Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare 2 ten-hour trial returns later this month

The competitive undead gardening game Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2 will soon offer curious-but-uncommitted gamers an opportunity to play for ten hours at no charge—very soon, for those on consoles, and somewhat later if you'd rather stick with the PC. 

We didn't review Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2, but a few other places did, and they seemed to like it pretty well. And as Shaun noted back in April, the first time EA put this offer on the table, ten hours is more than some folks will want to spend on the game in the first place. It's a pretty good deal, in other words.

Unfortunately, while the freebie is available for the Xbox One and PS4 right now, the mouse-and-keyboard squad will have to hold out until August 16. The offer will end, for all platforms, on August 30, but the ten-hour timer won't start ticking down until you begin playing. The announcement also says PvZ:GW2 is on sale for half-price, but Origin still lists it at the full $60 price. That will probably go down when the free period begins on the PC. 

Andy Chalk

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.