The VoIP protocol has caused a total revolution in the way people communicate on the Internet, and Skype is undoubtedly one of the most widely used VoIP clients you can find.

With Skype you can not only have voice chats on your computer – just like telephone, only for free – but also make real phone calls at much lower rates, using the so called SkypeOut service and paying with Skype credit. Besides voice chats, Skype also includes the standard IM functionalities (written conversations, emoticons, user avatars and so on) and also lets you have video conferences.

These video calls are precisely the main focus on Skype's latest beta version. The program's interface has been completely redesigned with video conferences on mind. This means it's been made wider (full screen, really) so that video fits in perfectly with your written chat, your contact list and a toolbar to manage conversation. Honestly, I'm not sure this is a big improvement; my guess is that most people still use Skype only for voice calls and will find the new interface too obtrusive.

The sound quality during our testing was perfect: loud and clear. Unfortunately we can't say the same from the video image quality. The fact that it was displayed at quite a big size made it look too pixelated. There was though one nice detail, and that's the ability to see your own video image built-in on your contact's video. Also, though this is still a beta version, I must say I didn't have any problems while testing it.

Other improvements in this beta are, among others, a call quality feedback indicator, the ability to turn alerts off, the possibility to group contacts and a new feature called Video in mood, which lets you embed online videos from Metacafe and Dailymotion in your status message.

Skype 4.0 Beta features a complete interface overhaul that now focuses more on video chats, and also adds some handy improvements to the way you communicate online.

Download Skype 4.0.0.166 Beta 2 in Softonic

As one of the mainstays of the instant messaging world, Yahoo! has finally decided to drag itself onto the VOIP bandwagon with the launch of this Voice version of its popular client. As well as offering free PC-to-PC calls and cheap PC-to-phone (landline and mobile) calls, the program throws in all the usual over-the-top gadgetry and gimmicks we've come to associate with Yahoo! Messenger.

As we've seen before from programs that try to be all things to all people, there's always a danger that things can get a little out of hand for the user, and this is the territory that Yahoo is entering with this latest incarnation of its messenger. It's true that the voice facilities in the program are top-notch, delivering crystal-clear clarity for most calls to PCs and phones. It's also true that the application boasts a bevy of interesting and innovative features, such as the ability to play games and listen to online radio together, send animated, talking emoticons, and quickly share files and photos simply by dragging and dropping them into the chat window.

Although, in the main, these features are good for a laugh, we did have a couple of things that we'd like to raise if we ever met Mr Yahoo! Firstly, we like the games but they lack instructions, so sometimes it can take a while to figure out how to play them. Also many of the so-called 'Audibles,' which are essentially animated, talking emoticons, are a little vulgar to say the least, and not really suitable for anyone with a reputation to uphold.

There are plenty of ways to customize the client to suit your mood too. The main interface is fully skinable, and you can also change the way the chat window looks by selecting from dozens of themed 'IMvironments', which certainly helps to inject some variety into your chat experiences. You can also build your own avatar – a process which can take hours as you carefully select the right haircut, clothes, sunglasses and even breed of dog to have sitting at your side in your IM profile.

Individually, these features are both innovative and compelling, but ironically they combine to contribute to the downfall of Messenger for Voice. The fact is that all of these options serve to swamp the interface and if you have a lot of the features running at the same time it's often hard to find even the text window. While it's fun and novel at first, the messenger very quickly becomes an irritant more than anything. Our advice – stick with Skype.

Download Yahoo! Messenger with Voice 9.0.0.1912 in Softonic

The Google Desktop application allows users to search their desktop content quickly and easily. Praised for its ingenuity and criticised for its intrusiveness, Google Desktop brings the power of Google’s search engine technology to your PC.

After installing the application, you’ll have to give it some time to index the files on your PC, including emails, photos, chats, contacts and calendar events. Google Desktop will index the first 10,000 words in the first 100,000 documents on your PC. The application supports the majority of file types and you can decide which ones to index, or omit protected files, using the preferences menu.

In its latest version, which is compatible with Windows Vista, Google Desktop has been given a new transparent look, providing a pretty sleek feel to your PC. Your search results will appear in your browser (in the familiar Google web page format) and a small preview button allows you to view results without actually clicking on the corresponding link. Results are as precise as we’ve come to expect from Google searches, however we were slightly disappointed to learn that the application doesn’t offer logical 'OR' support or substring search. On another note, Google Desktop is not limited to your PC as you can cross index content from multiple machines and share some panel items with your friends.

Google Desktop is not only about search, though. Joining a marketplace already occupied by Apple’s Dashboard Widgets and Yahoo! Widgets, Google Desktop can be fitted with any number of little gadgets. These mini apps perform all kinds of functions, from fetching your mail to jotting down notes or checking up on your local weather. There are hundreds of gadgets to choose from to customize your desktop bar. Our personal favorites are: Google Translate, the Skype plug-in to check your credit and call your contacts, “Am I Blocked” to find out who’s blocked you on IM, Workspace to quickly move between tasks, System Stats to monitor your PC and Games, a selection of Flash games like Tetris and Moonlander.

When running, we found Google Desktop to use up around 30 MBs, but that can quickly increase if you add more gadgets to it. The application is also constantly re-indexing your files to incorporate your modifications and new elements. However you should rarely feel your PC slowing due to indexing.

When you’re dealing with Google, however, you know the main criticism will be about security. Because Google Desktop indexes all your documents, you’re basically opening up your PC and all your personal files to the Moutain View company. What some users fear is that Google could one day take advantage of that access or that a bug in the application would allow malicious users to infiltrate your PC and steal information.

While the intrusiveness of Google Desktop will give some users pause for thought on installing the app, Google Desktop is highly effective and simple to use. The gadgets you can add to its sidebar may not all be essential, but many of them are quite fun and original and let’s face it, the sidebar looks good. Give it a go if you think your PC is a mess and you need quick access to anything.

Download Google Desktop 5.8.809.8522 in Softonic

With Last.fm, music fans have found a place to congregate and share musical tastes. The Last.fm player places the “social music revolution” onto your desktop, giving you access to thousands of tracks from all musical genres.

The beauty of the application is that it encourages you to find similar artists to the ones you’re accustomed to and also pushes you to interact with users who share the same tastes. Search results appear as a tag cloud, with the biggest elements being the most popular. With thousands of songs available on Last.fm, it’s pretty unlikely that you’ll listen to the same thing twice. The player is streaming and you’ll have to be connected to the internet and have a Last.fm account for it to work.

Although slightly bulky, the Last.fm player interface is sleek and accessible. We like the shiny control icons and the “now playing” window. This is where you’ll find all artist information like album cover, a small description of the artist, related tags and artists and top listeners. The menu bar on the left includes your recently played tracks, recently loved and recently banned, although to listen to these you’ll need to upgrade your Last.fm account (€2.50/month). The last 10 stations you’ve listened to are automatically saved in your history file.

The social experience is central to Last.fm and becomes pretty addictive. By listening to tracks you create a profile of yourself, the music you listen to and the artists you like. Last.fm then connects you to other users that have similar tastes, whom it calls neighbours. In the Last.fm player, you can connect to neighbours' stations and listen to their tunes. The lists of the friends you made on Last.fm will also appear in your player. If you have the Audioscrobbler plug-in installed, Last.fm can also track all the songs you play in your favourite desktop music app (like iTunes) and connect you with even more neighbours.

Most of us here at Softonic have Last.fm connected all day, simply because it doesn’t require you to have your own music library, it’s free and provides an endless flow of new tunes. In line with modern evolutions in online music, this web music application mixes streaming and social tools to give you an exciting music player. No music fan with access to Internet should be caught dead without it.

Download Last.fm Player 1.5.2.38918 in Softonic

If you regularly conduct video calls or video conferencing with more than one person, then ooVoo is an elegant and powerful video conferencing and IM client that combines elegance with functionality.

With ooVoo you can talk face-to-face with up to six people, add an ooVoo link to your blog or online profiles (so others can instantly add you to their contacts), send and receive video messages and best of all, it's completely free. To get started, you need to create an ooVoo ID which is fairly painless although a bit annoying as all registration forms can be. Once you've started the setup process, you'll be asked to create an ooVoo username and password. You'll also be asked to add a few friends and contacts to your ooVoo account although if like me, you don't know anyone using ooVoo, you can simply elect to send invites. Unlike some video conferencing applications, it's very easy to get up and running with your webcam and it can handle very high quality cameras of up to 2 megapixels depending on the speed of your connection. During chats and video calls, you can add effects to video such as sepia, blurring and morphing although it seems to take some time in applying these successfully. ooVoo also serves as a VoIP app although unfortunately, it only serves mobiles and landlines in the USA and Canada at the moment. What's really nice about ooVoo though is the ability to place your contacts, and their video images, down the side of your screen in a sidebar simultaneously. This way, you can chat away to all of them at the same time and see them at once. This does hog quite a bit of your RAM though if you're not working on with at least 1GB of RAM or more.

An impressive video conferencing and chat IM although it would be interesting to see how it performs when a maximum of 6 people are trying to conduct a video conference at the same time.

Download ooVoo 1.7.1.50 in Softonic

Windows Live Messenger, previously known as MSN Messenger, was renamed as part of Microsoft's move towards the Live online community. So far, the most popular IM app in the world had already gone through a bunch of updates, but this new name also meant important changes that would somehow start a new period in Messenger's history.

Windows Live Messenger includes some outstanding characteristics that are well worth a mention. Firstly, its all-new interface features a completely different design from traditional Windows applications, which you can also customize by choosing your own color scheme. In order to maintain this neatness, the menu bar has been hidden under a single top right corner button but this makes it a bit uncomfortable to browse through options. Luckily, the most common actions (send email, call a contact, access MSN Spaces and view shared folders) have been implemented as nice little buttons right under your username, so they're easy to access. Another thing we liked is that you can hide side tabs in the main interface window (right click on any of them and check the "Hide tabs" checkbox). However, there's apparently no way to hide the bottom ad.

Windows Live Messenger offers plenty of emoticons and winks to cheer up your conversations with. You can expand both collections by easily adding new sets which you'll find by the hundred on the Internet. Customization possibilities include changing the chat window background or even adding a personal message to your nickname, but not creating custom status messages. At least this new version features the longed-for offline messaging tool, enabling you to leave a message to any of your contacts even if they're not online.

The two most important features in this new Windows Live Messenger are the ability of sharing folders and making free PC-to-phone calls. As for the first one, it proves as a very handy way to share pictures, while the second feature allows you to save some pennies on your phone bill. However, this service is currently only available in certain countries (United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, Ireland, Finland, Belgium, Spain and Italy) and requires a subscription to the Verizon Web Calling system.

In any case, you can always make use of the PC-to-PC call feature, which provides excellent sound quality. In fact, we must say this feature has been pretty well implemented in Windows Live Messenger. Its ease of use makes it a great alternative to written conversations: just click on the phone icon and your friend will instantly receive an invitation to answer the phone call on the chat window itself. A simple wizard will guide you through audio configuration and a couple of sliders enable you control the volume of your speakers (or headphones) and mic. You can still use the chat window while you talk, for instance to send a web link or a handwritten message.

Summing up, the main issue with Windows Live Messenger is that it has taken it too much time to offer tools that were already found in other IM apps, such as the VoIP calls mentioned above. However, its attractive design plus the huge number of people who are already MSN Messenger users (and who will eventually upgrade their client) will probably help this Live version reach the top.

Download Windows Live Messenger 2009 14.0.5027.908 Beta in Softonic

Make no mistake: the media industry has changed significantly in the last couple of years. Big corporations are now starting to consider the possibility that their traditional business models could well be about to crumble around them. Newspapers are facing the blogging threat, podcasting is the cool alternative to radio, and now the big TV stations must be starting to sweat a little following the dawn of free online video services such as YouTube, Joost and the one we're about to review: Miro.

After a few months in beta stage, Miro has reached version 1.0, which is considered as a new milestone in the production and development of video and TV content for the Web. Miro is defined by its developers as "the open-source Internet TV platform". In fact, it's been built by a non-profit organization called the Participatory Culture Foundation, which aims to bring together a community of broadcasters to create, what it calls, an 'Internet video ecosystem'. But besides all these elaborate definitions, Miro is simply a great application to watch online videos.

You could now be wondering what's the point of using Miro if you can get those same videos from other places? Well, Miro makes the process faster and much easier. The program uses open protocols to let you subscribe to video channels and video blogs that are fed in via RSS, and uses BitTorrent to download the files. You can also watch videos from Youtube and Dailymotion, or use it to subscribe to a Youtube channel you like, for example. The program supports video playlists and can resume playback just where you stopped.

The inclusion of the 'Channel Guide' is a welcome one, as it helps you get started with the program and also lets you search and browse the various channels effortlessly. Not only can you browse through the existing channel list, but you can easily add new channels simply by clicking a button to subscribe. There are more than two thousand channels available, and all of them are free. Beware, however, that the video quality may vary from one channel or video source to another.

Another great benefit of Miro is that it can handle a wide variety of video formats and, as a good open-source project, it ignores DRM and patents. These and other interesting features are used to compare Miro to Joost, but I think there's no reason for this comparison: they're just different applications with different purposes. In any case, Miro's first public release is an excellent example of how video content from different sources can be integrated into one single application and served directly to your PC in a fast, easy and elegant way.

Download Miro 1.2.4 in Softonic

These days of football fever are probably the best time of the year to play KickOff, an original online football game.

KickOff follows the trend of online casual games you can play for free, just by registering a free account on the game's website and downloading the client. This time football (or soccer, if you prefer it that way) is the main subject of the game, but not in the way we're used to seeing it: in a big stadium, with a crowd of people roaring and 22 professional players running after the ball. Kick-off focuses on street football, on those casual matches you play against your friends in the neighborhood.

The game in itself is quite easy to control. There are only three keys for different kinds of pass and shoot, besides the arrow keys to control movement. Graphics don't follow a realistic style, but are based on a more manga-like design instead, using bright, shiny colors and paying a great attention to detail.

KickOff includes three different game modes: a practicing area, free gaming against people from all over the world and a complete league that you can only enter when you obtain the necessary license. This license, together with the so called "tics" (a kind of user points), is obtained by playing matches. Tics will also eventually allow you to acquire new abilities and new items for your player.

The only main drawback to KickOff is its server problems. While testing the game I was disconnected from the game twice, which automatically closes the client as well. I also had some minor lag issues while playing online matches. Hopefully these problems will be solved soon and we can all enjoy an exciting online soccer game for free.

KickOff is an enjoyable online football game with which you can play fun matches againts people from all over the world, though you may have the odd server problem while playing it.

Download KickOff 1.0.6 in Softonic

Imagine a huge games arcade where thousands of dedicated game players can gather to do battle. That’s what GameSpy Arcade attempts to offer in a virtual world where game is the name and variety is the aim.

GameSpy started life by simply helping Quake users find a functioning sever to log onto but today, it has developed into a world of gaming in its own right. The developer claims that millions of gamers meet online on GameSpy to play the hundreds of online multiplayer games and free demos it’s linked to. They also claim the all-in-one interface offers the fastest game servers available – up to 60% faster than in-game browsers. Plus, it already features integrated texting, voice chat and instant messaging – eat your heart out SecondLife.

After installation, the program scans your PC for any installed games you have and lists those which are GameSpy compatible. All the major games such as Counter-Strike and Age of Empires are supported. The key feature of GameSpy is the Buddy List, which means you’re almost always guaranteed someone online to play with or against (depending on how many buddies you’ve got of course!) Using an engine called ‘PlayerSpy’, it gathers together all those friends that are online. You can see which chat room they are in and what game they are playing. If you fancy dropping in on their action, just click on their location to be instantly taken there. You can also send an instant message, start a voice conversation or send a game invite.

The other key feature of GameSpy is a searchable server filter (SmartSpy) which enables you to find the right server for the game you want in seconds. Popular dedicated-server games like Half-Life have literally thousands of game servers available and SmartSpy helps you pinpoint the best one for you in a matter of seconds. Just select the type of game you want to play and GameSpy Arcade will download data from and ping only those servers. For those that simply like to keep abreast of the latest games, GameSpy also offers DemoSpy - a daily updated list of the latest releases, supplied to them by FilePlanet which saves you registering with the latter. This also includes a handy patch section to keep your games updated.

The drawbacks can be summarised in two words – advertising and resources. From the minute you open GameSpy you are bombarded with advertising from developers hawking their latest games, which becomes rapidly tiresome. In addition, GameSpy tends to be very heavy on your CPU. If you’re playing on an older machine, forget about running anything else alongside it – it simply hogs your CPU to deal with the heavy graphics.

In summary, if you frequently find yourself without gaming companions, GameSpy Arcade is worth it for that reason alone – it’s a great way to make friends too. If however you’re dedicated to just one or two games and you regularly log on with others, the advertising and resource-hogging mean you can probably do without this.

Download GameSpy Arcade 2.05 RC1 in Softonic

I'm I big football fan so naturally I'm starting to get excited about the forthcoming European Championships in Switzerland and Austria.

As always with big tournaments like this, I'm warming up for the big event by playing soccer sims. As always, it's EA who have the official licence for the tournament. And, as always, I came away from the game feeling a little disappointed that the developer still has the freedom to release yet another slightly-tweaked clone if its long-running FIFA game, knowing that punters will snap it up in the hoards amid the excitement of another major championships.

Essentially, it plays virtually the same as FIFA 08 (and, no doubt, very similar to the next version of the series) aside from a few tweaks. For instance, there's a new 'flick' mode for free kicks (and penalties), where you control the power and swerve of the shot using your right-analog stick. It's a novel idea and one that attempts to address one of the few areas that no football sim has yet to do perfectly. It's certainly an improvement, but is for me, too fiddly and difficult to get master.

Other new additions are in-game player ratings which update in real-time depending how each individual is performing, and improved collisions, trapping and goalkeeper AI. You even get to see the managers' reactions to goals, free kicks and near-misses, which I thought was quite neat.

Aside from the gameplay changes, there are a couple of new game modes. Captain Your Country sees you take the role of your team's skipper and influence the other players while you're out on the pitch, and there's a new online mode called Battle of the Nations.

Of course, all the official stadiums, real players, kits, balls, haircuts, etc. are there and the game features 52 European teams. "But there are only going to be 16 teams at the Euro Championships" I hear you scream. Well, EA has decided to allow you to go through the rigours of a qualifying campaign instead of just competiting in the final tournament. I guess it helps to add more depth and longevity to this title, but the qualification is finished now so it's not that realistic. Why couldn't we have had this game two years ago, when qualifying got underway in real life? Not in keeping with the Electronic Arts marketing plan, I imagine.

UEFA 2008 provides a great way to warm up for the European Championships. However, if you already have FIFA 08 I wouldn't bother buying this one as well. It offers little more in terms of gameplay and will be out of date by August.

Download UEFA Euro 2008 Demo in Softonic

A while ago there was an application called Mercora IM Radio that tried to mix real-time music streaming with social elements, creating a community of users around their favorite songs and bands.

Sure the idea rings you a bell – the popular Last.fm website is also based on this idea of mixing social communities and music. Following the successful trend of social networking sites, Mercora has now launched a completely revamped application under the name of Social.fm.

Social.fm works as a music player, MP3 manager and socializing desktop client. After registering for free, you start streaming music right away – and you can also listen to other people's music libraries. The program features a sleek, elegant dark interface, but it takes a while to get used to it due mainly due to overwhelming information. It even features a a Coverflow-style album cover browser and a playlist creation tool.

Music quality is quite good for an audio streaming service, with the odd pause for buffering as you could expect. As for social features, we couldn't fully test them because we had no friends (that is, on Social.fm) but you can invite friends by email or use the embedded user search tool. The program also features support for comments and Facebook and MySpace integration.

Social.fm is a social networking music manager that lets you stream music online and also discover new styles and bands by listening to other people's streaming radio stations.

Download Social.fm 5.5.0.197 in Softonic

Our Universal Instant Messenger keeps you connected to all popular IM's, you can also Talk Online anywhere around the world for free, host a live Video Conference or Transfer Files of any size with complete security.

But the closer you look, the better it gets. Qnext allows you to create private, shared environments called Zones where invite other users to securely share your content and online services. A Zone can contain exciting services such as File Sharing, Group Text Chat, Photo Sharing and Live Online Games. You can also connect with other users around the world using Qnext's IRC service. Our Jukebox service gives you private access to streaming music without the hassle of downloading files. And this is just the beginning - Qnext will be offering many new services to enhance your online experience.

We have also included a powerful remote access service that gives you fast, easy and secure access to your computer from anywhere in the world using QnextMyPC.

• Stay connected to your online buddy lists on other IM clients
• High level security using 192-bit data encryption
• Fast, direct P2P connections between users
• Easy content and service sharing using Qnext Zones
• Permission-based sharing between friends
• Multi-language support
• Personalize Qnext with downloadable skins

Download Qnext 3.0.5 in Softonic

By releasing their own chat and VoIP client, Google aims to compete with the already existing MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger and Skype. Google Talk is a messenger client with a "Web 2.0" feel that makes communicating with other Google users a piece of cake. The program integrates well with many of Google’s other products. You can open it inside of Gmail, add it to your Google Desktop bar, or even manage your Orkut conversations directly from Google Talk.

At first glance, Google Talk follows in the company’s tradition of keeping things simple. All your contacts are automatically loaded from your Gmail account the first time you launch the client. You can start a conversation in a click and keep all of your different chats in separate windows.

Although, Google Talk doesn’t allow you to call phones, it will let you talk with other Google users and even send voicemail if they are offline. Gmail users will appreciate how the chat client is also embedded in your Gmail account, allowing you to chat with other Gmail users instead of sending emails. Google Talk also integrates into the Google Desktop, making it immediately accessible from anywhere on your PC.

Google Talk doesn’t allow you to set an alias but you’ll still be able to set a user picture. Maybe influenced by all the developments in online music like Last.fm, Google integrates Music Trends to your Google Talk. What this means is that you’ll be able to share your musical history with other Google Talk users. You can also set your status as displaying the track playing on your PC.

Google supports the Jabber protocol, so you can chat with friends using Adium, Gaim, iChat or Trillian. You can also connect to your Google Talk account using any of these chat clients. In the future, Google Talk, like most other IM clients, is expected to support Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) meaning you’ll be able to chat and call friends on many more clients like MSN or Yahoo Messenger.

Because it’s such a young chat client, it’s been easy to pinpoint the failings in Google Talk. First of all, Google Talk does not encrypt your conversations or calls, making your discussions available to anyone on the Internet. Many users have also claimed that the Gmail notifications are not very reliable and that Google Talk can suddenly freeze up after you’ve left it on for a while. We also find the user status icons to be too discreet.

Google Talk is not perfect but we think it’s a good bet for the future. As Gmail has shown, Google tends to constantly improve its products so we can expect some exciting improvements soon. The most urgent ones will be to support VoIP to phones, finally encrypt your conversations and to support the SIP protocol. Because of its integration with other Google products, Google Talk is an exciting chat client for Google users. However if you already have a solid chat client and are not a big fan of Google, this application won’t really bring you anything new.

Download Google Talk 1.0.0.104 in Softonic

If you're a big Poker fan, especially of the Texas Hold 'em kind, then you'll love this as you can take it anywhere with you on a USB stick.

Best of all, you're never short of an opponent because you play against hundreds of other players from around the world online. PokerTH Portable now has a dedicated server for its users which means that no IP restrictions or port-forwarding are needed anymore to play. The game comes complete with Avatars and game features include Auto-check/fold and Auto-check/call-any options for temporary away situations. The developers claim that in this latest release, they have improved the distribution of the pot, added new languages and the game's server can support TCP and next generation protocol SCTP/IPv6 at the same time. You can play against six virtual opponents online or an unlimited number via LAN. There's not much that differentiates this Poker game from many of the other on the market although the fact that it is portable and still allows you to play online against others means that Poker addicts need never find themselves bored.

A nice superlight version of Texas Hold'Em that you can take anywhere and play against others day or night.

Download PokerTH Portable 0.5 in Softonic

Most of the PC card games you play are probably limited to the Solitaire, Hearts of FreeCell that come bundled with Windows, so why not spicing it up and playing some poker instead?

PokerTH makes it really easy. This virtual card game enables you to play poker in its Texas Hold'em variety, one of the most popular poker-based card games in casinos and poker rooms worldwide.

The game's appearance and behavior is similar to other card games so you'll be playing in no time. You can play against up to six opponents, all of them controlled by the computer. If you want to face real human players you'll have to play a network game, either in LAN or via the Internet. Unfortunately the poker server didn't seem to respond during our tests, so I couldn’t' test online games properly. In any case my guess here is that the router at the office is configured in such a way that I can't access poker servers from work – I don't understand why.

PokerTH features a very complete settings menu that allows you to configure and customize the game any way you want. The only thing missing is having some background casino music, but you can fix that with your own MP3 collection.

PokerTH is a free Texas Hold'em poker game with which you can play poker against the computer, on LAN or via the Internet – that is, if your router is properly configured.

Download PokerTH 0.6 in Softonic

What happens when you have a large-sized video that you want to share online with your friends? Either you have a broadband Internet connection and enough web space to store it, or you use MovieSlider.

This software app creates a slideshow from any video file and saves it as a standalone EXE, so that you can easily share it online. Alright, it may not be as exciting as the video itself, but at least you get an idea of how the video looks like and what it's about. Also, you save a lot of space: during our testing, we created a 300 KB slideshow out of a 128 MB short movie.

MovieSlider is very easy to use. It features a wizard-like interface that guides you through the whole process in a few simple steps. There are two ways to create slideshows: by taking a fixed number of frames evenly along the video or by capturing a frame every few minutes of viewing. In the end you get an EXE file that can be run anywhere, even if MovieSlider is not installed. The only thing I missed was having the possibility to add some background music – the resulting slideshow looks a bit dull without sound.

With MovieSlider you can easily create slideshows from videos and share them online, although they don't have background sound.

Download MovieSlider 1.0 in Softonic

Gaming is not only about having fun while playing: it's also about showing off your victory over the final stage boss or your first place in the hardest race.

This is precisely what you can do with WeGame. This application is actually the official software client for the WeGame site, a Youtube-like website where players from all over the world share their most valuable gaming deeds on the Internet. The client only supports a closed list of games, but many of them are real hits such as Call of Duty 4, Hellgate London, Half-Life 2 or World of Warcraft.

WeGame works in a very simple way: set the hotkey to start and stop recording and let it running in the background while playing your favorite game. When the glorious moment arrives, hit your hotkey and WeGame will start recording everything. The program can only record videos in AVI format, but at least you can edit them later on with your favorite video editor.

Once you've finished working on the video, use WeGame to upload it to the Web. You'll need to create a user account in the WeGame website but it only takes a couple of minutes and it's totally free.

Though limited to a short list of games, WeGame is a great tool to record your greatest victories in your favorite videogame and share them online.

Download WeGame Public Beta 1 in Softonic

Free online games are getting more and more popular, which is great for game lovers like us... but also makes it harder to choose the one we want play.

One of the latest additions to this trend is called Exteel and is set in a futuristic environment with fast-paced, action-loaded battles. But there's one point where Exteel differs from other actions shooters, and this is the fact that battles are fought between robots. The game calls them mechanaughts and defines them as "walking war machines", which I must say after playing the game, it's quite an accurate description.

Once you install the game and create a free account in the game's official website, you're ready to play. Well, not yet: there's a brief tutorial we recommend to follow in order to learn the basics of movement and weaponry. After that, you're definitely ready to join the battle. Note that this is an online-only game, so expect to endure some waiting times while searching for the appropriate server, waiting for other players, letting people get everything ready and so on. Also, you may feel a bit lost at the beginning, when you don't know anybody in the game and all players seem to have far more experience than you. My advice here is to just give it a try and see how fun it can get.

Exteel features the traditional game modes you find in other action titles (Death-match, Team Death-match, Last Stand...). In any of them, you'll need to have really quick reflexes in order to kill your enemies and survive at the same time –at least you can respawn immediately after being massacred. Every battle earns you credits, which in turn enable you to buy new weapons, skills and other stuff to customize and empower your robot, I mean, your mechanaught.

Graphics in Exteel are really good, especially in the rendering of three-dimensional environments and the characters themselves. Background music adds the final touch, although unfortunately it goes unnoticed most of the time due to the firing roar that takes over battlegrounds.

Exteel lets you join online action-packed battles set in a futuristic environment at an unbeatable price. Definitely worth a try!

Download Exteel 2.2.1.0 in Softonic

MMORPG developers are apparently doing some research on more original settings for their adventures, as the traditional medieval environment is quickly getting wasted. So, after seeing an Egypt-oriented game not long ago, today we have RF Online, a free online RPG with a science-fiction background.

Despite this innovative approach, RF Online keeps all the traditional elements of the RPG genre. You create a character, picking up any of the three possible races and several other classes, and then enter a widely populated world (server) where you'll be entrusted a series of missions. On accomplishing them, you'll be rewarded with valuable objects such as new armory or more powerful weapons and you'll also earn experience points. The fact that RF Online follows the typical RPG structure so faithfully helps a lot when trying to grasp the basics of the game. In any case, I recommend you to watch the complete tutorial included in the game.

RPG games usually take a long time to be properly tested and evaluated. Bearing that in mind, I must say I got an excellent impression from RF Online during our tests. It took me a long time to play (installation, patching and account creation) but then I was able to enjoy a very elaborate adventure, detailed graphics and a really excellent soundtrack. Also, the server's response time was great.

The first missions are really easy to quickly get you on the move; besides, you can always ask for help in the chat, as RF Online emphasizes team work a lot. The only thing I didn't like was camera control: it takes a while to get used to moving your character with the left mouse button while controlling the angle with the right one.

RF Online is a very original RPG set in a futuristic environment, but which at the same time keeps the traditional RPG elements. Plus, it's completely free!

Download RF Online in Softonic

If you've ever played Grand Theft Auto on the Playstation, then you already know what Drift City is about. This awesome driving game lets you drive your car freely around Mittron Island and take part in different missions while enjoying some fun chat with other players around the globe.

The game itself takes ages to start. First you need to register as user on their website, then download the client, then download an extra installer and the necessary updates… but I assure the waiting time is really worth it. Also, the game is so easy to play that it makes up for it. You won't need any tutorial or similar: six keys are enough to make your car fly over the road, drift and perform incredible jumps.

The first few missions teach you the basics of the game story and mechanics. As you complete them, you earn experience points and level up. When you reach a certain experience level, you'll be able to enter the Battle Zone: competitive races against other players worldwide. In the meantime, you can also visit the Driver Dome and improve your car or even buy a new one with the money you earn in missions. There are always new things to do in Drift City, new people to meet and new ways to enjoy your driving experience.

Graphics in Drift City are designed with a cartoonish look, but following a realistic style. You'll be able to recognize real car makes and models while driving around a city depicted with lots of detail.

Download Drift City in Softonic