Was EA ever good?

maybe

such a stupid question...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Electronic_Arts_games

EA's got its hate band since the nineties. You know, when they've started acquiring great studios, exploiting them in the worst possible way and bury them. We've lost so many because the way EA managed those studios: Origin Systems ( founded by Richard Garriot ), Maxis ( Will Wright ), Bullfrog ( Peter Molyneux ), Westwood ( Brett Sperry and Louis Castle ), Pandemic Studios ( known for its SW Battlefront, Full Spectrum Warrior and Mercenaries series ), Phenomic ( the most recent victim and known for its Spellforce series ). If things are not going well with Dragon Age 3, whatever remained of Bioware will join this list.

But before the acquisitions, before EA becoming the rampaging monster that is now, EA was the rock star. They have great games and they were decent publishers. Mid-nineties, everything change and it got worse with the passing of the years. Great companies closed, tons of great IP's misused or not used at all, the customer support became terrible, everything became about making money for shareholders and less about what customers might want. And when stuff doesn't work, EA always blames somebody: the pirates, the customers that don't understand their vision, anyone else is guilty for their failures, except them. So, the hate bandwagon remains. And EA heads for his third award: America's worst company was won by EA two years in the row. No other companies managed that so far. And it looks like EA might won that title this year, too. Which will make three years in a row...That's how bad is seen EA as we have this thread.

P.S.: The wiki list has a lot of games that were only published by EA, but they do not own or developed.

EA never had games of their own because EA is only a publisher. They did publish good games in the past (Dragon Age: Origins and Mass Effect) and I remember playing PlanetFall back in the days (of 5.25" floppy discs :D) as well. SO yeah they did publish good titles indeed...

I have spent the best moments of my childhood with FIFA 2003, Medal of Honor: Allied Assault and NFS: Hot Pursuit 2. So yeah, it was good.

up until 2005 yes. after that money changed them

EA brought Marble Madness to my Mega Drive so for that alone I will never hate them.

In he 80's and early 90's it was a respectable company with great games.

From personal experience:

• Archon: The Light and the Dark
• Pinball Construction Set
• Boulder Dash
• Music Construction Set
• Bard's Tale
• Racing Destruction Set
• Marble Madness
• Skate or Die!
• Caveman Ughlympics
• 688 Attack Sub
• Populous
• SimCity (the original 1989 one)
• Syndicate (the original 1993 one)
• The early Need for Speed games

They also published some great games from the developers they bought an then ran to the ground. (Origin, Westwood, Bullfrog,...)

Future Cop: L.A.P.D maybe?

I think during 5th and 6th generation of consoles they were very good indeed. They had some flaws back then too but who hasn't.

Mirror's Edge

I liked Need for Speed 1-4 + Porsche Unleashed + Underground 1/2 + Most wanted.
Also, FIFA 98 RTWC, 99.
Maybe something else...

Spore were an excellent game, I still remember spending hours upon hours playing it :)

And to those who hate their CS, it isn't that bad, I used my spore keys on an account I don't have access to any longer and they gave me keys for Spore and both expansions for free within a few days. (Danish CS, not sure how the english is tho..)

I see so many games mentioned here to praise EA...but they didn't develop them. You tend to forget that EA is mostly just a publisher. EA as publisher was always quite bad with their policies and so on. EA as developer was acceptable most of the time but far from good.

Battlefield Vietnam(best soundtrack ever ^^), BF1942+Packs and BF2+Packs. Meadl of Honor AA, PA, Simcity 5000, NFS Underground2...

I don't have a gaming pc(not even close) neither a recent console(What I have now is an old PS2) so I don't know and pretty much don't care about recent releases because I'll only have the chance to play then in a future where now-a-days gaming pc becomes cheap...

Yes but like most people say, EA doesnt MAKE games, they just publish. I'd say after around 2004/2005, they quit being cool and started cashwhoring out little by little

I loved them when they were releasing stuff like Heart of Africa and Mail Order Monsters for the C64

There are so many good EA games its crazy to ask this question. EA is probably the best from big publishers considering the games and their rating.

Did anybody say The Sims?

There is a huge lot of awesome games released by EA in the past and that hasn´t changed in the present.. what EA is hated for is its treatment of the customers and the tendency to constantly drive great developers and gaming-franchises into the wall with sheer greed. All love for the money, no love for gaming or the gamers.

I ain't even mad...

I remember reading about a #@!%$!er from Activision who makes BlizzTARDS make hteir games even more cashwh#%!#ing xD forgot his name...i do miss the good ol days of Activision's Enter The Matrix et cetera,also EA Games's too yeap....and heck even Ubisoft's & GFWL...if GFWL ever had a period of pro-customer and less/zero corporate f@!%!@s...

this game

I remember at the PS2 era, EA did good games. Can't name a specific one but I remember they had quite good ones.

• Need for Speed 3 - INTRO - real cars, not some renders!
• NHL 98 - INTRO, EA SPORTS
• FIFA 98 - INTRO
  and many more games

AWEEEEESOOOOOME!!!