I’ve made my way through the entire game, once, and have also completed all the puzzles and all the mini games. They have all been rather fun, though some are more difficult than others, but I’m actually finding that I’m still enjoying the game just as much. There’s a little Zen garden that you get towards the end of the game, and I’m having a great time using it to get more in-game money to then buy either more stuff for the Zen garden, or grow my big Tree of Wisdom thing. Oh, and buy Stinky the Snail, who helps pick up all the in-game money you get in the Zen Garden. He also likes chocolate.

From this Tree of Wisdom I have learned a couple of things. Two of these pearls of wisdom have given me a laugh when I went back in to kill a horde of the undead. One thing the tree told me was that I could see Zombies from the future, if I simply typed the word ‘future’ in when I was playing. I did so, and sure enough, I’ve got zombies from the future. Funnily enough, the only differentiation is that Zombies from the future wear rather ugly, ’80s looking sunglasses. Apart from that, they are exactly the same. Now, the tree also told me to see an horrific transformation in the zombies, if I simply typed ‘moustache’ in when I was playing. I did so, and now my zombies have an array of moustachios. You can even get them to be zombies from the future with moustachios!

I’ve not completed growing the Tree of Wisdom, because quite frankly, that sucker bleeds you! But I’m still playing, still going through my second run through of the game and knocking down the Survival modes. I want the gold trophy, rather than the silver I’ve currently got. I don’t usually get like this about games, but something about this game is sort of addictive, I think.

Okay so quick run through of the post I was going to write, about a renovation project. I had to completely re-tile my bathroom a while back, so I also renovated the bathroom accessories as well. New whirlpool bath, new shower enclosure, new taps and basin, and the final products went in last weekend with a heated towel rail, and an electric shower. To really shorten my post, my SO and I are really happy with the new set up, and if you are considering renovating your bathrooms, it’s best to decide all aspects ahead of time, otherwise you will end up with a half completed bathroom for the months it takes to get in the last few items that you order. Seriously, plan ahead and save yourself those troubles.

Okay now onto what I wanted to talk about today. As I mentioned earlier, I bought Plants vs Zombies earlier today, and I’m afraid to say, my productivity for the day took a sharp decline thereafter. Every time I sit down at my computer, I think ‘just one more turn’ which is fine, they don’t take that long. However, whenever my SO has been giving the game a try, I’ve also not done anything, because I’ve been watching her play!

This is seriously a very fun game, and the additions of mini-games and the almanac have really expanded on the enjoyment too. The write ups for the plants and zombies have a very fun, quirky sense of humour that makes you check the almanac every time you get a new plant or meat a new foe. The bowling mini-game seems a tad difficult, but I’m guessing that one just requires better luck than I just had.

It’s a very enjoyable game, and for the ridiculously small cost, I think everyone should download this game! The website has a few fun features, too, including a ‘zombatar’ avatar creation tool, and you can download the music video PopCap released for the game that is a real hoot! The demo is 60 free minutes, and I strongly suggest you try it out!

I’m going to talk about two in particular that have recently caught my eye, one is a Playstation Network game, and the other is a PC game. These games stand out as soon as you hear of them, due largely to the fun and odd names. Fat Princess and Plants vs. Zombies.

Fat Princess is available to download from the Playstation Network, and is a 32 player online battle royale where players can chose one of six classes, which can be changed at any time during the game, and do battle along side team mates to steal the opposing team’s fat princess, whilst keeping your own fat princess safe. It is quite cute, in graphics, but that doesn’t last long because there is also rather a lot of blood. It’s odd, it really is, but it looks very fun, too. You keep the opposing team’s princess in a jail of sorts, and she sinks down into it with the more cake you feed her and the fatter she gets. The teams have to carry their princess back to their own keep, and steal the other team’s princess to take her back to their jail, so the more cake each team feeds the opposing team’s princess the better, because the player carrying her will walk slower and slower, depending on just how fat she is. It looks like a fair bit of fast paced fun, and I do look forward to trying it out in the future. I would have liked to have seen an option to play with multiple players on the one console, not online, but unfortunately it isn’t in the mix.

Next up for oddball games is Plants vs. Zombies, which is a tower defence PC game. This is such an odd sounding premise, again, that it bears further investigation. Graphics wise, its a jaunty game, nice bright and clear, a certain child-game look to it which is fast belayed by the zombies chomping on your plants. Gameplay is based around the player using a variety of odd garden plants (potato bomb anyone?) to keep zombies from getting into the house beyond the garden. You have a bunch of sun flowers, that eventually ‘charge’ up and give points to the player, which they can spend on placing other plant-like items that will damage the zombies, attempting to keep they onslaught at bay. This is a little like Ninja Town, but this may actually be even more fun looking. I’ve just started downloading the Demo for this one, and I’ll probably end up buying it in the coming days. The game has a very strong ‘just one more turn’ thing going on, which is so much fun for a gamer to come across. I like the unlockable content side of it, every level allows access to a new plant type, and frankly, it’s bloody nice to be offered content rather than being forced to purchase it after purchasing the game.

So there’s my take on a couple of quirky games. It’s so much fun to see something very new and fresh out there.