Posted 04/14/09 at 02:00:00 PM by David Murphy

Mmm.  There really isn't a great way to start off a roundup of open-source and freeware games.  We should just be able to say that: "Hey!  Over here!  Free games!  Free, fun games for you to play!  Come play them!"  But that would be a dull and uninteresting way to start a feature article about free games.  So with that out of the picture and all, maybe we can describe a game or two that you'll be seeing in this little roundup.  A sneak preview, if you will. 

First up, we have a great quasi-sequel to a zombie-killing classic.  We say "quasi," because it's not really a sequel, just a graphical modification.  But going from 2D to an orthogonal view adds such depth and joy to the game that we can't bear to keep it all to ourselves.  Oh, and the zombie-killing.  You kill a lot of undead creatures in this title.  In fact, that's really your sole purpose: survival, killing, and more killing.

Second, we're taking a look at this crazy numbers-based puzzle game.  It's a lot like Tetris, only instead of trying to make solid lines from falling shapes, you're tasked with matching groups of numbered blocks together.  The more you use the fantastic powers of addition to combine your blocks into larger numbers, the crazier combinations you can create.  If we weren't having so much fun playing this, we'd swear it was educational...

But that's enough teasing for now.  Click the link and check out the five awesome, free games we're playing this week!

Read More

Posted 09/18/08 at 03:54:58 PM by Mark Edward Soper

It's not a sports score, but it might be even more important to tech fans: Windows 7, Milestone 3 is the current progress "score" for Windows 7, the next generation of Windows (milestones are internal test builds used to develop and debug features before beta testing begins).

So, what's inside W7M3 (also known as Build 6780)?

Castles, a simplified version of domain control designed for home networks but pulled from Windows Vista before it went out the door, is in Windows 7 but is now called Home Groups.

PowerShell v2, aka Graphical Console, is also in the mix for scripting fans (a preview for XP and Vista users is available now).

WordPad and Paint no longer look like leftovers from Windows 3.1 - they're getting a cleaned-up version of the ribbon UI introduced in Office 2007. Here's more about what's new and different. What's the big deal? According to Softpedia, the so-called Fluent/Ribbon interface is the future of Windows and Windows apps.

It looks as if the first formal beta of Windows 7 will be launched before the end of the year, with some observers speculating  that Windows 7 might be available sometime between June and September 2009. So, what do you think?

Do you like the foretaste of W7's user interface? Are you looking forward to Windows 7, or do you suspect, as InfoWorld's Randall C. Kennedy opines, that "it's doomed to failure?" Hit the jump for your chance to comment.

Read More