[Update: Patch/balance notes added below]
As promised, PopCap and EA are definitely still hard at work on post-launch updates for Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2 (our review here). This morning, we got a sneak peek at the upcoming, free Graveyard Variety Pack, which will go live for all platforms tomorrow. We assume the update will go hand-in-hand with the character balancing patch since a few of the plants (ahem, Rose) have been cleaning up since launch.
Anyway, the new content will include a new map and missions, features, gameplay tweaks and more.
See the trailer for the pack/update below!
Graveyard Variety Pack Trailer | Plants vs. Zombies Garden Warfare 2:
Read on for the announcement and the patch notes.
The biggest, baddest, craziest battle in the PvZ universe just grew even bigger! PopCap Vancouver announced today that the Plants vs. Zombies Garden Warfare 2: Graveyard Variety Pack, the first free content update to Plants vs. Zombies Garden Warfare 2, releases on March 8 for all players on Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and Origin on PC. This free content update delivers a new map, missions, gameplay features and balancing improvements, including the brand new Zomburbified Garden Center map: Aqua Center. First appearing in the original Plants vs. Zombies Garden Warfare, the Garden Center has since been taken over by zombies and Dr. Zomboss has rebuilt it to become the Aqua Center.
Some of the incredible new content coming in Graveyard Variety Pack includes:
- The all-new Aqua Center map.
- New quests located throughout the Backyard Battleground offering up exciting challenges.
- New gameplay and control options.
- Character tweaks, improvements, and balances.
- A nighttime version of The Great White North map.
For complete details on what?s included in the Graveyard Variety Pack, please visit the Plants vs. Zombies Garden Warfare 2 blog.
To learn more on how to join the battle for Zomburbia, visit the Plants vs. Zombies Garden Warfare 2 website.
Patch Notes:
March 2016, Garden Warfare 2 Tuning/Balance Notes
New Features
- Added new co-op/team vanquish map “Aqua Center” which may seem familiar, yet completely different!
- Added night version of the Great White North map to the Turf Takeover Playlist
- Added Hide n’ Find missions to Backyard Battleground
- Added Bot & Pot Missions to Backyard Battleground
- Added unique character variant images to group HUD
- World Options now shows all friends playing the game, not just the joinable ones
- Added classic setting in options to change primary fire button (PS4 Only)
- Added Aim Sensitivity slider to now allow more precise control over aim speed (for PC this is broken up into both mouse and gamepad sensitivity)
- Added ability to select between hold button to aim or toggle button to Aim
- Added kick player option to the in-game scoreboard for easy access (player hosted modes only)
- Added difficulty to Pause Menu for some game modes
- Game Now defaults to common chat in Private Matches
- Added ability to view scoreboard while vanquished
Critical Fixes
- Reduced length of round timer between rounds in Multiplayer matches
- Imp now properly earns XP when in Mech
- Players can now see other players? Backyard customizations when visiting their Backyard
- Players can now see stats on other players stats boards when visiting their Backyard
- Improved audio for garlic drone primary weapon
- Setting HUD to “Light” now also hides XP Meter
- Major improvements to hit reaction “flinching” animations
- A plethora of quality & bug fixes
Tuning/Balance Notes
Overall
- Improved regeneration upgrade for all characters
- Re-tuned all hit reactions for both players and AI to reduce the flinching effect even more
Rose:
- Completely re-tuned Rose class, bringing her back into playing as a support role
- Reduced Rose?s health
- Major changes to her homing abilities, ineffective at range, requires player to lead target in order to land more hits
- Slightly reduced rate of fire for Magic Thistles
- Significantly reduced length a victim is trapped in Time SnareChanged how Goatify ability works so that damage does not break Goatify, creating a more predictable and less jarring experience and lowered time as a goat
- Slowed down rose variants (Fire, Ice) when charging their weapons to make them more vulnerable
Citron:
- Slightly decreased the Party Citron laser damage
Corn:
- We needed to improve Corn’s ability to be a front-line fighter so we increased his health and also improved his long range damage
- Reduced Party Corn’s damage output
Chomper:
- Decreased the digestion time after a chomp escape (i.e. your victim got away using anti-chomp ability like jackhammer)
- Brought Chompers regeneration delay to parity with all other playable characters
- Fixed a bug where Chomp Thing?s health regeneration didn?t match his weapon description. He now regenerates health slightly sooner and faster than default
- Increased Unicorn Chomper?s Rainbow Warp cooldown time
- Increased goop cooldown so it couldn’t be spammed quite as much
Cactus:
- Zen Cactus was too damaging and needed some damage and reload adjustments
Imp:
- Imps tuning focused on ensuring he had a bit more survivability outside of his mech, and also improved his primary weapon slightly
- Increased Imp health
- Fixed a bug where the Imp couldn?t receive damage while he is making his Z-Mech phone call (he’s now only invulnerable when the beam of light appears)
- Reduced Party Imp’s damage output
Super Brainz:
- Slight cooldown reduction to Super Ultra Ball and Super Multi Ball abilities
- Minor speed improvement to Turbo Twister but at the cost of decreased his armor while in Turbo Twister
- Removed the decay from Toxic Brainz legendary meter to make it more useful
- Damage reduction to Party Brainz
Captain Deadbeard:
- We wanted to bring Captain Deadbeard closer to damage parity with Cactus, but just slightly below since he also benefits from his close range scatter shot
- Made some movement speed improvements to his barrel when unlit
- Made some damage reductions to Captain Partyman