EA, or Electronic Arts to be proper, has been making video games since the company was founded in 1982. Like all video game developers, EA has had its ups and downs in terms of quality titles. Some games have gotten the brunt of hate online. Sometimes for good reasons, like glitches, and sometimes for unjust reasons.
Best EA Games
No one knows controversy like Electronic Arts, but they’ve still made some great video games. Here are their best ones.
The following games are not that bad in retrospect. Are Anthem or GoldenEye: Rogue Agent the best games in the world? No, but they, and these other games, have qualities that are good and worth examining. After some time apart, perhaps others will feel differently about these EA games as well.
Rearrange the covers into the correct US release order.
Rearrange the covers into the correct US release order.
Easy (5)Medium (7)Hard (10)
Anthem
The Iron Man Of RPGs
Anthem
- Released
-
February 22, 2019
Anthem didn’t quite nail its landing for a lot of BioWare fans and for good reason. It lacked content at launch, and the roadmap wasn’t exactly stellar. The story elements were also lacking between the mission cutscenes and what little players could accomplish in town, and BioWare is known for crafting compelling stories.
That said, the actual core gameplay outranks a lot of BioWare games because the mech suits, called Javelins, were a good idea for a class system. Players could choose one at the beginning, but then could eventually switch between them all, and they had builds like tanks and even a mage-like one. Shooting felt great, and flying was even better in the semi-open-world areas. Sadly, anyone who missed the boat on Anthem can never check it out because the online servers shut down in January 2026.
Mass Effect: Andromeda
Held Back By Cosmic Glitches
Mass Effect: Andromeda had one big problem going in before launch and one major problem at launch. Pre-launch, the issue was that fans could not foresee a new trilogy being as good without their beloved Commander Shepard. Fans can get over characters easily if there is a compelling reason to, but the one thing they couldn’t ignore was the messy launch, as this game was full of bugs.
Every Game EA Canceled This Generation
EA may publish and develop tons of games every year, but they’ve also been known to pull the plug on various projects as well.
T-poses, disappearing faces, guns that didn’t work, and more glitches like these were memed online, thus scaring away fans. Those who stuck with it, waiting for patches patiently as much as Cyberpunk 2077 fans had to, were rewarded with a pretty decent Mass Effect game. The vehicle segments were good, the shooting and powers could be argued to be better than the original trilogy, and the party, while not as iconic, still had some standout characters. Thankfully, anyone who snubbed their nose at Mass Effect: Andromeda initially can try it again.
Dragon Age 2
A Sequel Smaller In Scope
Dragon Age 2 is the final BioWare game and franchise, worth discussing, and it’s almost baffling in retrospect to know this game was disliked around launch. The first game was an epic journey with wildly diverse dialogue choices and areas to explore, complete with MMO-style combat that could be strategically altered in battle. The big issue with the sequel, then, is that it was smaller in scope. Instead of adventuring across the realm, the story took place in one town, Kirkwall, with players venturing off into some nearby dungeons occasionally.
It’s not that this idea was bad; it was just different, but underneath the more grounded location was a lot of good improvements. The player character had a name, no matter the gender, Hawke, and they could speak. Combat was switched to an action style, and it was better for it. Dragon Age 2 is not the best Dragon Age game, but it is far from the worst. While there is no HD remaster of Dragon Age 2, it is available to play on Xbox systems thanks to backwards compatibility.
Immortals Of Aveum
An Inventive Magic And Gunplay System
Immortals of Aveum is a game where the flaws should be obvious after playing for a few hours. The story and its characters are not the best. It’s a somewhat generic premise about an endless war of kingdoms battling it out in a fantasy world, but instead of sword-wielding knights waging war, the game fully embraces magic as the weapon of choice. Soldiers are imbued with sigils and other gear that make magic seem more like using a gun in a shooter like Call of Duty.
In fact, the gunplay could be argued to be more interesting than a lot of modern shooters, even though the actual controls aren’t perfect. Players could get loot and modify their weapon loadout as they progressed, with magic taking on the form of rocket launchers, sniper rifles, and more. Blocking attacks with a magic shield was as easy as lassoing enemies with a whip-like melee attack. Like Anthem, Immortals of Aveum’s gameplay more than makes it a compelling reason to play the game, even if the story is uninspired.
Def Jam: Icon
Feeling The Music
The Def Jam games on the PS2 are some of the most beloved fighting/wrestling games on the system, among the other consoles they debuted on. What made them fun were the quality controls, roster of real-life rappers, and the music to beat opponents to. This is why the hype for the third main game, Def Jam: Icon, was high, but the reception was a bit muted upon release. The music, while great, became a gameplay mechanic that wasn’t fully fleshed out.
If players had control of the music during a match, they could rotate a turntable and make gas pumps explode or have speakers blast out sound waves, for example. The opponent could take advantage of the music too, so there was a push-pull between tracks like a game of musical tug of war. While a cool idea, it didn’t feel fully fleshed out, and the overall fighting moves were imprecise. On the plus side, beyond the great music, the customization options for the player character’s rags-to-riches mode were great, making Def Jam: Icon a better game overall. It could have been a lot better, but it also could have been a lot worse as a PS3 fighting game.
GoldenEye: Rogue Agent
Stirred, But Not Shaken
GoldenEye 007 was a phenomenon on the N64 as both a multiplayer experience and a good Bond game that proved licensed games could be good. That’s why GoldenEye: Rogue Agent intrigued a lot of N64 fans, even though it wasn’t a direct sequel. It was instead a legacy game that brought together villains from across the Bond universe in a sort of Suicide Squad-like story where the protagonist, GoldenEye, is hired by Goldfinger to go after other supervillains after he is disavowed from MI6.
The character earns his name because he gets a cybernetic golden eye that players can upgrade in the campaign to get new powers, like the ability to hack weapons or shield themselves from bullets. The powers and the cavalcade of campy villains are what made this game stand out, but there are also bad things. Environments aren’t fully detailed, and the controls aren’t accurate. It’s far from the worst first-person shooter of the PS2 generation, even though GoldenEye: Rogue Agent reviews were not kind to it at the time. However, if Bond fans go in just wanting to see a weird oddity, divorcing it from the original GoldenEye 007, then GoldenEye: Rogue Agent is not that bad of an experience.
Fuse
Insomniac Games’ One Dud
Fuse is probably one of the most forgotten and maligned titles from Insomniac Games that had a lot of potential when it was first unveiled as a more cartoony shooter with a fun attitude akin to Overwatch. Upon development reflections, the game changed, and the end result was not as cool as the initial 2011 trailer when the game was called OverStrike. There are four heroes to choose from, each with a unique weapon and power from a shield that can absorb bullets and deflect them back at enemies, to flame-infused rounds.
As a standard cover shooter, Fuse is not that interesting while playing alone with AI companions. However, in a full party of four players cooperating toward goals, Fuse was a good time. Plus, the duller or cornered aspects of the story could be mocked with friends. Co-op often makes dull experiences better, and the sad thing is, like Anthem, online support has been shuttered for Fuse as of 2021. That said, two-player co-op is still available and better than nothing.
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Ubisoft has been around for decades, and these are the ten essentials that are flawless experiences from beginning to end.
