It's not EA I dislike. I sympathize and agree with my cousin Stephan (an Employee for the Sports division). It's all the suit's faults.
Quality in EA games.
- Thread starter Sketchy
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IMO, in recent years they've crawled out of their sports-only niche and have had some good results. Now they've got Warhammer Online which isn't going to be a WoW killer by any means, but has a decent playerbase.
I don't have any problems with EA - and I deserve to after the eating of Bullfrog, Origin and Westwood, the studios that gave me Syndicate, Ultima, Wind Commander, and The Legend of Kyrandia. Still, I've always just stuck by the philosophy of "If I don't like it, or it doesn't look good, don't buy it."
Plus, EA publishes some games I really love. The three Fight Night games have all been great. Army of Two was a very good co-op experience. Dead Space is really well done. Skate is tons of fun. On the Madden / NCAA Football front I've been disappointed recently, but some of those earlier ones were fantastically enjoyable. Madden 08 was a low point though, as it just seemed so buggy, plus the superstar mode did seemingly random stuff. Haven't played 09 yet (largely because of 08).
Plus, EA publishes some games I really love. The three Fight Night games have all been great. Army of Two was a very good co-op experience. Dead Space is really well done. Skate is tons of fun. On the Madden / NCAA Football front I've been disappointed recently, but some of those earlier ones were fantastically enjoyable. Madden 08 was a low point though, as it just seemed so buggy, plus the superstar mode did seemingly random stuff. Haven't played 09 yet (largely because of 08).
Just because you don't like sports games, it says nothing of the quality therein. Some of those NHL, NBA Live, and Madden games were incredibly fun. EA gets a bad rap because so-called "gamers" aren't really into the whole sports game genre. Which is fine - to each his own - but it's not a shortcoming of the company if they don't cater to a certain audience all the time. Like I mentioned above, Madden 08 was pretty buggy and had its problems, but its not a reflection on the series as a whole.Richard Groovy Pants said:
And I don't know what you have against Dead Space. Especially after you say it's a hybrid of Resident Evil and Doom in a different universe. That sounds like a fantastic niche to me. Doom games were fun, and Resident Evil games were fun. As long as the new universe is cool, and if the hybridization is done well, why disparage such a thing? Almost all new games are going to be describable in the context of older games - it's just how things are. The key is taking what's been learned from older games and getting it right in something new, or putting a new spin on it. As such, I see no complaint in your "it's a hybrid" complaint.
EA is the FOX television of video games. All good franchises will be either ruined or cancelled, or ruined and *then* cancelled. I hate EA more than any other company right now. That having been said, I want C&C RA3 for PS3 (would have got for PC if not for install limits). Here's hoping Mass Effect makes it's way to PS3 as well.
Also a lot of people who buy sports titles really like having the up to date rosters.
Could they solve this with some cheap yearly DLC. Of course they could and it would be the 'nice' thing to do. But they are a massive company that needs to not only make a profit but also grow to keep their shareholders happy. Hence yearly updates for their popular sport franchises. It's not 'wrong' or 'imoral' it's just sensible buisness. How dare EA sell a product people want at a price they're willing to pay.
Now they're also starting to distribute new and interesting IPs. This is a good thing, hopefully it will continue.
Could they solve this with some cheap yearly DLC. Of course they could and it would be the 'nice' thing to do. But they are a massive company that needs to not only make a profit but also grow to keep their shareholders happy. Hence yearly updates for their popular sport franchises. It's not 'wrong' or 'imoral' it's just sensible buisness. How dare EA sell a product people want at a price they're willing to pay.
Now they're also starting to distribute new and interesting IPs. This is a good thing, hopefully it will continue.
It doesn't count as ad hominem if I'm right, does it?Richard Groovy Pants said:
Besides, the point is that you don't like sports games, probably don't play them, but have assumed every Madden game since the mid 90s is the same thing with a roster update. Which I think you've proven by saying "Madden games have been exactly the same since the early days of mankind, new games consist of the same fucking gameplay with some new players in it."
It's just not true, to start with. Superstar mode, stadium editor, team cration, franchise modes, not to mention constantly improving physics and AI have all been added or improved upon as the games released. Plus, give the guys some credit, they don't exactly get a huge development period for each title - that's the nature of the game. Still, they usually manage to put out something that's oodles of fun.
Some people like to make the argument (and maybe you imply it here with the Rugby comment) that you might as well play the actual sport instead of the game. I'll address this because it doesn't make sense. If I could get 22+ people of relative skill together every day for some football, I wouldn't play games at all, because I'd always choose football. Or soccer, or Australian rules (which is way more fun to watch and play than rugby, by the way), or basketball. Frankly, a bunch of people aren't just hanging around my neighborhooh, ready to play sports at my whim.
Even still, video games are not the same thing as real life. Flying for instance, is not the same thing in a video game (even a sim) as it is in real life. Sports games are just as technical and challenging, if not more so, than other genres of game. I mean, hell, there's way more skill in a game of Madden than most JRPG combat. So what if Madden doesn't have a story? You're making your team's story as you play the season. Even if you don't count that, scrolling shmups are fantastic games and they rarely have more than a few sentences of story, so having story is not the prerequisite of a quality game.
I'm not saying we recommend Madden for game of the year or something, but I see no reason to think that a really awesome, well-developed football game couldn't be good enough to deserve that title.
And again, Australian rules is way better than rugby. So there.
There was only a sentence and a half in the rest of your argument, it said this: "And Dead Space was OK. Just that OK, didn't exactly took any chances neither did it push any envelopes."
Frankly, I thought that was covered by the response I wrote. I mean, making a hybrid of Doom and RE seems (to me) like taking a chance. It might even be pushing an envelope. You're welcome to think it's an "OK" game, but would someone claiming someone else is using an "ad hominem argument" really want to put his name to so ambiguous a claim as "[Dead Space] didn't exactly took any chances neither did it push any envelopes"?
Heck, maybe you don't have something against Dead Space, but you've got me fooled when making a claim like that.
Maybe Activision is that way, but EA sure is too. EA can make a great game and then ruin it's distribution (so many PC games), or take out necessary and expected play modes (C&C3 not having LAN), and various other examples of lowered quality and cancelization.Indigo_Dingo said:
I don't have a problem with Ea. Even games with DRM like Red Alert 3, I don't have any problem, I installed it like any other computer game and nothing weird has happened to my computer.
And for people saying that it's got limited installs, they are going to realese with the next patch, a way to get your installs back.
And for people saying that it's got limited installs, they are going to realese with the next patch, a way to get your installs back.