5. Plants Vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare
Quite possibly the biggest surprise of the Expo was the reveal of Plant Vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare with a genuinely smart bait and switch trailer at the EA press conference. Starting with the kind of growing drony bass and flashes that we have come to associate with the Battlefields and Modern Warfares of the industry, it lulled many into a false sense of familiarity. Then, with the utterance of "braaains", all hell broke loose. A 3D Plants vs. Zombies unfolded, keeping the charm and humour of the original while being seriously expanded. During a closed doors presentation, I saw an expanded demo version of what was played at the EA conference. The first thing that is striking is that the game is one of the most lush and gorgeous games that I saw at the entire expo. That is probably surprising considering the game is just an upscale of a small arcade game. However, the bright colours, the bouncing petals, the chilli explosions all look gorgeous. It compliments the co-op centric game perfectly and helps retain all the charm of the original 2D tower defense game. While the game now a real time third person shooter, the idea of tower defense is still there. You still run around planting units and stopping zombies from getting to your base, it is just that you can have a more active role in keeping the zombies at bay now too. While I didn't get to play any hands on with the game, it is one I can't wait to fiddle with. The game can be played in single player but PopCap wanted me to know that it is being designed for co-op, being a "multiplayer game first". That is fine by me, as the game clearly seems to be designed to have its respective classes feeding off and serving each other. They also explained that the game would come with a bunch a modes, you would be able to play as the zombies and that the game would support 12 vs 12 match ups. Plants Vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare may well be one of the most nuts reveals in E3 history. However, while being a radical reinvention of a much smaller game, it seems to be done right. The pace, mayhem, humour and balance seems very well juggled so far, and I just can't see it being messed up. Put this on on your calenders as it looks like the most fun nonsensical fun you can have on the next gen so far.