In my opinion, 2009 did not start that well for PC gamers. Out of all PC releases in 2009, I think only Mirror’s Edge lived up to its expectations. Anyway there are several much hyped PC titles that are due to be released in February 2009. This posts includes summarized details (release date, protection/DRM info, trailers, previews, etc) about upcoming PC games in February that I think would be popular among PC gamers.

Note that this article does not include all PC releases for this month. If you have any new names to be added to this list, please share them in the comments section of this article.

1. F.E.A.R 2 : Project Origin
 
Info: The sequel to 2005’ hit FPS F.E.A.R. Played the demo and it was pretty good IMHO.
Release Date: 10 February, 2009
Protection: Steamworks – Requires steam to run. Thankfully no SecuROM DRM.
System Requirements: http://www.vgrequirements.info/?p=7819
Gameplay Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9p_jBysv3NI
Previews: Gamespot Preview
Trailers: List of trailers from Gametrailers.com
Demo: Get it from here

2. Burnout Paradise (Burnout 5)

Info: A racing game with an open world setting. The firth in the Burnout series.
Release Date: 03 February, 2009
Protection/DRM: SecuROM, requires online activation. It’s an EA title – what else did you expect?
System Requirements: http://www.vgrequirements.info/?p=8079
Gameplay Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dikcXs0NCo
Previews: Gamespot Preview
Trailers: List of trailers from Gametrailers.com

3. Warhammer 40000 : Dawn of War 2
 
Info: The original Warhammer: 40000 Dawn of War (2004) had a sh1tload of expansions but here comes the true sequel. It’s an RTS.
Release Date: 18 February, 2009
Protection: Probably Steam “reason we don't like DRM solutions is because they punish the innocent and they have to jump through all these hoops...we're going with the approach that Valve pioneered to just reward the people who actually bought the game with cool stuff. - Link”
System Requirements: http://www.vgrequirements.info/?p=7829
Gameplay Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yD_OyVzyLSY
Previews: Gamesppot Preview
Trailers: List of trailers from Gametrailers.com

4. The Sims 3
  
Info: The latest installment to the popular life simulation series ‘Sims’. Never been a fan of this series myself but the games are immensely popular. 
Release Date: 20 February, 2009
Protection: SecuROM DRM (unconfirmed)
System Requirements: http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/56431
Gameplay Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XN2TOj2A88w
Previews: Gamespot Preview
Trailers: List of trailers from Gametrailers.com

5. The Godfather 2

Info: TGF 2 is somewhat similar to Mafia and Grand Theft Auto franchise. The original was a disappointment - hope this one is better.
Release Date: 24 February, 2009
Protection: Unconfirmed but likely to be SecuROM DRM
System Requirements: http://www.vgrequirements.info/?p=7998
Gameplay Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATx4FVAN_5I (probably from console version of the game)
Previews: GameSpot previews
Trailers: List of trailers from IGN

Note: All release dates mentioned in this article are the game’s North American (NA) street date.

Keep reading FILEnetworks Blog as when (or if) these games get leaked or cracked, we will be updating the homepage.

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OpenOffice.org 3.0.1 Final has been released. The official download page has not been updated with the new build yet but we have included FTP direct download links (for v3.0.1 stable) below for your convenience. I’m not exactly sure what new features or bugfixes are included in this release as I am yet to see a changelog. Anyways it’s always good to have the latest build installed for maximum reliability and optimal performance.

Featured in this post is the regular version of OpenOffice.org. If you are looking for OpenOffice.org Premium, be aware that it’s longer released under that name. OpenOffice.org premium is now known as OxygenOffice professional and you may download it from here. Both of these office automation suites are free of charge.

Download

[Click Here] to download Openoffice.org 3.0.1 Final + Java Runtime Environment for Windows  (FTP Direct Download)

[Click Here] to download Openoffice.org 3.0.1 Final for Windows – No Java runtime Environment included (FTP Direct Download)

[Click Here] to download Openoffice.org 3.0.1 Final for Linux, Solaris and other platforms.

[Click Here] to visit Openoffice.org extensions page to download additional plugins for your office suite.

Related Articles

• OxygenOffice Professional 3.0.0.11 Final Direct Download

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Another update on the private tracker front – here are three more private torrent trackers that are currently open for public signups. These are not general trackers with bits of everything – they are specialized sites each focusing on a different niche. MVGroup is an E-Learning/Documentary tracker, TranceBooster is a trance music tracker while eBookVortex is an E-book tracker. In addition to these torrent trackers, Docs4You, a forum with one click hosting links to premium documentaries, is also open for registration.

UPDATE: Demonoid is also open for registration

All sites open as of 26/1/2009. We do not know till when they will keep the doors open.

1. MVGroup (MVG)

Site Name: MVGroup (http://forums.mvgroup.org)
Signup URL: http://forums.mvgroup.org/index.php?act=Reg&CODE=00
Stats: 92000+ members
Description: MVGroup is a forum with torrent and ED2K links to lots of E-Learning content. This includes premium documentaries such as those produced by Discovery Channel, BBC and National Geographic. More info here.
IRC: irc://irc.station51.net:6667/MVGroup

2. Docs4You

Site Name: Docs4You (http://www.docs4you.org)
Registration URL: http://www.docs4you.org/forum/index.php?act=Reg&CODE=00
Stats: 25000+ members
Description: Docs4You provides reliable one click hosting download links (RapidShare, etc) to premium documentaries such as BBC, History Channel, Animal Planet, etc. A detailed review of this site may be found here.

4. eBookVortex

Site Name: eBookVortex (http://www.ebookvortex.net)
Signup URL: http://www.ebookvortex.net/account-signup.php
Stats: ~3200 users and 225+ torrents
Description: eBookVortex is an E-Learning/E-Book torrent tracker. More information about this tracker including screens and category details can be found here.
IRC: irc://irc.p2p-network.net/ebookvortex

3. Trancebooster (TRB)

Site Name: Trancebooster (http://trancebooster.net)
Signup URL: http://trancebooster.net/signup.php (around 300 more spots left)
Stats: ~4700 users and ~5000 torrents
Description: Trancebooster is a music torrent tracker focusing on trance music genre. More information about this tracker including torrent category information can be found in our previous article located here.
IRC: irc://irc.freequest.net/trancebooster

4. Demonoid

 
Site Name: Demonoid (http://www.demonoid.com/)
Signup URL: http://www.demonoid.com/register.php
Stats: Over 225000 torrents 
Signup Notes: To avoid the “We are full. Sorry, since the server is too saturated, we can not accept more members at the moment.” error message, try the solutions mentioned in this article.

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If you’ve been downloading comics books from the internet, you may have come across some strange file extensions such as .CBR, .CBZ, .CB7, .CBT and .CBA. These are basically comic book archives. Each page of a comic book is stored in a JPEG or a TIFF file and a collection of such pages are encapsulated in a single archive. None of these file types can be opened in Windows by default. But with the right software installed, you can view comic books right from your computer.

Open with regular archive handling software

Although these files have odd looking extensions, they are compressed using standard file compression algorithms such as ZIP, RAR and ACE. See the table below for more information:

Comic book archive Format	Actual compression used	Software
CBR	RAR	WinRAR [Download]
CBZ	ZIP	WinZip [Download]
CB7	7-ZIP	7-Zip [Download]
CBT	TAR	WinZip [Download]
CBA	ACE	WinRAR [Download]

Note that you can use any software that supports the actual compression to open a particular file type (not just the ones mentioned in ‘software to open’ column). Do not rename any of the archives to actual format. Just open the archive handling software, browse to .CBX file and choose to open it from within the program.

Open with special comic book reader software

In addition to the compression utilities mentioned above, there are comic book reader software which are specifically designed to open and view cbr, cbz and other file formats. Such software usually feature file type association, support for rotation, zoom, multi page view and other viewer enhancements, etc. Mentioned below are two of the most popular comic book reader software that are currently around.

Comical
 
Comical makes viewing cbr and cbz files on Linux, Mac OS X and Windows easier than ever. You can read more about this software from it’s homepage.

[Click Here] to download the latest version of Comical for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X from SourceForge

CDisplayEx
 
CDisplayEx is an open source application based on the older CDisplay (sequential image viewer). This application also supports most comic book archive formats. More information including screenshots can be found here.

[Click Here] to download the latest version of CDisplayEx from SourceForge

[Click Here] to download the portable version of CDisplayEx from PortableApps.com

Wondering where to download comic books in .CBR and CBZ formats? We’ll be posting several private torrent trackers and other sites that offer free comic book downloads. Keep checking the homepage and the private trackers section for latest updates.

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We haven't’ posted about a dedicated music torrent tracker in a while so here goes. POiNTX is a relatively new private tracker which tracks a lot of English music torrents. Music from a number of different genres such as Electronic, Trance, Reggae, Metal, etc can be found on this tracker. Apart from audio, POiNTX tracks several music videos in XViD and X264 formats as well.

Although this tracker has only been online for about 2 months, POiNTX has managed to add over 1300 torrents to its tracker. The user base has also grown beyond the 2350 mark during this period. Note that POiNTX is a Romania based tracker. However the content mostly comprises of English music torrents. There are both scene and non scene torrents indexed on POiNTX. At the time this post is being written, majority of these torrents are on free leech.

 

A seed bonus system is present on this tracker. Like most start up trackers, POiNTX is plagued by the ‘low amount of seeders’ problem; Most of the less popular torrents are left with only 1 seeder. This will most likely be rectified as the tracker expands its user base and community.

Signups are currently open and each new user gets 2GB upload credit. Check it out.

Site Name: Point X (http://share.pointx.ro)

Signup URL: http://share.pointx.ro/signup.php

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Keeping your device drivers up to date is essential for the optimal functioning of your hardware. However, checking for driver updates regularly can get tiresome after a while. This is where 3DP Chip comes in. 3DP Chip is a useful little application that can automatically detect your video card, sound card, motherboard, processor, network adapter and then provide download links for their latest available driver version.

3DP Chip is portable – you don’t need to install it. Just download the 900kb executable and run it. You don’t even need to know the make and model of your hardware devices to get updates so even newbies to computing will have no problems with this software.

Developer Description

3DP Chip is a tool created to help you view your devices and download the latest device drivers with few simple clicks. Problems with detecting your devices, finding device drivers to setup your system is worse than Blue screen of death. Everest and Aida32 doesn't provies you a device drivers and they are still heavy. You can use it just for enumerate the devices such as CPU, MOBO, Graphic Card, Sound Card and Ethernet Card. And you can download the latest device drviers through our web site. 3DP Chip uses a high performance detection algorithm and have more than 1 integrated database.

Features

• Simple - Setup or additional program does not required. everything included in 900KB
• Powerful - Assembly, C++ based, have more than 12,000 integrated database
• Easy to use - Designed for both expert and novice users.

Download

Currently the official download page does not link to the latest available version of 3DP Chip. We’ve included links to a Softpedia Mirror which hosts the latest build.

[Click Here] to download 3DP Chip 9.01 Beta 32

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Although you may not have heard about FDD (Feel Da Download) tracker before, it’s another large Romanian General/0Day tracker with over 30000 users. FDD tracks almost all major scene and p2p releases including movies, music, games, E-Books as well as some unique torrent packs. Pre times on this tracker are average and the download speeds are pretty good - even on older torrents.

FDD currently tracks over 10200 torrents an has a registered user base of over 30100 members. In addition to the usual scene/p2p stuff found on almost every other general/0day trackers, FDD tracks a shitload of packs (single torrent tracking multiple releases such as complete TV seasons, movie trilogy, etc) as well as lots of unique torrents. Most of the packs on FDD can be found under Movies – Boxset, Movies – Pack, Music – Pack, PC-ISO, PC-Retro (Games) and Music -Packs categories. Torrents unique to this tracker can be identified by the ‘FDD’ tag on torrent title. I found some nice rare games packs as well as some good cartoon packs in addition to the movie and music collections on FDD.

 
Screen: Some of the many movie packs on FDD 

Users who are not from Romania need not worry about FDD’s Romanian origins. There are two language options; English and Romanian. Just click on the English flag icon on top left corner of the page to select English language for the interface.  

FDD is currently open for signups and every new user will receive 5GB upload credit upon registration. If you are interested, signup and check it out.

Site Name: FDD – Feel Da Download (http://fdd.ro)

Signup URL: http://fdd.ro/signup.php

Categories:

• Apps/Misc - DOX, Pics
• Games - PC, PC RIP, PS2, PSP, Retro, Wii, Xbox, Xbox360
• Movies - Anime, BoxSet, Documentaries, DVD-R, DVD-RO, HDTv, Oldies, Packs, Sport, SVCD, TV, TV-Ro, X264, Xvid, XxX
• Music - FLAC, Mp3, Packs, Video
• VIP Downloads - DVD-R, DVD-RO, HDTv, X264
• X-Mas

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Ad-Aware is a decent security product which is particularly good at detecting spyware and adware components. Latest version of Ad-Aware, the Anniversary Edition, was recently released by Lavasoft and is now available for download. The new version includes a faster scanning engine, improved heurists detection, SmartSet, Ad-Watch Live! along with many other enhancements.

I’ve been using Ad-Aware for quite a while now but it’s never been my primary security software. I usually leave Kaspersky Anti-Virus to do the background scanning while Ad-Aware and SuperAntiSpyware scans are run about once a week (or if I smell anything fishy). This has become much easier with Ad-Aware 8.0.0.0 - In previous versions a background system service had to be enabled at startup for the proper functioning of Ad-Aware (regardless of whether ad-watch was enabled or disabled). But in this version you can set this service startup type to ‘manual’ instead of automatic and still use the application without issues. 

There are several different versions of Ad-Aware titled Free, Plus, Pro and Enterprise. The free version has everything you need except heurists to catch spyware and adware - you need not bother with cracks or serials for Ad-Aware Plus or Pro in most cases.

Features

• Detect, Remove AND Clean
• New!Ad-Watch Live! Basic integrated real-time protection
• Rootkit Removal System
• New!Radically improved resource efficiency
• New!Lavasoft SmartSet
• New!Customizable Profile Scans
• New!External Drive Scanning
• New!Pin-Point Scanning
• New!Full integration with Windows Security Center
• Easy to download, install & use

Download

Ad Aware free can be downloaded directly from official download page or from one of the mirrors.

[Click Here] to download Ad Aware Anniversary Edition from Softpedia

[Click Here] to download Ad Aware Anniversary Edition from official download page 

For people who are having trouble trying to get Ad-Aware to start after installation or those who are experiencing startup error messages, check this thread for a solution.

P.S. - If anyone was wondering, it’s called the Anniversary Edition because Lavasoft is celebrating their 10th year running in security software development.

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The free Pretome registration key we gave away earlier expired yesterday after working flawlessly for one whole month. There is no reason to worry if you are yet to become a member of PTM – we’re giving away another free Pretome key which will be valid till the 22nd of February, 2009. This key may be used by an unlimited number of FILEnetworks Blog readers to get into PTM tracker during this period.
UPDATE: Key mentioned in this article has expired. Get updated key here.

Speaking of Pretome, it’s a private torrent tracker which has made some rapid progress over the past few months. Started in early 2008, PTM has amassed an impressive user base of 21000+ members and currently tracks over 13000 active torrents (stats as of 23/1/2009). Content on PTM include torrents of both scene and P2P releases. Tons of unique packs, some exceeding 200GB in size are also indexed.

Apart from the great content, there are several other cool features on PTM such as tagging, credits system, the arcade, casino, etc. Now that you have a key, you can join the tracker and experience them all for yourself!

Site Name: Pretome (http://pretome.net/)

Registration Key: b21a4549f6fed9a3a08872aceb67644b UPDATE: Key mentioned in this article has expired. Get updated key here.

Signup URL with Key: http://www.pretome.net/signup.php?key=b21a4549f6fed9a3a08872aceb67644b UPDATE: Key mentioned in this article has expired. Get updated key here.

Validity Period : 22 January 2009 – 22 February 2009

Categories:

• Applications - Windows , MAC , Linux
• Ebooks
• Games - PC , RIP , ISO , Xbox 360
• Miscellaneous - RARFiX
• Movies - XviD , DVDRiP , x264 , DVDR
• Music - MP3 , V2 , 320kbps , FLAC
• TV - XviD , HDTV , DVDRiP , PDTV

IRC Channel: irc://irc.pretome.net:6667/pretome

Respect Pretome rules and read the FAQ if you want to survive on this tracker for long. Don’t forget to give something back to the community.

Once again, we are grateful to Floxxx (PTM Owner) for providing FILEnetworks Blog with another exclusive PTM key.

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Kaspersky have released a new build of their popular security software Kaspersky Anti Virus 2009 (version 8.0 build 1015). This is a beta build (according to Kaspersky Labs a ‘technical prototype’) which is specifically designed to run on the recently released Windows 7. I’ve just installed this version on my Windows 7 installation and the results so far are good – installed without errors, no crashes and no noticeable performance drop after memory resident scanner was enabled.

As opposed to previous builds of KAV 2009 such as 8.0.0.454 and 8.0.0.506, build 8.0.0.1015 comes complete with a firewall and an anti spam filter. Earlier, these features were only available in the Kaspersky Internet Security (KIS) suite.

The prototype includes not only an antivirus component but an effective and fully functional firewall and anti-spam filter. At the heart of the new technical prototype is Kaspersky Lab’s new antivirus engine which is even more effective at detecting malicious programs than its predecessor. The new engine dramatically increases system scanning speed thanks to improved processing of objects and optimized use of system resources, particularly on dual- and quad-core processor platforms. The unique product architecture ensures high productivity and one of the lowest uses of system resources in the industry.

Note that this program is still in beta. You may run into undiscovered bugs, glitches or compatibility issues – proceed at your own risk.

Download

We have included the direct download link so that you may get the setup file directly from Kaspersky FTP server.

[Click Here] to download Kaspersky Anti Virus 8.0.0.1015 Beta

Related Articles

• Get offline updates for Kaspersky Anti Virus and Internet Security 2009 (v8.0) with Kaspersky Updater 3.1.0.7
• How to update Kaspersky, Mcafee, Norton and other anti-virus software offline
• NodLogin, NodEnabler & Kaspersky Key Finder : What are they and how do they work?

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