It’s a light week for Xbox console game releases, with the only new retail title being FIFA 14 World Cup Brazil on Xbox 360. Not too exciting unless you’re a diehard football/soccer fan and buy more than one FIFA per year. But that doesn’t mean Xbox One and 360 gamers don’t have other new stuff to play…
The highly anticipated latest entry in Ubisoft and RedLynx’s Trials series, Trials Fusion has just arrived on both Xbox consoles as a downloadable title. Fans of Trials’ obstacle courses and super hard gameplay will lose many hours to Fusion. Meanwhile, PopCap and EA’s Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare has just received another free update and new Achievements on both consoles! Details after the break.
Trials Fusion
Trials combines motorcycle racing with platforming. Ostensibly you’re driving down a series of obstacle courses, but those courses also happen to have insane leaps and all manner of pitfalls to test players’ skills. The Trials series is all about trial-and-error, repeating super difficult courses until you finally survive them.
New to Trials Fusion are tricks that riders can perform in order to give their runs more flair. No longer do you need to just soar through the air after jumping off a ramp – liven it up with some moves! Tricks don’t provide any rewards during normal courses, but special trick courses encourage players to experiment with tricks to their hearts’ content.
Besides the usual array of dozens of courses (each with three optional goals now), Fusion also includes an all-new track editor. I hear the editor isn’t very user-friendly. Hopefully a knowledge base will build up over time that players can use to learn its intricacies.
Trials Fusion runs at 900p resolution and 60 frames per second on Xbox One. Slightly below the Playstation 4 version’s 1080 resolution, but at least it maintains a perfectly smooth frame rate.
- Trials Fusion – Xbox One – 5 GB – $19.99 – Xbox.com Store Link
- Trials Fusion – Xbox 360 – 1.52 GB – $19.99 – Xbox.com Store Link
Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare
PopCap has committed to providing a steady stream of free content for Garden Warfare, and so far they’ve really delivered. Last month we got a new game type and map in the “Garden Variety Pack.” This week, the “Zomboss Down” DLC brings even more new content to the game. The update clocks in at a whopping 2.8 GB on 360, where it’s a separate download. The Xbox One version should simply update automatically.
New features:
- Added new map Cactus Canyon (Gardens & Graveyards) – w/ cool Golf Bomb minigame at the end.
- New card pack added to sticker shop “Zomboss Down” – This is the only place to collect the new Zomboss Down characters and customization.
- 8 new playable characters to collect.
- 200+ new customization items added.
- 3 new consumable plants (Bamboo Shoot, Fire Peashooter, and Ice Peashooter).
- Now able to view party member locations during gameplay via a different colored Gamertag being shown over their character.
- Added 10 new Achievements worth 250 GamerScore.
- Character level cap increased from 20 to 30, with new star challenges to complete.
- Players can now communicate with all other players in End of Round Screens
- Added a ‘Mute All’ button to leaderboard on Xbox One – This function appears when you enter the leaderboard and highlight another user.
- Numerous balance changes and optimizations
Garden Warfare is one of the best team-based shooters around. Seriously, a lot of gamers prefer it to Titanfall. With bright and colorful graphics, the trademark Plants vs. Zombies sense of humor, tons of unique character classes, 12-versus-12 online battles, and the promise of more free DLC to come, shooter fans can’t lose with Garden Warfare.
- Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare – Xbox One – 10.1 GB - $39.99 – Amazon Link – Xbox.com Link
- Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare – Xbox 360 – 2.43 GB - $29.99 – Amazon Link – Xbox.com Link
