This game did come out quite a while ago but I thought I would post the review here anyway for those of you still on the fence!

PopCap’s Plants vs. Zombies is one of the many new games out there going by the name of “tower defence”. Tower defence games have been around for quite a while now. Popular free Desktop Tower Defence and user-created maps in old strategy games such as Age of Empires II and Warcraft III have really started the craze for more of these games. Plants vs. Zombies is a truly addictive, downloadable game for PC that is also coming to Xbox Live Arcade.

The gameplay is simple enough to get to grips with. Crazy Dave (you can tell he’s crazy by the pot on his head) eases you in with a few tutorial levels. It’s like a real-time strategy game in a sense. The game takes place on the front yard to your house on a grid of 5 squares down and 8 squares across. A horde of zombies approaches from the right of the screen, your only hope lying in a bunch of zealous plants. Under no circumstances do you want the zombies to get to your house, or they will eat your brains! You gather sun energy by clicking on yellow sunbeams that fall down the screen, which you can use to buy more plants. Each plant performs a specific task; the Sunflower will produce even more sun energy, the Pea Shooters shoot deadly peas at the zombies, and the Wall-nut is planted as a defence that slows the zombies down. It’s quite sad to see the tears on your little wall-nut’s face as a zombie chews on him, knowing full well that he will soon reach his demise.

There are tons more plants that I couldn’t even begin to describe. Rest assured, they are intelligently designed and each is as funny as the last, some obviously you’ll use a lot more than others. The good thing is that it’s completely up to you which plants you choose. Although your choice on a second play through will be slightly limited as Crazy Dave picks three of them for you, and this makes it challenging indeed. The zombies also have a few varieties too including newspaper-reading zombies, football-player zombies and even disco-dancing zombies. There are a few other locales you will experience; your backyard where you have a swimming pool to contend with, your roof, and even night-time, which can get quite difficult when you can only use a special type of plant, the mushrooms.

And that was only Adventure mode! There is also Shop, Mini-Games, Puzzle, Survival and the Zen Garden to explore. It certainly packs a lot of content. The shop, Crazy Dave’s car boot, has a few more plants and things on sale. You unlock the mini-games as you progress through Adventure mode; these involve a variety of activities including bowling wall-nuts. Puzzle has a nice variety of levels too, where you can try your hand at playing as the zombies. Survival is basically the normal game except you need to collect flags by conquering wave after wave of zombies. Zen Garden differs the most from the other modes and gives you a greenhouse where you can grow plants and sell them for extra cash. One complaint would be that the game awards you with hardly any money compared to the prices of items in Crazy Dave’s car boot. I guess that’s a way to increase playtime but I still feel a little shafted.

The art style is cartoony and very colourful. The plants have their own unique animations like the flowers swaying from side to side. The zombies are actually sort of cute even when you know their greatest motivation is nothing more than to come inside and eat your brains. There’s nothing gory or too violent in the game, so it’s suitable for young and old.

If that wasn’t enough, have a read of the Almanac where each plant and zombie are listed, all with hilarious descriptions. Even when you finish the game the fun keeps a coming. You simply have to watch the music video in the end credits. Plants vs. Zombies is designed so well for the computer mouse, so great in fact that I don’t see it working as well on other platforms. It gets very frantic and you need to be able to move the cursor about very quickly and precisely.

PopCap have done it again with their sharp wit and charm. Let’s not forget the addictiveness of their previous casual titles. If anyone has ever spent more than an hour at a time playing Bejeweled or Peggle you’ll know what I’m talking about! Plants vs. Zombies is creative, addictive and well worth playing. As it is PopCap’s fastest seller I hope they take notice and continue to make more games like this that even the more experienced gamer will still enjoy.

Digital Distribution or Whatchamacallit

Since prehistoric times we’ve had a variety of physical mediums to access our games on; floppy disk, cartridge, CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, and Blu-ray. As games have gotten bigger, the need for these physical mediums has increased.

Let’s face it, we’ve always had digital game downloads since the early days of shareware. However, since the arrival of broadband, people have started to see the benefits of downloading their media online. The speed and bandwidth available is ever increasing, making the option even more appealing for consumers. Digital distribution is becoming more common and some developers are now choosing to develop their games as download exclusive.

Platforms such as Xbox Live Arcade (XBLA), PlayStation Network (PSN), Steam, and iTunes App Store are the clear forerunners of this new era. The new PSP Go will also play a part as it solely runs downloaded games. WiiWare and DSiWare offer game downloads but their games are tied to the consoles themselves, which is setting up for potential disaster.

A few developers are venturing out into this relatively new space including DICE’s Battlefield 1943 and Rockstar’s GTA IV: The Lost and Damned. Who says that download games have to be less value? Shadow Complex and Trials HD are perfect examples of what can be done to make smaller games that are still high quality.

Full retail games are accessible from the increasing amount added to services like Steam and Xbox Live Games On Demand. Forgetting about pricing (I’m looking at you Games On Demand!) and all the rest, this is forever changing the way we buy our games.

What matters to you?

Digital distribution is a double-edged sword; for each positive feature there’s a negative waiting on the other side of the fence. Now I could go on and on about many things but instead I decided to save you the torment and I put a few brief pointers in the table below. Aren’t I thoughtful?

Where we’re going, we don’t need roads

I’m excited for the future possibilities that digital distribution has in store for us as gamers and media consumers. Game hires could be a new avenue with the option of renting games for a shorter time period much like the iTunes movie rental system.

Of course retailers aren’t going to be one bit happy about this future move. Digital distribution is their kryptonite. Let’ see if their aggressive tactics can help them survive the fight.

Previously on Soulcalibur

I’m also hoping that episodic gaming really takes off. As companies like Telltale have proved, it is possible  to create games in an episodic format. Although they have mastered the PC, they really need to get their act together on the consoles (though that could be the console companies fault more than their own).

Telltale are still doing better than Valve. Most of you know about the infamous amount of time it takes for them to finish a Half-Life episode! It’s not just the length of time, Valve refuses to tell us ‘when’ the next episode will be released. To be anything like TV we need a consistent schedule. Developer’s who love to push thing’s back will need to change their ways.

Alright, shut up already!

Only time will tell how this take over will turn out, or even if it will be a take over at all. We’re already experiencing the transition, but a complete shift away from the retail box may be quite a while away still.

First blogs, now blogs within blogs, now text messaging over the Internet? I know, I feel for ya, there’s far too much high-tech wizardry in this day and age.

Adios.