DriveSpacio Finds What’s Filling Up Your Hard Drive

Lifehacker:

“Windows only: Analyze your hard drive usage and find out what’s eating
up your disk space with freeware application DriveSpacio. Similar to previously mentioned WinDirStat,
DriveSpacio sets itself apart with a different approach to displaying
your drive usage. Many users will likely prefer the bar graphs and pie
charts of DriveSpacio to WinDirStat, but the biggest drawback is
that—unlike WinDirStat—it doesn’t currently allow you to directly
delete or launch a folder from within its interface. That means that
once you find something you want to delete, you still have to navigate
to it manually in Explorer to delete it. Regardless, the freeware,
Windows only DirveSpacio is a great alternative when you’re looking to visualize your hard drive usage. Mac users, check out previously mentioned GrandPerspective.”

DriveSpacio [via Download Squad]

EA Loosens Spore, Mass Effect DRM

Slashdot: “In response to recent criticism, EA has decided to eliminate the
periodic validation of Mass Effect and Spore. ‘Specifically, EA’s plan
to dial in to game owner’s computers every ten days to check whether
they were running a legitimate version of their software has been
scrapped, ShackNews reports. EA had planned to use the validation
method for upcoming titles Mass Effect and Spore. EA now says that
validation will now only occur when a user attempts to download new
content for either game. Chief among the voices in opposition to this
measure were members of the armed forces, who pointed out that they
could not rely on having an internet connection every ten days.’”

Advanced Run Opens Programs as Another User

Lifehacker:

“Windows only: Freeware application Advanced Run is a replacement for
the traditional Windows Run dialog that can run any program as another
user without logging you out of your account. Aside from that, Advanced
Run does all the same things your regular Run dialog does, and Advanced
Run will launch in place of it whenever you hit Windows-R or Start
-> Run. It also adds a Run As option to your right-click dialog, so
you can launch any program on your desktop as another user. Advanced
Run is freeware, Windows only (go to the Downloads tab to download).”

Advanced Run [via Shell Extension City]

Lord Of The Rings: Conquest

Hmmm…a Battlefield-type game with swords and axes…me wantey…

Rock, Paper, Shotgun:

“Lord Of The Rings: Conquest is a Battlefield/front type game set in the
Tolkien universe currently under development by Pandemic Studios. “Our
experience creating massive, rich, action-packed games means that The
Lord of the Rings: Conquest will give fans exactly what they want: full
control of the blade, bow and magic to fight its epic battles any way
they want – even if they choose to play from the evil side,” said
Pandemic’s Josh Resnick. And who wouldn’t play
as a orck (yes, I’m going with a franchise-neutral spelling from now
on), that’s what I want to know. Anyway, more details and screens after
the jump.”

… [visit site to read more]

Doom 4 Announced

IGN: “Famed developer id Software reveals existence of Doom 4 and says it’s hiring.“

User-Generated Discontent: Spore/Mass Effect DRM

Sorry, it ain’t gonna stop the hackers…

Rock, Paper, Shotgun:

“All it’s taken is one little post and a landslide of others follow. At least that’s what’s happened when Bioware’s Derek French reveals that Mass Effect and Spore will
be coming with a fairly hefty piece of DRM attached. It won’t just
activate online when you first install the game - it’ll also have to
check in to the server regularly to continue working. If ten days go by
without a check-in working, the game stops working. In other word,
major lengthy internet outage, no playage. Since RPS-comrade Rossignol
is going to be having that kinda length of time offline shortly, this
has to be frowned at.

Beneath the cut: Derek French’s Full post, just so the actual words
people will be arguing about are present in the vicinity if this
spirals out of control into another 300+ post thread about the P-word. Oh - and a few more initial thoughts too.”
…

[visit site to read more]

New Portal Map Pack Offers 40 Levels

IGN:

“Portal: The Flash Version,
released shortly after The Orange Box, was a fun quirky side-scroller
based on Valve’s game of the same name. Much like the original
iteration, the flash version allowed players to solve puzzles by
shooting orange and blue portals to traverse across seemingly
impossible areas. Portal fans might be happy to hear that all 40 flash
levels will be playable in the 3D version via a new map pack.

This map pack, created by flash game designer Hen Mazolski, puts
players into the role of a different test subject and prefaces the
events of the original game.

All 40 levels can be downloaded here.”

Blizzard Digi Downloads

Rock,Paper, Shotgun:

“Blizzard have announced some lovely digital downloads via their online shop.
Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos and Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne cost
$20 each (about £10) and Starcraft is up there for $15 (about £7.50).
Not bad, but I recall buying the CD version of Starcraft (minus
Broodwar, come to think of it) for about £3 off Amazon a while back… … [visit site to read more]“

AVG Free Anti-Virus 2008 Released, Much Improved

Lifehacker:

“Windows
only: Popular freeware anti-virus application AVG Free recently updated
to AVG Free 2008. Aside from a general interface overhaul and faster
performance, the updated anti-virus scanner has added several new
features with a focus on web security. AVG is always at the forefront
of the freeware anti-virus category, so unless you don’t run anti-virus software, it’s a great alternative to crappy Windows software.”

AVG Free Anti-Virus 2008 [via MakeUseOf]

Slipstream Service Pack 3 into Your Windows XP Installation CD

Lifehacker:

“Next time you wipe your PC’s hard drive clean and reinstall Windows
with that old installation disc, you don’t want to connect your fresh,
unpatched and vulnerable system to the internet only to download 176
new updates from Microsoft. If your XP installation CD is older than
2004, once your system is online, you’ll have to wait for hefty service
packs to download, chained to your mouse while pushing the Next button,
watching progress bars, and rebooting multiple times. Wouldn’t it be
better to start your installation, head out to run errands or grab
coffee, and come back to an up-to-date system before your
system gets online? It’s possible, using some free software and a blank
disc. After the jump, I’ll show you how to create an automated,
customized XP installation CD or DVD, that includes Microsoft’s
official-but-not-released Service Pack 3 for Windows XP.”

LINK TO ARTICLE