FIFA 15 video shows off upgraded weather effects, player models and more

FIFA 15's latest developer diary, released today by publisher Electronic Arts, focuses on the graphical upgrades that developer EA Canada is making in this year's game.

Chief among those improvements is in the player models, with head scans providing higher detail in faces and new animation rigs allowing for more lifelike movement. Uniforms will flutter in the breeze and get dirty over time. Items on the field will also move more realistically — players will no longer ghost through the corner flag, and the goal will move according to how the ball hits it.

The pitch itself will degrade over the course of a match, as footprints and slide tackles leave their mark on the grass. In rainy games, you'll see sprays of water as appropriate. And LED boards throughout stadiums will now animate in real time.

The aforementioned upgrades apply to the current-generation version of FIFA 15, which will be released on PlayStation 4, Windows PC and Xbox One in standard and Ultimate editions. The game will also be available on Nintendo 3DS, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, Wii and Xbox 360. All versions are set for release Sept. 26.

For more on FIFA 15, check out our comprehensive coverage from E3.

Source: Polygon

Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare gets Aquafina-sponsored characters in new DLC

Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare developer PopCap Games is adding a new map, a new mode, Aquafina-sponsored characters and more to the shooter on Windows PC, Xbox 360 and Xbox One next month, the studio announced today.

Known as the Tactical Taco Party Pack, the downloadable content includes the new Jewel Junction map, Vanquish Confirmed mode and an eight-versus-eight playlist across all modes.

The add-on also comes with two new character variants sponsored by Aquafina FlavorSplash: Berry Shooter and Citrus Cactus. In screenshots of both characters, which you can see in the gallery below, it doesn't seem that Aquafina branding appears in gameplay. This is different from another EA game with sponsored content, SimCity, whose Nissan Leaf Charging Station bears the auto manufacturer's logo.

The Tactical Taco Party Pack will be released July 1. Jewel Junction is already available on PC, where it launched as a timed exclusive on the platform along with the PC version last week. And Vanquish Confirmed will be a timed exclusive on Xbox 360 and Xbox One for one week; it will be released July 8 on PC.

For more on the Tactical Taco Party Pack, you can check out the preview video above from Microsoft's Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb, as well as our full review of Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare.

Source: Polygon

EA CEO Wilson: Dungeon Keeper Mobile Was 'A Shame'

EA's recent attempt to reboot Dungeon Keeper as a free-to-play mobile thing didn't go so well, at least in terms of public perception, as the game carries a 42 on Metacritic and is generally considered to be the end of gaming.

And when Eurogamer asked new EA CEO Andrew Wilson about it, the man owned up to it. "For people who'd grown up playing Dungeon Keeper there was a disconnect there. In that aspect we didn't walk that line as well as we could have. And that's a shame..

But will EA learn something from this? Wilson says yeppers.

"And as we look forward, the two lessons we get are, one, where you are dealing with IP that has existed in the past, even though you're reinventing it for a new audience, you have to do your best to stay true to its essence. And that's a challenge. The Star Trek J.J. Abrams was very different from the first season I watched, but I still felt good about it.

"The second is, when you're thinking about any business model, premium, subscription, free-to-play, value has to exist. Whether it's a dollar, $10, $100 or $1000, you have to delivering value, and always err on the side of delivering more value, not less."

Wilson does have many other things to say about ways EA can improve moving forward, and he explained those plans to our bossman Stephen at E3, so you'll want to check that out if you haven't already.

Side note here, since I did that thing earlier where I asked about what games people like that they aren't supposed to like: I have been playing Dungeon Keeper Mobile for like three months now. I generally only play tablet or phone games while having a cigarette, and for those short bursts I can enjoy it. That's all I have to say on this matter!

Source: Kotaku