Plants vs. Zombies is coming to the Xbox One and Xbox 360, but not as you currently know it. PopCap is taking the IP into the third-person action realm, which will introduce the player to new and more action packed gameplay. Announced today at E3, Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare will task players with taking control of multiple types of plants and taking out zombies of all sizes.

Sporting multiplayer and team-based gameplay, Plants vs. Zombies will really bring the game to a new audience who may not have tried the classic tower defence game. The title will arrive in the future. Be sure to stay tuned to our feeds to keep up-to-date with everything happening at this year's E3.

After attending Microsoft’s knock-out Media briefing this morning, Sam Sabri and I enjoyed a quick lunch at Freebird’s with a Windows Phone developer. Then we were off to EA’s E3 2013 Press Conference at the Shrine Auditorium. Now that the conference has wrapped, we follow up with a summary of the conference and the games EA announced – all of them for Xbox One!

The EA press conference was bookended by Peter Moore, the company’s chief operating officer. Moore previously worked for Microsoft on the Xbox and Xbox 360 consoles from 2003-2007. Many consider him one of several talented people who were instrumental for the 360’s success. He left in 2007 to head EA Sports but eventually ascended to his current position overseeing multiple EA gaming divisions.

Classy start

EA explained that all games they highlighted during the show will arrive on both Xbox One and Playstation 4. We can safely assume that several will show up on the current gen consoles as well. Because the Xbox One and Playstation 4 are not backwards compatible, plenty of publishers will choose to publish both current and next gen versions in order to reach the widest possible audience.

All of EA’s next gen games will be built with one of the publisher’s two new proprietary game engines: EA Sports Ignite and Frostbite 3. The sports engine speaks for itself. Frostbite 3 comes from Stockholm, Sweden based developer DICE. Many gamers know them best as the creators of the Battlefield series as well as Mirror’s Edge. All I can say about Frostbite 3 is: what a powerful engine!

Now let’s talk about the individual games…

Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare

Rumors spread of a shooting-based spin-off of Plants vs. Zombies early last year, and those rumors were right on the money. Garden Warfare comes from series creator PopCap Games, a subsidiary of Electronic Arts since 2011. It features a grittier and more textured art style than the original PvZ, and of course switches from a 2D perspective to 3D.

I feared that this new direction and art style would hurt the PvZ brand, but after watching the gameplay presented on stage, my fears died away as if sprinkled with weed killer. Garden Warfare actually retains all of the series’ humor and charm, it just transplants them into a different kind of game. Think of it like how Mario and friends pop up in a variety of spin-off games, but those games are fun and so nobody really minds.

Garden Warfare is a 4-player cooperative 3^rd-person shooter. Each squad member chooses a signature PvZ plant to control, all of which have their own character-appropriate abilities. The Sunflower, for instance can heal other plants with sunlight. She still whoops up on enemies too. And while your team can move around, shoot, and jump at will, stationary plants also fight on your side. Fail to protect them and they’ll get eaten by zombies, a nice touch reminiscent of the original tower defense game.

Peggle 2

We didn’t get to see Peggle 2 in action, but EA did at least announce it for a 2013 release. For anyone who’s played Peggle, the name Peggle 2 is probably all you need to know. Let’s hope EA and Nokia finally port the original game to Windows Phone before the sequel arrives on consoles…

Titanfall

Microsoft already wowed us with Titanfall gameplay footage during their Media briefing this morning, but we were glad to see EA present more of the game. The publisher described Titanfall as a multiplayer game that feels like a single-player game. Developer Respawn Entertainment has taken great pains to create a living, breathing world instead of lifeless multiplayer maps.

Traditionally single-player elements like a story populated with fully voice acted characters also bring the game to life. As you wait for other players to join and the game to begin, the story actually plays out and creates a context for the chaos that follows. The best comparison I can make is Valve’s Left 4 Dead series since those games also develop a light story while delivering multiplayer-focused gameplay.

Star Wars Battlefront

While some gamers winced at the thought of EA holding exclusive control over the beloved Star Wars gaming license, they needn’t have worried. A brief teaser video revealed that a new Star Wars Battlefront sequel is being developed by DICE, makers of the Battlefield games. Both series thrive on large scale combat and controllable vehicles, and the battlefield games get lots of love. We don’t know any real details about this new Battlefront yet, but I expect great things from DICE.

Need for Speed Rivals

The new Need for Speed comes from Criterion, makers of the Burnout racing series. Once again, this entry involves racers racing while cops chase them down. When will racers and cops learn to live in harmony?

The Need for Speed series has lots of fans, even on Windows Phone where we’ve received two titles of mixed quality. Rivals looks like it will blend single-player and multiplayer racing in an interesting way. You can drive around the open world on your own and the game will automatically throw other players in when a race starts. Matchmaking can also be disabled for lonely types, so everybody wins.

Rivals’ graphics are the only negative I saw during the presentation. It has some great rain effects, but other than that it pretty much looks like an Xbox 360 game. Of course developers haven’t had tons of time to work on Xbox One titles, and this is almost certainly one of those games that will come to current gen systems too. We can forgive the relative lack of flashiness because Rivals is a launch title, but it will probably be eclipsed by next year's sequel.

Dragon Age Inquisition

The Dragon Age series comes from Bioware, a developer known for Mass Effect and the struggling MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic. The first Dragon Age really hit home with gamers wanting a more fantasy-oriented Bioware RPG. Part 2 sadly missed the mark, with many considering it a hastily-created step back from its predecessor.

EA didn’t show any gameplay footage of Inquisition, but we did see an enjoyable cinematic trailer. Let’s hope the extra time taken with Inquisition results in a title that washes away the blandness of the second game.

Battlefield 4

Even though I’ve held out on trying the Battlefield series throughout the years, I don’t think I’ll be able to avoid Battlefield 4. It easily qualifies the graphical powerhouse of EA’s lineup. The amount of detail in characters and environments is truly staggering, to say nothing of the realistic physics.

Even more importantly than its looks, Battlefield 4 looks like tons of fun to play. 64 players can participate in multiplayer matches that involve land, sea, and air battles. You can hop into any vehicle you come across and start blasting enemies with it. One guy even drove a jet ski out of the water and onto the steps of a half-submerged building, a dynamic display.

The best part of the gameplay presentation involved a team of players jumping out of a skyscraper and parachuting to the ground. Once they landed, the entire building collapsed behind them. You don’t see such magnificent environmental destruction in other games.

Mirror’s Edge 2

We loved Mirror’s Edge on the Xbox 360 and Windows Phone, so it’s great news that Mirror’s Edge 2 is finally coming to next gen consoles. The video that ended the press conference seemed to mix cinematic footage with just a hint of gameplay. Faith, the runner dedicated to fighting an evil government returns with some new tattoos for good measure. We can’t tell much more about this sequel, but DICE is back at the helm so it probably won’t disappoint.

Stay tuned for more E3 2013 coverage throughout the week!

The Xbox One launched in 13 countries last Friday, and early adopters (including much of the Windows Phone Central staff) have a fairly robust selection of launch titles to enjoy. That doesn’t mean we’re not already looking to the future, though. When you buy a console during the first month of its release, you’re investing in the games that will come later even more than the first wave of titles.

One of the most exciting early post-launch releases will be Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare from PopCap Games. Garden Warfare now has an official release date of February 18^th, 2014 for both Xbox One and Xbox 360. I actually played the game during our visit to Electronic Arts headquarters last week and came away highly impressed. Head past the break for impressions, gameplay footage, and our video interview with Garden Warfare producer, Brian Lindley!

Spin-off or spin out?

Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare is a spin-off of the popular Plants vs. Zombies games. Whereas the two mainline entries have been 2-dimensional tower defense games, Garden Warfare is a multiplayer-focused third-person shooter with 3D graphics. It plays a lot different from the titles that spawned it. You could be forgiven for worrying that PopCap and/or EA were stretching the brand too far with this one. I had the same fear.

On a rainy day in San Francisco just before the Xbox One launched, Electronic Arts invited journalists to try Garden Warfare for themselves. Eight of us crowded into a room filled with networked Xbox One consoles equipped with Astro Gaming headsets. After a short presentation, we joined a 24-player online match of Team Vanquish (the Plants vs. Zombies version of Team Deathmatch) against PopCap’s playtesting staff. Any doubts about PopCap jumping the shark with Garden Warfare quickly disappeared after that.

An unnatural fit made natural

To successfully spin a series off into a new genre, you need two things: proper integration of the original games’ characters and universe, and the new game must actually meet the genre standards for quality.

Garden Warfare captures the feeling of Plants vs. Zombies so very well. From a purely aesthetic standpoint, the many varied plants and zombies all translate perfectly to three dimensions. Anyone who has seen the toys or plushes would already know that, but the PvZ characters look even better in full 3D action. They radiate with personality - far more than you’d see in a typical FPS or third-person shooter.

On the sound front, the music comes from Peter McConnell, who previously composed the soundtrack for Plants vs. Zombies 2 and many classic LucasArts games. I didn’t get to hear much of Garden Warfare’s music, but it promises to feature new iterations of classic themes from the first two games. The sound effects (which I could hear just fine) have the typical PopCap zing, and Crazy Dave still makes the unintelligible voice samples he’s known for.

Characters and teams

Garden Warfare is unique among competitive shooters in that its two factions are asymmetrical in nature. The plants and zombies each have unique abilities that the other doesn’t. Owing to its predecessors’ design, plants are more defensive in nature while the zombies favor offense.

The two teams consist of multiple characters for players to choose from. On the Plants side, we saw the Peashooter (the basic all-around soldier), Sunflower (medic), Chomper (stealth), and Cactus (long-range). The zombies have a Foot Soldier, All Star (football player), Scientist (healer), and Engineer. Players can unlock variants of each unit such as the Ice Cactus, whose shots can slow and eventually freeze opponents.

Every unit boasts three special abilities in addition to its standard attacks. The Peashooter, for instance, can set down roots and become a Gatling Pea, fire explosive Chili beans, or become Hyper and move at super speed. The plants' Cactus gets to fly around as a Garlic drone, while the zombies' Engineer has a flying drone of his own. These abilities take time to recharge, so players will still need to do some old-fashioned shooting as well.

Venus zombie trap

My favorite class to play during the event was the Venus flytrap-like Chomper. Unlike other classes, the Chomper doesn’t get a projectile weapon. He’s melee-only. This puts the guy at a disadvantage in frontal assaults, where it could take him several bites to vanquish a zombie. But sneak up from behind and the Chomper can eat an opponent, scoring a delightfully-animated 1-hit kill.

As if the Chomper’s focus on sneaking up from behind wasn’t ninja enough, he also has a burrowing ability. Tap the Y button and your Chomper digs underground, at which point he can move around for a short while without being hit. If the Chomper manages to sneak up under an opponent, he gets another satisfying instant kill. Naturally zombies can see the Chomper coming and get out of the way, and some of them have abilities that force the Chomper aboveground. Still! Sneaking up on a distracted zombie and devouring him from below is way too fun.

Game Modes

Garden Warfare runs on Dice’s Frostbite Engine, the same framework that powers Battlefield 4. And like the Battlefield games of old, large-scale competitive multiplayer is this title’s main draw. It supports two 12-versus-12 game types: “Team Vanquish” and “Gardens & Graveyards.” The latter (which we didn’t pay) is objective based, with one side defending their base from the other’s onslaught.

As for Team Vanquish, the goal is simply to help your team reach 50 kills (called Vanquishes here). Team deathmatch has been done to death in first- and third-person shooters, but Garden Warfare never feels too samey. The bright, cheerful visuals, sense of humor, and delightful on-screen characters all grabbed me in a way that few shooters do.

Non-competitive gamers won’t have quite as much to do in Garden Warfare, however. The game lacks a campaign mode. PopCap wanted to focus on polishing multiplayer as much as possible with this first outing, and given the game’s release schedule there wasn’t time to do a proper story mode. But they do see Garden Warfare as a strong new franchise contender. Should the game sell well enough to warrant a sequel, the follow-up would very likely have a campaign.

Ah, but Garden Warfare does have an online cooperative mode for up to 4-players! We didn’t get to try it out, but teaming up as plants against the AI zombies and gigantic bosses like the Goliath should be almost as addicting as the versus modes. The Xbox One version even supports 2-player split-screen co-op.

All progress made during offline and online co-op contributes towards the player’s overall profile. Each character type has numerous challenges to work through, such as scoring kills with a specific weapon. Complete enough and you’ll level up with that character. Players also have an overall level that leads to unlocking goodies.

Coming soon to Xbox consoles

If you love Plants vs. Zombies or a good multiplayer game, mark February 18, 2014 on your calendar. That’s when Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare arrives at retail.

The Xbox One version will cost $39.99 while the Xbox 360 version will ring up for $29.99. The Xbox One version's split-screen and SmartGlass features (not present on 360) make up for its higher price tag. PopCap and Electronic Arts also have a PC version of Garden Warfare in the works, but it doesn’t have a release date just yet. Preorder either console version to receive two in-game card packs that will unlock various customization options.

We'll have more exclusive Xbox One game footage from our Electronic Arts visit in December!

Not long ago, we published an in-depth preview of Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare for Xbox One and 360. Electronic Arts had invited us to play the game’s competitive Team Vanquish mode, which proved to be tons of fun. Somehow, the transition from tower defense to third-person shooter works really well with Plants vs. Zombies.

Of course, most decent shooters have more than one game type. Garden Warfare is no exception. This week, PopCap revealed a gameplay video and new details about the game’s “Gardens and Graveyards” game type. The capture and defense-based mode will require serious teamwork in order for one of the game’s rival factions to succeed. Check out the video and our impressions after the break.

Gardens versus graveyards

Garden Warfare’s competitive modes are team based affairs. “Gardens and Graveyards” supports two teams of 12-players, making for massive 24-person shoot-outs. Things would get cramped if the levels were too small. The video that PopCap released shows a gigantic map consisting of interconnected islands and multiple bases to capture and defend, so breathing room shouldn’t be much of a problem.

The Gardens and Graveyards game type puts the Plants in charge of defending their garden bases from the invading zombies. They’ll do so with guns and glory, plus some base fortifications. The defend-the-base aspect is quite similar to the mainline Plants vs. Zombies games, except with much more action this time.

The Zombie team starts out in the lair of the nefarious Dr. Zomboss – the final boss of the original Plants vs. Zombies. From there, the undead team will rush towards the first of the Plants’ bases. If the Zombies manage to take the base, it becomes a respawn point and puts them one step closer to capturing their final objective. The Plants can retake the base, but they’ll have to contend with the Zombies’ fortifications when they try it.

The Zombies’ final objective in the video’s Driftwood Shores map is the Plants’ Mega Flower Lighthouse. Will they succeed in capturing it? Not if the Plants team plays skillfully and pulls together when it counts.

More to come

Garden Warfare features two more game modes: Team Vanquish and Co-op (probably not the final name). In Team Vanquish, the goal is simply to help your team reach 50 kills (called Vanquishes here). Team deathmatch has been done to death in first- and third-person shooters, but Garden Warfare stands out thanks to its unique classes and the creative special abilities each class gets to wield. See our hands-on impressions for more details.

As for co-op, the online mode supports up to four Plants players. They’ll take on waves of AI zombies and bosses in their efforts to keep their gardens (and human creators) safe. The Xbox One version also allows 2 local players to team up in split-screen co-op. The 360 version is limited to online play.

Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare arrives both on the Xbox One and 360 on February 18 of next year. The Xbox One version will cost $39.99 while the Xbox 360 version will ring up for $29.99. Preorder either console version to receive two in-game card packs that will unlock various customization options.

Last week, game-hungry Xbox One fans received two fine releases to tide them over: Rayman Legends and Strider. This week we get two more releases to drool over: Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare from Electronic Arts/PopCap and Thief from Square-Enix/Eidos. Both games are now available on both Xbox One and Xbox 360, with Thief also appearing on non-Xbox platforms.

The Xbox 360 gets another couple of games to keep previous generation gamers busy: Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 from Konami (now available) and the downloadable Pac-Man Museum from Namco Bandai games (which comes out tomorrow).  Head past the break for a quick rundown on all of this week’s Xbox console releases!

Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare

Spinning a game off into a new franchise is difficult, but sometimes it works out in the end – see Mario Kart or Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing Transformed. Now PopCap has transferred the beloved characters from tower defense game Plants vs. Zombies into a third-person shooter, and with surprising success.

Garden Warfare is a multiplayer-only shooter in which two teams (the plants and the zombies) battle it out in either Team Vanquish (death match) or objective-based Gardens and Graveyards modes. Or 1-4 players can take on the cooperative Garden Ops mode and battles waves of zombie enemies. Garden Ops supports 2-player split-screen on Xbox One, whereas the 360 version doesn’t offer split-screen. The SmartGlass “Boss mode” is exclusive to Xbox One as well.

I played Garden Warfarelast November and loved it. If you enjoy multiplayer shooters but want something more lighthearted or easier to get into, consider this one a safe bet.

• Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare – Xbox One – 10.1 GB - $39.99 – Amazon Link– Xbox.com Link
• Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare – Xbox 360 – 2.43 GB - $29.99 – Amazon Link– Xbox.com Link

Thief

This reboot of the classic Thief series (technically the fourth Thief game so far) transplants master thief Garrett into a new steampunk setting. There he will wander an unusually mazelike city, taking on story missions and avoiding the town guards.

Early word is that the new Thief suffers from an uninvolving story and excessive loading screens. The design structure is a bit rigid compared to past games as well. But it’s still good to see Thief return after an absence of several years.

• Thief – Xbox One – 21.22 GB - $59.99 – Amazon Link– Xbox.com Link
• Thief – Xbox 360 – 5.5 GB - $59.99 – Amazon Link– Xbox.com Link

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2

This sequel to Mercury Steam’s excellent Castlevania reboot sees players take on the role of vampire lord Dracula after he awakens in modern times. Drac will navigate between a realistic (but empty) city and his sprawling castle as he attempts to thwart the plans of both Satan and the Other Guy.

The word on the street is that Lords of Shadow 2 doesn’t live up to its predecessor. A muddled plot, the uninteresting city environment, and awful stealth segments all drag down what should be a stellar action game. If you’re interested in Castlevania or gothic action, I recommend grabbing the very sweet Castlevania: Lords of Shadow Collection and seeing whether you're still craving the sequel after that. I’m holding out for an Xbox One version, myself.

• Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 – Xbox 360 – 4 GB - $59.99 – Amazon Link– Xbox.com Link

Pac-Man Museum

If you love Pac-Man, don’t miss this multi-game collection on XBLA (which we first previewed from E3 last year). It contains:

• Pac-Man
• Super Pac-Man: My childhood favorite, this one allows Pac-Man to turn into the giant Super Pac-Man.
• Pac-Land: Speaking of spin-offs… A side-scrolling platformer based on the original Pac-Man cartoon series.
• Pac & Pal: A semi-sequel to Super Pac-Man, this one also introduces a helper ghost named Miru.
• Pac-Mania: An isometric spin on the original Pac-Man that includes multiple mazes and the ability to jump.
• Pac-Attack: A falling block puzzle game from the 16-bit era. Subsequent releases have differed significantly, and it’s unclear which version will find its way into Pac-Man Museum.
• Pac-Man Remix: Sort of like Pac-Mania, but with actual 3D graphics and plays more like the original Pac-Man.
• Pac-Man Battle Royale: An awesome multiplayer arcade game that has never been released on home consoles until now.

Plus, if you buy before the end of March you’ll get Ms. Pac-Man (which will later be sold as DLC for $5) for free. The only thing I could wish for in this collection is Jr. Pac-Man, an American game that Namco Bandai does not consider an official part of the series.

• Pac-Man Museum – Xbox 360 – 230 MB - $19.99 – Xbox.com Link (Available February 26)

Note: All four games are also coming to PC, and some are coming to other platforms as well.

The Xbox One received a high-profile multiplayer-only game last week – Titanfall. But the world needs single-player games too, and so Konami delivers one this week. Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes is now available on Xbox One, 360, and competing platforms. A short game with a mercifully low price, Ground Zeroes provides a tantalizing glimpse at the future of the Metal Gear series.

Meanwhile, the already-released Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare for Xbox One and 360 just received a major free downloadable content package that adds a new map, items, and lots more changes. Read on for details, trailers, and store links!

Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes

The real Metal Gear Solid V won’t be ready for quite some time, but in its stead Konami has released a value-priced prequel called Ground Zeroes. Players once again take on the role of Snake (played by Kifer Sutherland), who must infiltrate a prison camp in order to perform a daring rescue. The game's environments are now much more open than before, allowing Snake to solve problems and handle enemy encounters with a variety of solutions. He can even drive vehicles.

Ground Zeroes is a very short game, with the main mission taking less than two hours to complete. The cinematic sequences last only twenty minutes total, which is praise-worthy for this particular series. After the main mission concludes, the game offers five additional missions and the replayability of collectibles and trying for better scores. With a light 15 Achievements worth 1,000 GamerScore, Ground Zeroes should be a reasonable completion.

The Xbox One and 360 versions of Ground Zeroes feature an exclusive mission called "Jamais Vu." The bad news is you play as Raiden during the mission. We got the short end of the stick there, because the Playstation 3 and 4 versions get a much better mission starring the Metal Gear Solid 1 version of Solid Snake. But we do get a SmartGlass feature called iDroid that displays maps and other useful information. So that’s something.

• Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes – Xbox One – 4.58 GB – $29.99 – Amazon Link– Xbox.com Link

• Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes – Xbox 360 – 1.53 GB –  $29.99 ($19.99 via download) – Amazon Link– Xbox.com Link

Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare

Today’s version 1.31 update is called the “Garden Variety Pack.” The download clocks in at ~800 MB on Xbox One and 213 MB (as a separate download) on Xbox 360.

Major Features:

• New Map: Chomp Town – playable in Garden Ops, Team Vanquish and Gnome Bomb. Yes Crazy Dave IS riding a Chomper… Why??? Because he’s CRAAAZYYY!
• New Game Mode: Gnome Bomb – be the 1st team to destroy all three gardens or graveyards with the explosive new Gnome Bomb.
• Pirates have invaded Port Scallywag and Sharkbite Shores in Garden Ops
• New Abilities for all characters – new character abilities are tucked away in the sticker shop (hint: Crazy Pack and higher are your best bet to get them! Supremium Pack, Incredi-Plant Pack & Vengeful Zomboss Pack have the highest chances to get them)
• 125 new customization items added to the sticker shop – spread across all characters/rarities…
• Added Doom-shroom potted plant consumable for plants
• Added Barrel Pirate, Treasure Map Pirate consumable for zombies

Minor Features:

• Improved reliability for the hold (B) interaction wheel – when reviving, building turrets etc….
• Added Bonus Score for playing Garden Ops Solo or with a friend
• Added a min player requirement to each game mode
• Tweaked various hats to improve overall visibility
• Added improved audio to slow firing weapons to queue players when next shot is available

Gameplay Balance Changes and Bug Fixes:

• Head to Facebook for the full list!

Garden Warfare is an amazingly fun game, and this new content makes it even better. If you enjoy multiplayer shooters, don’t miss it.

• Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare – Xbox One – 10.1 GB - $39.99 – Amazon Link– Xbox.com Link
• Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare – Xbox 360 – 2.43 GB - $29.99 – Amazon Link– Xbox.com Link

Next week

Only one Xbox game has been announced for next week so far: the Xbox 360 version of Titanfall! Electronic Arts has yet to show the 360 game to the public, which could indicate a lack of faith on their part. Or perhaps they just want the Xbox One version to enjoy the limelight first and foremost, as was the case with Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare. We’ll find out in seven days’ time!

In much farther off news, Zen Studios has just announced Pinball FX2, Castlestorm, and Kickbeat for Xbox One! Shame we never got that Windows Phone version of Pinball FX2...

It’s a light week for Xbox console game releases, with the only new retail title being FIFA 14 World Cup Brazil on Xbox 360. Not too exciting unless you’re a diehard football/soccer fan and buy more than one FIFA per year. But that doesn’t mean Xbox One and 360 gamers don’t have other new stuff to play…

The highly anticipated latest entry in Ubisoft and RedLynx’s Trials series, Trials Fusion has just arrived on both Xbox consoles as a downloadable title. Fans of Trials’ obstacle courses and super hard gameplay will lose many hours to Fusion. Meanwhile, PopCap and EA’s Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare has just received another free update and new Achievements on both consoles! Details after the break.

Trials Fusion

Trials combines motorcycle racing with platforming. Ostensibly you’re driving down a series of obstacle courses, but those courses also happen to have insane leaps and all manner of pitfalls to test players’ skills. The Trials series is all about trial-and-error, repeating super difficult courses until you finally survive them.

New to Trials Fusion are tricks that riders can perform in order to give their runs more flair. No longer do you need to just soar through the air after jumping off a ramp – liven it up with some moves! Tricks don’t provide any rewards during normal courses, but special trick courses encourage players to experiment with tricks to their hearts’ content.

Besides the usual array of dozens of courses (each with three optional goals now), Fusion also includes an all-new track editor. I hear the editor isn’t very user-friendly. Hopefully a knowledge base will build up over time that players can use to learn its intricacies.

Trials Fusion runs at 900p resolution and 60 frames per second on Xbox One. Slightly below the Playstation 4 version’s 1080 resolution, but at least it maintains a perfectly smooth frame rate.

• Trials Fusion – Xbox One – 5 GB – $19.99 – Xbox.com Store Link
• Trials Fusion – Xbox 360 – 1.52 GB – $19.99 – Xbox.com Store Link

Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare

PopCap has committed to providing a steady stream of free content for Garden Warfare, and so far they’ve really delivered. Last month we got a new game type and map in the “Garden Variety Pack.” This week, the “Zomboss Down” DLC brings even more new content to the game. The update clocks in at a whopping 2.8 GB on 360, where it’s a separate download. The Xbox One version should simply update automatically.

New features:

• Added new map Cactus Canyon (Gardens & Graveyards) – w/ cool Golf Bomb minigame at the end.
• New card pack added to sticker shop “Zomboss Down” – This is the only place to collect the new Zomboss Down characters and customization.
• 8 new playable characters to collect.
• 200+ new customization items added.
• 3 new consumable plants (Bamboo Shoot, Fire Peashooter, and Ice Peashooter).
• Now able to view party member locations during gameplay via a different colored Gamertag being shown over their character.
• Added 10 new Achievements worth 250 GamerScore.
• Character level cap increased from 20 to 30, with new star challenges to complete.
• Players can now communicate with all other players in End of Round Screens
• Added a ‘Mute All’ button to leaderboard on Xbox One – This function appears when you enter the leaderboard and highlight another user.
• Numerous balance changes and optimizations

Garden Warfare is one of the best team-based shooters around. Seriously, a lot of gamers prefer it to Titanfall. With bright and colorful graphics, the trademark Plants vs. Zombies sense of humor, tons of unique character classes, 12-versus-12 online battles, and the promise of more free DLC to come, shooter fans can’t lose with Garden Warfare.

• Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare – Xbox One – 10.1 GB - $39.99 – Amazon Link– Xbox.com Link
• Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare – Xbox 360 – 2.43 GB - $29.99 – Amazon Link– Xbox.com Link

Plants vs. Zombies is coming to the Xbox One and Xbox 360, but not as you currently know it. PopCap is taking the IP into the third-person action realm, which will introduce the player to new and more action packed gameplay. Announced today at E3, Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare will task players with taking control of multiple types of plants and taking out zombies of all sizes.

Sporting multiplayer and team-based gameplay, Plants vs. Zombies will really bring the game to a new audience who may not have tried the classic tower defence game. The title will arrive in the future. Be sure to stay tuned to our feeds to keep up-to-date with everything happening at this year's E3.

After attending Microsoft’s knock-out Media briefing this morning, Sam Sabri and I enjoyed a quick lunch at Freebird’s with a Windows Phone developer. Then we were off to EA’s E3 2013 Press Conference at the Shrine Auditorium. Now that the conference has wrapped, we follow up with a summary of the conference and the games EA announced – all of them for Xbox One!

The EA press conference was bookended by Peter Moore, the company’s chief operating officer. Moore previously worked for Microsoft on the Xbox and Xbox 360 consoles from 2003-2007. Many consider him one of several talented people who were instrumental for the 360’s success. He left in 2007 to head EA Sports but eventually ascended to his current position overseeing multiple EA gaming divisions.

Classy start

EA explained that all games they highlighted during the show will arrive on both Xbox One and Playstation 4. We can safely assume that several will show up on the current gen consoles as well. Because the Xbox One and Playstation 4 are not backwards compatible, plenty of publishers will choose to publish both current and next gen versions in order to reach the widest possible audience.

All of EA’s next gen games will be built with one of the publisher’s two new proprietary game engines: EA Sports Ignite and Frostbite 3. The sports engine speaks for itself. Frostbite 3 comes from Stockholm, Sweden based developer DICE. Many gamers know them best as the creators of the Battlefield series as well as Mirror’s Edge. All I can say about Frostbite 3 is: what a powerful engine!

Now let’s talk about the individual games…

Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare

Rumors spread of a shooting-based spin-off of Plants vs. Zombies early last year, and those rumors were right on the money. Garden Warfare comes from series creator PopCap Games, a subsidiary of Electronic Arts since 2011. It features a grittier and more textured art style than the original PvZ, and of course switches from a 2D perspective to 3D.

I feared that this new direction and art style would hurt the PvZ brand, but after watching the gameplay presented on stage, my fears died away as if sprinkled with weed killer. Garden Warfare actually retains all of the series’ humor and charm, it just transplants them into a different kind of game. Think of it like how Mario and friends pop up in a variety of spin-off games, but those games are fun and so nobody really minds.

Garden Warfare is a 4-player cooperative 3^rd-person shooter. Each squad member chooses a signature PvZ plant to control, all of which have their own character-appropriate abilities. The Sunflower, for instance can heal other plants with sunlight. She still whoops up on enemies too. And while your team can move around, shoot, and jump at will, stationary plants also fight on your side. Fail to protect them and they’ll get eaten by zombies, a nice touch reminiscent of the original tower defense game.

Peggle 2

We didn’t get to see Peggle 2 in action, but EA did at least announce it for a 2013 release. For anyone who’s played Peggle, the name Peggle 2 is probably all you need to know. Let’s hope EA and Nokia finally port the original game to Windows Phone before the sequel arrives on consoles…

Titanfall

Microsoft already wowed us with Titanfall gameplay footage during their Media briefing this morning, but we were glad to see EA present more of the game. The publisher described Titanfall as a multiplayer game that feels like a single-player game. Developer Respawn Entertainment has taken great pains to create a living, breathing world instead of lifeless multiplayer maps.

Traditionally single-player elements like a story populated with fully voice acted characters also bring the game to life. As you wait for other players to join and the game to begin, the story actually plays out and creates a context for the chaos that follows. The best comparison I can make is Valve’s Left 4 Dead series since those games also develop a light story while delivering multiplayer-focused gameplay.

Star Wars Battlefront

While some gamers winced at the thought of EA holding exclusive control over the beloved Star Wars gaming license, they needn’t have worried. A brief teaser video revealed that a new Star Wars Battlefront sequel is being developed by DICE, makers of the Battlefield games. Both series thrive on large scale combat and controllable vehicles, and the battlefield games get lots of love. We don’t know any real details about this new Battlefront yet, but I expect great things from DICE.

Need for Speed Rivals

The new Need for Speed comes from Criterion, makers of the Burnout racing series. Once again, this entry involves racers racing while cops chase them down. When will racers and cops learn to live in harmony?

The Need for Speed series has lots of fans, even on Windows Phone where we’ve received two titles of mixed quality. Rivals looks like it will blend single-player and multiplayer racing in an interesting way. You can drive around the open world on your own and the game will automatically throw other players in when a race starts. Matchmaking can also be disabled for lonely types, so everybody wins.

Rivals’ graphics are the only negative I saw during the presentation. It has some great rain effects, but other than that it pretty much looks like an Xbox 360 game. Of course developers haven’t had tons of time to work on Xbox One titles, and this is almost certainly one of those games that will come to current gen systems too. We can forgive the relative lack of flashiness because Rivals is a launch title, but it will probably be eclipsed by next year's sequel.

Dragon Age Inquisition

The Dragon Age series comes from Bioware, a developer known for Mass Effect and the struggling MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic. The first Dragon Age really hit home with gamers wanting a more fantasy-oriented Bioware RPG. Part 2 sadly missed the mark, with many considering it a hastily-created step back from its predecessor.

EA didn’t show any gameplay footage of Inquisition, but we did see an enjoyable cinematic trailer. Let’s hope the extra time taken with Inquisition results in a title that washes away the blandness of the second game.

Battlefield 4

Even though I’ve held out on trying the Battlefield series throughout the years, I don’t think I’ll be able to avoid Battlefield 4. It easily qualifies the graphical powerhouse of EA’s lineup. The amount of detail in characters and environments is truly staggering, to say nothing of the realistic physics.

Even more importantly than its looks, Battlefield 4 looks like tons of fun to play. 64 players can participate in multiplayer matches that involve land, sea, and air battles. You can hop into any vehicle you come across and start blasting enemies with it. One guy even drove a jet ski out of the water and onto the steps of a half-submerged building, a dynamic display.

The best part of the gameplay presentation involved a team of players jumping out of a skyscraper and parachuting to the ground. Once they landed, the entire building collapsed behind them. You don’t see such magnificent environmental destruction in other games.

Mirror’s Edge 2

We loved Mirror’s Edge on the Xbox 360 and Windows Phone, so it’s great news that Mirror’s Edge 2 is finally coming to next gen consoles. The video that ended the press conference seemed to mix cinematic footage with just a hint of gameplay. Faith, the runner dedicated to fighting an evil government returns with some new tattoos for good measure. We can’t tell much more about this sequel, but DICE is back at the helm so it probably won’t disappoint.

Stay tuned for more E3 2013 coverage throughout the week!

The Xbox One launched in 13 countries last Friday, and early adopters (including much of the Windows Phone Central staff) have a fairly robust selection of launch titles to enjoy. That doesn’t mean we’re not already looking to the future, though. When you buy a console during the first month of its release, you’re investing in the games that will come later even more than the first wave of titles.

One of the most exciting early post-launch releases will be Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare from PopCap Games. Garden Warfare now has an official release date of February 18^th, 2014 for both Xbox One and Xbox 360. I actually played the game during our visit to Electronic Arts headquarters last week and came away highly impressed. Head past the break for impressions, gameplay footage, and our video interview with Garden Warfare producer, Brian Lindley!

Spin-off or spin out?

Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare is a spin-off of the popular Plants vs. Zombies games. Whereas the two mainline entries have been 2-dimensional tower defense games, Garden Warfare is a multiplayer-focused third-person shooter with 3D graphics. It plays a lot different from the titles that spawned it. You could be forgiven for worrying that PopCap and/or EA were stretching the brand too far with this one. I had the same fear.

On a rainy day in San Francisco just before the Xbox One launched, Electronic Arts invited journalists to try Garden Warfare for themselves. Eight of us crowded into a room filled with networked Xbox One consoles equipped with Astro Gaming headsets. After a short presentation, we joined a 24-player online match of Team Vanquish (the Plants vs. Zombies version of Team Deathmatch) against PopCap’s playtesting staff. Any doubts about PopCap jumping the shark with Garden Warfare quickly disappeared after that.

An unnatural fit made natural

To successfully spin a series off into a new genre, you need two things: proper integration of the original games’ characters and universe, and the new game must actually meet the genre standards for quality.

Garden Warfare captures the feeling of Plants vs. Zombies so very well. From a purely aesthetic standpoint, the many varied plants and zombies all translate perfectly to three dimensions. Anyone who has seen the toys or plushes would already know that, but the PvZ characters look even better in full 3D action. They radiate with personality - far more than you’d see in a typical FPS or third-person shooter.

On the sound front, the music comes from Peter McConnell, who previously composed the soundtrack for Plants vs. Zombies 2 and many classic LucasArts games. I didn’t get to hear much of Garden Warfare’s music, but it promises to feature new iterations of classic themes from the first two games. The sound effects (which I could hear just fine) have the typical PopCap zing, and Crazy Dave still makes the unintelligible voice samples he’s known for.

Characters and teams

Garden Warfare is unique among competitive shooters in that its two factions are asymmetrical in nature. The plants and zombies each have unique abilities that the other doesn’t. Owing to its predecessors’ design, plants are more defensive in nature while the zombies favor offense.

The two teams consist of multiple characters for players to choose from. On the Plants side, we saw the Peashooter (the basic all-around soldier), Sunflower (medic), Chomper (stealth), and Cactus (long-range). The zombies have a Foot Soldier, All Star (football player), Scientist (healer), and Engineer. Players can unlock variants of each unit such as the Ice Cactus, whose shots can slow and eventually freeze opponents.

Every unit boasts three special abilities in addition to its standard attacks. The Peashooter, for instance, can set down roots and become a Gatling Pea, fire explosive Chili beans, or become Hyper and move at super speed. The plants' Cactus gets to fly around as a Garlic drone, while the zombies' Engineer has a flying drone of his own. These abilities take time to recharge, so players will still need to do some old-fashioned shooting as well.

Venus zombie trap

My favorite class to play during the event was the Venus flytrap-like Chomper. Unlike other classes, the Chomper doesn’t get a projectile weapon. He’s melee-only. This puts the guy at a disadvantage in frontal assaults, where it could take him several bites to vanquish a zombie. But sneak up from behind and the Chomper can eat an opponent, scoring a delightfully-animated 1-hit kill.

As if the Chomper’s focus on sneaking up from behind wasn’t ninja enough, he also has a burrowing ability. Tap the Y button and your Chomper digs underground, at which point he can move around for a short while without being hit. If the Chomper manages to sneak up under an opponent, he gets another satisfying instant kill. Naturally zombies can see the Chomper coming and get out of the way, and some of them have abilities that force the Chomper aboveground. Still! Sneaking up on a distracted zombie and devouring him from below is way too fun.

Game Modes

Garden Warfare runs on Dice’s Frostbite Engine, the same framework that powers Battlefield 4. And like the Battlefield games of old, large-scale competitive multiplayer is this title’s main draw. It supports two 12-versus-12 game types: “Team Vanquish” and “Gardens & Graveyards.” The latter (which we didn’t pay) is objective based, with one side defending their base from the other’s onslaught.

As for Team Vanquish, the goal is simply to help your team reach 50 kills (called Vanquishes here). Team deathmatch has been done to death in first- and third-person shooters, but Garden Warfare never feels too samey. The bright, cheerful visuals, sense of humor, and delightful on-screen characters all grabbed me in a way that few shooters do.

Non-competitive gamers won’t have quite as much to do in Garden Warfare, however. The game lacks a campaign mode. PopCap wanted to focus on polishing multiplayer as much as possible with this first outing, and given the game’s release schedule there wasn’t time to do a proper story mode. But they do see Garden Warfare as a strong new franchise contender. Should the game sell well enough to warrant a sequel, the follow-up would very likely have a campaign.

Ah, but Garden Warfare does have an online cooperative mode for up to 4-players! We didn’t get to try it out, but teaming up as plants against the AI zombies and gigantic bosses like the Goliath should be almost as addicting as the versus modes. The Xbox One version even supports 2-player split-screen co-op.

All progress made during offline and online co-op contributes towards the player’s overall profile. Each character type has numerous challenges to work through, such as scoring kills with a specific weapon. Complete enough and you’ll level up with that character. Players also have an overall level that leads to unlocking goodies.

Coming soon to Xbox consoles

If you love Plants vs. Zombies or a good multiplayer game, mark February 18, 2014 on your calendar. That’s when Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare arrives at retail.

The Xbox One version will cost $39.99 while the Xbox 360 version will ring up for $29.99. The Xbox One version's split-screen and SmartGlass features (not present on 360) make up for its higher price tag. PopCap and Electronic Arts also have a PC version of Garden Warfare in the works, but it doesn’t have a release date just yet. Preorder either console version to receive two in-game card packs that will unlock various customization options.

We'll have more exclusive Xbox One game footage from our Electronic Arts visit in December!

Not long ago, we published an in-depth preview of Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare for Xbox One and 360. Electronic Arts had invited us to play the game’s competitive Team Vanquish mode, which proved to be tons of fun. Somehow, the transition from tower defense to third-person shooter works really well with Plants vs. Zombies.

Of course, most decent shooters have more than one game type. Garden Warfare is no exception. This week, PopCap revealed a gameplay video and new details about the game’s “Gardens and Graveyards” game type. The capture and defense-based mode will require serious teamwork in order for one of the game’s rival factions to succeed. Check out the video and our impressions after the break.

Gardens versus graveyards

Garden Warfare’s competitive modes are team based affairs. “Gardens and Graveyards” supports two teams of 12-players, making for massive 24-person shoot-outs. Things would get cramped if the levels were too small. The video that PopCap released shows a gigantic map consisting of interconnected islands and multiple bases to capture and defend, so breathing room shouldn’t be much of a problem.

The Gardens and Graveyards game type puts the Plants in charge of defending their garden bases from the invading zombies. They’ll do so with guns and glory, plus some base fortifications. The defend-the-base aspect is quite similar to the mainline Plants vs. Zombies games, except with much more action this time.

The Zombie team starts out in the lair of the nefarious Dr. Zomboss – the final boss of the original Plants vs. Zombies. From there, the undead team will rush towards the first of the Plants’ bases. If the Zombies manage to take the base, it becomes a respawn point and puts them one step closer to capturing their final objective. The Plants can retake the base, but they’ll have to contend with the Zombies’ fortifications when they try it.

The Zombies’ final objective in the video’s Driftwood Shores map is the Plants’ Mega Flower Lighthouse. Will they succeed in capturing it? Not if the Plants team plays skillfully and pulls together when it counts.

More to come

Garden Warfare features two more game modes: Team Vanquish and Co-op (probably not the final name). In Team Vanquish, the goal is simply to help your team reach 50 kills (called Vanquishes here). Team deathmatch has been done to death in first- and third-person shooters, but Garden Warfare stands out thanks to its unique classes and the creative special abilities each class gets to wield. See our hands-on impressions for more details.

As for co-op, the online mode supports up to four Plants players. They’ll take on waves of AI zombies and bosses in their efforts to keep their gardens (and human creators) safe. The Xbox One version also allows 2 local players to team up in split-screen co-op. The 360 version is limited to online play.

Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare arrives both on the Xbox One and 360 on February 18 of next year. The Xbox One version will cost $39.99 while the Xbox 360 version will ring up for $29.99. Preorder either console version to receive two in-game card packs that will unlock various customization options.

Last week, game-hungry Xbox One fans received two fine releases to tide them over: Rayman Legends and Strider. This week we get two more releases to drool over: Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare from Electronic Arts/PopCap and Thief from Square-Enix/Eidos. Both games are now available on both Xbox One and Xbox 360, with Thief also appearing on non-Xbox platforms.

The Xbox 360 gets another couple of games to keep previous generation gamers busy: Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 from Konami (now available) and the downloadable Pac-Man Museum from Namco Bandai games (which comes out tomorrow).  Head past the break for a quick rundown on all of this week’s Xbox console releases!

Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare

Spinning a game off into a new franchise is difficult, but sometimes it works out in the end – see Mario Kart or Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing Transformed. Now PopCap has transferred the beloved characters from tower defense game Plants vs. Zombies into a third-person shooter, and with surprising success.

Garden Warfare is a multiplayer-only shooter in which two teams (the plants and the zombies) battle it out in either Team Vanquish (death match) or objective-based Gardens and Graveyards modes. Or 1-4 players can take on the cooperative Garden Ops mode and battles waves of zombie enemies. Garden Ops supports 2-player split-screen on Xbox One, whereas the 360 version doesn’t offer split-screen. The SmartGlass “Boss mode” is exclusive to Xbox One as well.

I played Garden Warfarelast November and loved it. If you enjoy multiplayer shooters but want something more lighthearted or easier to get into, consider this one a safe bet.

• Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare – Xbox One – 10.1 GB - $39.99 – Amazon Link– Xbox.com Link
• Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare – Xbox 360 – 2.43 GB - $29.99 – Amazon Link– Xbox.com Link

Thief

This reboot of the classic Thief series (technically the fourth Thief game so far) transplants master thief Garrett into a new steampunk setting. There he will wander an unusually mazelike city, taking on story missions and avoiding the town guards.

Early word is that the new Thief suffers from an uninvolving story and excessive loading screens. The design structure is a bit rigid compared to past games as well. But it’s still good to see Thief return after an absence of several years.

• Thief – Xbox One – 21.22 GB - $59.99 – Amazon Link– Xbox.com Link
• Thief – Xbox 360 – 5.5 GB - $59.99 – Amazon Link– Xbox.com Link

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2

This sequel to Mercury Steam’s excellent Castlevania reboot sees players take on the role of vampire lord Dracula after he awakens in modern times. Drac will navigate between a realistic (but empty) city and his sprawling castle as he attempts to thwart the plans of both Satan and the Other Guy.

The word on the street is that Lords of Shadow 2 doesn’t live up to its predecessor. A muddled plot, the uninteresting city environment, and awful stealth segments all drag down what should be a stellar action game. If you’re interested in Castlevania or gothic action, I recommend grabbing the very sweet Castlevania: Lords of Shadow Collection and seeing whether you're still craving the sequel after that. I’m holding out for an Xbox One version, myself.

• Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 – Xbox 360 – 4 GB - $59.99 – Amazon Link– Xbox.com Link

Pac-Man Museum

If you love Pac-Man, don’t miss this multi-game collection on XBLA (which we first previewed from E3 last year). It contains:

• Pac-Man
• Super Pac-Man: My childhood favorite, this one allows Pac-Man to turn into the giant Super Pac-Man.
• Pac-Land: Speaking of spin-offs… A side-scrolling platformer based on the original Pac-Man cartoon series.
• Pac & Pal: A semi-sequel to Super Pac-Man, this one also introduces a helper ghost named Miru.
• Pac-Mania: An isometric spin on the original Pac-Man that includes multiple mazes and the ability to jump.
• Pac-Attack: A falling block puzzle game from the 16-bit era. Subsequent releases have differed significantly, and it’s unclear which version will find its way into Pac-Man Museum.
• Pac-Man Remix: Sort of like Pac-Mania, but with actual 3D graphics and plays more like the original Pac-Man.
• Pac-Man Battle Royale: An awesome multiplayer arcade game that has never been released on home consoles until now.

Plus, if you buy before the end of March you’ll get Ms. Pac-Man (which will later be sold as DLC for $5) for free. The only thing I could wish for in this collection is Jr. Pac-Man, an American game that Namco Bandai does not consider an official part of the series.

• Pac-Man Museum – Xbox 360 – 230 MB - $19.99 – Xbox.com Link (Available February 26)

Note: All four games are also coming to PC, and some are coming to other platforms as well.

The Xbox One received a high-profile multiplayer-only game last week – Titanfall. But the world needs single-player games too, and so Konami delivers one this week. Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes is now available on Xbox One, 360, and competing platforms. A short game with a mercifully low price, Ground Zeroes provides a tantalizing glimpse at the future of the Metal Gear series.

Meanwhile, the already-released Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare for Xbox One and 360 just received a major free downloadable content package that adds a new map, items, and lots more changes. Read on for details, trailers, and store links!

Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes

The real Metal Gear Solid V won’t be ready for quite some time, but in its stead Konami has released a value-priced prequel called Ground Zeroes. Players once again take on the role of Snake (played by Kifer Sutherland), who must infiltrate a prison camp in order to perform a daring rescue. The game's environments are now much more open than before, allowing Snake to solve problems and handle enemy encounters with a variety of solutions. He can even drive vehicles.

Ground Zeroes is a very short game, with the main mission taking less than two hours to complete. The cinematic sequences last only twenty minutes total, which is praise-worthy for this particular series. After the main mission concludes, the game offers five additional missions and the replayability of collectibles and trying for better scores. With a light 15 Achievements worth 1,000 GamerScore, Ground Zeroes should be a reasonable completion.

The Xbox One and 360 versions of Ground Zeroes feature an exclusive mission called "Jamais Vu." The bad news is you play as Raiden during the mission. We got the short end of the stick there, because the Playstation 3 and 4 versions get a much better mission starring the Metal Gear Solid 1 version of Solid Snake. But we do get a SmartGlass feature called iDroid that displays maps and other useful information. So that’s something.

• Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes – Xbox One – 4.58 GB – $29.99 – Amazon Link– Xbox.com Link

• Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes – Xbox 360 – 1.53 GB –  $29.99 ($19.99 via download) – Amazon Link– Xbox.com Link

Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare

Today’s version 1.31 update is called the “Garden Variety Pack.” The download clocks in at ~800 MB on Xbox One and 213 MB (as a separate download) on Xbox 360.

Major Features:

• New Map: Chomp Town – playable in Garden Ops, Team Vanquish and Gnome Bomb. Yes Crazy Dave IS riding a Chomper… Why??? Because he’s CRAAAZYYY!
• New Game Mode: Gnome Bomb – be the 1st team to destroy all three gardens or graveyards with the explosive new Gnome Bomb.
• Pirates have invaded Port Scallywag and Sharkbite Shores in Garden Ops
• New Abilities for all characters – new character abilities are tucked away in the sticker shop (hint: Crazy Pack and higher are your best bet to get them! Supremium Pack, Incredi-Plant Pack & Vengeful Zomboss Pack have the highest chances to get them)
• 125 new customization items added to the sticker shop – spread across all characters/rarities…
• Added Doom-shroom potted plant consumable for plants
• Added Barrel Pirate, Treasure Map Pirate consumable for zombies

Minor Features:

• Improved reliability for the hold (B) interaction wheel – when reviving, building turrets etc….
• Added Bonus Score for playing Garden Ops Solo or with a friend
• Added a min player requirement to each game mode
• Tweaked various hats to improve overall visibility
• Added improved audio to slow firing weapons to queue players when next shot is available

Gameplay Balance Changes and Bug Fixes:

• Head to Facebook for the full list!

Garden Warfare is an amazingly fun game, and this new content makes it even better. If you enjoy multiplayer shooters, don’t miss it.

• Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare – Xbox One – 10.1 GB - $39.99 – Amazon Link– Xbox.com Link
• Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare – Xbox 360 – 2.43 GB - $29.99 – Amazon Link– Xbox.com Link

Next week

Only one Xbox game has been announced for next week so far: the Xbox 360 version of Titanfall! Electronic Arts has yet to show the 360 game to the public, which could indicate a lack of faith on their part. Or perhaps they just want the Xbox One version to enjoy the limelight first and foremost, as was the case with Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare. We’ll find out in seven days’ time!

In much farther off news, Zen Studios has just announced Pinball FX2, Castlestorm, and Kickbeat for Xbox One! Shame we never got that Windows Phone version of Pinball FX2...

It’s a light week for Xbox console game releases, with the only new retail title being FIFA 14 World Cup Brazil on Xbox 360. Not too exciting unless you’re a diehard football/soccer fan and buy more than one FIFA per year. But that doesn’t mean Xbox One and 360 gamers don’t have other new stuff to play…

The highly anticipated latest entry in Ubisoft and RedLynx’s Trials series, Trials Fusion has just arrived on both Xbox consoles as a downloadable title. Fans of Trials’ obstacle courses and super hard gameplay will lose many hours to Fusion. Meanwhile, PopCap and EA’s Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare has just received another free update and new Achievements on both consoles! Details after the break.

Trials Fusion

Trials combines motorcycle racing with platforming. Ostensibly you’re driving down a series of obstacle courses, but those courses also happen to have insane leaps and all manner of pitfalls to test players’ skills. The Trials series is all about trial-and-error, repeating super difficult courses until you finally survive them.

New to Trials Fusion are tricks that riders can perform in order to give their runs more flair. No longer do you need to just soar through the air after jumping off a ramp – liven it up with some moves! Tricks don’t provide any rewards during normal courses, but special trick courses encourage players to experiment with tricks to their hearts’ content.

Besides the usual array of dozens of courses (each with three optional goals now), Fusion also includes an all-new track editor. I hear the editor isn’t very user-friendly. Hopefully a knowledge base will build up over time that players can use to learn its intricacies.

Trials Fusion runs at 900p resolution and 60 frames per second on Xbox One. Slightly below the Playstation 4 version’s 1080 resolution, but at least it maintains a perfectly smooth frame rate.

• Trials Fusion – Xbox One – 5 GB – $19.99 – Xbox.com Store Link
• Trials Fusion – Xbox 360 – 1.52 GB – $19.99 – Xbox.com Store Link

Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare

PopCap has committed to providing a steady stream of free content for Garden Warfare, and so far they’ve really delivered. Last month we got a new game type and map in the “Garden Variety Pack.” This week, the “Zomboss Down” DLC brings even more new content to the game. The update clocks in at a whopping 2.8 GB on 360, where it’s a separate download. The Xbox One version should simply update automatically.

New features:

• Added new map Cactus Canyon (Gardens & Graveyards) – w/ cool Golf Bomb minigame at the end.
• New card pack added to sticker shop “Zomboss Down” – This is the only place to collect the new Zomboss Down characters and customization.
• 8 new playable characters to collect.
• 200+ new customization items added.
• 3 new consumable plants (Bamboo Shoot, Fire Peashooter, and Ice Peashooter).
• Now able to view party member locations during gameplay via a different colored Gamertag being shown over their character.
• Added 10 new Achievements worth 250 GamerScore.
• Character level cap increased from 20 to 30, with new star challenges to complete.
• Players can now communicate with all other players in End of Round Screens
• Added a ‘Mute All’ button to leaderboard on Xbox One – This function appears when you enter the leaderboard and highlight another user.
• Numerous balance changes and optimizations

Garden Warfare is one of the best team-based shooters around. Seriously, a lot of gamers prefer it to Titanfall. With bright and colorful graphics, the trademark Plants vs. Zombies sense of humor, tons of unique character classes, 12-versus-12 online battles, and the promise of more free DLC to come, shooter fans can’t lose with Garden Warfare.

• Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare – Xbox One – 10.1 GB - $39.99 – Amazon Link– Xbox.com Link
• Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare – Xbox 360 – 2.43 GB - $29.99 – Amazon Link– Xbox.com Link

Need another reason to join EA Access on Xbox One? You can add Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare as that new reason for joining. Starting right now, Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare is available in the EA Access vault on Xbox One.

Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare is a third-person shooter and tower defense game. It launched earlier this year for Xbox One and Xbox 360, but is now available for free inside the vault that is EA Access. Reviews from critics have generally been positive for Garden Warfare.

In August, Microsoft and EA announced that a subscription-based service would be offered on the Xbox One called EA Access. For just $4.99 per month you get access to a growing catalog of older EA games on the Xbox One. You also get discounts when purchasing EA games, like FIFA or Madden titles, and can play select games before their official release.

Other games already available in the EA Access vault include Battlefield 4, Madden NFL 25, FIFA 14, Peggle 2 and Need for Speed Rivals.

Anyone with EA Access going to grab Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare?

Source: EA

Xbox users who are interested in Plant vs Zombies: Garden Warfare and Peggle 2 could score big savings this week through Microsoft's Deals with Gold. The deal for both games lasts until December 15, taking 66 percent off of the price of Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare, which normally sells for $39.99; similarly, the $11.99 Peggle 2 is discounted by 60 percent.

Let us know if you decide to grab either titles and how you're enjoying the games.

• Download Plants vs Zombies
• Download Peggle 2

Source: Major Nelson

Electronic Arts has already revealed plans to publish a new game in its Plants and Zombies franchise in early 2016. The publisher is now teasing that the full reveal of the game will happen on Monday, June 15 as part of Microsoft's Xbox E3 2015 media briefing in Los Angeles.

Included in the teaser, which was posted on YouTube, is the audio of a fierce in-game battle between what we would assume to be plants and zombies. Unfortunately there is no actual gameplay footage at this time. The tag line for the teaser is simply, "Get Ready To Soil Your Plants."

EA released the third-person multiplayer shooter Plants Vs Zombies: Garden Warfare in early 2014 first on the Xbox One and Xbox 360 consoles, before launching the game on other platforms later that year. The game is now available to play in as part of the EA Access subscription service for the Xbox One. Based on the fact that the reveal of the new game will happen as part of Microsoft's E3 press event, rather than EA's own E3 2015 press conference, it's likely that the game will also be released first for Xbox consoles.

Source: Plants vs Zombies (YouTube)

Every weekend, Windows Central streams an Xbox One game or two on Twitch for 1-2 hours and gives out free games to the cool people who join us during the stream. It's like a live podcast, only you also get to watch a game while chatting with our awesome readers and viewers!

Tonight we streamed Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare for Xbox One. This was a special stream because Windows Central readers and viewers got to play along with me! Watch the replay to see who's the best at shooting plants and zombies. Hint: it's not me! We also gave out EA Access memberships during the stream. Read on for the EA Access impressions, contest winners, and the full video replay in YouTube format.

EA Access and Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare

Tonight we want to highlight just what a cool Xbox One-exclusive service EA Access is for gamers. For $29.99 per year, subscribers unlimited get access (for the duration of the subscription) to 13 Electronic Arts games for Xbox One:

• Battlefield 4
• Dragon Age: Inquisition
• EA Sports UFC
• FIFA 14
• FIFA 15
• Madden NFL 25
• Madden NFL 15
• NBA Live 15
• Need for Speed Rivals
• NHL 15
• Peggle 2
• Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare
• Titanfall
• More games to come!

Subscribers also get ten percent off any purchases of EA games and DLC for Xbox One, provided those things are not already on sale at time of purchase. They also get six-hour demos of new EA titles before those games launch. Not too shabby!

One of my favorite games in the EA Access lineup is Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare. One of the best team-based shooters around, Garden Warfare sets the Plants and Zombies against each other in a variety of game types.

With bright and colorful graphics, the trademark Plants vs. Zombies sense of humor, tons of unique character classes, and 12-versus-12 online battles, shooter fans can't lose with Garden Warfare.

Join us online during the stream to watch or play Garden Warfare (you must own the Xbox One version to play), and maybe win an EA Access membership. If you win, you'll get access to Garden Warfare and many more games for the next year!

The Contest

We'll be streaming Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare for ~90 minutes tonight, starting at 8pm Central (9pm Eastern, 6pm Pacific, 2am GMT). During that time, we'll be giving out a total of five codes for Xbox One:

• EA Access One-year Membership

To enter, just follow us at Twitch.tv/WindowsCentral and Twitch.tv/EastXTwitch (making sure to enable email notifications!) and tune in during the stream. You can watch the stream right here in this post, but you need to actually participate in the stream chat to have a chance at winning. We'll deliver codes to the winners via Twitch message (PM) during the stream. No code begging!

Feel free to stick around in chat before and after the stream if you have any questions or just want to say hi. If you enjoy the stream, be sure to check our schedule and come back for more!

How to watch Twitch livestreams

What's the best way to experience Twitch? The Twitch website on your PC or Mac web browser. If you don't have or prefer not to use a computer, you can get the Xbox One, PlayStation 4, or Xbox 360 Twitch apps and watch from the comfort of your couch. Android and iOS both have official and unofficial Twitch apps to choose from as well.

On Windows Phone, you'll have to grab an unofficial app. There are several to choose from, each with different strengths and weaknesses. Only one app lets you search directly for our channel, though. If you use the others you'll have to find and follow us from a web browser first. Read the roundup to learn more!

Next week's stream

Want to know what's next for Windows Central's Twitch programming? Here's next weekend's contest stream. The stream always starts at the same time: 8pm Central (9pm Eastern, 6pm Pacific, 2am GMT).

• Mystery game! Stayed tuned.

We hope you'll tune in as often as you can! Set a recurring alarm on your phone so you'll always know when it's time for the stream to start.

Winners

The following people now have access to Plant vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare and plenty more Xbox One games from EA!

• CK_Savior
• DEADP00L1391
• UCFknighthood
• Yup84
• SirLoinsteaks

Tonight's prizes provided by the best mobile and tech news network around, Mobile Nations. Thanks also to our Twitch stream moderators for keeping the peace and giving away the prizes!

Five days before the full games goes on sale, Xbox One console owners can download a free trial for Electronic Arts' multiplayer shooter sequel Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare 2. The trial is available for subscribers to the EA Access service. PC gamers can do the same with a subscription to Origin Access

The trial allows players to check out the game's co-op and multiplayer modes for 10 hours. Any progress made in the trial will be carried over to the full game when it is released on Feb. 23. EA Access and Origin Access members can purchase the full digital Xbox One and PC versions of Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare 2 for 10% off their normal price.

Membership for EA Access for Xbox One owners costs $4.99 a month or $29.99 for 12 months, while PC gamers can sign up for Origin Access for $4.99 a month.

Source: Videogamer.com

Plants vs. Zombies is coming to the Xbox One and Xbox 360, but not as you currently know it. PopCap is taking the IP into the third-person action realm, which will introduce the player to new and more action packed gameplay. Announced today at E3, Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare will task players with taking control of multiple types of plants and taking out zombies of all sizes.

Sporting multiplayer and team-based gameplay, Plants vs. Zombies will really bring the game to a new audience who may not have tried the classic tower defence game. The title will arrive in the future. Be sure to stay tuned to our feeds to keep up-to-date with everything happening at this year's E3.