411 Games Top 5 02.09.12: Top 5 EA Developed or Published Games

Posted by Sean Garmer on 02.09.2012

Come in and see who the 411 staff picked. Does the Mass Effect series take it all or did Madden get the touchdown for the win? You never know, someone could have picked something out of nowhere like Ultima Online too.

Hello everyone, I hope this week was a good one for all the readers out there. This week we have three 411 newbies joining the Games Top 5, so hopefully the readers do not hate on them too much. Let's get this show on the road shall we.




EA has been publishing games since 1983 with the Pinball Construction Set for the Apple II. EA later got into development as well and has gone on to become a billion dollar company thanks to sports franchises FIFA and John Madden Football. They have also created classic gaming franchises such as: Road Rash, Sim City, Command & Conquer, Medal of Honor, Ultima Online, and Need for Speed just to name a few. This has led to EA being able to lend a hand in making the Mass Effect series, the Burnout series, the Bioware Star Wars titles, and many more. In honor of EA's latest venture Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning along with 38 Studios and Big Huge Games, this is the Top 5 best EA published or developed video games.

Adam Larck (Games Zone Editor)

Honorable Mentions:


Dante's Inferno - This was an entertaining take on the book by the same name. I'm still waiting for the sequel to be announced.


Madden - Even though I'm not a big sports fan you can't deny the staying power and profit that Madden can churn for EA each year.


5.Battlefield: Bad Company 2 - The series has had its highs and lows for me, but Bad Company 2 is probably the one I've played most. The single player was decent, but the multiplayer stood out as being entertaining. Once a group of friends and myself got on, I could easily lose a night blowing up buildings or providing support for snipers and teammates. Battlefield 3 may improve on some parts, but I'll still take BC2 over it.

4.The Sims - Look at the following this game got. The Sims seemed to be a joke when announced. I mean, who would want to control a life when you have your own life? But, like SimCity, this became a huge hit, spawning add-ons, sequels and more. The series is still doing hot, with the core following buying everything that comes out for it.

3.Burnout 3 - I've liked the series overall, but really feel like 3 is where the series took over. The controls were smooth, races were fun and it constantly challenged you to improve on your crashing skills to take the top spot. Not only that, but the Crash mode was an ingenious feature that still is seen in Burnout games today.





2.Need for Speed Hot Pursuit - The other top racer from EA, what's not fun about playing cops vs. robbers in high speed cars? Hot Pursuit, either on the PSX or 360/PS3, is a blast to play to try and outrun cops. Plus, if you're feeling good, you can even be a cop to clean the streets of some filth. Hot Pursuit has always been one of the better titles in the series, and the re-release just confirmed that.

1.Mass Effect - EA was extremely smart to jump on this BioWare series. Mass Effect sounded like an interesting title, but it wasn't until fans got their hands on it that we saw how big the series could become. Now, we have a third title set for release soon and more promised on the horizon. Mass Effect will continue to be one of EA's big sellers and for good reason.

Chris Ferrell (Writer of the Around the Gaming World News Report)

Honorable Mentions:

NCAA Football - Playing this game is about the only way I can see the WVU Mountaineers win a national championship. Anytime I buy this game the first thing I do is win a championship.


5.Dragon Age: Origins - I am a big fan of Western RPGs, and in my eyes BioWare can do no wrong. Since EA owns BioWare they get the credit for this game. Dragon Age: Origins continued to the trend BioWare had established of having overarching storylines that contained major repercussions for player decisions. This game reminded me of a medieval Knights of the old Republic which accounts for my love of it.

4.Crysis 2 - When I played this game I had never even heard of Crysis but the game was recommended to me and I had a Target gift-card to burn, so I bought Crysis 2. Turns out that was a smart decision as I loved the game. What was novel to me was the ability to tailor your character's abilities to play the game how you liked. If you like to use stealth to silently take out enemies you can do that. But, if you are one of those gamers that likes to go in guns blazing you can max out your armor skills. The addition of simplified RPG-like skills made the game fun for me. Its one of those rare shooters that I have replayed multiple times and that's mostly because I could use a new play style and the game was brand new to me.



3.Sim City - When I was a kid I loved Sim City, there was just something fun about building up a great city just to destroy it and have to rebuild. The first time I played Sim City was on my SNES and it became one of the games I played all the time. This is a game that lets players do literally whatever they want and that kind of open ended gameplay was groundbreaking when Sim City first game out. Nowadays, Sim City has spawned numerous sequels and spin-offs such as The Sims but nothing really compares to the first one I played.





2.The Madden Series - I sincerely doubt that anyone in 1989 expected the Madden NFL games to sell near as well as they did, let alone become the sales juggernaut that it is today. Today the release of the newest version of the game is considered by many to be the ‘Madden Holiday.' Today, the game is credited with bringing many new young fans to the NFL and for teaching young fans how the game of football is played.



1.Mass Effect 2 - Admittedly, I'm a huge fan of the Mass Effect series. But, EA was only responsible for the Mass Effect 2 as the original was released by EA Games. ME2 took all of the things that didn't work very well in the original and stripped them out. The game felt different than the original and was just as fun. Plus you have to give them credit for being one of the first to allow importing of a character and all the plot points from the preceding game. Mass Effect 2 wrapped up a great story with fun shooter mechanics and in my opinion was a blast. Personally, I think a lot of the success in this game can be attributed to EA leaving BioWare alone to produce the game. Hopefully, this trend continues in upcoming Mass Effect 3.

Gavin Napier (Writer of This is The End(ing)

Honorable Mentions:

I'm not a fan of Honorable Mentions. I'm a stickler for a Top 5 being a Top 5. Just a personal preference. However, I'm going to use this opportunity to say that Madden NFL, NCAA Football, NBA Live, Tiger Woods Golf, and NASCAR won't be appearing on this list for me. Why? Because as franchises, these games are remarkably important and great. I can't think of a single iteration of any one of them that deserves to be on a Top 5. So there.


5. Mutant League Football - Released in 1993 for the Sega Genesis, this still ranks as my 2nd favorite football game, behind NFL 2k5. Featuring 16 teams and 3 All Star Teams, as well as parodies of real NFL players (Bones Jackson, anybody?), the gameplay was fast and fun. 13 year old me thought playing football in toxic waste with monsters was awesome, as was the fact that you could murder the other team (which caused a fumble) and bribe refs. The game spawned Mutant League Hockey and a cartoon, and Mutant League Basketball which was never completed. As a tribute, EA included an achievement in Madden NFL 09 called "Midway Monster" for creating a player named Bones Jackson.

4.Spore - Designed by Will Wright, developed by Maxis, and published by EA, Spore was a brilliant little creation. In it, you develop a microorganism from single celled beginnings to (hopefully) the dominant species in the galaxy. The brilliance in the game, I think, is that it would be virtually impossible to play it the same way twice. Did it have its faults? Absolutely. Could it have been a bit deeper? Sure. Has it spawned a ton of spinoff games on a variety of platforms and drawn the attention of people like National Geographic? Yes. If you doubt its worth here, remember that it was pirated over 500,000 times within a month of its global release. In today's age, what could be a better tribute?

3.American McGee's Alice - Alice takes place in the years following her second "canon" adventure, Through The Looking Glass. Alice has been institutionalized after a house fire has killed her family, and she finds her way back to Wonderland. This is a Wonderland, though, that would get the Tim Burton Seal of Approval, as it is a dark, dreary, bizarre landscape. Alice has gone mad, and since Wonderland exists in her mind, it has become corrupted. Only Alice can save Wonderland, and in turn will save herself. High concept stuff, huh? The game ran off of the Quake III engine and had a haunting, incredible soundtrack. A long deserved sequel finally released in 2011.





2.SimCity - Another Will Wright/Maxis/EA collaboration makes my list, but seriously, if you grew up in the 16 bit era and didn't love SimCity, I question your humanity. Highly addictive, maddeningly frustrating, and genuinely fun, SimCity made it to computers in 1988 but the version I knew and loved existed on the SNES. As with most great games, the concept is absurdly simple - you're in charge of developing a town. Success or failure of certain goals dictate your performance rating as a mayor. If you get bored, you can unleash hell on your citizens in the form of natural disasters and then try to rebuild (in the FreeLand map, anyway). SimCity led to a ton of sequels across various platforms, but you never forget your first love.


1. Ultima Online - Let me start by saying that I hate MMO's. I just do. I don't feel the need to compete with thousands of people I'll never meet for trinkets. The concept of "grinding" and "farming" hold no enjoyment for me. I'd rather be immersed in a story over a period of hours in a game like Red Dead Redemption, or Adventure Island. My personal distaste, however, doesn't change what Ultima Online means to gaming. Without Ultima Online, there is no Everquest, there is no World of Warcraft, and there is no DC Universe Online either. Ultima took the rough model of what was happening with games like Neverwinter Nights cranked it way past 11 and to about 34. The graphics were better, the gameplay was better, and the game was much deeper, than any game before it. As with any innovation, there have been changes made along the way. Ultima has been forced to adapt on the fly, and has had a fair share of criticisms leveled at it through the years. Some was justified, some wasn't. The game holds 8 Guinness World Records, including "First MMORPG to 100,000 Players" and "Longest Running MMORPG". Ultima Online wasn't just a game changer, it grandfathered an entirely new genre of games, one that dominates a large part of the market today. For that, it remains EA's greatest contribution to gaming - whether I like it or not.

Ryan Costa

5: Mutant League Hockey I don't know maybe it was growing up in Canada with my dad's friends playing this game too often but I never really got into Mutant League Football, Hockey however I have many fond memories of, I mean who wouldn't love to have a landmine create a hole in the ice to stop that breakaway. Wait, they actually kept score in this game?





4: Mass Effect I can only include the first one here as I've only played the first one. I loved the battle system and the cast of characters was very memorable with a Captain Shepard that looked like Captain Janeway for some reason and my motley crew of Wrex the bounty hunter and Liara it provided for stereotyping characters by making them not human and yet still so very memorable. Only a malfunctioning 360 prevented me from continuing the franchise.

3: NCAA March Madness I am a huge sports fan, and have recently seen the light that is college sports, I still pop in and play my 07 version of this game on my playstation 2, why that long ago? Because EA discontinued the series and like the chances of Sam Houston State actually getting to a final four it seems unlikely right now that they will be bringing the series back.






2 Burnout 3: Takedown Simple game with a simple premise, smash into things for points and view the carnage. I chose this entry over any others because this is the only one I've played that had how long your car skid as it crashed, and for a stat junkie like me little things like that made the game addictive to me. Plus who wants to drive properly when you can make your opponent fly off the road.

1 NCAA Football I follow all sports like crazy and with this game, which ranks #1 because I love football. And as crazy as a franchise of Madden can get, bringing up Arkansas State as a national champion has to be harder than getting the Detroit Lions as Super Bowl champs or the Columbus Blue Jackets to be the Stanley cup champs. Oh ok that last one is actually impossible. Still the shear randomness of so many things while providing crisp gameplay makes this my favorite of EA's many games.

Lee Jones

5 - Burnout Paradise - I had never played a previous Burnout and waited months after this came out before picking up it. Whilst abit confusing at first I gradually fell for its gate smashing, takedown giving, cool car driving ways. And man did I love the legendary cars, nighthawk all the ways for me, pretending to be Kit from Knightrider kept me playing long after I would've moved on. This game was greatly supported by DLC with early freebies making fans of some early haters due to its open world nature. I still put this on if I've a spare half hour going.

4 - Skate - Still the most replayed demo of a game for me. This caught me totally by surprise, it was the early days of ps3 when you could still realistically try every demo that came out, played for 15min, thought okay, kept thinking about it so another 15min, then I wanted to try specific tricks and so on till release day. And the game lived up to my expectations by just giving me a larger playground and areas to beat my friends in. Online was pretty cool too though races were so so. All you were given was an area and then you had to keep beating each others score in a HORSE like situation. One of the few skill games I've really tried to master this gen.

3 - Command & Conquer Retaliation - I loved these games on the ps1. Course the plan was always build loads of Mammoth tanks then roll over all competition whilst hiding behind far too many Tesla Coils but that was still fun for me. Its a shame you couldn't do much with naval warfare as system would slow to a crawl but the odd experiment with Tanya's was cool. I used to link this up with my brothers console and we'd agree not to attack each other for an hour, build up then smash the holy hell out of each other. Some of my fondest gaming memories those.

2 - Dead Space - Sometimes you're just in the mood for a scare, and Dead Space dripped with creepy atmosphere. Sure the shocks and curses became less when you realised the necromorphs would have to get through your Ripper before reaching you (a spinning blade held in front of you and fired if wanted) but the Ishimura is still a great ride. Dead Space 2 was also great but I worry how 'action' orientated future games will be. Just stick to great setting, cool guns that level up and a few balanced enemies ta EA.





1 - Dragon Age Origins - I'm a beardy RPG man which is why this takes top spot and not the excellent Mass Effect 2. Origins set up a great world with lots of characters, good AI companions that you have a fair measure of control over, lots of choices for character builds and the temptress Morrigan (who was the best part in my opinion). Your decisions affected storyline, either adding or taking away from your end fight or seeing companions turn on you, added weight to your gameplay. Plenty of mostly good DLC added gameplay to your gameplay. If you like beardy RPG there's on 2 contenders this gen and Dragon Age Origins more than holds its own for story and gameplay against Skyrim.

Francisco Ramirez

5. Dragon Age: Origins - For a man who prefers his RPG's to be made in Japan, I hate to say I loved DA:O! I became addicted to it, Morrigan still haunts me to this day. EA published a gem from Bioware, too bad they can't say that about part two.

4. Freedom Fighters - Here is a game that was just plain fun. Not too serious, didn't try to break any molds. It just did things right! Think Red Dawn, Russia invades the U.S., a plumber picks up a gun and proceeds to fight for his freedom, hence the title. Adding to all the action was a nice little RTS twist and you have yourself a game that deserved a freaking sequel.

3. Mutant League Football - A guilty pleasure from the Genesis days. Take the Madden engine, add monster and mutants, place landmines and firepits among other hazards on a football field, and you have yourself an entertaining afternoon on the old Sega Genesis. This game needs as much of a comeback as Nasty Audibles and Bones Jackson!





2. Def Jam: Fight for New York - There is a reason people still clamor for games using the Aki Engine. Take the fantastic gameplay from Def Jam Vendetta, add a bigger roster, and take it to the streets! Gone were the strict confines of a wrestling ring. Traded in for completely customizable characters and different fighting styles. Not to mention an incredible lineup of hip hop artists and actors, beat the crap out of Lil Kim as Method Man, hell yes!





1.System Shock 2 - Irrational games may be known more for the Bioshock series, but it is this game, published by EA that paved the way for Bioshock, Deus Ex, and any other shooter with RPG elements. Not to mention horror titles. The game received numerous game of the year awards and rightfully deserves all the praise thrown it's way. Also for those Bioshock fans who haven't played this, if you think what Atlas does in Bioshock is shocking, you should look up SHODAN's actions in System Shock 2.

Sean Garmer (Organizer of Games Top 5)

This is list is more of a favorites of mine. I don't like Bioware's RPG's so I haven't played Mass Effect or the Star Wars titles. I also did not like Dragon Age, it is just not my kind of game.


Honorable Mentions:

NCAA Football Series: This isn't a yearly buy for me anymore like FIFA and Madden are. However, I still love it to this day because it gives you a terrific simulation experience of college football. They not only make the game play great on the field, they make it true to life with wonderfully modeled stadiums and crowd noise. They even employ former college football players to work on the game to make sure they are giving fans the experience they deserve. Almost every year NCAA outdoes Madden in a lot of areas and I think there is no doubt that one of those is passion. I loved taking my Arkansas Razorbacks to the national title game and feeling like it was a big moment, unlike how Madden still makes the Superbowl seem like just another game.

5. Def Jam Fight For New York: Does everybody remember when Method Man was still relevant? Even worse when Lil Kim being in a video game might have drawn some females fans? Did you love the days of Wrestlemania 2000 and No Mercy? Well this game had Method Man, Lil Kim, and the AKI engine in it. The story was actually kind of interesting for a fighting/wrestling game too. Def Jam Vendetta was a simple wrestling game and AKI made everything about FFNY much better. Every rapper had their own unique finisher and your created character talked and looked like he belonged amongst the highly paid MCs. This game had so many characters to choose from and each one of them had a certain style as well. This game was a blast in single player or with friends and I wish more wrestling games could be made like this.

4. Shadows of the Damned: If you can be an adult and get past the constant "sexual innuendo" dialogue, you will find a really fun demon killing shooter. I never got tired of killing evil and laughing at Johnson's jokes. Suda 51 is known for their quirky titles and this one is no different with all the blatant sexual humor. However, if you give the game a chance you might find yourself enthralled with the boss fights and trying to get through the worlds. This game reminded me a lot of "Mad World" for the Wii because each boss is made for that level and because the main character doesn't give a crap. He is out to save his girlfriend and he will go through whoever he has to, to accomplish it.





3. Brutal Legend: Double Fine and Tim Schafer may have been the people in charge of the game, but it was EA that picked the title off Activision's scrap heap and decided to help the game get made. Jack Black is the perfect fit for the voice of the main character and he brings so much passion to the character it makes you want to play through the game. I am an old school metal head (whoever thinks that moaning or screaming like an idiot into a microphone is metal needs to get their ears checked.) So, I loved the concept of this game, I loved the music, I loved the ode to metal, it was just awesome. Even after finishing the main story I wanted to go back and make sure I completed everything because I just wanted an excuse to keep playing the game. Lemmy and Ozzy doing voiceovers are just icing on the cake of a great game.






2. Alice 1 & The Madness Returns: I've probably seen every Alice movie and I've read the books a couple of times. However, you know Tim Burton looked at the first Alice game and said I want to make Alice like that. The game is dark, bloody, Alice has gone crazy, and I love it. The second game improved a lot on the first game and developed more of the story so that Alice could find all her memories. I had a blast the whole time through, whether it was finding the Mad Hatter's body parts or fighting through Radula rooms. I think the original author and these two games proved that things can be taken in a different direction and done correctly.


1. FIFA/Madden Series: EA owes a lot of what it can do today to the yearly payout that these games have become all around the world. In the United States, millions of people buy Madden every year and then they join tournaments to become the Ultimate Madden player. I'm a huge soccer fan as well as a diehard Dallas Cowboys fan. So, I think it would be wrong not to mention the impact that FIFA has on the world. Unlike Madden, EA continues to make FIFA the best soccer game on the planet each year and people also go to tournaments to become the Ultimate FIFA player too. They even hold the final tournament as part of the official FIFA calendar each year. This two franchises are EA staples and have been for almost two decades now. If these two games do not sell like they do each year, EA would have a lot less cash and room to operate.

What is Sean doing?:

This week I have been smashing through Final Fantasy XIII-2 as much as I can because I want to have the review up on 411 by Monday morning. I have about 40 hours logged in so far and I have really enjoyed the game. I like the free explorative nature and all the extra worlds and sidequests that add depth to the rather short (for a JRPG) main story. Serah and Noel have grown on me as the game has wore on and I do not mind I cannot play as Lightning anymore.

I also received Kingdoms of Amalur and Rayman: Origins from Gamefly this week. Both of these games are pretty awesome and Rayman: Origins was overlooked for many people's award features in 2011. KOA showcases a great leveling and fighting system that is unparalled as far as western RPG's go. I normally do not like American made RPG's because they mostly delve into the same thing, but maybe KOA made me realize what I have been missing all these years.

What have you guys been playing? Let the staff know.


411 Twitter Break

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Well, that is all for this week folks. Join us next week with the Top 5 love stories or romantic storylines in gaming. Don't forget to give us your lists and leave your thoughts in the comment section below.


Games Coming Out This Week:

Twisted Metal (PS3)



Alan Wake American Nightmare (XBLA)



Rhythm Heaven Fever (Wii)



Tales of Abyss (3DS)