Free update with limited-time modes

With another free update for Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2 dropping today, there will be more modes to play and, as a result, more things to unlock for your characters. It never ends.

The "Trials of Gnomus" update adds the Mystery Portal, a gateway that grants access to limited-time modes in Garden Warfare 2 including Cats vs. Dinos, Boss Hunt, and Super Mix Mode. By com?peting in some of the new activities, like? the gnomes' new Trials of Eternity, you can earn rare customization items. Again, I say, it never ends!

A fresh face, Rux the Deal Breaker, is also lurking around Zomburbia. He'll tra?de "precious goods" for?? your coins, with new items coming into his inventory weekly.

So many reasons to check back in on a daily basis for bonuses, but I keep neglecting Garden Warfare 2. My plan??ts are probably all sad?? and withered by now. Zombies can't go bad, at least.

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Available now on PS4 and Xbox One, soon on PC

Oh, hey, this sounds familiar! EA is offering a ten-hour trial for Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2. That's plenty of time to figure out if this particular type of team-based shooter is to your liking. I know it can be hard to carve out time away from Overwatch, but it's worth an extended look.

The promo starts today on PS4 and Xb?ox One, and it lasts until August 30, 2016 at 10:00am Pacific.

During that time, the full, permanent version of Garden Warfare 2 will be sold at half price, with your progress and achievements carrying over from the trial should yo??u choose to upgrade. PC pl??ayers will have to wait until August 16 for the ten-hour demo to appear on Origin.

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Available in the latest free update

PopCap has followed up its last big Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare 2 update, Trouble in Zombopolis, with a part two. The free update expands the Backyard Battleground open world with Delivery Time Challenges (races, essentially) and offers another way to earn stuff: Community Challenges.

These challenges are time-limited events in which all players can work together to collectively meet some goal -- say, earning 15 million vanquishes -- to unlock rewards like coins, packs, or "special items." Each challenge has three reward tiers, and you can check everyone's progress near the Town Hall or on this web page. It's essentially ju??st another way to keep people engaged (you have to physically log in and go claim your prizes), whi?ch is fine by me. Keep the numbers up!

You can glance over the full patch notes right here. It sounds like the game balance has shifted quite a bit since I've last played (and there are of course even more changes with this update), so I'll be curious to see if I've fallen way behind the regulars. Given how many variant characters there are in Garden Warfare 2, I do not ??envy the fo?lks working to keep things relatively fair.

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Inline with the first game

In a very non-EA move, Plants vs. Zombies 2: Garden Warfare is getting a huge free update soon. T??itled "Trouble in Zombopolis: Part One," the DLC will provide an all-new map (with its own miniboss), two new characters (Breakfast Brainz and Toxic Citron), more customization options, and a "Boat Blast" shooting gallery minigame. It'll arrive sometime this summer.

I say "non-EA," but really, they deserve a lot of credit for the Garden Warfare franchise in general. They supported the original with free DLC for a long while, and it seems l??ike the trend is set to continue with the sequel. As long as PopCap can keep making these games with as much care as they've put into this pair, I'm totally ok with it.

Trouble In Zombopolis [EA]

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A map, more missions, and character reworks

This week, there's almost certainly going to be a big dropoff in the number of Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2 players who stick with Rose because they like to top the scoreboards. And thank goodn?ess for that. PopCap is releasing a major update on Tuesday, March 8 with a new multiplayer map, more missions for the hub world, and much-needed balance adjustments to characters like Rose.

The all-seeing, all-knowing plant class is being "completely re-tuned" to fit into her originally intended support role. That means lower health, less effective homing capabilities f??or her primary attack, and a reduction to her Time Snare ability, among other changes. With this update, PopCap is also touching up several other charact?ers like the Imp (more health) and Chomper (less spammy Goop).

As for the new Team Vanquish map, it's a refresh of Garden Center, which was a staple of the original Garden Warfare. This new "Zomburbified" version for Garden Warfare 2 is called Aqua Center.

The update will hit PlayStati??on 4, PC, and Xbox One on Tuesday. Here a??re the full notes:

March 2016, Garden Warfare 2 Tuning/Balance Notes

New Features

• Added new co-op/team vanquish map "Aqua Center" which may seem familiar, yet completely different!
• Added night version of the Great White North map to the Turf Takeover Playlist
• Added Hide n' Find missions to Backyard Battleground
• Added Bot & Pot Missions to Backyard Battleground
• Added unique character variant images to group HUD
• World Options now shows all friends playing the game, not just the joinable ones
• Added classic setting in options to change primary fire button (PS4 Only)
• Added Aim Sensitivity slider to now allow more precise control over aim speed (for PC this is broken up into both mouse and gamepad sensitivity)
• Added ability to select between hold button to aim or toggle button to Aim
• Added kick player option to the in-game scoreboard for easy access (player hosted modes only)
• Added difficulty to Pause Menu for some game modes
• Game Now defaults to common chat in Private Matches
• Added ability to view scoreboard while vanquished

Critical Fixes

• Reduced length of round timer between rounds in Multiplayer matches
• Imp now properly earns XP when in Mech
• Players can now see other players’ Backyard customizations when visiting their Backyard
• Players can now see stats on other players stats boards when visiting their Backyard
• Improved audio for garlic drone primary weapon
• Setting HUD to "Light" now also hides XP Meter
• Major improvements to hit reaction "flinching" animations
• A plethora of quality & bug fixes

Tuning/Balance Notes

Overall

• Improved regeneration upgrade for all characters
• Re-tuned all hit reactions for both players and AI to reduce the flinching effect even more

Rose:

• Completely re-tuned Rose class, bringing her back into playing as a support role
• Reduced Rose’s health
• Major changes to her homing abilities, ineffective at range, requires player to lead target in order to land more hits
• Slightly reduced rate of fire for Magic Thistles
• Significantly reduced length a victim is trapped in Time SnareChanged how Goatify ability works so that damage does not break Goatify, creating a more predictable and less jarring experience and lowered time as a goat
• Slowed down rose variants (Fire, Ice) when charging their weapons to make them more vulnerable

Citron:

• Slightly decreased the Party Citron laser damage

Corn:

• We needed to improve Corn's ability to be a front-line fighter so we increased his health and also improved his long range damage
• Reduced Party Corn's damage output

Chomper:

• Decreased the digestion time after a chomp escape (i.e. your victim got away using anti-chomp ability like jackhammer)
• Brought Chompers regeneration delay to parity with all other playable characters
• Fixed a bug where Chomp Thing’s health regeneration didn’t match his weapon description. He now regenerates health slightly sooner and faster than default
• Increased Unicorn Chomper’s Rainbow Warp cooldown time
• Increased goop cooldown so it couldn't be spammed quite as much

Cactus:

• Zen Cactus was too damaging and needed some damage and reload adjustments

Imp:

• Imps tuning focused on ensuring he had a bit more survivability outside of his mech, and also improved his primary weapon slightly
• Increased Imp health
• Fixed a bug where the Imp couldn’t receive damage while he is making his Z-Mech phone call (he's now only invulnerable when the beam of light appears)
• Reduced Party Imp's damage output

Super Brainz:

• Slight cooldown reduction to Super Ultra Ball and Super Multi Ball abilities
• Minor speed improvement to Turbo Twister but at the cost of decreased his armor while in Turbo Twister
• Removed the decay from Toxic Brainz legendary meter to make it more useful
• Damage reduction to Party Brainz

Captain Deadbeard:

• We wanted to bring Captain Deadbeard closer to damage parity with Cactus, but just slightly below since he also benefits from his close range scatter shot
• Made some movement speed improvements to his barrel when unlit
• Made some damage reductions to Captain Partyman

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Free DLC and premium coin packs incoming

If you've spent any amount of time playing Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2 online, you undoubtedly see Rose when you close your eyes at night. There she is, way off in the distance, grinning. She knows you can't escape her homing shots. And even if you did, there's never just one Rose. They travel in packs! Pla?yers and Po?pCap agree: she's overpowered.

"Rose was conceived as a support role/specialist, not a primary damage dealer, and we've been working on rebalancing her to fit that role," the studio said in a blog post today. "This fix is going to be? implemented very soon and we thank you for your patience and incredible support while we get it ready."

For the time being, might I suggest fighting back with the Scientist? The Marine? Biologist variant in particular is adept at taking Rose out before she can cast spells. You just need to get in close enough. To that end, I've had good luck teaming up with a second healer to sneak behind enemy lines and wipe out whole groups of Rose players. They tend to bunch up in the back.

Besides the balance update, PopCap is also preparing its first free DLC: the Graveyard Variety Pack (shown above). It's a "trip back to S?uburbia," ?apparently, but that's about all we know.

Free post-release multiplayer maps and character variants are to be expected for Garden Warfare 2, and the same could be said of optional microtransactions. Based on this European PlayStation Blog post, it sounds like players will be able to spend real money on coin packs as early as this Thurs??day, March 3. No word on pricing yet, though.

I didn't pay for coins in the first game and I don't see that changing here. Aside from the legendary characters?? that are (I think) only earnable in Infinity mode, I already have 'em all.

Upcoming Balance Changes for Plants vs. Zombies Gar??????????????????????????den Warfare 2 [PVZGW2]

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Against the grain

Chris and I were thinking about holding a fight to the death to determine which of us would get first dibs on Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2, as is the traditional way to end internal kerfuffles at Destru??ctoid, but we called it off at the last minute.

We re??alized we could both do the review, together, and I wouldn't have to die.

Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2 (PC, PS4, Xbox One [reviewed])
Developer: PopCap Games
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Released: February 23, 2016
MSRP: $59.99

Chris: Can I?? just start by saying how surprised I am that EA didn't waste this franchise's potential? I'm shocked that PopCap, creator of those classic browser games I played in networking class in high school, ended up crafting a shooter this good.

Because to me, Garden Warfare 2 immediately steps on the shoulders of the strong foundation the original built. It keeps everything people loved about the first, and expands upon concepts that needed to be addressed. For instance, the hub world turned out well. It's great that after a quick five-minute tutorial you're able to not o?nly choose your character right away, but your faction as well. I ended up messing around in it for several hours before I even remembered that this was primarily a competitive multiplayer game. Mission accomplished, as far as solo players are concerned.

Jordan: Absolutely. The hub world is a far more realized slice of the wider Plants vs. Zombies universe, and it's so delightfully odd. Similar to you, I expected to head straight into the standard multiplayer modes after transferring my character unlocks from Garden Warfare (which worked flawlessly), but instea?d I ended up spending the first several hours running around the open world in search of quests, mini-games, and collectibles. The plants and zombies have their own base on opposite ends of the map, and there's this eternal conflict in the middle. I can't tell you how ma?ny times I got swept up in that escalating fight.

The first game excelled as?? an online multiplayer experience, but it didn't offer much in the way of engaging, long-lasting single-player content. This time, you can team up with or compete against some surprisingly competent AI bots, and better yet, there is also a proper storyline for the two factions. The missions are varied -- one had me dropping bombs from a living corn airship, while another involved  shrinking down to fight plants inside of a sick shark -- and they do a good job of introducing the six new character classes.

I'm not sure if I have a favorite newcomer, but Super Brainz is a contender. Aside from his fabulous head of ha??ir, he has this fun mix of ranged and melee attacks. Also, one of his abilities is essentially a Hadoken. Bless you, PopCap.

Chris: I think my new favorites are Kernel Corn and the Imp, for plants and zombies respectively. I dig Kernel's air strike ability, as it adds a new dimension to the game strategically and the fact that so many levels are built for it (read: indoor objectives often cleverly have holes in the ceiling) is great. As for the Imp, the risk-reward playstyle is constantly entertaining. You're completely open as your base class, but once you hit that mech call-in cooldown, you're in business. The new classes inject so much personality into Garden Warfare 2, on top of all of the base ones that are still in, and the multitude of subclasses that divide each core playstyle. It was fun picking it back up online and wiping the floor with people ?in the first multiplayer session -- like ridin?g a bike again after a few years. We went 5-0!

To speak to your praise of the hub world, the multiplayer arenas are also even more stylized than before. Missions might start with a "capture or defend the point" conceit, but they culminate in really wacky conclusions that suit the series well. Like the one where you're ruining a zombie graduation party by painting over murals on the wall, or playing a giant?? competitive pinb??all game. I don't think this franchise gets nearly enough credit for how unique it is. If you're looking for a shooter that isn't portrayed through a prototypical lens of brown, this is it.

As for my time with split-screen, I'm bummed that you can't do quests or go online on the same console, but l??ocal play has been improved to the point where both players can earn their own rewards, and the entire hub and Garden Ops are technically available. It's.?..enough, and the ability to choose opposing sides and essentially play a 1v1 rumble in the hub is cool.

Jordan: Yeah, the pinball finale was unexpected. I spent most of my time in the original game with that mode, Gardens & Graveyards, and I can tell it's going to be the same for Garden Warfare 2. With a decent matchup, there's rarely a dull moment. I'm glad that in some of the maps, the zombies are on the defensive for a change. That needed to happen. All of the other returning competitive modes were seemingly left as is, but I don't mind. Gnome Bomb is the only o??ne I'm tired of playing.

Another thing I was happy to see altered is the way player progression works. You no longer have to worry about completing uninteresting challenges or using an annoying-to-obtain currency to bypass them. Instead, you just earn experience points by playing any of the modes as you normally would. The 100+ character subclasses level up independently, and there are unlockable upgrad??es like an increased zoom distance and faster health regeneration.

More than any of that, though, I was pulled into the optional quests. They boost your XP multiplier and give out stars, which are hard to come by, or coins. Because I didn't know any better, I carelessly spent all of my stars on cosmetic rewards only to later learn that you need them for the post-game survival mode, Infinity. I don't want to spoil who you go up against, but it's super weird. And tough! Your first attempts at Infinity are fr?ee (one for each faction), but I'd still recommend setting aside stars for reentry.

As for the coin economy, payouts vary based on the mode, who you're up against, and how well you and your team performed. As an example, I took home around 6,500 coins in a seven-minute round of Vanquish Confirmed against the AI on the hardest difficulty setting. The pricing for card packs in Garden Warfare 2 ranges from 2,500 coins for an assort??ment of one-time-use defensive items like potted plants or zombie turrets all the way up to 75,000 coin?s for a guaranteed character variant.

It feels like I'm earning coins quicker than I was in the first game, but it might just be that I'm enjoying myself even more this time around. Either way, I suspect I'll ??be hooked for the rest of the year.

Chris: Same goes for me. It has a Warriors level amount of con?tent to wade through and I'm completely fine with how the coin system works. Now that you can earn them with nearly every mode, they don't feel like a grind. The defensive zombies remark is spot-on, and I love some of the new futuristic defense systems they're able to utilize now -- it gives them more parity with plants so the game truly feels like a 50/50 split. Th?e first game was very plant-centric and zombies fans will have a much better experience. I'm still a plant man though, and you can quote me on that.

Jordan: And there it is. The truth comes out. Naturally, I'm a zombie guy, so we need to be sworn enemies until I invariably grow tired of playing as the still-kinda-cheap soldier class with the crossbow and?? switch sides.

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Based on your Garden Warfare 1 rank

When you first play the final version of Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2 (how'd you like the beta?), you're going to want to look out for the mailbox in the hub world -- that's where you can import your characters and progression from the first game. We still don't have all of the specifics yet, as far as I have ?seen, but PopCap did announce the loyalty rewards today.

• Rank 10 or higher: Receive a free Helpful Fun Pack.
• Rank 25 or higher: Receive a free Wondrous Pack of Greatness.
• Rank 50 or higher: Receive a free character unlock.
• Rank 100 or higher: Receive five Super Rare Customization Items - with a 'glowing' effect added to them for good measure.
• Max Rank of 313: Last but not least, players who reach will receive a 313 Max Pack that includes a legendary character -- the Unicorn Chomper and Unicorn Warp Ability. Because what’s not to love about a warping Chomper?

I played the original game on multiple platforms before settling on PC where, according to Origin, I clocked in 86 hours. My goodness. As fate would have it, I left off at rank 98, which means I'll want to go back and rank up a couple more times before Garden Warfare 2 drops on February 23.

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Plants or Zombies

It's a damn shame that Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare was??n't more popular. I mean, it did well enough for EA to greenlight a sequel, but many of my fri?ends weren't keen on it because it looked too silly. Little did they know that it was actually one of the most unique shooters in some time, with a strong foundation and tons of variety.

Garden Warfare 2&n?bsp;ba??sically seeks to extend on those principles with a larger cast, adding brand new playstyles and strategies into the mix.

The biggest change I noticed immediately was the hub world, which the game grants you access to right from the start. It essentially consists of two giant bases (one for Plants, the other for Zombies), with a giant battlefield in the middle. Right now in the beta quests aren't enabled, but it was fun to just roam around in, as there's plenty of canon fodder to destroy and new areas to discover. Players can level-up in the hub it seems, breaking u??p some of the monotony of playing online over and over. You can also instantly switch allegiances and see how the other side lives. I'm hopeful for this element of the game in the finished version.

In terms of the new classes, I'm rather impressed. Each army has three new playstyles, all of which add their own unique imprint to the metagame. On the Plant side I really enjoyed the Rose, which functions as a mage archetype, complete with a polymorph spell. The Citron, a tank-like character is a real game-changer with its shield, which can block sniper shots with ease for both you and your party. Kernel Corn is a bruiser of sort??s, with limited mobility and the power to call in airstrikes.

The Zombies have a lot of utility as well with the Imp, who is fast and fragile, but dual wields pistols and can call in the devastating mech ?power-up. Captain Deadbeard suits the Zombie playstyle just fine as a wildcard, who is more of a jack of all trades/master of none type deal, with long and short range abilities. Super Brainz is probably the wackiest of them all though, as he's a melee character that's seemingly based off of Bizarro with a host of different moves, including a hadoken. Of course, all the old favorites return, with four variants for every character, including the new classes.

While microtransactions are in at launch this time (they weren't in the first game, but were added later), they seem to be par for the course, which basically means you can ignore them. Players will be able to buy coins for real cash, but those coins are ha?ndily awarded by playing the game, and according to EA "nothing you can't earn can be bought."

The beta kicked off as of yesterday, and you can join in on the festivities until January 18. It's limited to just multiplayer and several modes, but the finished version will bring back the wave-based "Garden Ops" mode, as well as split-screen for "all game modes," as well as the ability for the second pla??yer to earn their own upgrades on their account. Barring a tiny amount of lag in a few of my matches, things seem to be going very smoothly.

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First hands-on at E3 2015

Garden Warfare was astounding. It was a good shooter. It was also a good Plants vs. Zombies title, despite being a shooter. It had loads of free DLC. The game wasn't perfect, but I was hooked -- first on Xbox 360, then again, doubly so, on PC. My free time suffered greatly at the hands of its lengthy unlock system, which tied new characters, cosmetics, and one-time-use items to semi-random b??ooster card packs. Yes, it was a grind. No, you didn't need to resort to microtransactions.

The game garnered some six million players, which is good enough for a sequel. I'm sure those optional purchases helped. In Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2, the undead have overtaken Suburbia. Whereas the last game's Garden Ops mode had four plant heroes fending off zombie hordes in wave-base?d combat, the new Garveyard Ops has zombies playing defense for a change.

There are new characters, of course, but the returning cast has been tweaked (how, exactly, I'm unsure; but there will at least be rebalanced stats and abilities). My favorite of the fresh faces -- and not just because he was the only one I got to play as -- was the plump little Imp. He can hop in a mech and launch a barrage of missiles or stomp on pesky plants. Good #Titanfallsynergy.

One of my teammates was a melee-centric superhero zombie named Super Brainz. There'??s also going to be a dedicated zombie sniper character, finally, and a sorceress. All told, there will be six new classes from the past, present, and future. Speaking of: one level is a time-travel theme park?, as in, a theme park whose "attractions" are accessible via time travel portals. Clever.

What else? Every mode supports split-screen play, which not even Halo is offering any more, and solo players can compete against AI if they're unwilling or unable to dip into player versus player (which was the best part of Garden Warfare). There will be? private servers this time,? as well as 40 characters at launch and regularly scheduled free content updates. PopCap wouldn't give any concrete details about character transfers other than "Yes, that's happening." Still great news.

I wish I could give more detailed hands-on coverage but, shortly into our round of Graveyard Ops, the power went out at EA's preview event. Swearing ensued. I think an Xbox One even broke. Bummer. I'm curious to see PopCap uncover more layers of the Plants vs. Zombies universe -- it sure has gotten strange sinc?e the original lawn defense game debuted six years ago.

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Live gameplay

Plants Vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2 was confirmed earlier today at the Microsoft conference, but EA had a bit more at its press confere?nce for the su??rprisingly good shooter.

EA showed off live gameplay of its four-player zombie co-op mode, Graveyard Ops, and new classes. There's the Imp; the melee focused, Clark Kent looking Super Brain??z; a??nd the first zombie sniper, Captain Deadbeard.

Gardeen Warfare 2 is coming to PC, X?box One, and PS4 spring 2016. You can now play every game ??mode offline, solo against AI, or with local splitscreen against AI. If you own the original, you can transfer unlocked characters at launch.

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YES!

Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare 2 arrives next spring, EA anno?unced at Microsoft's E3 press conference. It will feature new characters and weapons. From wa?tching the trailer it looks like there was a mech, and super hero added to the zombies, while the plants had a rose and... an orange?

I don't kno??w about you, but I'm pumped. I've played the original title more than any other title on my Xbox One. Easily one of the best shooters to come out in years.

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