Playing cute puzzles and thorough RPG adventures is all right, but sometimes you yearn for a bit more action.

Action, loads of it, is what you're going to find in S4 League, a frenetic online multiplayer game you can play and enjoy absolutely for free – that is, after creating a user account on the developer's website.

S4 League is very similar to Gunz and follows the same scheme as other multiplayer action games. You find yourself in a complex playing area, with corridors, stairs and platforms to run and jump, and your aim is basically to wipe out all members of the enemy team. Bear in mind though that battles in S4 League are so hectic and fast-paced that you better be wide awake if you want to last for more than five minutes.

Besides these basic rules, S4 League presents some variations according to the gaming mode you choose (Touchdown, Death match or personal missions). The game also differs from other action titles in its design – chiefly based on Japanese-style drawings – and an extensive social component that includes real-time chat, community services and other goodies. Plus S4 League features a shop where you'll be able to buy new stuff for your character, not only to customize it but also to make it more deadly and powerful.

Generally speaking S4 League is a great game. It combines nice graphics with an excellent soundtrack, and it's fun to play. The only drawback is that it takes ages to start.

Download S4 League in Softonic

aMSN is an alternative to the classic MSN Messenger, with more features yet a much weaker interface. The chat client looks very similar to Microsoft's product yet differs on a number of points. aMSN developers have delved into the preferences menu, adding extra little features like event alerts and sounds, conferencing support or autoaway messages. Like with MSN Messenger you'll be able to transfer files and organize all your contacts into groups.

Audio/Video support is the number one function that users look for in IM clients nowadays, yet an area which aMSN doesn't particularly focus on. Webcam support is fairly weak and unstable, and instead of integrating into your chat window will open up in a new Quicktime window.

One of the biggest pet peeves of users with aMSN is the interface. It simply doesn't compare with more sleeker, more recent IM clients. To the developer's defense though you can download all sorts of skins from the program's website. Similarly it offers up a range of plugins, to customize your client to your liking. Chat addicts will also appreciate the animated emoticons on hand.

In terms of performance, you have to keep in mind that aMSN is still a Beta product, so still liable to some crashes and bugs. We did have some trouble when opening up new chat window and noticed that the client tended to use a lot of CPU.

In a few words, aMSN is a good alternative to MSN for users looking to add more plugins, skins and delve into the preferences menu.

Download aMSN Messenger 0.97.2 in Softonic

Pidgin (previously called Gaim) is a multi-protocol instant messaging client for Linux, BSD, MacOS X, and Windows. It is compatible with AIM (Oscar and TOC protocols), ICQ, MSN Messenger, Yahoo, IRC, Jabber, Gadu-Gadu, and Zephyr networks. Pidgin users can log in to multiple accounts on multiple IM networks simultaneously. This means that you can be chatting with friends on AOL Instant Messenger, talking to a friend on Yahoo Messenger, and sitting in an IRC channel all at the same time. Pidgin supports many features of the various networks, such as file transfer (coming soon), away messages, typing notification, and MSN window closing notification.

It also goes beyond that and provides many unique features. A few popular features are Buddy Pounces, which give the ability to notify you, send a message, play a sound, or run a program when a specific buddy goes away, signs online, or returns from idle. Plugins, consist of text replacement, a buddy ticker, extended message notification, iconify on away, and more.

Download Pidgin 2.5.1 in Softonic

Some years ago ICQ was one of the most popular IM applications among Internet users. But when Microsoft launched MSN Messenger, many of these users forgot about their original IM client and joined a network that was growing very quickly. In the meantime, ICQ continued to be upgraded until finally reaching version 6, which sets a new milestone in the history of this classic piece of software.

To begin with, the installation process is fast and easy, the only downside being the fact that you must set ICQ Search as your web browser's default search engine, as there's no way of getting around this option.

This new ICQ boasts a fresh-looking interface which has been completely redesigned. Also, you can customize it with skins, although you'll have to download them because there's not a single skin included in the program. It does include, however, a very complete personal profile which you can fill in with all your information, including name, location, interests, spoken languages and a personal avatar that ICQ oddly refers to as "devil".

Generally speaking, ICQ 6 offers all the functions that we find in other IM applications, namely instant written messages, voice calls and video calls. All of these are complemented with a very nice set of animated smilies and the so called "Tzers" which are the equivalent to Messenger's "Winks". Chat sessions can be grouped together under the same window, which prevents your taskbar getting cluttered. ICQ allows you to start text conversations right from the contact list using the Quick message feature. There's also the option to send SMS messages to your contacts, but this is not available in all countries yet.

This new version promises to give you complete control over configuration settings. However, we must admit that we had some trouble in finding them, until we happened to click on the "Main" button on the interface. The configuration options are quite complete indeed, allowing you to change every single detail regarding sounds, notifications, privacy and security, message history, appearance and the program's general behaviour.

In all, ICQ seems to have developed a new version with a fresh redesign only to measure up to its main competitors but without really offering any new functions. Again, choosing ICQ (or any other IM app) ends up being just a question of which IM your friends use.

Download ICQ 6.0.0.6063 in Softonic

Limewire, one of the world’s most popular peer-to-peer filesharing applications, has received a lawsuit from the RIAA, who are demanding $115 million in damages, claiming the application promotes the infringement of copyright. Similar applications like Grokster and Kazaa have been forced to go legal and there is speculation as to just how long Limewire will resist until they have to buckle and pay up. The existence of the popular P2P application is not under threat, but if you haven’t given it a try yet, here’s just what makes it a standout program.

In terms of file sharing, Limewire is the cream of the crop, offering the essential peer-to- peer tools in what is probably the friendliest interface of applications in its class. Beginners will appreciate the search bar, which allows you to select the type of file you’re looking for, video, image, audio, program or file. Limewire has a “what’s new” button to check out what popular files users have recently exchanged. We also enjoyed the direct connect option. If you know the IP address of one of your friends, type it in the box and Limewire will browse that user’s files. This is a quick way of sharing files with someone else and can come in handy when working on a project and exchanging documents. The only little snag we have with direct connect is that it doesn’t let you enter the username, much simpler than looking for your friend’s IP address.

Downloading with Limewire is very intuitive. After you’ve searched and found the file you are looking for, double-click on it to start the downloading process. The speed of your download depends firstly on the quality of your connection (broadband is a minimum), if you’ve correctly opened your router’s ports and whether you’re downloading a popular file or not. We would like to point out the effort that Limewire takes to make itself accessible to beginners. Not only does a tip pop up every time you launch the application, the help option also leads you to Limewire’s support centre, FAQs and a forum to get in contact with other users.

The lawsuit carried out by the RIAA is all the more surprising because of the measures Limewire takes to keep you in the realms of legality. If you decide to download Limewire from its website, you will first have to agree you will not use it for copyright infringement. When you’re configuring the application, you can set content filters, to avoid downloading files that copyright owners do not want you to share. To avoid embarrassing situations, make sure you tick the “block adult content” box, which will filter out any pornographic files from your searches.

The best way of checking the quality of the audio or video you’re downloading is via Limewire’s mini player. It’s fairly basic and to par with the players you find in similar filesharing applications, but we appreciated the way it was integrated in the application.

If there’s one thing that we’re still expecting from the Limewire team, it’s that it finally decides to jump on the BitTorrent bandwagon. Torrents are the way forward when it comes to peer to peer file sharing because of the speed, the security and freshness of downloads. Large files like movies or complete seasons of TV series are much easier to download via BitTorrent. We were also annoyed by the “buy the PRO version” window that popped up every time we started Limewire.

For its wealth of possibilities and huge base of users, (more than 4 million simultaneously on the Gnutella network) we encourage you to give Limewire a test drive. Because of the controversial nature of the application, you should always make sure that you aren’t using Limewire for illegal activities like copyright infringement. However don’t be scared off by the legality issue. Limewire, like most P2P applications is one of the most exciting possibilities that the internet gives us. It would be a shame not to give it a try. You should also check out Frostwire, the not-for-profit project of the Limewire development team.

Download LimeWire Basic 4.18.6 in Softonic

Maybe summer is not the most appropriate season to practice snowboard, but Project Powder makes it possible – as long as you have a computer with you.

Project Powder is a frenetic snowboard simulator that challenges you to play and compete against people from all over the world, either individually in single races or teaming up with other players in group races. The game also features an extensive social components, including a lobby, chat rooms, instant messages and more.

Unlike other sport simulators, Project Powder is very easy to control. It features a complete tutorial that teaches you the basics of racing, plus a few nice jumps and tricks. Mastering them in order to reach the finishing line in the first place is another story. Also, keep an eye on penguins, rocks, snowplows and other obstacles! As you can see, races in Project Powder are definitely full of surprises.

Project Powder features surprisingly good graphics (at least for a free game), and that counts not only for landscapes and character design, but also for the physics engine, capable of rendering a truly speed sensation while sliding down the mountains.

Being an online game, Project Powder requires an internet connection at all times. But the main drawback, in my opinion, is the game's lengthy installation process.

Project Powder is a challenging, action-packed online snowboard simulator with which you can have fun with people from all over the world.

Download Project Powder 1.32 in Softonic

Often the file you like to download is available on several different hosts. Phex will request different segments of the file from each host in parallel. After successfully downloading a segment Phex will merge it with the other segments of that file. This results in a much higher download speed. If a host is too slow the segment is split during download and given to another host. To make sure you never run out of hosts Phex is able to find new download hosts by itself with the automatic search functionality and features the Download Mesh.

You can choose for each download whether the segments should be chosen according to their availability (rarest first, BitTorrent-Style), their place in the file (earlier segments first, useful for previewing the file) or for previewing (the first 10MB according to their place in the file, after that according to their availability).

Phex offers very advanced configuration options. Much more than many other clients can offer. Especially advanced user can configure Phex according to their needs and are able to tune and see the effect of different settings.

With the passive search functionality Phex is able to constantly monitor the traffic that goes through the network and collect search results that match your passive search term. Also Phex snoops the traffic for new download candidates you need to finish your downloads faster. This type of searching is useful for longtime monitoring of available files on the network.

Other features include:

• Multiple searches
• Ultrapeer and compression technology for reduced bandwidth
• Integrated chat
• Browse host support
• Bitzi metadata lookup
• MAGMA support

Download Phex 3.2.6.106 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 1.7.1.38 in Softonic

Remember how Messenger used to be so popular only a few years back? Now it seems most people prefer to chat with friends on social networks like Facebook. Not only can you much more things, but most of them also include a built chat tool, that replaces the need for an IM client.

Gabtastik is a site specific browser (SSB) built so you can use these online chat services in a separate window. To translate: Gabtastik lets you use online chat services just like if they were separate applications.

The interface is clean and Gabtastik lets you open up multiple chats in multiple tabs. So far it only works with Google Talk, Facebook Chat and meebo. If you use an iPhone you'll probably be interested in learning that it also handles the Hahlo iPhone Twitter webapp.

Gabtastik uses very little RAM and its nice having all these online chat services in a separate window, instead of hidden away between various tabs of your browser. Obviously it's only limited to certain services, but if you use meebo, you'll have access to many more like MSN or ICQ.

Gabtastik lets you use online chat services in your very own browser window.

Download Gabtastik 0.21 in Softonic

mIRC is an Internet Relay Chat (IRC) program for Windows. Just as you need a browser to surf the Web, you need an IRC client to chat. mIRC is highly configurable and perfectly stable and has a lot of goodies hidden inside.

It offers multiserver support, full color control, DCC-file sending and Get capabilities, aliases, remote command- and events-handling capabilities, scripting, place-sensitive programmable pop-up menus, and Web and sound support. Most importantly, to use mIRC you don't have to understand anything of the above. Simply install it and chat away.

Download mIRC 6.34 in Softonic

WiPeer enables sharing files directly among computers, playing multi-player games, chatting, and collaboration over both Wi-Fi and home/office networks. These networks are not centralized on a single computer and do not need Internet access.

The only thing you need to enter the network is a username. Then you can start sharing files, chatting or even playing chess, reversi, connect four and checkers. Chat rooms may be public or private, as well as file sharing, which can be done individually or with more than one user simultaneously. Network users can have their own personal profiles including data such as name, location, language, age, sex, etc.

Download WiPeer 0.72 in Softonic

With SkypeCap you are able to record microphone audio chatting and moreover, the most interesting part - webcam real-time Skype video. Your partner won't be aware his/her video and audio session being captured by SkypeCap.

How does it work? Just launch and login to Skype. Launch SkypeCap. Status bars will let you know If SkypeCap is conected with Skype and it is ready for video and audio capturing. Choose an output directory.

Make a call to any of your friends from Contact list. Begin audio or video session. Now SkypeCap is ready to capture or it is already capturing audio or video (with audio) if you set it for automatical beginning. So now, everything what you see or hear by Skype is recording as you see it. You can also capture audio chatting in Skype-out mode. You can make a call to any of your friends cell phone or office number and start recording and saving it.

Download SkypeCap 2.3.3 in Softonic

Soulseek(tm) is a unique ad-free, spyware free, and just plain free file sharing application. One of the things that makes Soulseek(tm) unique is its community and community-related features. Based on peer-to-peer technology, virtual rooms allow you to meet people with the same interests, share information, and chat freely using real-time messages in public or private.

Soulseek(tm), with its built-in people matching system, is a great way to make new friends and expand your mind. Soulseek(tm) does not endorse nor condone the sharing of copyrighted materials. You should only share and download files which you are legally allowed to or have otherwise received permission to share. By using this network you agree to this and the other rules which are linked to from this page.

The intention of Soulseek(tm) is to help unsigned and/or independent artists find a place in the ever-growing music industry, in a place where discussion and the creation of music can take place. Use of this network for what may be deemed illegal in nature may see users prosecuted by law, and the owners and/or operators of the Soulseek(tm) network do not offer protection from said incidents.

Download Soulseek 157 NS 13c in Softonic

If you have all your online friends scattered across different IM networks, you need an IM client like Meebone.

With Meebone you can connect to multiple IM networks simultaneously, giving you the chance then to chat with your friends from Jabber, Meebo, MSN, AIM, Yahoo!, ICQ and Google Talk at the same time.

When you run Meebone you'll be asked to login to any of the supported networks. Then, if you want to join another network at the same time, click on the "Sign on" button at the bottom of the program's interface.

Meebone is actually an Adobe AIR desktop port of an online cross-platform IM client named Meebo. Maybe this is why its interface is not perfect yet and has some glitches, but we have to bear in mind that the program is still at a beta stage.

Meebone lets you chat with your online friends at any moment, no matter what IM network they use. The program is still in development though.

Download Meebone 0.1 Beta5 in Softonic

One of the biggest temptations when chatting on the Internet is playing a joke on the person you're talking to. And AV WebCam Morpher can be a really good help.

AV WebCam Morpher is especially designed for video chats. The program replaces your current webcam video signal with a fake video loop that shows a completely different person. This means that it'll be this character's face – and not yours – the one that will appear on the video window on whichever IM client you're using.

You can choose between different people in AV WebCam Morpher. Video loops are quite elaborate: people on them play a very credible role while pretending to be typing on a keyboard or looking at the screen. What's more, AV WebCam Morpher includes a smiley menu with which you can make them laugh, dance, grin and many other visual gestures that are part of body language.

AV WebCam Morpher is quite easy to set up, and is also compatible with popular IM clients such as Yahoo Messenger, Skype, Camfrog, PalTalk Messenger and Windows Live Messenger. On the downside, its interface could be greatly improved.

With AV WebCam Morpher you can play a funny joke on your video IM client pretending to be someone else.

Download AV Webcam Morpher 2.0.23 in Softonic

Some anti-virus programs cause more problems than they solve. Avast! Home Edition anti-virus is thankfully not one of those as it exceeds expectations while remaining free. Lightweight, vigilant and most importantly, effective, this could be the answer to your prayers if you’ve had no luck finding a virus checker you like.

The developers make a point of stressing that this program is strictly not for institutional use – it is designed specifically for the threats most home users face daily. Their philosophy is that efficient home virus protection is essential in preventing users one day being struck by a serious global virus. What impresses you immediately with Avast! is its vigilance. It’s likely that within minutes of installation, you’ll receive a pop up alert due to a Trojan or virus that had been incubating on your PC. If not, rest assured that it won’t be long before Avast! sets off its trademark siren and alerts you that something has been detected. The latest version of

Avast’s antivirus kernel promises 100% detection of ‘In-the-Wild’ viruses (viruses already spreading between users) and excellent detection of Trojan horses. Avast! provides 24 hour protection via its ‘On-Access’ scanner but you can initiate manual scans via the fairly simple user interface. You can start additional modules from here, such as the Virus Chest, Updater or Log Viewer. Another great feature of Avast! is the option to change the skin of this interface. The developer website features practically hundreds of distinctive designs made by aficionados and even offers a guide to designing your own.

Something often overlooked by major virus checking packages is P2P applications installed on your PC but Avast! covers this with a P2P and Instant Messenger shield. Whilst chat applications themselves do not impose any serious security risks in terms of viruses, their less sophisticated file sharing methods can easily lead to virus infections if not properly monitored. With so many infected files on P2P networks such as Kazaa and eMule too, it’s also good to know that Avast! won’t let you open them without quietly checking them first.

The program also features both a Web and Network shield that constantly monitors traffic. The Web Shield acts as a transparent HTTP proxy and is compatible with all major web browsers. One of the truly outstanding features of Avast! is that unlike heavyweights such as Kaspersky or Norton, you hardly notice it working in the background. This is because of a unique feature the developers call ‘Intelligent Stream Scan’ that scans objects on-the-fly, without needing to cache them locally. Even the virus updates are unobtrusive. Avast! downloads the updates gradually and only those that are absolutely essential instead of the whole database. You receive a ‘Virus database has been updated’ voice message every time this has been completed along with a small popup which you can turn off if it annoys you.

There really is little to fault Avast! on in a market that is saturated with too many ineffective virus checkers. Although it doesn’t guzzle resources, if you’re running it on an older machine, you might find it slows you down. Some new users also complain that conducting a simple manual scan is more complicated than it should be but if you’ve spent anytime with virus checkers, you’ll realise that its more than worth your while getting to know this excellent program.

Download Avast! Home 4.8.1229 in Softonic

Miranda Portable brings all the functionality and features of the popular cross-network IM client Miranda right to your pocket.

This portable version can easily be installed in any USB memory device so that you always have a tool to chat with your online buddies, no matter which network they connect to or which computer you're using. Pocket-sized Miranda is light on resources, works fast and leaves no trace on the host system's Registry.

This IM client supports multiple networks, which means you'll be able to talk to people on ICQ, AIM, MSN, Jabber, Yahoo! and even IRC. The program's interface and general design is honestly not the most brilliant I've seen, but the program is so handy and easy to use that it makes up for it.

Also, though Miranda Portable is quite a basic client, you can add loads of new features by means of plugins – just like the Firefox extensions, but for Miranda.

Save Miranda Portable in your USB memory stick and you'll be able to chat with your IM buddies anytime, anywhere.

Download Miranda IM Portable 0.7.8 in Softonic

Taking video shots of your desktop is essential for those that are building tutorials or trying to help others in using a program.

The problem is that sometimes, the recording software can be often be complicated or difficult to use but Screen Video Recorder attempts to be one of those rare breeds that keeps everything to an absolute basic minimum. Although it only saves video captures in AVI or WMV format (which are not exactly the smallest formats to share via e-mail or upload etc) it compensates by making taking screen captures very easy indeed.

The interface consists of little more than small window that allows you to stop and start recordings with a few options to configure the audio codec you want to use, video codec, start a timer and a hotkey that you'd like to use to start and stop recordings. The region that's captured depends on which of the 5 options you've asked it to record - random region, window, full screen, fixed size and fixed region.

However, it not only covers screen activity but it can also record images from webcams attached to IM clients such as AIM, ICQ, MSN and Yahoo Messenger. It can also capture video from TV Cards, DVD's and just about any other video input device except video cameras.

A very simple screen video capture tool just about anyone can use for capturing screen activity, webcam chats and video in general.

Download Screen Video Recorder 1.5.33.0 in Softonic

Being one of the most widely used IM applications, MSN Messenger has always had a large base of users keen on developing plugins with which they could personalize their favorite chat client. Amateur programmers released plugins to discover who had erased you from their contact list, to start more than one MSN session, to log conversations... until MSN Plus! was launched.

MSN Plus! soon became the most popular MSN plug-in, collecting together all the extra options users could ask for into one program. Even now Plus! is still an excellent pack of tools which heavy Messenger users consider as essential and which certainly improves your IM experience. During all these years it has been able to adapt to every new Messenger version, including the name change and the new interface design. In fact, Plus! is now seamlessly integrated into Live Messenger: it launches with the program and the only way you can tell it's there it by two tiny buttons on the main interface.

When Plus was launched, its main feature was the ability to record "chat logs", that is, create text files with all your conversations. However, as this has been already included in the IM app itself, Plus! has had to widen its range of extra functions. These tools can be divided into two groups: those dedicated to chatting improvement and those devoted to contact management. As for the first group, you'll enjoy tabbed chat windows, support for custom text format (bold, italics, font, color) and the so-called quick messages, personal keyboard shortcuts you can assign to sentences or expressions used on a regular basis. The second group of tools allows you to create custom status messages, have your favourite contacts right on the Windows desktop (as an icon) and gather all kinds of stats about contacts, like the last time they logged on or whether they have recently changed their nickname, which I personally find kind of excessive, but hey, to each his own.

Besides all this, Live Messenger Plus still offers its popular chat log tool, which is said to be more powerful and flexible than the default function featured in Windows Messenger Live. Actually, it looks much better thanks to the use of HTML, the ability to record emoticons and winks and the possibility to customize its appearance with CSS formatting.

The list of improvements Plus brings to Windows Live Messenger doesn't end here. You can, for example, hide the application in the system tray under an almost invisible icon (in case you're chatting at work, something we completely disapprove of) or password protect access to the program, amongst others. The good thing though is that you can create your own extra functions, that is, if you know how to code scripts. Plus already features a nice bunch of them, allowing you to display the name of the song you're listening to, send screenshots, use sticky notes and other nice extras.

All in all, Live Messenger Plus is probably the only plug-in you'll ever need, especially if you like customizing every single detail of your Messenger.

Download Messenger Plus! Live 4.60.326 in Softonic

If you're looking to meet other people from around the world for a general chat about life in their part of the globe, then iSpQ VideoChat can help you do so.

iSpQ VideoChat is a desktop conferencing software but mainly with a view to helping you meet new people rather than arrange business meetings. iSpQ VideoChat effectively connects you with people from around the world in a live video chat community. There are hundreds of different iSpQ VideoChat public directories, private chat rooms, and an online contact list for you to choose from and meet people although how many people you will find online in each one is a little hot and miss.

On the plus side, the video conferencing interface of iSpQ VideoChat is elegant and easy to use with very high resolution images supported. You can also view other people's profiles and photos before you chat to them but you've only got access to this if you're a paid subscriber which leads to the main problem. iSpQ VideoChat seems little more than an online dating or singles club for those looking to hook up although if that's what you're looking for, and you don't mind paying for contacts, you may well like it.

iSpQ VideoChat performs no miracles when it comes to conferencing software but if you're looking to meet new people around the world and chat in real time, it could be for you.

Download iSpQ VideoChat 8.0.50 in Softonic