Today in Insidious Creepers
Okay, so it’s no secret that I like Plants Vs Zombies. I really like it. It’s a great little cross platform game that does neat stuff with player rewards (achievements, shopping, new monsters, etc) that adds to its already strong replay value.
So when it got released for Xbox, I was on that like zombies on brains.
They did a lot of neat stuff with it. Particularly cool was the addition of new minigames, such as Zombejewelled, which is like putting meth chocolate on crack peanut butter. Oh, man.
Anyway, I’ve noticed one little addition that’s the most insidious evil thing ever.
There is a new Zen Garden mode that will prove to be the death of me.
Much like, say, Farmville, the Zen Garden lets you tend crops in the game. They need water to grow, but you can get a watering can for free (and a much better one for money), and they need fertilizer (which you can buy for admittedly not too much in game currency) and you can play them music to make them happy. And buy a snail to grab the coinage the plants produce.
You can also sell the fully grown plants for money you can use to buy other items. Like new plants. And new watering cans. And a new place for nocturnal plants to grow in happiness. THAT was expensive.
And it creeps into your brain. You spend time staring at the screen, waiting to see what needs your plants have that you must fill. Are you thirsty, my precious? Do you need fertilizer?
Drink your full! Eat! And this was before I knew you could sell them. Now it’s got its hooks into me like the merest dream of the madmen at Zynga.
Dammit. I have Halo to play!
So when it got released for Xbox, I was on that like zombies on brains.
They did a lot of neat stuff with it. Particularly cool was the addition of new minigames, such as Zombejewelled, which is like putting meth chocolate on crack peanut butter. Oh, man.
Anyway, I’ve noticed one little addition that’s the most insidious evil thing ever.
There is a new Zen Garden mode that will prove to be the death of me.
Much like, say, Farmville, the Zen Garden lets you tend crops in the game. They need water to grow, but you can get a watering can for free (and a much better one for money), and they need fertilizer (which you can buy for admittedly not too much in game currency) and you can play them music to make them happy. And buy a snail to grab the coinage the plants produce.
You can also sell the fully grown plants for money you can use to buy other items. Like new plants. And new watering cans. And a new place for nocturnal plants to grow in happiness. THAT was expensive.
And it creeps into your brain. You spend time staring at the screen, waiting to see what needs your plants have that you must fill. Are you thirsty, my precious? Do you need fertilizer?
Drink your full! Eat! And this was before I knew you could sell them. Now it’s got its hooks into me like the merest dream of the madmen at Zynga.
Dammit. I have Halo to play!