Here’s my Metro Reviews for the week of September 15th.
What If?
By Randall Munroe
Kindle/iBooks/Kobo
Four Stars
Using an imaginative wit and stick figure comics, website xkcd answers people’s silly, hypothetical questions about love, gravity, fire tornadoes, and speed-of-light baseballs. It’s intelligent, wisecracking science that, unlike most web distractions, actually makes for deep reading. Sure, most of it is online for free, but as a book it’s easier to gift, cherish, and encourage Munroe to keep writing.
SideChef
iPhone/iPad
Free
This narrated, step-by-step cooking community includes shopping lists, voice controls, and tools to share your own recipes. The variety’s good, but the use of “tokens” to unlock content is annoying.
NFL Play 60
iPhone/iPad/Android
Free
The American Heart Association and the NFL present this obstacle course video game played by triggering your phone’s sensors through physically jumping, turning, and running-on-the-spot for a healthy high score.
Popeek
iPhone/iPad
Free
You choose the celebrities and Popeek will filter out matching Facebook gossip and popular web stories for you to chat, post, and share. Includes news alerts and celeb profiles too.
Destiny
Xbox 360/PS3/Xbox One/PS4
Rated: Teen
3 1/2 Stars
Destiny merges its story with its multiplayer to awkward effect. You replay the same maps where enemies respawn while others play their game around you. Even with Peter Dinklage (Game of Thrones) voicing your AI companion, there’s little sense of an adventure where your actions have consequences.
The encouragement is to create your own fun with others online, and the slick interplay of guns, swords, and hoverbikes makes that worthwhile. It’s fun to grind against demon-robot monsters, but it feels oh so very disconnected following Bungie’s emotional, character-driven series, Halo.
