PvZ Garden Warfare Variety Pack DLC

I haven't been able to play as much of this game as I want to, but I figured I had to squeeze it in last night, being that they released new DLC.  Best part about the new DLC?  It's price tag.  Zero Brains. That's right, FREE DLC.  Here are the major patch features thanks to the official Plants vs Zombies Facebook Page

"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"

Now the patch also fixes a lot of little glitches and bugs.. However I still get kicked a lot..  They seem to be working on it though, supposedly.  I've had issues with being kicked since day 1.  Mainly with Garden Ops, but now it's everything.  It isn't super bad, just a bit annoying.  Also..  Do any other adults play this game?  Haha.  Maybe kids are just super fascinated with making noises and calling everyone stupid on their mics.. 

Anyways the new game mode Gnome Bomb is pretty cool.  Always nice to have a new mode to play.  Now come on Titanfall.. It's your turn!   I had a lot of wine while playing so I wasn't very good at it.  I played sniper Cactus.  I do LOVE me some Cactus snipe-age.  Probably my favorite character to play.  So yeah...  The new DLC is worth the freeness.  Hopefully they get their servers sorted out soon and they launch it for PC too.  I really want to play it on PC!

Yay for the Year of Luigi!

My Club Nintendo gift finally arrived!  Only 5000 pieces in the world and I was lucky enough to get one.  I mean I had to spend some extra money to get enough points to get it, but oh well!  It's awesome and I couldn't have passed it up.  Here are some shots of it!  I LOVE it!

5 Games I'd love to see revamped.

With the gigantic selection of beautiful, graphically inclined, games that come out these days, it's hard to want to look back at all of the graphically impaired, messy, blocky piles of cartridges stored away in a bin somewhere in your mom's basement.  Call me nostalgic, but I just miss some of that simple fun.  With all of the newer ways to get games out there today, I'd really LOVE to see some classics I used to play as a kid, revamped.  Not just re-released on Virtual Console either.. I want new!  Now I didn't always have the popular titles as a kid, so don't hate on my selection, but here are 4 games I think deserve a new life.  

1.  Duck Hunt- I thought for sure with the release of the wii, I would once again be able to enjoy my favorite NES classic of all time.  They released so many accessory guns and I just waited and waited.  I'm still waiting today.  I understand that Wii Play tried with the target shooting, but it just wasn't even close.  I'd even be ok with an NES remix game that had SOMETHING to do with Duck Hunt.  I mean it's iconic with the bright orange NES Zapper gun and the laughing dog you tried so hard to shoot.  And now...it all just sits there.. Useless due to new televisions.  It can't be hard to re-release this in 3d with some nice graphics and some added content.  Even if they release it as a download only game on the e-shop, it's still something.  I just feel it's too big of a game to just fade away into the abyss.

2. Q*Bert-  I never played much of the arcade version/nes version, but I grew up on Q*bert 3 for the SNES.  They released a theme-able version of the original for ios a while back, but it got taken off the app store and even if you still own it, you can't actually open it.  I think even if they only release a mobile version, it would still be really fun game that they can add so much to.  They've already done so much to pac-man, and the idea of Q*bert is a little more in depth.  I'd just love to see something more like Q*bert 3, even if it is the same game with new levels.  @!#?@!

3.  Streets of Rage- I really miss the side scrolling, button mashing, beat em' up games.  Streets of Rage had it all.  Mainly Streets of Rage 2 that is, but I'd love to see the series revamped.  It was one of the most beautiful games of it's time.  Bright colors, detail, fun scenery and also a character who roller bladed.  Not sure why, but I was always Blade.  All around "cool" game.

4.  Congo's Caper's-  I'm sure a lot of people have never played this game, or don't even know what it is, but let me tell you... This game was awesomesauce!  Giant dinosaurs, devils, monkeys, super crazy flashy super jumping congo, slot machines, drunk cavemen... What wasn't there to like.  This was one of the few games I had for SNES,  and I'm really glad I had it.  I would have been out experiencing a true gem.  The game is all around fun.  I'd really like to see the series come back, but I know it will never happen.  One can only hope though.

5. Secret of Mana-  I got this game with Congo's Caper's actually.  I took over Congo, my sister took over this one.  I always admired the beauty of this game though.  The box contained a beautiful map and poster.  Actually I found it on google.. ----> That's the poster.  So green, so erie, so peaceful..  I was never good at this game when I was young.  I didn't really ever get what to do.  But I loved watching my sister play it and when I got older, I played it.  This series needs a definite revamp.  With today's graphics it'd have the power to be one of the best looking games of all time.  

PvZ Garden Warfare Review!

I've been waiting for this game since I initially heard about it at E3.  I've always been a huge fan of the series and when you put the series into a 3rd person shooter/ tower defense game, you can definitely count me in.  I pre-ordered this for PC, but couldn't wait until whenever they decide to release it, so I bought it for the Xbox 360.  I'm still waiting to buy a next gen console.  They just don't seem worth it right now.  Anyways.  I played PVZ GW a lot over the weekend.  I won't say that the game lived up to my expectations of it, but I'd definitely say it's worth picking up.  My biggest problem with the game is the lack of game modes.  I'll briefly run through the modes.. 

Garden Ops- This is a 4 player horde/wave mode.  You are the plants defending your garden from waves of hungry zombies.  There is a pretty neat slot machine feature to this mode that spins to choose what larger zombie doom you will have to endure.  You can also get a jackpot which will give you a lot of extra coins to spend on upgrades.  I can't wait to play this with friends.  

Welcome Mat-  This is where you go to learn the game without being slaughtered.  It really is just a training mode and so I don't really think it counts as a full mode.

Team Vanquish-  This is Plants vs. Zombies.. whatever team gets 50 "vanquishes" wins.  Like Team Deathmatch.  Simple as that.  Reviving your teammates will also take a kill away from the other team, so make sure you revive!  I don't think many people realize this for some reason. 

Gardens and Graveyards-  This is your typical capture a base and move on.  There are I think 7 bases that the zombies must capture from the plants. 

There is also a "classic" mode to each mode which doesn't allow upgrades.  And that's it..  

So 3 modes.  I personally found Garden Ops to be the funnest, followed by Gardens and Graveyards and then Team Vanquish.  I just feel they need more modes because the game will get boring after too long cycling through only 3 modes.  

Now where the game excels.  It's beautiful, really fits into the PVZ world, and plays really smooth.  There is a lot of content for characters too.  You can upgrade a lot and make your character look and play awesomely.  You can also use your earned coins to buy a pack of cards that give you reinforcements that you can plant in pots around the level to help your team out, or that help unlock new characters.

The characters include 4 classes on each side with several (maybe 5?) variants of each.  Unlocking them all will take a lot of time though.  You have to get pieces of each variant in the card packs until you get all of the needed pieces to unlock the character.  There are cheap and expensive card packs.  The expensive ones are of course the ones that will give you the best things.  You can gain more coins by completing little challenges such as 3 revives or healing someone 3 times.  

Overall my experience with the game was good.  There seem to be a few bugs (no surprise for a new game), but I'm not sure if they are happening with everyone, or just me.  After a defeat or completion of Garden Ops, before any score or anything is shown, I am immediately kicked.  I'd like to see how I did, but no.  Kicked straight to the main menu.  I also had a lot of trouble being able to join a Garden Ops game.  I'll try again soon though and hopefully they fixed it if it was an issue.  I'm also not sure how balanced the characters are.  

My zombie of choice would have to be the Mad Scientist, and my plant of choice has to be the Cactus.  Now I haven't unlocked many additional characters, but I plan to soon.  I just need a few more hours in the day or less games to play..

Final Verdict.. 7 brains out of 10.