Plants vs Zombies 2

[luckton]

And here's all you need to know.



gg, EA, for ruining another company and franchise.

/thread

[Mrbloodworth]

You cant get those from playing?

[luckton]

You cant get those from playing?

No.

[KallDrexx]

What in the holy fuck.......

[luckton]

There's a reason why the guy who created PvZ got laid off a day after PvZ was announced.  Because he wasn't going to deal with this bullshit that EA wanted to do.

[schpain]

it gets worse from there.  i've NEVER in my life seen a game so heavily monetised.  oh well, maybe war z...

[Fabricated]

And it's going to make millions too because we're all just as dumb as they think we are.

[Ironwood]

No we aren't.

[Tebonas]

Most of all I like the best deal costing exactly the same as every other item. They really go for the braindead customers here.

[Kageru]

I assumed it was a joke... well, silly me for thinking there are some depths not even EA could plumb.

[Merusk]

And it's going to make millions too because we're all humanity is just as dumb as they think we are.

There, fixed it.  Ironwood's right that WE aren't dumb enough. However, you are as well that there will be plenty dumb enough to buy-in.

This is where things have been headed and will be headed until the video game bubble bursts again.

[Rishathra]

The 'pay to unlock plants' thing isn't so weird to me, but most of the ones in the picture are like, core roster stuff.  Is this thing going to be free to play, but you only get pea shooters?  If so, we need a bigger .

Edit:  Oh, and the videos on the site are shit.

[sickrubik]

It was announced as Free to Play, yes.

[Ragnoros]

The F2P model works. Candy crush is one of, if not the top grossing game on Android last I checked. I believe it saved SWTOR too.

I personally ended up plunking down $45 on c-bills and mechs in MWO. When I rarely pay more than $10 for a major AAA game on steam.

Assuming they didn't include an energy system and you can unlock the majority of the modes and plants through gameplay I'm not totally pissed at this move. Mostly I'm just mad it's only coming out on stupid iPad to start.

[Trippy]

Yes the "freemium" model can work. However in this case lots of people played the original so we can compare the play "value" between the two. If they started with a new IP as freemium there would be a lot fewer facepalms all around.

[Rishathra]

I have nothing against the free to play model, but if that screen is any indication, free to play in PvZ 2 means you are free to plant sunflowers and maybe some pea shooters.  Everything else will cost you.

[Ragnoros]

Eh, call me crazy, but I'm inclined to give them the benefit of the doubt. My guess is that there are an assortment of new plants that fill much the same rolls as the five old ones shown there, so the cash shop ones are for nostalgia and messing around or whatever.

[schpain]

ive been playing without buying anything and i'll just say its a hideous grind.  not only do you miss some of the more iconic plants, but you're encouraged to buy powerups with your coins (and buy coins with $$), there's another system overlayed with that for powering up your plants temporarily (which i don't mind, but not with the powerups, just feels like you're overcomplicating a simple thing).

My experience has been similar to Trippy's - pvz1 had so much content, was simple and progressed well.  pvz2 puts up huge pay and grind walls, doesn't give you all the tools you want up front, puts multiple levels of paywalls in (buy plants, buy coins, buy keys to unlock extra content). 

In pvz1 when you played through roughly 10 levels you went from day to night, or to the pool, the roof etc.  in pvz2 you play 10 levels in egypt and will have roughly 4 stars.  you need 20 stars to progress, so you then have to replay the missions with increasingly difficult criteria to unlock more stars.  each level can give 3 stars but you need to play through the level 3 more times to unlock all the stars.  the game isn't fast paced or particularly challenging, forcing me to play the same levels i just beat another 20 times just feels like a gouge; and at some point i'm going to get bored and WANT to purchase something in the hope of speeding up the game progression...

tl'dr, i've lost about 3-4 hours in this game and while i wanted move pvz goodness, the fact there is such a grind and constantly having rmt thrust in my face makes this game not fun.

[Sjofn]

Wow, that sounds really terrible. 

[Rishathra]

Well, having played it, I feel a little better about it now.  That list posted earlier in the thread is all of the pay to unlock plants.  Everything else can be unlocked through game play.  There's definitely a lot of grinding involved to unlock stuff, but it's free, and the game itself is still quite fun, so the grind doesn't feel grindy in the bad, tedious way.

The new plants, environments, and enemies are all interesting.  The powerups that you use by spending coins are pretty much optional.  You get coins (slowly) through normal game play, and you only really need them in emergencies, like for a particularly tough challenge, so there's no need to ever buy the coins for them.  I might buy a few things eventually, but more to support the game than for any actual need.

The iOS only thing is horseshit.  Hopefully they will fix that soonish.

[Mrbloodworth]

My girl was really looking forward to this game, but this has all really turned her off that.

[koro]

The iOS only thing is horseshit.  Hopefully they will fix that soonish.

Apple gave us a truckload of money to delay the Android version [of Plants vs Zombies 2],” said Frank Gibeau, head of EA Labels.

http://www.giantbomb.com/articles/apple-denies-paying-ea-to-delay-plants-vs-zombies-/1100-4747/

 

[luckton]

http://www.giantbomb.com/articles/apple-denies-paying-ea-to-delay-plants-vs-zombies-/1100-4747/

 

Means nothing.  It's a he-said/she-said argument at this point, and until proof appears, you can believe whoever you want to believe. In this case, I would not at all put it past Apple to have actually done the payout thing.  Just because their PR guy said it isn't so doesn't put it beyond the realm of possibility.

As far as the game itself, I've played around with it on my wife's iPad mini, and I agree with Rishathra's comments.  It still kinda chaffs me that they'd paywall the select plants that they did, but nothing else about the game is hardwalled like that; you really can do everything in the game without ever spending a dime.

Edit: Spelling iz fuun!

[Merusk]

Hm, well if those are the only plants behind a pay wall, NBD.  Only 2 of those were used in my PVZ1 strategies with any regularity, the Torchwood and the Snow Pea. 

Of those two, I can do without TW and only having to pay $3 isn't bad.  I might pick this up then.

[Maledict]

As others  have said, the game is basically free and the restrictions on what you can buy actually leave me wondering how they are making a profit. I'm two thirds of the way through, have an absolute ton of coins to spend if I need them and can't imagine buying anything at all. I may end up paying for Snow Pea out of pity for the game designers because there really is no need to pay for anything at all.

[KallDrexx]

My wife has been enjoying the game quite a bit and hasn't spent anything on it.

To compare, she's spent money on god awful candy crush...

[Merusk]

That's because Candy Crush is bullshit of the highest order, requiring you to spend money if you don't want to play game after game until the RNG gods align and you get the right drop orders to clear in the required turns at higher levels.

Wife is on month 2 of whatever level she's on.

[koro]

As others  have said, the game is basically free and the restrictions on what you can buy actually leave me wondering how they are making a profit.

I think it's making EA a tidy profit, but not the gangbusters they were hoping for. I think I recall hearing that PvZ2 was the most-actively-played thing on iOS, but its actual revenue rankings were far, far, far lower.

[luckton]

Apparently a new update the other day made a change to the lawnmowers.  Specifically, once a lawnmower gets used, you need to pay cash/money to get it regenerated.  They will no longer regenerate for free between levels, even on levels you already did.

Between this and the Dungeon Keeper drama, EA's not making a lot of friends with gamers these days...

[KallDrexx]

Wow that is fucking ridiculous.....

[schild]

Apparently a new update the other day made a change to the lawnmowers.  Specifically, once a lawnmower gets used, you need to pay cash/money to get it regenerated.  They will no longer regenerate for free between levels, even on levels you already did.

lol