EA games you actually enjoy (can be non-sports)

[evildead2099]

The name Electronic Arts, or EA, has become synonymous with many negative things (censorship, unoriginality, monopolising licensed sports games, etc), but the main thing which many of us 'cultured' gamers here at Digital Press seem to associate the company with is its reputation for rehashing marginally updated editions of its sports games, year after year after year.

My question to you is this: are there any games which Electronic Arts has published that you actually enjoy playing?

I can't think of many, but here are the few that come to my mind:

Clive Barker's Undying

American McGee's Alice

Time Splitters 3: Future Perfect

Road Rash

... and, of course, who can forget Shaq Fu? ;)

(Just kidding about that last one)

[Cmtz]

Time Splitters 2

[njiska]

The original Bard's Tale was pretty fun. Same goes for the original ND4SPD.

As for recent games the only inspiring property to come out of EA has been 007: Everything or nothing.

[Lothars]

well I will have to say

Command and Conquer Generals

Sim City 4

American McGee's Alice

Time Splitters 3: Future Perfect

I know there's others but i can't think of them lol

[evildead2099]

Time Splitters 2

EA didn't publish Time Splitters 2.

[shvnsth]

you guys should be fucking ashamed of yourselfs

ssx 3 might be my favorite game of this generation.

and burnout 3 is top also.

[Retsudo]

Medal Of Honor Frontline. Great game and a lot of fun.
I just love that first mission.

[Blanka789]

What about The Haunting: Starring PolterGuy for the Genesis? Oh, and Sims is pretty good too. 8-)

[DigitalSpace]

SNES:
NBA Live' 96

Genesis:
Jordan Vs. Bird
(I have a few more EA carts for the Genny that I haven't tried out yet, so I'll probably update this someday)

N64:
Beetle Adventure Racing!

PlayStation:
Need For Speed III: Hot Pursuit
Need For Speed: High Stakes

PS2:
Burnout 3: Takedown
Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit 2
Need For Speed Underground 2
The Sims
SSX 3

GBA:
Need For Speed Underground 2

[evildead2099]

you guys should be fucking ashamed of yourselfs

ssx 3 might be my favorite game of this generation.

and burnout 3 is top also.

:eek 2: Take it easy, dude.

You're right, though: the SSX series DOES deserve mention (it's the only snowboarding series I'll touch other than Ulta's Ski Or Die).

[Six Switch]

the burnout series is good and ssx isn't too bad.

speaking of ssx i never got that free demo,damnit.

[NoahsMyBro]

I'm not sure whether or not it was EA, but I used to enjoy One-on-One Basketball for the 7800.

[Leroy]

SSX 3.. great game.

[goatdan]

I haven't yet sold Lord of the Rings: The Third Age. Sadly, that's saying something. I like the original Burnout (Acclaim made), but I haven't gotten around to trying any of the others. It isn't that I think that EA is a horrible company, but from about five other games I've played, I was very disappointed with them all, including Sim City 4, which was perhaps my biggest disappointment as I have loved that series up until that installment.

[scorch56]

Techno Clash & Starflight.. for the Genesis.. were about the last ones I can recall.

[dieourumov]

Beetle Adventure Racing anyone?

[mario2butts]

Desert Strike etc

and Burnout 3, pretty fun

[miaandjohnrule]

Starflight.. for the Genesis...

I loved that one as well , I've got a few other EA Genny RPG type games I've still got to try out.

[Griking]

The Bard's Tale, Archon and Seven Cities of Gold

...thats about it :/

[Nez]

Beetle Adventure Racing was an awsome game. Definitly one of my favs from EA.

Burnout also kicked ass. After that the mind goes blanks

[hezeuschrist]

I've quite enjoyed the last two Burnout installments, and I really enjoyed some NHL 94 back in the day...

The NFS games before they went underground were all pretty high quality too.

[devils advocate]

EA hockey '95 for the genesis is one of the best controlling hockey games ever.


NHL Rock The Rink for PS was unique and fun.

Need for speed for the 3DO was superb. Better than the PS version IMHO.

I am pretty ant EA though. I won't buy a product since about 2000. Just my way of showing dissatisfaction. I could care less who else does it, and don't preach it.

[Tbowl]

Battlefield 2 for PC is amazing, even though there are still some kinks to be fixed.. which will probably take another 6 months....

[videogameking26]

Burnout 3: Takedown
Burnout: Revenge
Ty The Tasmanian Tiger
Ty The Tasmanian Tiger 2
SSX Tricky
SSX 3
Goldeneye: Rogue Agent
Madden 2004
Madden NFL 06
Madden 97
NHL 94
NHL 96
NHL 97
NHL 2002
NHL 06
NFS: Hot Pursuit 2
NFS: Underground
NFS: Underground 2
Shox
Sled Storm
NBA Street
NFL Street

There's more but just can't think of them right now....

[jdc]

It would take more space and time than possible to name all of the great games that EA has published. It's simply too big a question because EA is simply too big.

Two of my all time recent faves are "The Lord Of The Rings The Third Age" and the outrageous " Oddworld Stranger".

[-hellvin-]

I actually enjoy EA more than I realize considering I'm a genesis collector. Many of their sports and non sports games are great. My favorite one of the batch is probably general chaos. Really chaotic and quite a hilarious game.

and for the pc:

American Mcgee's Alice

Clive Barker's Undying

Undying is an excellent fps hybrid and pretty damn scary too!

[Niku-Sama]

i personally really really REALLY do NOT like EA at ALL!

the games they make that i like are

[AMG]

Some EA games I enjoyed:

Lord of the Rings: TTT
Lord of the Rings: RotK
Madden 03'
Need For Speed: HP
Need for Speed: HS

[squidblatt]

The Bard's Tale, Archon and Seven Cities of Gold

...thats about it :/

I wouldn't include games from that era since EA has changed so much as a company. IMO, the modern Atari has more in common with classic Atari than modern EA has with classic EA.

For contemporary titles, I'd say Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath. The Sims is also good, but thank Will Wright for championing it rather than EA. I keep meaning to play Burnout, but haven't yet. Other than those titles, I'd say EA is good only for sports. They may not make the only decent sports titles around, but you've still got to give them credit for quality on that front.

[evildead2099]

It would take more space and time than possible to name all of the great games that EA has published. It's simply too big a question because EA is simply too big.

I don't feel that way at all, and the length of my list reflects that.

By the way, I do like hockey games, but I prefer Sega's NHL 2K series to EA's NHL series. EA's hockey games are too arcadey for my liking.


EA is good only for sports. They may not make the only decent sports titles around, but you've still got to give them credit for quality on that front.

I disagree; see my comment above.

[jajaja]

Medal of Honor + Expansion packs. I play it everyday online.

[CYRiX]

Command and Conquer: Red Alert
Command and Conquer: Tiberian Sun + Firestorm
Command and Conquer: Red Alert 2 + Yuri's Revenge

[Aussie2B]

Beetle Adventure Racing is about a million times better than any other EA game, in my opinion. It's probably the only one I've genuinely enjoyed. The only glaring flaw is the piss-poor music.

And on the flip side, Shadow of the Beast deserves a mention, if only for the depressing yet awesome music and... Tuskinhead and his evil minions. :) Too bad the Genesis EA port is pretty so-so.

[Enixis]

Medal of Honor for PS1.
Medal of Honor: Allied Assault for PC.

That's about it. Looking at my games collection i've realised i've got very few EA games, not that i dislike them or anything.

[unwinddesign]

Burnout 3 / Burnout Revenge / Madden 06

The last of which I only enjoyed playing online against my pal.

[djbeatmongrel]

skitchin' (gen)
the ssx series (ps2)
nhl 94 (gen)

[Sotenga]

Shadow of the Beast
The Genesis Road Rash Trilogy
The original SSX for the Playstation 2
The Immortal

And from what little I've played of it, Haunting: Starring Polterguy was damned innovative.

[Crush Crawfish]

I liked B.O.B. & Battle Squadron for Genesis, and Burnout 3 is great as well. The Ty the Tasmanian Tiger games aren't bad either.

[rayearthknight]

Hmmm...Sherman, fire up the Wayback machine...
Where are we going, Mr. Peabody?
We're going to a time, Sherman, when EA was known as Electronics Arts...in the heyday of the Apple 2 years:

I used to own:
Earth Orbit Stations
Marble Madness
Skyfox!
All three with thier classic Electronics Arts logo...

flash forward....
American McGee's Alice (multiplayer would have been....interesting.
The Need for Speed 2
Fade to Black: Flashback II (producer, I believe)
The Sims 2
SimCity

[devilman]

Mega Drive
Road Rash II
PGA Tour Golf II
Buck Rogers - Countdown to Doomsday
NHL 94

Er.. nothing more recent than that I'm afraid

[DKTheArcadeRat]

genesis games

NHL '95,'96,'97
PGA golf '96

and several others are grand as well

[Haoie]

Ever since Maxis was aquired by them [sad day], I guess the Sims series goes under EA too.

[Rogmeister]

I haven't played Madden in awhile but I still like their baseball series MVP Baseball. I just started playing another season in the 2004 edition. Due to unlocking a lot of players, my starting line-up is almost made entirely up of Hall of Fame players. I want to see if I can go undefeated...I'm 10-0 now, only 152 games to go!

I also like the Medal of Honor series, especially the two games for the original PS.

[DKTheArcadeRat]

The MVP games are probably the best baseball games I hae played in recent memory. I love the dynasty mode, I think its the best thing since sliced bread.

[Leo_A]

Too many to list.

Some notables include the Strike series (Desert/Jungle/Urban/Soviet/Nuclear Strike), Need for Speed Underground (Hate the cut scenes and the cars, but racing through wet city streets in the dark was fun (Didn't enjoy the drag racing or drift stuff though), believe they published Papyrus Racing Game's first game which was Indy 500 (So I appreciate them giving my favorite developer their start though Vivendi killed them off 2 years ago), Battlefield series (Despite numerous issues that have detracted from each title), the Lotus series for the Genesis, plenty of stuff from the 80's, Mario Andretti Racing for the Genesis, and probably more.

I'll grant though that they pretty much suck these days from a non sports fan point of view. Though I want to get into that genre somewhat for soccer and a few other sports I think I'd find interesting. NFS Underground II should be fun but I'll wait for it to hit bargain bins. And despite being a NASCAR fan and a huge fan of NASCAR sims, I've been spoiled by what Papyrus has done and can't enjoy EA's efforts and don't see them getting me away from my copy of NASCAR Racing 2003 Season anytime soon.

[DTJAAAAMJSLM]

Their Lord of the Rings games were pretty amusing, especially the GBA versions. The Sims 2 was also very addicting.

[XYXZYZ]

The only EA game I've ever liked is The Immortal.

[boatofcar]

Bill Budge's Pinball Construction set is pretty badass.

http://archive.gamespy.com/halloffame/september02/pcs/6.jpg

[MASTERWEEDO]

Theme park
the haunting starring polterguy
desert stirke ect..
skitchin
road rash ect...
shaq-fu

[jdc]

Today I found and bought an old EA favorite from the Xbox's launch year. Pirates; The Legend Of Black Kat. It's an awesome combined adventure/ ship battle game. You have a pirate ship that can be upgraded for wicked sea battles against other pirates.

[chrisbid]

EA was awesome back in the classic computer and 16 bit eras. they had an attitude like activision, where the programmers were the stars. The PSX era killed that off for good.