Month: July 2015

Occasionally a game explodes on to the scene and you feel that its appeal may not last. So, you wait. You wait to see if, a little while after launch, it will still feel as fresh and as fun as it did day one. Well, the dust has settled, and nearly a month after it launched on iOS we are happy to say that we still regularly find ourselves hiding in Fallout Shelter.

As the Overseer of a nuclear fallout shelter, known as a Vault, this society sim has you managing the lives of all those individuals lucky enough to have made it to safety. In their new subterranean home, you must care for all of their needs – supplying the basics of power, food, and clean water, while also attempting to fulfill them emotionally with a satisfying job and a family.

It is a system that has you carefully balancing your resources and micromanaging your Vault’s populous. This demands that you look at your dwellers skills to assign them the right roles, ensure you move people to areas when there is an emergency, and give them the right… partners (we are rebuilding the human race here people, free choice can wait).

To add a little more spice, your Vault can be stricken by a number of emergencies, such as invasions by raiders. These can easily damage your civilization at first, but – after sending your own raiding parties out into the irradiated wasteland a few times to scavenge for supplies – you will soon weapons and items to strengthen you against these attacks.

Fallout Shelter is a wonderful lightweight society management sim, with a great look and lots of hooks to keep you coming back for more.

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The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing 3 is an action RPG that borrows heavily from the Diablo franchise’s brand of isometric loot collecting, and then gives it a Lovecraftian coat of paint. It was this aesthetic, stuffed full of monster killing action, that drew me to the game – and which also proved to be the thing that kept me coming back.

You are cast as the son of the original Van Helsing, a vampire hunter originally seen in Bram Stoker’s Dracula. There have been many interpretations of this family in popular fiction, but here they seem to have been turned into full-fledged killing machines. Indeed, nowhere have I seen the Bram Stoker fiction quite so dramatically re-imagined as in these Incredible Adventures.

This vicious tone is set from the opening as pick your Van Helsing. There are a total of six classes to choose from and, while each is significantly different, they all feel outlandish. They range from the towering steam-punk robot, Phlogistoneer, to the magical – but decidedly squishy – magic wielding Elementalist. All have an interesting and cohesive look that fits with the world’s ‘weird science’; blending mysticism and technology.

After selecting my hero (a gun-toting Bounty Hunter), the game began an explanation of the trilogy so far. This is where I first started to feel a little out of the loop, with events revealed through the emotionless voice Van Helsing. I was to be forced into the middle of a civil war after being betrayed by my once ally, the mysterious Prisoner 7. This character was to be my nemesis, a fact I divined from the narrator openly stating it, and then continuing to harp on about it at every possible juncture (and a few impossible ones).

Once the action kicks off, however, it is business as usual. You click where you want to move, click where you want to attack, and click on the power you want to use (until you learn the keyboard shortcuts at least). In keeping with the loot gathering genre, the game is one satisfying string of dopamine releases as you constantly level-up and discover new equipment. Despite this it lacked an elusive hook, resulting in it somehow failing to capture my attention for long periods in a single session.

Oddly though, The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing 3 continued to play on my mind, constantly pulling me back to it. While improving my character was part of the appeal, the real draw came from the discovery of new locations and enemies – that and the B-movie grade script – to create something inexplicable entertaining.

Van Helsing’s spirit companion, Katarina, also helps in this. This ghostly woman not only helps you fight, but also provides an enjoyable back and forth as the two constantly goad each other. This means even that, when battling through empty dungeons, there is always a chance of some comic dialogue.

The environments also a good draw to continue playing. Each zone is distinct, and the ability to instantly warp to the hub area and then back out a zone of your choice keeps things fresh – be it the lair of a mad scientist, a fairy tale forest, or a Victorian city dripping in steam punk style.

With Torchlight and Diablo both on the market, it’s hard to imagine that The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing 3 would be many people’s go-to loot game. Despite this, it manages to calve out a good spot for itself thanks to its world and humor. Also, at such a budget price, this is one that fans of this genre and setting should try.

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With summer almost here, we have hunted down the best apps to make your holiday get away all the more perfect. There are our five essential travel apps.

Our first recommendation is one that you will actually need before you head off on your holiday, PackPoint (Andriod|iOS). This app helps pick exactly what you should take with you to your destination of choice after asking you just a few, simple questions.

While we don’t recommend spending all your time online while on vacation, our second app this week is for those of you who need to stay connected while away. As its name suggests WiFi Finder (Andriod|iOS) helps you sniff out available local WiFi networks, essential if you need to upload pictures of every single meal.

Our number three is Foodspotting (Andriod|iOS|Win), an app that instantly recommends the best places to eat near you. To add a little spice to this foodie app, rather than just finding good restaurants, it focuses on each establishment’s specialty – meaning you can find the best calzone in New York, not just the best pizza restaurant.

The classic Google Goggles is our fourth app. Just take a photo of any building, poster, book, icon, or barcode, and within seconds, you’ll have information about it. This somewhat forgotten Google app is no longer available for iPhone, so iOS users may want to check out Phind.

Finally we have Trip Journal (Andriod|iOS), an app that helps you create beautiful memories of your vacation. With Trip Journal can visually relive and share your journey with all of your photos and videos mapped to their location thanks to some beautiful Google Earth integration.

That’s is for our holiday app recommendations, but if you can think of any more be sure to let us know in the comments. We will be back next week with another five apps, be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss it.

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Follow me on Twitter: @DoFuss