@Luke Maciak:
I don’t really use chat either, I mostly use the server browser to find local servers (I preferred the All-Seeing-Eye a few years back, but its servers were shut down), the clock and the occasional video recording a cheater so he can be banned (headshots through walls, sigh).

But I prefer it over Steam, as I find it faster, slimmer and less intrusive.

I sure could use this to emerge from Oblivion before my gf uses a baseball bat…

I like the clock also, but I have one real clock right above my screen so I don’t usually use ingame clocks :P

I like that Steam has clock on the new overlay. Xfire is good, but I don’t really see point of using it for me because all of my games (and friends) uses Steam.

@ IceBrain:

Interesting. I never used Xfire, but maybe I should start. I always used FRAPS for screen-shots and video capture and never really needed external chat client that could be used from within a game.

@ Owen:

Actually I hate the day/night cycle sync in WoW because it means I only get to play in nighttime environment. Seriously, I’d love to experience a sunrise in the game but I can’t think of a scenario in which I would be logged into WoW at like 6am. I usually only get to play in the evenings – after 9 or 10pm. I eventually started playing on a West Coast server just so that I can actually experience some daytime scenery in the game during my normal gaming hours.

I remember a modification for GTA:SA or was it VC? That modified the gameclock to sync up to your system clock, so instead of a full day taking around an hour or so of real-time, it was perfect (in much the same way that you log into WoW at night, and it’s nighttime).

Actually built into a game though? Few and far between.

I use Steam’s in game “community” feature (the thing that shows up when you hit Shift-Tab) as a clock, and it works great. Doesn’t take away from the immersion either as it’s not on the HUD.

1. Install Xfire
2. Launch any game from xfire
3. While in-game, press Scroll-Lock + X to enter edit mode
4. Change clock widget to always overlay
5. Press Scroll-Lock + X to return to game
6. ???
7. Profit!

Yeah, clock in games are excellent, but Xfire provides it for any game, using a transparent overlay, it’s excellent.
Also, it has a built-in web browser, FPS counter, screenshot & video recorder, Chat and media player controller.

i think an in game clock is a great idea, i often only have a couple of hours to play and i need to set a clock in front of the monitor, its kind of annoying needing another device when you are using one perfectly capable of doing both tasks

you should have the option to hide it tho, if its immersion breaking just hide it by default, giving more options to the player is a GOOD thing (ive never understood those ppl that complain about quicksaving and cheating in single player games) as long as you dont end obfuscating everything of course