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Team co-op games have always been fun and in the past few years there have been a good few “greats.” Borderlands and the Left 4 Dead series are perfect examples of this. These 4 player co-op games go against the forces of whatever, with plenty of guns and a large amount of either blood or goo. Frankly, it’s good for the soul.

Valve is a company that likes to spot potential and then devour it.  Most of the Valve catalog was created or thought up by the Half life modding community. Counterstrike Source was the first to be assimilated, and it did not turn out to be the last as the Valve team just keeps on growing.

One of the more recent additions to the team was a group of developers called “Black Cat Games.” Back in 2004, they released a mod for Unreal Tournament 2004 called Alien Swarm. Valve saw the potential in this, and of course, hired them and gave them the newest version of the Source engine. What they have created is brilliant, and it’s FREE.

So you can now take the latest version of the Source engine, with full dev tools for free with the awesome Alien Swarm! If you don’t you are crazy, it’s as simple as that…

Download Alien Swarm now

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Well I can’t really credit myself with even being able to write very well. I have terrible handwriting, the keyboard is my friend. I do remember doodling with my Bic though, in school – and found out things like it was really nice  and smooth to write on those polystyrene cups.

Anyway, the Bic Biro is a tool of writing and perhaps line drawing, but what about fine art?  Juan Francisco is an artist who has taken this his Bic to the next level, well probably a few levels after that really.  He creates absolutly beautiful work with just a blue Bic Biro. This man is awesome.

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Yea yea, you all came here either a) looking for dirt or b) looking to defend poor Tiger from more attacks… Well guess what, its not about his extra marital activities!

That’s right guys, Golf.  Remember that game that Tiger played before trying to escape from his wife? (supposedly).  EA Have recently released an open beta version of their Tiger Woods Golf series.  Its fully online and browser based so you can play where ever you are.  You then have a wide selection of courses that you can take your newly created golfer on to level up!  Yes I said level up, if you imagine golf as an MMORPG you wouldn’t be far off the mark.

Gain levels, earn XP and cash then spend the cash on training your swing and balance among other attributes.  It’s all fully multiplayer and you can enter tournaments, beat challenges and other online fun stuff.

This game looks awesome for a browser game, fully 3D and plays very nicely in Chrome.  As far as we know there are no dodgy mini games, like in a certain version of GTA…

Best thing you can do is Check it out at: http://tigerwoodsonline.ea.com/

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That’s right, the awesome joke in the title of this post gives the game away…

There is a new addictive free iPhone application out that will put your word skills to the test, a sort of Boggle style puzzler where you have to make words out of random letters by touching them.

You can also challenge your friends to beat your score and tweet out your best.

You can pick up the application for free via the app store here – Click Here

The application was a collab project with @countzero and @cutemachine – lets hope there are more to come

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The hardest leap from Firefox to Chrome for me was the lack of important extensions that made browsing a lot easier.   I will always use Firefox for development as loosing Firebug would be unthinkable, but as Firefox seems to have been going through a little speed slump recently I started to do all my browsing in Chrome.

Chrome has come along way since its release, and now has started fully supporting extensions in its latest beta release.  Surprisingly there are already hundreds of extensions, most importantly notifications for Wave and Gmail with Evernote and Delicious ones appearing too – there are also some really good add blockers!

Not only that Chrome is now available for your Mac dudes.  That’s right you can now get Chrome for Mac – in beta of course!  While we are on this subject it is also available for Linux.

So want to give this new browser a go, with your beloved extensions?   Check out the links below!

1. Chrome Extensions (will tell you at the top of the page if your browser version is compatible)
2. Chrome for Mac
3. Chrome for Linux
4. Making your own Extensions Tutorial!

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These days browsers are big talk for those who use the web like some kind of drug deprived addict.  People build up a passionate loyalty to their browser of choice, whatever it may be.

As the web becomes more and more mobile and phones are designed to handle the internet in competitive and interactively rich ways, you would think that more developers would be starting to make version of their software for the new generation of mobile devices.

We all know that iPhone have an app for everything and Android phones were really built for the web, but what about one of the other major phone OS Symbian?  Well there maybe one very clever browser developer who have just slipped in there to help me and my fellow Symbian smart phone users out of the default browser zone.

Opera have released an extremely stable, fast and attractive version of their browser for your Symbian mobile.  Packed with features that include tabbed browsing and support for javascript and flash – Opera have built something very special, and personally I love using it!

So if you want more out of your Symbian mobile you need to get this app.

Opera Mobile 10 beta 2

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Yes Google are trying to take over the world, trying to deny it is futile – we will be assimilated.

Google aren’t really helping dispel the image conspiracy theorists are projecting.   With the wide scale Wave beta that is happening at the moment comes the release of some more information about the Chrome OS.

Google are showing of the user experience which I must say is designed excellently for a netbook, and its only a prototype…

So will you surrender, or are you going to fight the power?

• Google Chrome User Experience

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I love these defence games, they are a lot of fun.  You have to build up your defences to save your people from the constant hordes of monsters.

There are many games like this around, but not too many that looks so well or have such an interesting way of presenting the idea.

The indie game was developed by Voodoo Dimention and there is an excellent download available on the games website, linked below.  The game has won a good few awards too so give it a go, its quite addictive!

• Game Demo
• Voodoo Dimention Website

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I have been using Curdbee for a good few months now and I think its about time I gave them some love.  There are many invoice managing programmes  - online and offline that are around, but I have not found one that offers a simple but complete invoicing management service for free.

Curdbee does this, they enable you to set up and customise your invoices, hold them as drafts, send them and tell you when they are viewed and enable you to break them down into many items and descriptions.

Curdbee’s basic service, being free as well, is exactly what starting freelancers require.  Unlimited invoices, clients and items is excellent for a free package, you can also include your own branding, paypal and Google checkout.  If you need more features later on, Curdbee offer some upgrade packages, each at $5 a month each.  They enable more features which are not initially essential but are very helpful.

So if you are looking for an online “cloud” based invoicing solution, check out Curdbee – I doubt you will be disappointed!

• Curdbee.com

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Twitter has brought together people, co-workers and communities. Alliances in work, beliefs, causes have raised awareness and money and given people opportunities in working globally with great people on awesome projects.  For the most its just been a great way to meet new friends.  But twitter has its limits, and sometimes 140 chars just doesn’t do it.

So the next step, you might be thinking is some crazy twitter service or some extensions that triples your message capacity, well although they might be something somewhere I am talking more about the relationships you have formed inside twitter.   How can you easily take the next step with friends or soon to be friends?   I would recommend Skype of course, as many of my twitter friends are now on my Skype lists – but sometimes you want something a little easier.

So without further delay I give to you, TinyChat.  You may have already seen and used this service, but if not its excellent for what it is.

Web based chat client, think of it almost like IRC fused with Skype or MSN Messenger.  You do not need to sign up for anything, all you need to do is create a room and off you go!  The chat is also able to hold multiple streaming video and audio, meaning you are able to I think have up to 12 live feeds in one room, and a heck of a lot of people in text chat.

TinyChat is an easy way to connect to friends you have not seen in a good few years, and connect with new people, even have group meetings!

So take that step, as AT&T used to say back in the 80′s – “Reach out and touch someone!”