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 Do you know what’s scarier than a thin, scrawny disheveled, pasty little girl whose face is hidden by her hair and comes at you like Boris Karloff in the original 1932 Universal release of The Mummy? It has to be the panic caused by the emergency closing of the Bay Bridge. There I was Wednesday night making pretty good time from the East Bay to San Francisco until I hit the MacArthur Maze. Suddenly, everything was black at the entrance of the span with cones and cops strewn all over the place. The only things illuminating the bridge itself were the lights outlining its frame and the brake lights of the last hundred cars trying to get over to The City. 2 hours later, as I finally reached the driveway to my house, all I could think about is the horrific experience of stop-and-go traffic with impatient, overaggressive drivers edging through lane after lane, who thought they were making progress. Surprisingly enough, from this experience, it seems the baton for jackass drivers, outside of delivery truck and taxi cab drivers, has passed from BMW to Toyota Prius owners. I guess it’s not too much of a stretch after all: the majority of both groups are self-righteous, condescending buttheads anyway. Yet, I survived it all and was able to tell my tale here because honestly, I was able to play Bendroid’s Mystique. Chapter 1: Foetus for a good portion of my commute. A 1st person horror-survival game reminiscent of Silent Hill, this nightmarishly atmospheric and moody game focuses on you waking up in a bathroom (sound familiar?) and not knowing why or how you got there. Blood stained walls lead you to escaping out into other areas to put the pieces of the puzzle together. But you have to be careful as a sinister environment can only lead to potentially disasterous conclusions. Plus, there is a thin, scrawny disheveled, pasty little girl whose face is hidden by her hair and comes at you like The Mummy. But unlike me, you won’t have the side effects of a massive traffic jam to hide behind. Highly recommended. Play the sequel for more. Price: Free.
 Are you looking to spice up your library of word games? Yes, I said ‘WORD GAMES!’ Millions of people cannot be wrong, right? If I hazard to guess, there are probably more people playing crossword puzzles, word search, Jumble-type, and Scrabble-like games around the world than World of Warcraft and any combination of the current Top 10 video games regardless of platform… Is that sweat on my brow? I must be feeling the heat of Tetris, but I still stand my ground. Do I have evidence? C’mon, I run a self-funded indie website with friends. Yet, deep down inside, you know I speak the truth. So let me throw some more knowledge at you: Yes, you can spice up your word game library with this little gem from Phonagle, outWord. In this game, your location determines how close or far you are from letters that you can use to create words. Play against other users in your vicinity who can also pick up desired tiles. So you must be quick when obtaining desirable letters as you never know who lurks. On top of that, using red letters and creating long words helps you score big to outdistance your previous high scores or those of others. Overall, a fun original game born out of an excellent concept and well executed. Highly recommended. Price: Free.
 Whether it’s eating pan fried milkfish at home, sauteed white fish in Choo Chee Curry at Zabb Cuisine (Thai), or even grilled salmon at Riva’s Fish House, my family loves to eat fish. Obviously, in this day and age, we consume fish in moderation because of recent toxicology reports where mercury levels in fish have risen almost exponentially. Plus, we’re conscientious on what kind of fish we do eat because of overfishing and how it has harmed the environment, which has led us to buy products like albacore tuna because of it’s sustainable fisheries. Now, I wouldn’t call myself a conservationist or an environmentalist, but considering we do love eating fish, we just want to make sure they’re still around in the future. A good way to have an impact is using the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Guide, which is an application that helps you make sustainable seafood choices at your favorite restaurants or local market. Using it’s Seafood Watch Program information, Monterey Bay Aquarium’s trusted recommendations are provided to you in a quick and easy regional guide outlining the best seafood in each area of the country. Updated regularly, a huge plus for sushi lovers is the Sushi Guide, which not only gives you the best choices of seafood to eat, but also lists fish by Japanese name along with it’s common name. Highly recommended. Price: Free.
 In honor of the NBA season starting in a couple of weeks, I’m gonna take a short break from Games and talk about Great Big Apps’ free informational Lifestyle app, Nice Kicks, which gives readers updates on sneaker previews, reviews, and stories from avid fans. Pulling from their website, not only to get info on your fave kicks, but also new releases with hands-on details, which may entice you to go on your own adventure in search of high quality and/or limited availability product. Furthermore, see photos of soon-to-be-released shoes as well as specific details as they become available. But most entertaining are the stories you’ll read of people just like us and their experiences looking for specific kicks. Covering most of the major brands, such as Air Jordan, Nike, adidas, New Balance, Puma, Converse (now owned by Nike), Reebok, Supra and Vans, Nice Kicks is an exhaustive resource for consumer information, which should help you make a more conscientious purchase in the future, especially given the economy and the likelihood that manufacturers are tighening up their lineups and production runs. While it is a bit heavy on the Nike side of things, the app is nevertheless presented with crisp, clean graphics and content, all for free. Overall, very handy and informative. Price: Free.
 Believe it or not, I recently went to church with my family and I ran into my old elementary school classmate, Charlene, who also now has a family of her own. While we quickly, yet nervously went through muted intros followed by the standard oohs and ahhs of viewing each other’s precious toddler during another guilt-ridden homily, I had remembered a simpler time when the 10-year old versions of ourselves  were at recess at the Our Lady of the Visitacion school. I had caught Charlene reading Christine by Stephen King, which fascinated me to no end and obviously still does since I’m bringing it up again. Basically, I was amazed that anyone our age would be reading at all (MTV had just launched) and of all things, an author, whose only impression upon me was a couple of good movie adaptations in The Shining and Carrie, while the rest, such as Christine, were too silly to even consider. Yet, years later, I’ve now come to realize that King has opened doors for many other writers, such as Anne Rice, Stephanie Meyer and J.K. Rowling, to come into the mainstream from genres usually chided for their content even before a word is ever read of their work. In many respects, Sorcerer #1 and Sorcerer #2 by Death=Head & Co. pays homage to a similar pioneer in the Wizardry franchise, which originally was created by Sir-Tech in the 80’s. A simple wireframe dungeon crawl role-playing game mixed with 8-bit graphics and elements of Dungeons & Dragons rules, Sorcerer #1 and Sorcerer #2 is everything you remember of the Wizardry series except the price: 2 for the price of nothing! While not for everyone, hopefully the new fools can appreciate what the old skool reminisces about. Price: Free.
 W.C. Fields said, “Everything I do is either illegal, immoral, or fattening.” I don’t wear a big old top hat, but I relate to those words. Until I downloaded Lose It, I never knew how many calories I took in. This is a GREAT little free app where you enter your goal weight along with some other stats and it will tell you how many calories you should take in daily to achieve your goal. You can tweak the amount of time to get to your goal weight and it automatically adjusts your daily caloric intake to achieve it. The best thing is that it shines a light on how many calories you eat over time. Right now, for example, I have 1200 calories left to consume today to stay under to my daily target. When I have dinner, I will enter what I will eat and the app will tell me how many calories my meal is. If I go over may daily target, it’s ok because I can make up for it tomorrow, since Lose It tracks your calories over time. Plus, it will factor in exercize too, so if you want to eat one cookie more, take a walk to be sure you burn the calories. It makes losing weight like a role playing game, but instead of leveling up, well you, uh… level down… I guess. Price: Free.
 Why would I recommend a game which basically offers only one level to play over and over again with increasing difficulty? For one, it feels just right for the iPhone/iPod Touch as it’s simple controls, such as touching the enemy to target/shoot it and pressing above/below your ship to maneuver it, make it easy and understandable to use. Another reason is that the creator of SPACE DEADBEEF is Yuji Yasuhara of Polyphony Digital, an internal Sony studio, which created the Gran Turismo franchise. However, besides being associated with the most successful racing game franchise ever, Yasuhara-san was also involved with making Omega Boost (PSX) and Panzer Dragoon II: Zwei (SEGA Saturn), both of which were fairly impressive rail shooters in their time. While this game will never be mistaken for Gran Turismo or either rail shooter, you do see the polish that you’d come to expect from an experienced Game Industry vet, especially with Yasuhara-san’s background. My point? While our adventures in the App Store up until now are akin to the Wild Wild West, i.e. The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, there are apps like these, which serve as reminders of what should be the standard quality level. For that reason alone, download and keep handy. Price: Free.
 Generally, the end of June each year marks the celebration of Gay Pride throughout the world. Obviously, San Francisco is no exception and with some of our staff connected to the LGBT community as members or through family and friends, we wanted to commemorate that fact in some small way as a show of support. Therefore, we’re going against our own website’s mission statement, i.e. not recommending apps already in the App Store’s Top 50 in any category, and recommending EDGE Gay News Reader (#28 in Top Free Apps under News), which we believe is the best iPhone/iPod Touch app out there for the LGBT community. While its title may solicit yawns, the app is exceptionally well made providing easy navigation not only to News, but also to Entertainment, Style, Business, Health/Fitness, Technology, Travel, and Nightlife content. Plus, get access to critically acclaimed columnists and bloggers, such as David Toussaint, as well as photos from major events important to the LGBT community. All items can be shared with friends and family through e-mail and Facebook. Definitely a must-have, especially if you want to keep up with current events during one of the most important times for the LGBT community: same-sex marriage and gays in the military. Price: Free.
 My son’s birthday is coming up soon, which usually causes a level of friction between my wife and I as we stress out trying to figure out what to do. We buy plenty of books (such as Kids’ Adventures Around San Francisco Bay) and are given plenty of books (such as Weekend Adventures in San Francisco & Northern California) that we page through looking for the perfect birthday setting. Yet, even after we settle on a location, we still need to figure out what’s on the menu, where to get the cake, what the favors will be, and what activities to coordinate. Well, at least, we may have some help with the activities using Kidtivities, an app which provides 100 easy and fun activities for kids. Everything from the Alphabet Game to What Am I? is included in this quick reference guide, which can filter results based on outdoor vs. indoor activities. Also, Kidtivities provides recommended ages for each activity. As a starting point, this app definitely helps you get the creative juices flowing to ensure your kids and their guests are entertained. Price: 99¢.
 When I saw the iTunes page for this game and realized that the developer was most likely of French descent, I couldn’t help but think of Pepe Le Pew from Looney Tunes. Sorry Jean-Francois! Jokes aside, I finally figured out that the title of the game, PewPew, is meant to be the sound of lasers being fired like in old arcade games, which this app does a tremendous job of paying homage to. Duh! Yes, I’m that thick. Visually reminiscent of the original Battlezone, Asteroids, and Tempest as well as more recent releases like Geometry Wars, PewPew offers excellent arcade action in two modes, Dodge This and Assault, which are rather self-explanatory. Playing more like the old Crystal Quest on the Mac and Robotron 2084 than Asteroids, the biggest praise we have for this game is it’s controls, which are very responsive and just feels great overall. If not THE best controls that we’ve ever had in an iPhone game, definitely one of the best. Other publishers/developers should take note. A must-have app for every level of gamer and amazingly, it’s free. Price: Free.
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