Plants Vs Zombies - Garden Warfare Looks Fun

While everyone (Ourselves included) initially reacted to the promotional images of the oddly titled Plants Vs Zombies: Garden Warfare as a tongue in cheek joke, it turns out that the joke was on us when they announced their upcoming coop shooter earlier today. Bringing the popular tower defense title into a 3D realm didn't seem like it would work, but after watching these first few dev diaries I've had a definite change of heart.



Featuring 4 player coop in a similar setting, the game mixes RTS and third person shooter mechanics (Similar to Uber Entertainment's Monday Night Combat) to create a gameplay experience that looks like genuinely entertaining, laid back fun. The title is coming exclusively to the Xbox 360 and One before moving on to to the PC and other systems.

Let's Check Out - Waystone Games' Dawngate Beta

For this week's edition of Let's Check Out, we were fortunate enough to get a first stab at EA's entry into the MOBA field, created by the newly formed, and relatively unknown Waystone Games. As a rather hardcore player of Riot's League Of Legends and Valve's DOTA 2, I did share some skepticism as to whether this game would be able to stand out in the increasingly crowded genre, but following a half dozen games during Friday's first closed beta block, my feelings are leaning more towards optimism.

Similar to the way Visceral Games was born with the Dead Space project, Waystone Games is an internal 'incubator' team comprised of a swathe of former Visceral developers given free reign to work on a new IP, which considering EA's recent track record with not rehashing old properties, is refreshing to say the least.

Dawngate offers familiar gameplay with a good slew of twists and noteworth gameplay changes, with the game's lore referring to champions as 'Shapers,' heroes that draw upon the power of the earth to augment their abilities. The closed beta had a total of 12 Shapers, each with their own distinct feel and abilities, although some felt familiar (Like Kel, who shared a few similarities with LoL's Gragas, except he chucks sheep). For the sample match I chose a lifesteal tank called Voluc, who uses plenty of debuffs to wittle down at his enemies before going in for the kill.

Skate 3 GLitching - If It's Broke, Don't Fix It

As the scope of games have become more and more massive and complex over the course of the last decade or so, it's been tougher and tougher to iron out all the bugs and glitches at launch for most AAA titles. Some of these bugs yield nasty results like destroying saves, corrupting files or making it impossible to progress, while others yield absolutely hilarious results while also being harmless.

From Mass Effect 3's countless launch glitches to Red Dead Redemption's infamous animation 'issues,' it's become somewhat accepted that games aren't always polished to perfection. Yet in the case of EA's Skate 3, let's just conclude that they rushed the product out and decided to say, 'F*** it,' as showcased by this 10 minute compilation of utter physics based insanity, culminating in skaters flying like birds or being blasted  into the stratosphere for daring to step on inert wooden planks. Thank you HelixSnake, for dedicating that much time to showing off just how amazingly broken this game is.