Crazy Dave:

My old man was great! He invented the necktie-sandwich press and the battery-powered battery – it never runs out of energy! I don’t know what I did with the blueprints for that one. I should find ‘em though, I could make, like, 50 bucks.

Zombie:

Zombie raised by Docotr Zomboss. He not biomological dad but he always made sure we had plenty of brains and gave me this swell coat. No pants, though but Zombie not complaining. He not very cuddly, but that okay because his skin is like a lizard’s. Still give Zombie the wibblies. Anyway, he always gave us rides in his giant Zombot. Sometimes he fergot to pick us up, though. Maybe that why zombies so good at shambling.

Bjorn:

Being a mythological creature, it’s hard to really communicate the concept of “father” as I understand it. So, please accept this short poem that captures my thoughts on the matter.

They come in many shapes and sizes.
Some are bums and some are prizes.
But it don’t matter what you say,
Sunday is still Father’s Day.

Lex:

Well, I can’t acknowledge my father without also giving a shout out to my mother. Mostly because I am not sure who was who.

See his latest message below, and be sure to bookmark the official Plants vs. Zombies 2 site for weekly transmissions, official news and other important announcements.

So get your Plants vs. Zombies 2 t-shirt today!

The past couple of weeks have been all about Plants vs. Zombies! Whether it was Plants vs. Zombies Adventures, Plants vs. Zombies 2, or, as of Monday, Plants vs. Zombies Garden Warfare. Here’s a little compilation of some of the great PvZ coverage for all three games:

•  Plants vs. Zombies Adventures is described as a workday distraction and a “Facebook game you’ll actually want to play” by The Verge and The Escapist. If you want to become a PvZ Adventures expert, Gamezebo gives readers an awesome walkthrough, equipped with useful gameplay tips!

• Last week, we teased some Plants vs. Zombies-themed posters over social media (check them out at IGN and Polygon), and they might make a little more sense now that we’ve announced PvZ Garden Warfare.

• To learn more about what you can expect from PvZ Garden Warfare, watch the trailer, and check out these articles from Kotaku, Wired and Polygon.

• Last Monday, we released the Plants vs. Zombies 2: It’s About Time trailer and launch date, July 2013. Here are just a few of the outlets that got the scoop on PvZ 2:
  • @Gamer
  • IGN
  • EDGE-online
  • Gamezebo

• Last but not least, check out this funny video created by Pechanga Casino, where the Plants vs. Zombies slot machine is making its California appearance!

Wall-nut

Wall-nut

Wall-nut!

And I’ve had the nickname “Patch” ever since.

Who wins in an underwater knife fight, you or a bear?

Thanks!

Jim Bowie

Dear Jimbo,

Is this some secret plan to get Zombie to talk about your amazing collection of knives? Because Zombie not falling for your gorilla marketing. Why you send gorillas to do your dirty work anyway? And how comes it you not ever use one of them fancy knives to trim those ridicleous sideburns? Don’t tell Zombie it was the style at the time. It never in style to look like a bridge troll. Just look at yourself. LOOK AT YOURSELF!

Okay, sorry, Zombie go’d a skosh off-topic. But seriously, you go out of the house looking like that? Zombie not dress like that to take out the trash. And Zombie not even wearing pants! So, come on dude, shape up.

Okays, one more try. Shake it out, Zombie, shake it out. huh-huh… huh-huh…fffffff huh-huh… fffffff huh-huh…. huh-hummmm-uh… huh hummmm-uh …

Look, lots of weird junk gots to line up to find Zombie and a bear in the water at the same time. It not like Zombie going in there looking for salmon or whatever. Is it relevant to this scenario to understand how Zombie and Bear ended up in water AND holding knives? That going to make Zombie head hurt. Is it fresh water or salt water? River or lake? What is a underwater knife? Zombie need details. But, if Zombie just gonna answer the question as presented, Zombie going to say Zombie win because bear can’t hold a knife. You wanna argue about it? Go to.

yrs,
Zombie

____________________________________________________________

Dear Zombie,

I just read a news article that early humans loved to eat antelope brains. Specifically, the article mentions finding dents inside animal skulls indicate humans “dug in with stones to get at the delicious, juicy brains inside.” Scientists also believe that “nutrient-rich brain tissue may have helped Homo erectus support larger bodies, bigger brains, and travel longer distances.”

I’m stunned by this news and the questions are (almost) endless:
• Did you know about this?
• Do antelope brains taste different than human brains? In what ways?
• Will eating brains really give me a bigger brain? Will this increase my IQ?
• Will eating brains make me taller and run farther?
• Can I get animal skulls with brains from the grocery or do I need to go to a specialty butcher?
• What tools work best for digging brains out of animal skulls? Stones seem kinda primitive.
• How juicy are brains? Like a ripe mango? More like watermelon?
• Are brains more nutrient rich than apples or kale?
• I’ve seen dried apple and kale snacks, do you think a dried brain snack would catch on? Would it still be good, even though the brains are no longer juicy?

Yrs,
Rob

Hey Rob,

Let Zombie answer your questions in order what they were received.

• Nope, but Zombie like the idea.
• Zombie not able to catch a antemelope and attempts at making crude projectiles to fell the beast from afar have, to this point, failed. But if Zombie have to guess (and Zombie do have to guess) Zombie would say antepalope brains probably taste more like nuts.
• FALLACY! Eating brains actually give you bigger butt so you can sit around cogitating (look it up). However brain size and IQ are unrelated. It not the size, it what you do with it. You could have biggest brain in world but if all you fill it with are episodes of “Baywatch Nights” (how that show not catch on?) and Larry the Cable Guy routines (which fill Zombie with blind and righteous anger) your skull going to be receptacle for big mound of pudding.
• Nope. Only thing to make you taller and run farther is to be tall and don’t stop running. Sorry to burst your bubble on that one.
• What am zombie? Home shopper? Maybe you could try the tall running thing by standing up and running to the store to ask the guy yourself. Sheesh. Zombie help thems what help themselves.
• Zombie prefer using hands for brain extraction, but errybody gotta find their own thing. Stones seem to work pretty good so maybe you give them a shot before you pooh-pooh them (yes, that’s right). You not always have to have latest technology to do simple tasks, Rob. Why you gotta be so difficult?
• Brains are juicy like wet mop. Smell kinda like wet mop too. Which is to say, deelishuz!
• Zombie not really pay much attention to nutrition. Zombie just lucky to have body what Zombie have. Do not really need to worry about all that other junk. Zombie just eat whatever Zombie want. Which are brains. Apples are things to kick or step on and Zombie not even accept that kale is a thing so do not bring that nonsense here.
• What horrible kind of place you shop in that sell apple and kale (which is not a thing) as snacks? While Zombie all for idea of sucking the life essence out of plants and hanging their dessicated remains on hooks for all to see, Zombie not know why anybody would want to eat it.

That all Zombie got. Hope it helps (but only a little).

yrs,
Zombie
____________________________________________________________

Dear Zombie-

What is your favorite zombie movie? Zombie play? Zombie style of dance? Zombie sport? Zombie dinosaur?

Very curious about zombies-

B.P.

Dear William,

Favorite zombie movie: Gran Torino. Clint Eastwood greatest living zombie actor! Look at that face!
Favorite zombie play: Hamlet. Little known fact, Hamlet’s father not a ghost. Actually a zombie. Bad transcription and lost pronunciations to blame. Also, Hamlet 2: Ophelia’s Revenge is really good but Shakespearean “scholars” too snooty to admit it into the canon. You got a problem? Call Charles Onions. (You can’t, though, because he died 40 years ago. Zombie just like saying “Charles Onions.”)
Favorite style of dance: Waltz. Zombie can’t count very high so waltz is perfect.
Favorite Zombie sport: It hard when avocation becomes vocation, but Zombie have to say hunting. For brains. That, or Frisbee golf.
Favorite Zombie dinosaur: Is that favorite dinosaur what is also a zombie? Or dinosaur that is favorite of Zombie? Either way, T-Rex. Evrybody make fun of them little arms but while they all pointing and laughing, T-Rex gobble ‘em up like peanuts. Why people so un-smart?

yrs,
Zombie

____________________________________________________________

Zombie bet lots of you have a question. Let Zombie answer it now:
Decision-making power not rest with Zombie. Ask something else.
As for the rest of you, write now or suffer never knowing how your life would be improved.
Find Zombie here: ZombieAdvice@PopCap.com.

Grab a cup of your favorite beverage, take a seat and feast your eyes on our first officially official trailer for Plants vs. Zombies 2: It’s About Time!

Further announcements and sneak peeks at gameplay footage are forthcoming. This is just a little something to get us all started.

Be kind, rewind.

Janis Ian feels my pain

Anyway, that’s not really what this blog post is supposed to be about. According to our trusty, official blog schedule, dutifully maintained by one Philip Smith (his real name), today was the day I was supposed to post a video of me playing Plants vs. Zombies Adventures with some of the folks at PopCap SF. However, some things just do not go as planned, as Neville Chamberlain would be happy to confirm, if he was still alive. Sadly, he died 73 years ago.

"And on this day, I shall make the biggest blunder of the 20th Century! Cheers!"

Fortunately, I do not believe, at this moment anyway, that my failure to post a gameplay video will lead to an invasion of Poland. It is only 12:00 PM, though, and given the week I’ve had I should probably not jinx it. Though the video did not happen yesterday, we did still have a chance to chat with lots of fans over at the PopCap Twitch TV channel, and we promise to try again soon once we figure out how to use these “computers” and “software.”

When I told my fellow blogmates that I would not be posting this video, I suggested, not entirely facetiously, that as an alternative I could write a post in which I “ramble about some kinda nonsense for a couple hundred words, topic TBD.” This was greeted with an enthusiastic thumbs up by one A.J. Rathbun (his real name), and thus this post was created. Given that I am now well over my planned “couple hundred words” it’s probably a good idea if I just stop now and let you proceed with your day.

I would be remiss, however, if I let you go without sharing the YouTube video below, the one YouTube video of all the YouTube videos in existence that never fails to make me laugh out loud every single time I hear it. Including right before I just typed this sentence. I hope it makes you laugh, too. And I hope you all have a great weekend.

We’ll be back on Monday with some actual, real, important news!

Let the wisdom of Kuhu console you: even Kuhu could not see this One. Oh, Great Kuhu your failures are 720!

Behold the return of the Old Old Suit-Man! Embrace the joys of now and future! But avoid the lopsided gaze!

And the clouds shall part, the sky shall glow. And the children will be set loose upon the earth and all shall noise!

The forms of adventure are many! Embark, or do not embark, yet you will embark!

Hot dogs are delicious!

Prepare yourselves for sparkles. Prepare yourselves for hope. But should The Tiny Nuisance block your path, you shall dig no more!

On the Seventh Day of the Galloping Asparagus, the world will marvel: though he gallops not, his forms are many and wow!

Beware, skaters of ice. The day is coming and is already here. Ice will melt if you drop your cocoa!

Listen closely, hear truth: multiple avenues multiply joy! Intersections intersect sad! Candy coating coats your candy!

Fear not the candle, fear not the fire. Fear only the melting! But fear not the melting of all, for the melting of cheese hugs the world!

Blog Ride Editor’s Note: Want to know what the future holds for you? Ask Kuhu at KuhuSpeaks@PopCap.com. Kuhu shall speak again.

So when you walk around the PopCap offices and see some us of playing video games during the workday, chances are we’re playing our own games. Because we actually like them. In fact, most of us start playing our new games well before they’re finished, because we’re encouraged to do so and to provide feedback to the design teams.

The best part about this — other than getting to play the games before you do — is that we get to watch them morph and get better over time. Take, for example, our just-launched Facebook game, Plants vs. Zombies Adventures, which our awesome San Francisco team has been making for over a year, and which has gone through some radical and fantastic transformations over the past few months. So it’s particularly satisfying to see the critics get their hands on it and, so far at least, give us a pretty unanimous thumbs up. Because, you know, we tend to agree with them.

If you haven’t tried it out yet (and you should, because it’s free, and it’s totally fun), I’m going to link to a few of the reviews so you can check them out. (And I promise I’m not just cherry-picking the good ones!)

Gamezebo
“The game packs in so much fun and exciting new content, and takes advantage of its new social home in all the right ways. But the best part is that it always still feels like a Plants vs. Zombies game, which I think is perhaps the game’s strongest achievement.”

Games.com
“Plants vs. Zombies Adventures manages to retain the core essence of the original game, while adding tons of fun new twists and gameplay alterations to always keep things fresh and interesting.”

MMOHunter
“Plants vs. Zombies Adventures is a wonderful sequel and successful installment to the hit PvZ franchise. With its proven core concepts, greater artwork and excellent use of social aspects as well as freemium model, it is sure to appeal to old PvZ fans and new casual game players alike.”

The Verge
“All told, it’s a solid adaptation of a great game, and an experience that’s worth logging in to Facebook for.”

Destructoid
“A solid game that definitely has an audience. Might lack replay value, could be too short or there are some hard-to-ignore faults, but the experience is fun.”

Kotaku
“Plants vs. Zombies Adventures is quite different from regular old Plants vs. Zombies, but it’s a good sort of difference.”

And here’s a nice 15-minute walkthrough from the folks at IGN.

But, hey, don’t let other people decide for you, even if we agree that they’re right! Go play it yourself!