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Despite the ridiculous premise, PopCap has managed to successfully translate an addictive casual strategy game into an expertly crafted tower defence third-person shooter that offers up a refreshing alternative to the likes of Battlefield 4 and Call of Duty. Displaying a careful balancing act between large open environments and more confined locations with a range of vantage points, PopCap utilises the Frostbite 3 engine to deliver large colourful maps backed up with some solid visual effects made possible by DICE's state-of-the-art rendering tech, including limited destructible scenery. The game also works well as an online experience, pulling players together as a team, and the net code appears solid - PopCap doesn't seem to be facing the wealth of issues that spoiled DICE's otherwise excellent Battlefield 4. While the PC version isn't due out until some time in the Spring (with PS3/PS4 releases believed to hit further down the line), the 360 and Xbox One releases are available now, and showcase a distinct balancing act between frame-rate and graphical complexity that will appear familiar to those following previous cross-generation titles. On the Xbox 360 Garden Warfare goes for a common 30fps refresh, while aiming for a modest 720p resolution, whereas on Xbox One the stakes are set much higher, with silky smooth gameplay at a target 60fps and a much higher resolution than its last-gen counterpart.
So how well does Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare hold up on the older Microsoft console? And just how close do the developers come to bringing us the definitive 60fps experience at 1080p on the Xbox One?
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