Download Squad

I Love Traffic is a unique take on a flow-management game. In it, you play the part of traffic computer, turning lights green and red to control the flow of traffic. Some roads you have control over, while others are free-flowing. This means that to avoid accidents, you need to carefully manage which lights you turn green, and for how long.

The game view is top-down, and while the graphics are simple, crashes have satisfying skid marks and believable motion accompanied by a solid "crunch" sound. Sometimes it's actually not all that disappointing to fail a level when your mistake results in a multi-car pileup, with cars being bounced into other lanes of traffic. A failed level also results in a random fact being displayed, which is sort of fun until they start repeating and you realize you're having too much trouble with that level.

I Love Traffic is a short time waster, and it should take only about 15 minutes to complete the game. My biggest pile-up resulted in about 8 cars shooting off in different directions. Let us know how badly (or well) you do.

Portable applications suites are a great way to get your hands on a ton of useful software with minimal fuss. Got a new flash drive, or maybe an old one you don't know what to do with?

Throw one of these suites on it and you've got an instant software Swiss Army Knife.

PortableApps.com - John T. Haller's project is the most well-known suite on the 'net. It includes Firefox, OpenOffice (or AbiWord in the light version), Pidgin, Thunderbird, Sunbird, Sumatra PDF, KeePass, and more. Haller is very good for keeping the core up-to-date - you'll usually see new versions of the Mozilla apps the same day they're released.

LiberKey - The Ultimate version will take up half a gig on your drive, and it's packed with useful programs, including technician favorites like CPU-Z, RegShot, Revo Uninstaller, Unlocker. There are also loads of multimedia, networking, and internet apps. The 180Mb basic version is a lot like PortableApps with the addition of Piriform's tools (CCleaner, Defraggler, Recuva). They've got a handy comparison chart posted as well. One omission worth noting: OpenOffice.

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Songbird, the open-source, Mozilla-based music player, has a bunch of new features in version 1.2 that make it worth taking a look at. The most important addition is 2-way iTunes syncing, so you can import and export songs and playlists back and forth between Songbird and iTunes. If you thought the whole point of Songbird was to keep you from having to use iTunes, this feature won't make you happy, but if you have an iPod or iPhone that you want to put music on, this is the closest Songbird gets to letting you do that.

The other new features include an integrated Last.fm radio add-on. Songbird already supported Last.fm scrobbling, but now it supports Last.fm listening, too, so you may be able ditch your existing Last.fm client and just go with this. There's also automatic library organization, which is something you might be familiar with in iTunes. It can move all your music files to one location and sort them based on artist and album metadata. Last, but not least if you're an audiophile, is a 10-band equalizer.

Regardless of what operating system you run on your computer, it doesn't have to be all work and no play. Heck, that could turn you into some kind of axe-wielding homicidal maniac bent on destroying your own family while watching over a remote resort hotel in the dead of winter.

I'd certainly never want that to happen to any of our DownloadSquad readers, so here's a list of games that you can install on Windows, Mac, and Linux (and some even on BeOS and BSD). Enjoy!

...And, as usual, if there's a particularly killer cross-platform game that I didn't include, feel free to post it in the comments -- and tell us why you love it!


Battle for Wesnoth - One of the best known open source games around, Wesnoth is an excellent fantasy-themed turn-based strategy game. There's plenty here to keep you busy - multiple campaigns and large maps, and online multiplayer for when you grow weary of playing on your own.

Battle Tanks - It's got colorful, cartoonish graphics, massive explosions, tanks....And best of all, it's got multiplayer. What could be more fun than blowing up your friends while causing immeasurable damage to an unsuspecting city?

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