If your Google+ account looks a little different to you on your next visit, there’s a reason. Google+ got a facelift – for the better in many instances.

From a completely new on-screen layout to improved navigation, there’s a lot to love about the new Google+ look.

There’s also a lot to get used to. We’ll take you through the significant changes below.

Loadout is like a 1980s big budget action movie transformed into a multiplayer third person shooter (TPS). The free-to-play game combines big weapons, big explosions, and big deaths into an addictive and fun experience.

Edge of Reality is developing Loadout for a Summer 2012 release. Whether that is mainly in a beta form or close to a final build remains to be seen, but my hands-on demo of Loadout has me convinced that the developers have something special on their hands.

The game focuses on two things: weapon crafting and great gameplay.

Instagram is one of most popular photo apps on iOS. When it was announced that Instagram would be releasing on Android, many people were waiting in anticipation for when it would release.

The app is now available on Android devices, allowing you to take your customized pictures and share them across many of the most popular social networks.

Read our review of Instagram below.

Free-to-play games are a great way to experience games without initial payment. They started out as mostly casual/social games and massive multiplayer role playing games (MMORPGs), but now new titles are exploring first person shooters, action adventure, and evolving MMORPGs to be more accessible and easier to play for casual players.

There are games that I saw during GDC 2012 that look really interesting for casual and hardcore players:

United Front Games and Square Enix released a behind the scenes trailer about the development of Sleeping Dogs and how Hong Kong shaped its tone and visual style. Their experiences seeing the city and culture helped shape the dynamics of the third person action adventure game.

My first impressions at GDC 2012 convinced me the gameplay was solid, and hearing how much Hong Kong influenced the developers illustrated that they're introducing the city in as authentic a way as possible.

Bioware's Star Wars: The Old Republic is free to play this weekend, Thursday March 15 at 12:01AM CT until Monday, March 19 at 2:00AM CT.

If you haven't tried this massively multiplayer online role playing game (MMORPG), it's worth checking out. You can join the Empire or the Republic, and each with its own classes of character, who all have their own stories. It's the most ambitious MMORPG since World of Warcraft, and has impressed fans with its faithful recreation of the Star Wars universe.

Mozilla have released the final version of Firefox 11.0 for Mac and Windows. The most notable change in Firefox 11 is add-on syncing which means that you can sync your add-ons across machines.

This means that if you install Firefox on a different computer and need the same add-ons that you usually use, Firefox will sync them automatically so you have identical browsers. You can toggle it off and on via the Sync tab in the Options window.

Outside of the Moscone Center, home of GDC 2012, I took a look at a few of EA Mobile’s newly released and upcoming apps releasing for iOS, Android, and Facebook.

Games from Playfish, PopCap Games, and EA Mobile were on display. Playfish was demoing an update to The Sims Social. PopCap Games was showing off Zuma’s Revenge for iPad and Solitaire Blitz for Facebook. Pogo Games was showing their Android version of their Pogo Games app. Electronic Arts were showing off a few new titles like Mass Effect: Infiltrator and Burnout Crash! for iOS.

Quantum Conundrum is a game that takes its history from Portal. Creative Director of Airtight Games, Kim Swift, is the co-creator of Portal. The work that Airtight Games is doing in the development of Quantum Conundrum takes cues from Portal, but has its own puzzle gameplay and instant addiction.

I mean instant addiction because the demo I played was only a trial, but I want to play the full game. The gameplay is fun and intuitive, something I saw with Portal, but couldn’t get into.

Sleeping Dogs’ development history is pretty well known. Developed by United Front Games and scheduled for release through Activision, the game was cancelled and brought back to life by Square Enix.

Originally planned as another game in the True Crime series, but now known as Sleeping Dogs, I had a chance to play two levels. The first focused on hand-to-hand combat and the second was to preview of driving.

I admit right now – I want to play this game as soon as possible.

With Heroes & Generals, developer Reto-Moto is bringing a World War II free-to-play massive multiplayer online game (MMORPG) first person shooter to PC. Reto-Moto is probably not known in the United States.  The founders were originally part of IO Interactive, who created Hitman.

The game has been seen in video blogs, and I saw the game in alpha in my demo, but PR manager Kenneth Ellegaard Andersen really showed me the work and diligence that the company is putting into the game. The videos Reto-Moto has released online are nothing compared to what they have planned for the future of the game.

Angry Birds fans can rejoice again! On March 22, a new game that features everyone’s favorite feathered friends will be released, this time with an outer space theme. Rovio CEO Mikael Hed made the announcement during his keynote speech at CeBIT 2012. The game’s release was also announced from the International Space Station, making it the first announcement of its kind from space, according to Rovio.

Players will have to contend with everything from space's weightlessness to nearby planets' gravitational pull in this latest version of Angry Birds. Rovio has also announced that Angry Birds Space will add new costumes and abilities that make the Angry Birds seem more like superheroes!

Massive Joe Studios released their first game Age of Monsters in 2011 with the promise of expanding and further establishing the universe drawn by Jeff Matsuda.

At Game Developers Conference 2012, CEO Mike Su showed me an alpha of their second game: Escape from Age of Monsters. Releasing on iOS as a universal app, the game takes advantage of the larger screen of the iPad that I demoed it on.

The game, with a planned release in late April, introduces entirely new gameplay. Instead of the quick rock-paper-scissors game from Age of Monsters, Escape from Age of Monsters is a distance based running game. Adding to the gameplay is the use of two possessed gloves, independently controlled with two on-screen buttons.

Massive multiplayer role playing games (MMORPGs) aren’t games that usually play. The interface always feels too complicated. My demo of TERA at Game Developers Conference showed me that using a controller to perform actions can make the experience a lot more friendly for the console player.

En Masse Entertainment plans on releasing TERA on May 1, 2012 and, for once, I might take a chance on a MMORPG.

Microsoft has updated Skype 5.6 for Mac with auto-updates and some minor improvements to the video calling interface.

This means that finally, users won't have to download a new DMG file every time a new Skype update is released - it will simply update itself automatically. The video conferencing interface has been tweaked slightly so that users can switch between dynamic and non-dynamic mode.