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[SlimySnake]

This generation has had its issues with first party publishers focusing on cross gen games and producing some duds, but third parties haven't exactly knocked it out of the park either. Activision, Ubisoft, and EA seem to have been coasting as well. That said, I was looking at some EA Play sales today and I didn't realize EA has quietly had a fairly decent generation. Nothing truly great, but not as bad as I thought they were having.

Some highlights:
- It Takes Two - This was the overall 2019 GOTY and I have to give EA props for sticking with a crazy fucking creator giving him time and budget to make his magnum opus after two trial attempts in Brothers and A Way Out. It felt like a Nintendo game at times and I do not associate that with EA of all publishers.

- Star Wars Jedi Survivor - Another game with great old school level design and storytelling you'd expect from a first party sony title. Sadly, Respawn rushed it refusing to delay it further despite EA giving them more time to fix it. Not going to blame EA for its technical issues.

- Dead Space Remake - Another excellent traditional metroidvania single player game. Not as good looking as Callisto but probably a better game overall.

Low Lights:

Battlefield 2042 - Visually stunning but another misstep after the fantastic Battlefield 1 in 2016. Repeats all the mistakes of BFV and makes maps even bigger and just doesnt have the same intensity as BF1. Still some fun to be had if you are a battlefield fan sick of mindless cod games and battle royale shooters.

Immortals - I admire them for investing in another risky single player game but this game is just boring. Not bad, just bland.

NFS Unbound - Another mediocre game. Expected way more from Criterion.

Not going to bring up their sports games, but at least they look fantastic thanks to the face and hair tech enhancements in Frostbite. Having three great games in 3.5 years isnt a big accomplishment, but I dont think they have produced an aggressively bad game this gen. Maybe Wild Hearts but i didnt play that one. Dragon Age is next and it doesnt look particularly great. But so far, im gonna have to give them a B based on the 3 truly great games they have delivered despite other missteps.

What does gaf think of EA's output this gen?

 

[SlimeGooGoo]

.

 

[ungalo]

3 out of 10

 

[Draugoth]

They are somehow better than Activision Blizzard, if you told me this 7 years ago i would have laughed at your face.

Blizzard turned all of their games into money sucking machines, EA meanwhile still have the decency of releasing single-player games with no microtransactions like Dead Space and Jedi Survivior.

 

[bender]

Like Activision, largely irrelevant to my tastes with rare exceptions (Dead Space Remake in this case) which would put them slightly above Ubisoft. I voted D.

 

[Puscifer]

Maybe I have my nostalgia goggles on but since the start of the PS4 I only know EA for Sports and Gacha shit.

Crazy how much variety they had on the PS2/XBOX/GC

 

[SantaC]

Less worse than Squeenix

Which doesn't mean much at all

when was the last time EA put out a game better than rebirth?

 

[SHA]

Mirrors edge is dead, bf 42 lacks single player, Dragon age trailer underwhelming, I'll vote for c cause technically current gen haven't started yet with ea.

 

[nani17]

How many studios have they killed off now?

 

[Hudo]

Command & Conquer Remastered Collection and Dead Space Remake were both pretty good.

But I don't have any faith whatsoever in Dragon Age: Veilguard or whatever EA DICE will shit out next.

 

[Denton]

It takes two, CnC remaster, jedi survivor, dead space remake.

One original IP, one good SW game, one remaster and one remake.

Pretty abysmal output for a company of this size.

D

 

[Bloobs]

Dead Space is metroidvania now?

 

[Gamezone]

They came back to Steam, and some of their games doesn't require their shitty launcher, which is good. Hopefully they can get rid of the EA app completely.

 

[bender]

Dead Space is metroidvania now?

You just didn't stomp on enough limbs to have the necromorphs drop a missile tank.

 

[Valt7786]

They cancelled/shelved Dead Space 2 remake to put the team on Battlefield, so they can get fucked in my most humble of opinions.

 

[Bloobs]

They cancelled/shelved Dead Space 2 remake to put the team on Battlefield, so they can get fucked in my most humble of opinions.

Nah, BF is on life support. They need to fix the franchise.

 

[ReBurn]

I haven't purchased anything they've released since Jedi Fallen Order in 2019. Not a single game this gen.

 

[Dr.Morris79]

D, for Dog poo.

 

[analog_future]

Not awful. I thought Immortals was actually kind of underrated and had a fun time with it. I would’ve liked to see what Ascendant Studios would’ve conjured up next.

Dead Space was a masterpiece. Jedi Survivor was buggy but excellent. It Takes Two earned its GOTY recognition.

It’s just a shame that their great games (Dead Space) and experimental new IP (Immortals) were financial failures.

 

[SlimeGooGoo]

.

 

[Kupfer]

Didn't buy an EA game this gen, so F.

When they start respecting their customers again and not just using them as cash cows, then we can start talking about an D.
If good games also come out of it, we'll get into spheres that will become interesting again

 

[Fbh]

B for intention, C for quality.

I appreciate them still investing in single player games like Jedi Survivor, Immortals, Dead Space and the upcoming Dragon Age.
I also like their continued relationship with Hazelight.

But aside from It Takes Two I haven't been particularly impressed with any of their games.
Jedi Survivor was underwhelming, Dragon Age looks lame, Dead Space was cool I guess but felt a bit unnecessary, and Immortals was straight up awful.

 

[Starbuck2907]

Well, they patched Battlefield 2042 until it was good. And they remade Dead Space. They put out “It Takes Two.”.

If you don’t count remakes, patches, or indies they signed, they basically didn’t do much of anything but crap out the same sports games. Maybe the new college football game will be good?

 

[Putonahappyface]

 

[hemo memo]

Their indie efforts are really great.

 

[Jaybe]

It takes two was last gen, so D for EA

 

[poodaddy]

Shite, but It Takes Two was great.

 

[T4keD0wN]

Theyve been getting a lot better these past few years imo, in contrast to most publishers like 2k and Ubisoft.

Not like that is impressive since its not hard to improve from the last place, especially while others are trying to get worse at a faster rate then them.

 

[Deerock71]

Dead Space is metroidvania now?

That's what I was thinking. Wha...?

 

[Codes 208]

Dead space and star wars were good, but everything else was forgettable or not my taste.

So D…
…For Dead Space

 

[Punished Miku]

They had that "art games" initiative in the 360 era. Mirror's Edge, Dead Space, Dante's Inferno, that Yarn indie game. This gen is a bit similar. Dead Space again, Jedi 1 and 2, Tales of Kenzera Zau, that Monster Hunter knock off, Immortals. None of them are all that great but I commend them for trying to branch out. I liked the Jedi games.

Intentions 7
Results 6. Would have preferred an original Dead Space. Jedi games are better than Dante's Inferno atleast. Nothing is as good as Mirror's Edge 1. Zau is probably better than those yarn games.

 

[M.W.]

Jedi games are the worst of the bunch. With that said, C.

 

[Brigandier]

F

 

[Gameplay Gods Bless]

This generation has had its issues with first party publishers focusing on cross gen games and producing some duds, but third parties haven't exactly knocked it out of the park either. Activision, Ubisoft, and EA seem to have been coasting as well. That said, I was looking at some EA Play sales today and I didn't realize EA has quietly had a fairly decent generation. Nothing truly great, but not as bad as I thought they were having.

Some highlights:
- It Takes Two - This was the overall 2019 GOTY and I have to give EA props for sticking with a crazy fucking creator giving him time and budget to make his magnum opus after two trial attempts in Brothers and A Way Out. It felt like a Nintendo game at times and I do not associate that with EA of all publishers.

- Star Wars Jedi Survivor - Another game with great old school level design and storytelling you'd expect from a first party sony title. Sadly, Respawn rushed it refusing to delay it further despite EA giving them more time to fix it. Not going to blame EA for its technical issues.

- Dead Space Remake - Another excellent traditional metroidvania single player game. Not as good looking as Callisto but probably a better game overall.

Low Lights:

Battlefield 2042 - Visually stunning but another misstep after the fantastic Battlefield 1 in 2016. Repeats all the mistakes of BFV and makes maps even bigger and just doesnt have the same intensity as BF1. Still some fun to be had if you are a battlefield fan sick of mindless cod games and battle royale shooters.

Immortals - I admire them for investing in another risky single player game but this game is just boring. Not bad, just bland.

NFS Unbound - Another mediocre game. Expected way more from Criterion.

Not going to bring up their sports games, but at least they look fantastic thanks to the face and hair tech enhancements in Frostbite. Having three great games in 3.5 years isnt a big accomplishment, but I dont think they have produced an aggressively bad game this gen. Maybe Wild Hearts but i didnt play that one. Dragon Age is next and it doesnt look particularly great. But so far, im gonna have to give them a B based on the 3 truly great games they have delivered despite other missteps.

What does gaf think of EA's output this gen?

F for what they did with Jedi Survivor.

 

[Complistic]

They've got a few good indies and I really enjoyed Jedi Survivor. I have no idea what they're doing with Battlefield and the entirety of Bioware.

3/10

 

[Barakov]

C. Though that's only because of the Dead Space Remake.

 

[West Texas CEO]

I'll never forgive them for what they did to NFL football. NEVER

 

[Mister Wolf]

B. They Remade Dead Space and the Jedi games are excellent.

 

[Danjin44]

Only game I enjoyed from EA this gen was Dead Space remake…..D.

 

[Unknown?]

They are somehow better than Activision Blizzard, if you told me this 7 years ago i would have laughed at your face.

Blizzard turned all of their games into money sucking machines, EA meanwhile stills have the decency of releasing single-player games with no microtransactions like Dead Space and Jedi Survivior.

EA and Activision have always traded blows on who's the worst publisher.

 

[pqueue]

C-

 

[SportsFan581]

I give them a bit of a pass since most of their focus is on the yearly sports releases. At least they have still been rolling the dice on a few projects like the Jedi games, the dead space remake, etc. I'd go with a C.

 

[DKPOWPOW]

C

They are a shadow of their former selves, but still release good games from time to time.

 

[Platinumstorm]

I gave them an F. I haven't decided if it's because they've changed their target audience to ONLY the Sims audience, or if they are just truly lost.

 

[Seider]

I like this generation EA.They still release single player games and thats nice.

 

[drganon]

 

[Flabagast]

I haven't purchased anything they've released since Jedi Fallen Order in 2019. Not a single game this gen.

Me too actually, and I buy like one game a month, sometimes more.

That’s wild

 

[AJUMP23]

C for the return of college football.

 

[Hypereides]

Not really worth talking about these days and much less worth giving them a grade imo. I'll oppose the common consensus and say that Aveum looks somewhat cool though. Aside from that, they're sellouts. Wilson is more interested in the money above their reputation with artistic integrity. Hope that line of thinking works out for him and his investors in the long run...

 

[Polygonal_Sprite]

Botching Battlefield as badly as they did aswell as the technical state of Star Wars and DS Remake are the reason I said a C.