Gamers now-a-days are a pretty skint bunch of people. But don’t fret as the lovely people at X Box LIVE like to give you trial’s of games. These trials give you some play time and some are worth more time than others. Luckily Plants Vs Zombies is one of those trials that is worth downloading.

So what is Plants Vs Zombies? It is a game that I really didn’t expect. Another title by Pop Cap games, the people behind the, quite frankly marvelous game, Peggle. This is a strategy game where you have to fend off a horde of zombies, the zombies are trying to attack your house, so your most deadliest weapon against this undead horde is….Your Garden.

The idea behind this game is to create a garden that will be the perfect defence again the zombies. As this is a trial version you are not going to be able to unlock the full foliage arsenal but you do get a good deal of weapons. Such as cherry bombs, walnuts that defend your garden for an extended time and flowers that shoot things at the zombies.

Now with all strategy games you have to collect resources to build you army. This game is no different. You have to collect sunshine to grow your garden. Each thing you build costs sunshine and the more sunshine you have the bigger things you can create, so you have to balance your sunshine with the things you create. That’s where sun flowers come in. These handy flowers generate sunshine for you, so the more sunflowers you plant the more plentiful your sunshine resource will be.

The enemies on the other hand can be quite threatening in numbers. In the trial you get 2 types of zombies. Normal zombies who die in a couple of shots from your shooting flowers. And traffic cone zombies who have a higher defence, as they have a traffic cone on their head. So you have to get he right balance of defence and offence for these two types pf zombies. If you are not careful these guys will come in their tens or even hundreds so be careful and make the perfect garden that will extinguish the zombie horde.

Aside from constructing the perfect killer garden, there is also the bonus rounds. These rounds are a bit silly and rack up some good points. The bonus rounds in Plants Vs Zombies consist of bowling walnuts at the on coming zombie horde. You have 2 types of Walnut. The standard walnut, 2 of these can take down zombies in two hots, and the other is the exploding walnut which can take down up to three zombies at a time. As you can imagine the exploding walnuts aren’t as common at the standard so tactical bowling is needed here, seeing as the traffic cone zombies are thrown into the mix too and take four hits as opposed to two hits like the standard zombies do.

Plants Vs Zombies is a really imaginative game. You would never think that plants were the mortal enemies of zombies, but if this game is anything to go by they are. A simple game with an obscene amount of levels. The trial is worth getting for the skint of us out there. Now does anyone have some spare MS points so I can buy the full game?

Garv

5. Geometry Wars Retro Evolved 2 – Asteroids On Acid

Anyone who is gamer out there is bound to have heard, witnessed or even played Asteroids. It is pretty much the great-grandfather of all games. So imagine Asteroids, mixed with some trippy colours and explosions with at least six different game variants. Sounds pretty cool right? Well let me introduce you to Geometry Wars Retro Evolved 2. It does what it says on the tin, and has evolved the retro stylings of Asteroids and made a really cool,. and somewhat addictive game. The beauty here is that all six of the game variants aren’t necessarily shooting based.

The Pacifism game variant for me is the shining light here. Your main objective is to survive the horde of blue squares that are following you around the screen, your only line of defence are barriers you pass through, that explode, which in turn destroy the onslaught of blue squares. The longer you survive and the amount of blue squares that get destroyed the better. Yeah I know, in writing it sounds rather strange but this game is one of the most addictive titles I have on my hard drive.

The other game variants are just as addictive and challenging, waves is great if you just want to shoot the living pixels out of a load of shapes. And the simple Evolved variant is reminiscent to the classic Asteroids, nice to see they have stayed loyal to their roots.

4. Doom – The First Person Classic

FPS junkies who do not own this classic title deserve a headshot right between the eyes. This is the reason why you are playing Halo and Modern Warfare! Doom is the pinnacle of retro First Person Shooter gaming and the Xbox LIVE port is brilliant.

Like most of you out there, I am more familiar with Doom on the PC. The controls for this game have been converted well (a damn sight better than the GBA version of Doom II) and the level of challenge in this game has not been over looked either.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with this game, expect a really retro and basic FPS game. When I say basic, I mean basic in the way it plays, not in the difficulty setting. So take my advice and don’t plunge head first into Nightmare mode. You will most definitely have no more limbs attached to your computer rendered, pixellated torso.

3. Sonic 2 – Before The Blue Hedgehog Went Bad.

The platform genre is basically the forerunner of all video games. I’d say over half the games on the Sega Mega Drive and indeed the Nintendo systems were mainly platform based games of some incarnation or another. For me the Sonic series was the Platform game I first played, and of course stayed loyal to.

The downloadable version of Sonic 2 (and indeed the version on the Sega Megadrive Ultimate Collection) is the perfect nostalgic brick to the face, that will make any gamer smile and quite frankly be proud to be a gamer. There are no stupid voices, or annoying teenage angst in this game. You get the true sonic that has attitude, that will get annoyed if you put the controller down and walk away. The true sonic who’s arch-enemy is DR ROBOTNIK! (mumble mumble bloody Egg Man mumble mumble).

Gameplay wise you are looking at a fantastically fast paced side scrolling platformer that tests your reactions as well as you ability to collect coins and pass the level. Boss battles are a nice challenge if you don’t know what you are doing and it is a must play for anyone who loves Sonic and platforming. Pfft, who needs and italian plumber when you have a lightning fast blue hedgehog.

2. Peggle – Puzzle + Pegs = AWESOME

I started playing this game when a legion of people on my friends list banded together and started having Peggle parties. To this day I still think the name of the game is a tad strange. But as they say, don’t judge a book by its cover. Peggle is a fantastic puzzle game which is bursting with content. Lots of levels and challenges and a nice selection of characters to unlock and play as.

So what do you do in this game? Shoot balls at a load of pegs. Once all orange pegs are eliminated you are a winner. There is a nice rainbow and everyone leaves their console happy in the knowledge that they have superior peg eliminating skills. Straight forward enough, but the challenge is in the level design, and I am a sucker for level design. Peggle is uniquely designed to make you think about your next shot as opposed to shooting aimlessly and hoping to zombie Jebus you get that last orange peg.

It is a well thought out game that you must get your hands on. Believe me, once you start playing, you will realise a solid week of your life has disappeared in an instant.

1. Portal Still Alive – First You Will Be Baked, Then There Will Be Cake

When I first got hold of the Orange Box, I was easily bored of Half Life 2 (I know, shock/horror) but Portal grabbed my attention for hours. I then became very skint and sold my Orange Box. I felt a part of me die when I physically could not look deep into the heart of my beloved companion cube.

When Portal: Still Alive came out of Xbox LIVE and I jumped for joy, before quickly downloading it to my Hard drive.

This is a first person puzzle game where you have to use and deploy portals using your trusty Portal gun. The puzzles are completely mind-bending and very, very well thought out. But where it stands out in exceeding level design, it also stands out in brilliant story telling and character design. In my opinion Portal has one of the best villains ever. If you are not familiar with GLaDOS. I suggest you download this gem right now, and get ready for some fantastic level design, mind bending puzzles and a game that will truly test your brain power.

So there you have it, my top 5 downloadable games. Now I will leave this up to you, am I right? Or do you have a different top 5?

Garv