Happy Holidays everyone!  This will be the last Impulse Roundup for 2009, and what a huge year it was for Impulse.  So many new games, new publishers, new features, and 2010 will be even bigger!

We hope everyone has a happy and safe holiday, and the Impulse roundup will see you next year!

Articles to check out:

• Impulse Holiday Gift Guide – Day 3 for the Online Gamer
• Elemental: Beta 1D Change Log
• WindowBlinds: A video tour of skinning
• CNET's The Download Blog Takes a Look at Fences Pro
• Quick video demo of Fences Pro in action
• Object Desktop 2010 Review from Windows7themes.net
• Galactic Civilizations story so far and the fate of the Yor

New Releases on Impulse:

• Mass Effect 2 (Pre-order)
• Mass Effect 2: Digital Deluxe Edition (Pre-order)
• EVE Online
• Devil May Cry 4
• King Arthur
• Blood Bowl
• Armada 2526
• The Stalin Subway - Red Veil
• Europa Universalis III: In Nomine
• Burger Island 2
• Fences Pro
• Puzzle City
• Great Journey

Sales on Impulse:

Make sure you have Impulse Now running to get the scoop on hot deals on Impulse.  See here for more info!

• Impulse Now

Fences Pro was released this past week, the follow-up to the extremely popular freeware Fences.  The Download Blog on CNET takes a look at Fences Pro.

“Fences Pro ($19.95) largely answers our request; or at least it tries to. Fences Pro's settings menu not only lets you name a default folder in which all newly installed icons should appear, it also showcases a list of rules you can configure to deposit specific types of icons (images, music videos, etc.) into any of your "fences." The icon installation rules worked well in our tests, saving pictures we downloaded from the Web to our specified "Pics" fence, and application shortcuts to "Programs."

Read more at The Download Blog.

Fences Pro is a program that helps you organize your desktop and can hide your icons when they are not in use with the simple click of your mouse.  Fences Pro is the follow-up to Stardock’s popular freeware program fences which has become the most popular desktop enhancement on CNET’s Download.com since its release earlier this Fall.

Fences Pro adds a number of compelling new features to give users more control over their desktop icons. These features include:

• Having a default fence automatically pick up new icons as they get added to your desktop
  
• Automatically organize icons by file type, name, size and more
  
• Have fences and their contents be semi-transparent until mouse-over.

Fences Pro is available as a stand-alone for $19.95 and as part of Object Desktop, a suite of desktop customization software for $49.95. Users who purchase Object Desktop not only get all the programs of Object Desktop but also a 1-year subscription to ObjectDesktop.NET which provides users access to updates and new programs added to Object Desktop. Both Fences Pro and Object Desktop require Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Windows 7.

More information can be found at www.stardock.com/products/fences.

Stardock’s new freeware program Fences has become the world’s most popular new desktop enhancement program.

This month, Stardock has released Fences Pro which adds some killer features.

Visit the Fences website at https://www.stardock.com/products/fences to get it.

December just keep rolling right along, and as we approach the end of the month, we we will have more cool offerings on Impulse.  On that same note, be sure you have Impulse Now enabled.  This is the tray icon that is installed when you install Impulse.  Having this on will give you a chance to see some great deals on games and software.

Well there’s lots of stuff going on and plenty to check out, so lets get started!

Articles to check out:

• Impulse Holiday Gift Guide - Day 1 for Casual Gamers
• Impulse Holiday Gift Guide - Day 2 for the Desktop Customizer
• Impulse adding titles faster and faster
• Sins of a Solar Empire - Trinity Announced
• WindowBlinds 7 Visual Walkthrough
• PC game developers mainstreaming themselves into oblivion?
  

New Releases on Impulse:

• Terror from the Deep
• Oddworld - Abe's Exoddus
• Three Musketeers
• Sins of a Solar Empire – Trinity (pre-order)
• Alganon
• Divinity II - Ego Draconis (pre-order)
• X-COM: UFO Defense
• Crysis Warhead
  

Updates on Impulse:

• Gratuitous Space Battles 1.27

This weeks Weekend Impulse Buys!

$39.99	$14.99	$19.99
$4.99	$34.99	$44.99

The second day in the Impulse Holiday Gift Guide is going out to those individuals who like to take their desktop above and beyond the normal look and feel.  Whether it’s an application to help organize your desktop, or a complete package to change the entire theme of your desktop, Impulse has the goods.

Buy some for yourself, give to your friend, share the holiday love!

Gifts for the Desktop Customizer:

DeskScapes 3 Put some animation on your desktop with DeskScapes 3.  This application gives you the ability to have animated wallpapers on XP, Vista, and Windows 7.
WindowBlinds 7 Tired of same old default look of Windows?  Maybe you just want to be different?  No problem, WindowBlinds 7 lets you change the complete visual style of Windows, and can now even skin Aero.
ObjectDock Plus Use ObjectDock Plus to organize your desktop shortcuts, icons, programs, and more into a “dock” that resides on your screen.  ObjectDock Plus features tabbed docks, multiple docks, and much more.
CursorFX Plus You stare at that cursor all day, why not make it fun?  CursorFX lets you change your cursor to one of thousands available, and CursorFX Plus adds effects, adjustable size, animation, and more.
Object Desktop This is the ultimate desktop transformation package.  This includes WindowBlinds 7, DeskScapes 3, IconPackager 5, Tweak, and many more applications.  It also includes a year of free updates.

The holiday season is here, and as we have mentioned before, it’s very easy to send digital gifts to people next door, or around the globe via the Impulse Store .  I decided to create a Gift Guide for Impulse to give people some ideas for gifts, or for themselves.

Day 1 is dedicated to casual gamers.  These could be people who aren’t “hardcore” gamers, but still enjoy playing some games on their PC during leisure time.

Games for Casual Gamers:

Kitten Sanctuary This game has been widely popular in the Stardock office.  I mean who wouldn’t want to rescue and keep the kittens safe!
World of Goo This award winning puzzle and construction game is a must-have in any gamers’ library, casual or not.
City Rain City Rain is another addicting game where building literally fall from the sky and rely on you to rescue and organize the cities.
Flock This is one of my personal favorites.  You pilot a UFO while trying to herd animal life back to the Motherflocker.
Braid Braid is a visual masterpiece.  This is a puzzle-platformer with a “painterly” style.  Another addictive game that you will spend countless hours on.

Wow, it’s already December?  The holiday season is rapidly approaching, and if you missed out on any of the recent Black Friday/Cyber Monday deals or just want more, Impulse will be having more big holiday sales coming soon. 

I wanted to remind you that it’s very easy to purchase gifts for others on Impulse.  The best part is there is no need to worry about shipping as their digital gifts are sent nearly instantly.  It’s a great way to give gifts to friends and family.  I wrote a quick guide on how to do it here .

Articles to check out:

• Purchasing Gifts from the Impulse Store
• Elemental Beta 1C
• 24 Hour Impulses: The Concept
• Object Desktop 2010 Turbo-charges Windows 7
• Digital Distribution market share

New Releases on Impulse:

• Dark Fall - Lost Souls
• King's Bounty Gold Edition
• Elven Legacy: Magic
• Fallen Earth
• Object Desktop 2010
• Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight (pre-order)
• James Cameron’s Avatar: The Game

Updates on Impulse:

• Evochron Legends v1.188

This weeks Impulse Weekend Buys!

$7.49	$4.99	$29.99
$14.99	$9.95

Taking Windows 7 to the next level.

Part 1:

Part 2:

Object Desktop is Stardock’s premiere suite of desktop enhancement utilities.  While Windows itself is made for “everyone” Object Desktop is designed specifically for “power users” who want to get more out of their PCs.

This video demo goes over the basics of what Object Desktop can do.

Visit www.objectdesktop.com to get it.

The long holiday weekend is over, and whether you missed the Black Friday sales or not no worries, this is one Monday which you don’t want to miss!  Today we have the Impulse Cyber Monda y sale with many PC games and applications on sale starting at just $1.99!

The Impulse Cyber Monday Sale:

• Warlords Battlecry III - $9.99
• Evochron Legends - $19.95
• CursorFX Plus - $9.97
• Aztaka - $7.47
• Elven Legacy - $14.99
• Nemesis of the Roman Empire - $9.99
• Bullet Candy - $1.99
• Scrapland - $9.99
• Capitalism II - $9.99
• The Political Machine 2008 - $1.99
• LightWeight Ninja - $1.99
• The Corporate Machine - $1.99
• Multiplicity Professional - $24.97
• ObjectDock Plus - $9.97