the main overlay again. Everything that has not been pinned will be closed again leaving only the time on the screen.

Xfire requires registration before the features become available which is a nuisance. Does anyone know of a better application or way for the purpose? Let us know in the comments.

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