Remember when EA didn't completely suck?

[Headdrivehardscrew]

As an old bugger, I recall when EA was a sign of quality. Back when they were practically a Sega developer for the Megadrive they developed and published classics like Road Rash, Buck Rogers: Countdown to Doomsday, Desert Strike, The Immortal and Starflight plus many more.

I enjoyed some of those titles, actually still do.

However:

Road Rash - I remember loving the first one. Did they really develop this one? I wouldn't know.

Buck Rogers: Countdown to Doomsday - SSI developed, SSI published. No EA as far as I know.

The Immortal was designed by awesome cool mofo Will Harvey, EA just did the publishing.

Desert Strike - surprise hit dreamed up and made by mainly one guy that probably couldn't have done it without EA's support and assets. I'll give you this one. However, them being EA, they've been milking this success for just about the duration of the 1990's, and I do remember that some of those titles were quite shitty and soulless in nature.

Starflight was a Greg Johnson/Binary Systems joint, published by EA. Do bear in mind that my experiences with Starflight were a 1986 wild ride, when EA still seemed to have a vision and a heart, so I don't know how the ports half a decade later turned out.

 

[Snotnarok]

Road Rash 3, if you disagree you get a chain whip to the face and run over by a motorcycle followed by on coming traffic....What that's how it works in the game!

Don't have favorites, but I really do enjoy me some road rash.

 

[infohippie]

Yes, I remember when EA didn't suck. That was back when they were still calling themselves Electronic Arts and releasing games on the Amiga. They've sucked pretty solidly over all the years since then, it is simply the level of suckage that has varied.

 

[piinyouri]

They made Soviet Strike right?
I liked that game, it was fun.

Yes they did, and Nuclear Strike. I was planning to play that again sometime soon, good series IMO and hope another is released someday.

But it'd be all gritty and super srs.

The PS Strike games had a wonderful sense of humor that set them apart a bit.
"EVIL HELICOPTER!"

 

[00slash00]

i think most EA games are quite good, thats the problem. if they had fucked up business practices but most of their games sucked, no one would care, because they wouldnt want to buy the games in the first place. but a lot of EA games are really quite good and people are forced to put up with EAs policies in order to experience them.

i guess probably the EA game that stands out at the one i had the most fun with, was mass effect 2

 

[RicoADF]

They made Soviet Strike right?
I liked that game, it was fun.

Yes they did, and Nuclear Strike. I was planning to play that again sometime soon, good series IMO and hope another is released someday.

But it'd be all gritty and super srs.

The PS Strike games had a wonderful sense of humor that set them apart a bit.
"EVIL HELICOPTER!"

Good point, it's the humor that made it so bloody awesome. Yeah I'm gonna have to give it another run through xD

 

[Dendio]

I've enjoyed alot of EA games, and the bioware division houses some of my favorite of all time. If you want to talk about insidious money gubbing, then that title goes to blizzard imo. Years of wow took way more money outta my wallet than EA ever did.

Blizzard are masters of reskin, grinding gameplay and subtly convincing players to spend way more money than they should on pixels

 

[Anthony Corrigan]

I've enjoyed alot of EA games, and the bioware division houses some of my favorite of all time. If you want to talk about insidious money gubbing, then that title goes to blizzard imo. Years of wow took way more money outta my wallet than EA ever did.

Blizzard are masters of reskin, grinding gameplay and subtly convincing players to spend way more money than they should on pixels

see I have the opposite opinion of Blizzard, they released actual game play patches on Diablo 2 TEN YEARS after its release, they couldn't be making much money off it anymore but they still cared about the game enough to spend the time, not just to ensure it ran on modern computers, but ensure the game play was still up to date and useful. As for WOW, well you knew what you were signing up for when you signed up, and further more you could say exactly the same stuff about Ultima Online

 

[piinyouri]

No one remembers Freedom Fighters?? For shame on all of you!!

For shame I say! Best game I've ever played by them. I have to have over 3k hours in that game... That's more play time then Oblivion+Skyrim for me... Might be about almost equal to if you add in Morrowind...

3000 hours? Really?
Is it an urban open world type?

 

[Petromir]

They're a publisher, so they don't really make games directly. There have always been good games amongst what they published. Just like all the other publishers, they try to get the biggest cut they can from the creative work of the developers, some of those devs can manage to put out great products despite the pressure, others fail.

#

EA own outright or control a lot of developers, even where they use developer they don't own outright or own a controlling stake in the way traditional games development works meant that most games under such a category they had some control over as they controlled the purse strings.

Most of the 'BIG' publishers aren't strictly speaking only publishers any more, most have their own in house studios and other studios they control by owning controlling portions of them.

 

[Fdzzaigl]

EA own outright or control a lot of developers, even where they use developer they don't own outright or own a controlling stake in the way traditional games development works meant that most games under such a category they had some control over as they controlled the purse strings.

Most of the 'BIG' publishers aren't strictly speaking only publishers any more, most have their own in house studios and other studios they control by owning controlling portions of them.

Whatever, the same still goes.

You've got a bunch of (hopefully) creative minds sitting in rooms and you've got a bunch of dudes with dollar bills in their eyes sitting in other rooms hoping they can cash in on their work while providing the funding and infrastructure.
Sometimes those creative minds are creative enough to put out a great thing while coping with all the crap the suits are giving them, sometimes they aren't.

It's the same for any of the big publishers / developers that are dictated by shareholders who are eagerly awaiting their returns.

 

[William Dickbringer]

UMMM

Ok, been nice enough to EA in my previous post, Bioware are brillant but why do i hate EA? well there current practices don't help, Introduction of that blight which is "online passes", taking "free to play" models and trying to use that to milk more money out of Buy to OWN games, always online bullshit but even before these there was reason to HATE those Evil Assholes. Why? ULTIMA 8, and if that wasn't enough reason ULTIMA 9!!!!!!!

BURN IN HELL EA

I got this one question for you

Spoiler

what's a paladin?

O.T. Eh I like some of the games but not as much as before not because of business practices just nothing interesting as of late (except for mirror's edge two)

 

[Anthony Corrigan]

UMMM

Ok, been nice enough to EA in my previous post, Bioware are brillant but why do i hate EA? well there current practices don't help, Introduction of that blight which is "online passes", taking "free to play" models and trying to use that to milk more money out of Buy to OWN games, always online bullshit but even before these there was reason to HATE those Evil Assholes. Why? ULTIMA 8, and if that wasn't enough reason ULTIMA 9!!!!!!!

BURN IN HELL EA

I got this one question for you

Spoiler

what's a paladin?

O.T. Eh I like some of the games but not as much as before not because of business practices just nothing interesting as of late (except for mirror's edge two)

The sad thing is I can actually understand WHY they did that, there was such a large gap between 8 and 9 let alone 7 and 9 that a lot of the players had probably never played an Ultima game before so what do they do? do they not explain anything and lock out new players or do they over explain stuff and piss off spoony

there are a lot of other things which I HATED that game for more than that, the fact it crashed every 2 seconds so I couldn't even play long enough to get into the story for one thing

 

[LiquidGrape]

I still don't understand why EA is the Big Bad when Activision is so blatantly more suspect in their business practices. And it's not like UbiSoft should be let off the hook, either. This is a problem far bigger than just one publisher anyway.

 

[Johnny Wishbone]

The Bard's Tale 1 and 2 for the Commodore 64.

 

[William Dickbringer]

UMMM

Ok, been nice enough to EA in my previous post, Bioware are brillant but why do i hate EA? well there current practices don't help, Introduction of that blight which is "online passes", taking "free to play" models and trying to use that to milk more money out of Buy to OWN games, always online bullshit but even before these there was reason to HATE those Evil Assholes. Why? ULTIMA 8, and if that wasn't enough reason ULTIMA 9!!!!!!!

BURN IN HELL EA

I got this one question for you

Spoiler

what's a paladin?

O.T. Eh I like some of the games but not as much as before not because of business practices just nothing interesting as of late (except for mirror's edge two)

The sad thing is I can actually understand WHY they did that, there was such a large gap between 8 and 9 let alone 7 and 9 that a lot of the players had probably never played an Ultima game before so what do they do? do they not explain anything and lock out new players or do they over explain stuff and piss off spoony

there are a lot of other things which I HATED that game for more than that, the fact it crashed every 2 seconds so I couldn't even play long enough to get into the story for one thing

yeah I never played the ultima series (just saw spoony's series about it and it did convince me to pick them up off of gog from the sale) but I understood why it still comes off bad for the avatar to ask all the questions about stuff he knows but how to keep the old audience and bring in new ones is a tough task

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

UMMM

Ok, been nice enough to EA in my previous post, Bioware are brillant but why do i hate EA? well there current practices don't help, Introduction of that blight which is "online passes", taking "free to play" models and trying to use that to milk more money out of Buy to OWN games, always online bullshit but even before these there was reason to HATE those Evil Assholes. Why? ULTIMA 8, and if that wasn't enough reason ULTIMA 9!!!!!!!

BURN IN HELL EA

Besides the Ultima situation, everything you mentioned has been done by Sony, Capcom, Activision, and many other companies. Where's the extensive hate for them?

So what?
Sorry no one says that customers must be equal in there contempt, if you act unethically you don't get to stand up and say "but they do it too" that's not an excuse

EA started the online pass trend and so bare the bed they lie in, Capcom get nothing but my contempt for that piece of rubbish they called RE6, so I don't care what they do because I don't buy there games. Ubisoft get a little benefit of good will from me for the moment because I liked AC, Activision GOT gamers ire when they made Diablo 3 always online but then EA jumped on the idea and it crashed even worse on SimCity. As for Sony, sorry dude but Sony don't actually do that or if they do its not much and not on the games I buy. There was nothing in any of the R&C games I bought, not to mention Sony came out recently to stress that the PS4 will support gamers rights so yes they have a lot of good will currently

If EA want to get peoples good will then whinging that other people do it and why don't you pick on them is not going to get it for them, STOPPING these practices and releasing good games is the only way people are not going to view EA like this:

Seems like most of your all caps rage with EA comes from the online pass. Which they stopped doing this year. So I ask you again, what is EA doing that other companies aren't?

And more to weaken your point:
Sony has the online pass until this year as well. They will no longer be using it as of the PS4. Uncharted 3 was the first game to have it. The Last of Us has it as well.
Ubisoft still uses it. As does Activision, 505 Games, Warner Bros Interactive, and D3 Publisher.

And the very fact that your argument contains yourself giving Ubisoft because "you like AC" kind of shows the bias I'm talking about.

In your words and using your logic, the use of always online DRM is Activision's to bare and their "bed to lie in".
And though EA has done the always online DRM in a worse manner than Activision, does it excuse Diablo 3 for having it in the first place?

No.

So please spare me the argument that EA is the worst offender because it seems you only think so due to whoever makes games you like. If EA make Assassin's Creed, would they get a pass from you?

My point still stands, EA as a company is doing what many other companies do and they get the most shit for it due to shitty PR.

I'm not excusing EA's decisions at all, just pointing out how hypocritical people such as yourself seem going "rah rah rah" at EA and making excuses for other companies that do the same thing due to the games you buy.

 

[6_Qubed]

The third game I ever owned was James Pond 3, from back when EA was Electronic Arts.

That game had passcode-saving and that shit blew my mind because I had never seen anything like that before. I had an entire notebook devoted to those damn things, a quirk of which the word "heart" was misspelled as "hart" and even though I misspelled it the first time, I kept that typo in there ever after for the sake of consistency (which worried my mother). This one boss, The Kentucky Fried Fiend, remains one of my all-time favorite video game bosses and I can still remember level music from that game.

I miss this Electronic Arts. I don't know where it went, but I wish it would come back.

(also Def Jams: FFNY is one of my favorite fighting games)

 

[Anthony Corrigan]

AzrealMaximillion so what?
I never claimed to be an unbiased journalist, I claimed(and AM) a gamer and as a gamer there is no law which says I have to be unbiased. I can say I hate Nintendo (which I don't but I could) for no reason whats so ever if that's what I felt. Bitching and moaning that "you are just biased" is silly.

Why does EA's online pass piss me off? well I bought dragon age origins NEW but buy the time I bought them the blood dragon armor pass had already expired. This was not written on the outside of the package which is deceptive and misleading conduct as well as false advertising. Never happened with Ubisoft and they SHOULD have some way to download the extra content because the Ubisoft games I have bought have all been AC collectors editions, would I rather that they be different discs the way games used to be so the collectors edition content could be resold along with the game ABSOLUTLY. I was one of those yelling and screaming about Blizard making Diablo 3 always online, that being said now I rarely play it except with my father in law so I would be playing it online anyway. That is because he loves Diablo 3 where as I think its a generic game and would much rather be playing something from BIOWARE. Now sure I could just accept EAs practices and watch what happened to SimCity happen to my partners favorite game (The Sims) or all the great RPGs which come from Bioware, or I can yell and scream about how much we hate these practices and hope that they stay out of further games.