Summary
- Some EA games received undeserved hate from the gaming community due to past mistakes and comparison to predecessors.
- Despite initial issues, games like Star Wars Battlefront 2, Dead Space 3, and Mass Effect: Andromeda offer enjoyable experiences.
- EA's Need for Speed: Unbound delivers a strong racing experience, but faces criticism mostly due to past franchise missteps.
As successful as EA Games is in the games industry, the publisher has received a lot of hate. Some of it, admittedly, is justified. The company did win the "Worst Company in America" award from The Consumerist two years in a row, after all. There is a point, however, where hating EA is more of a meme than it is a justifiable opinion.
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Take these games, for example. EA published each of them, and while they all have their issues that are worth criticizing, none of them are so bad that they deserve the hate they've received from the gaming community. From rough launches to franchises with too much baggage, these EA games get way too much hate.
Star Wars Battlefront 2
Let Them Cook
Star Wars Battlefront 2
- Released
- November 17, 2017
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- T for Teen: Violence
- Genre(s)
- FPS
Star Wars Battlefront 2 received a ton of well-deserved hate when it first launched. It was a microtransaction disaster, one of the worst examples of a publisher's financial goals stepping in the way of player enjoyment. Beyond cosmetic items, the game locked its most powerful PvP weapons and characters behind a system that was essentially "loot boxes inside of loot boxes." The developers' defense of these systems remains the most downvoted comment on Reddit to this day, seven years after it was posted.
Those shady corporate practices earned all the scorn they got, but the game itself wasn't the issue there; it was the monetization. The thing is, anyone who still plays Battlefront 2 knows that a lot of these issues are things of the past, and what's left behind is a really great Star Wars game. Microtransactions are virtually non-existent today beyond a handful of cosmetic items, and the gameplay is some of DICE's best work to date. For many, Battlefront 2 found its way back into their good graces and has since become arguably the best entry in the Battlefront series.
Dead Space 3
Impossible Standards
Dead Space 3
- Released
- February 5, 2013
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- M For Mature 17+ due to Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language
- Genre(s)
- Third-Person Shooter, Horror
The Dead Space trilogy came out of nowhere in 2008; an era when, outside of Resident Evil, the survival horror genre wasn't doing all that well. The first game was a breakout hit, a terrifying mix of Alien and Dawn of the Dead with a gory and satisfying combat system. Then, three years later, Dead Space 2 blew it out of the water. Needless to say, there were a lot of expectations going into Dead Space 3, and it would be silly to suggest that those expectations were met.
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With that said, taken on its own, Dead Space 3 is a very cool sci-fi action horror game. The combat is frenetic, featuring both human and necromorph enemies, occasionally at the same time, and guns are customizable and readily available thanks to a universal ammo type. Plus, Dead Space 3's story is excellent, adding a boatload of lore to the history of the necromorphs and upping the stakes even further for the fourth game that tragically never arrived. Sure, it has less horror than many expected, and it's a far cry from the series' best, but it's still a solid video game.
Dragon Age: The Veilguard
Bad First Impressions
Dragon Age: The Veilguard
- Released
- October 31, 2024
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- M For Mature 17+ // Blood, Nudity, Sexual Themes, Strong Language, Violence
- Genre(s)
- RPG
To be clear: no, Dragon Age: The Veilguard is not on par with its predecessors. Yes, it has moments of very clunky dialogue, and it sorely lacks any of the deeper RPG elements that were, up to this point, staples of the series. But is it an awful game? No, it's not that either. It is an odd game, though. The scaffolding of what were clearly meant to be live-service systems is quite glaring in the early stages, as are the writing problems, and with a handful of people prepared to hate the game well before it even launched, this was the spark that led to a wildfire of online disdain.
However, there's a moment about 10–12 hours into the game, just after players fight their first dragon, where all that starts to fall away. The dialogue is cleaned up, except for the occasional bad line, and the story shows its hand and becomes very intriguing, especially for fans of the previous games. Best of all, the characters start to grow more complex, and they quickly become a standout part of the experience. Add to that a combat system that improves throughout, unique weapons with gameplay-changing effects, plus a thrilling final chapter, and a solid portion of Dragon Age: The Veilguard is a pretty good game. It doesn't deserve a free pass for the issues it does have, but it also doesn't deserve the rabid hate that it received.
Titanfall
Better In Every Way Except The One That Counts
Titanfall
- Released
- March 11, 2014
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Strong Language, Violence
- Genre(s)
- FPS
The original Titanfall took a lot of swings, and in an era where Call of Duty was the obsession of every shooter fan, that caused some consternation. The thing is, it absolutely nailed all of them. Titanfall was an online-only multiplayer FPS. It featured a surprisingly interesting single-player campaign woven into its PvP modes and a high-flying, fast-paced combat system. When compared to its sequel's PvP offerings, the maps were better designed, Titans were stronger and more valuable, and both gadgets and guns were a lot more effective.
The thing is, Titanfall 2 has a fantastic single-player campaign, easily one of the best campaigns in FPS history. Because of this, even though the PvP elements of Titanfall 2 fall short in a lot of ways, it's remembered as the superior game because of its single-player mode. Maybe that's fair, but it does a disservice to its predecessor. To this day, there is no feeling in gaming that matches the experience of ripping another player out of a Titan in the middle of a match . Titanfall was a great game, it just lacks the one thing its sequel has: an unforgettable story campaign.
Mass Effect: Andromeda
Graphics Aren't Everything
Mass Effect: Andromeda
- Released
- March 1, 2017
WHERE TO PLAY
There's no topping the original Mass Effect Trilogy; let's just get that out of the way. It's not only one of the best RPG trilogies ever; it's one of the best space opera stories of all time, in any medium. That's not something a developer can just replicate, but BioWare tried to anyway with Mass Effect: Andromeda. The result was, unsurprisingly, a mixed bag. However, what this Mass Effect entry is most remembered for is glitches and poor graphical fidelity.
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These were undeniably problems at launch, and they frustrated many players, especially long-time fans of the series. The good news is that these are the kinds of issues that patches will resolve, and that's exactly what happened. Now that the kinks have been ironed out, what Mass Effect: Andromeda offers is the series' best combat, open exploration of five unique maps, and a story that, while not comparable to the original trilogy, is still a great ride with lots of interesting lore and characters. It's more than worth a playthrough today, but because of the early narrative around its technical state, it remains in the doghouse.
Crysis 3
A Delicate Balance
Crysis 3
- Released
- February 19, 2013
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- M For Mature 17+ due to Blood, Strong Language, Violence
- Genre(s)
- FPS
The difference between Crysis and Crysis 2 was night and day. The original game was a graphics-card-devouring visual monster that instantly became a benchmark for the hardware strength of any gaming PC. "That rig is sick, but can it run Crysis?" Usually, the answer was no. Crysis was a revolutionary shooter that boasted a stunning open-world island and a player character wearing power armor that let them do anything from turning invisible to picking up and throwing an SUV. Crysis 2, while not a bad game, was a linear FPS that was effectively Call of Duty with lasers, and it ran just fine on late-gen consoles.
The franchise name was already sullied by the time Crysis 3 rolled around, and that's a shame, because it's the best of both worlds. It was still released on late-gen PS3s and Xbox 360s, but it pushed that hardware to its limits. In doing so, the environments were opened up significantly, so even though Crysis 3 isn't fully open-world, the range of options for how to approach combat is varied and deeply satisfying, just like it was in the original. While maybe "hated" isn't the perfect word to describe opinions surrounding Crysis 3, it still deserves way more love than it got.
Need For Speed: Unbound
The Comeback Falls Short
Need for Speed Unbound
- Released
- December 2, 2022
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- Teen
- Genre(s)
- Racing, Open-World
The Need for Speed series has had a tumultuous run. From the height of its powers, it was reduced to a tie-in game for a movie adaptation of itself, followed by a microtransaction-riddled, pared-down version of the beloved franchise in Need for Speed: Payback. Need for Speed: Heat started to push things in the right direction, but it still wasn't quite up to the level of its contemporaries. By the time Need for Speed: Unbound came along, it was competing against the likes of Forza Horizon 5, and there was concern that the series' flickering life was about to be snuffed out for good.
As it turns out, Need for Speed: Unbound is pretty damn good. It boasts a stellar new visual design that sets it far apart from any other racing game, but it's a look that some love and others can't stand. Car customization is robust and aesthetically satisfying, and while the open world is smaller than the one seen in Payback, it is dense with traffic and full of races to win. It's a great racing game, but it carries the weight of its franchise on its back, like Sam Porter Bridges with a pack full of Ceramics. It's widely praised, but also widely hated, and because it didn't blow the doors off upon release, it remains dragged down by its past.
Mirror's Edge: Catalyst
Brushed Off And Forgotten
Mirror's Edge: Catalyst
- Released
- April 22, 2016
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- t
- Genre(s)
- Action-Adventure, Adventure, Platformer
At a time when being in first person always meant shooting, Mirror's Edge experimented with the idea of first-person parkour, and it was a resounding success. Set in a dystopian sci-fi city, players took on the role of a runner named Faith, who had to deliver information by navigating a series of linear missions that involved running on walls, jumping between tall buildings, and sliding on zip lines. It was a great game, but it was only just successful enough to get noticed, and many fans wondered if a sequel was even in the cards.
Along came Mirror's Edge: Catalyst. Developed by the same team at DICE as the original, it took the series into the open-world genre. However, after launching to middling reviews, the game was seemingly cast aside and has rarely been talked about since, as if everyone just shrugged and declared the series dead right then and there. The thing is, what made Mirror's Edge great—the parkour—is still present in Catalyst, and players are given an entire open world to play with it in and a dedicated skill tree to learn new moves from. That alone makes Mirror's Edge: Catalyst worthwhile. Sure, the combat isn't great, and the story is too serious. But the core of the gameplay, when players are chaining together exhilarating parkour runs across the rooftops of a sci-fi city, is still fantastic.
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