Founded by ex-apple employee Trip Hawkins in 1982, Electronic Arts has gone on to be a juggernaut of the gaming industry exemplified by its$5.15 Billion revenue in 2018.
As well as releasing many fantastic new IP’s, EA has been a dominant force in video game tie-ins to popular movie franchises and sports. These include their manyStar WarsandHarry Pottergames, along with theFIFAandMaddenfranchises. In recent years, EA has become a symbol of what many gamers think is wrong with the gaming industry; through their yearly sports releases that consistently lack significant improvements, to their heavy focus on microtransactions thatled to the infamousStar Wars Battlefront IIcontroversy.
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TheFIFAseries was a pioneer in the rise of modern microtransactions, with its Ultimate Team mode that was the leading contributor to EA’snear $1 Billion microtransaction earnings in the final quarter of 2019. The success ofFIFA’s Ultimate Teamhas led EA to focus on creating online multiplayer-centric games in recent years.
This direction has disappointed many people, as the company has released some of gaming’s best single-player experiences. This list pays homage to those titles, which often had multiplayer modes, but still maintained fantastic single-player campaigns.
10Medal of Honor: Allied Assault (91)
Before theCall of Dutyfranchise debuted in 2003, theMedal of Honorseries dominated the historical FPS market.
Medal of Honor: Allied Assaultputs players in the shoes of a United States Army Ranger and tasks them with completing numerous objective-based missions, including storming Omaha Beach on D-Day. The game was rewarded for its efforts withComputer Gaming World’s Action Game of the Year award, beating titles likeGrand Theft Auto IIIandHitman 2.
9SSX Tricky (92)
The second entry in the critically acclaimedSSXseries,SSX Trickywas published by EA Sports Big, a label of EA that published extreme sports titles likeFIFA StreetandNBA Street Showdown.
The game added Uber moves to the series, which rewarded players who filled their boost meter to the max with the chance to do exaggerated tricks. If the player successfully landed six Uber moves, they’d be rewarded with an infinite boost for the rest of the stage.
8Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri (92)
Released in 1999,Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauriwas considered to be a spiritual sequel to theCivilizationseries, which was two installments deep at the time.
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The game plays similarly to theturn-basedCivilization IIbut is accompanied by an intricate science fiction narrative.Alpha Centauriwon multiple awards upon release,including Turn-Based Game of the Year from Gamespot and PC Strategy Game of the Year from the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences.
7Medal of Honor (92)
The first entry in theMedal of Honorseries is also the highest rated on Metacritic.
Released in 1999,Medal of Honorrevolutionized the FPS genreby centering its gameplay around completing objectives, rather than simply shooting everyone in sight. Moreover, the game set a new standard for storytelling in the genre, with its narrative that was created by Stephen Spielberg.
6Sid Meier’s Gettysburg! (92)
As the name suggests,Sid Meier’s Gettysburg!takes players to the American Civil War Battle of Gettysburg, and gives them the choice of controlling either the Union or Confederate units.
Much likeSid Meier’s Alpha Centauri,Gettysburg!enjoyed its fair share of awards,including Best Strategy Computer Game of 1997 from the Origins AwardsandBest Wargame from GameSpot.
5SSX (93)
EA Canada and EA Sports Big joined forced in 2000 to create one of thebest extreme sports games sinceTony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2.
At a time when licensed sports games were booming, EA opted against using real professional snowboarders forSSXand instead offered a selection of charismatic characters that were bursting with personality and perfectly fit the over-the-topSSXgameplay.
4Mass Effect 3 (93)
TheLast of Us Part IIof its year,Mass Effect 3was a surprising source of controversy for its opinion-dividing story that some players said had ruined the beloved series for them. The criticism clearly affected BioWare and EA, asmultiple new endings were added to the game after its release.
It’s a shame that the perception ofMass Effect 3is so negative today, as it finally perfected the series' combat mechanics, and would almost certainly have been regarded as the bestMass Effectgame if its ending was on par withMass Effect 2’s Suicide Mission.
3SSX 3 (93)
The third and finalSSXgame to appear on this list,SSX 3improved upon its predecessors by putting the game’s courses in a free-roamable open world.
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The newly implemented open-world was likely one of EA’s motivations behind investing in the game’s visual design; with renowned designers like the Oscar-nominated Henry LaBounta joining the art direction team.
2Burnout 3: Takedown (94)
For some, the extreme racerBurnout 3: Takedownmay seem like a dubious inclusion on this list, as they will have spent most of their time with the game’s multiplayer mode. However, the game earns its spot through its Burnout 3 World Tour campaign, which is one of the most enjoyable single-player campaigns in the racing genre’s history.
Like its predecessors,Burnout 3cared little about realism and instead offered over-the-top arcade fun.
1Mass Effect 2 (96)
EA’s most critically acclaimed series peaked with its second entry,Mass Effect 2.The game picked up where the first game left off with its excellent, immersive storytelling that added significant weight to each of the player’s interactions.
Although at its surfaceMass Effect 2is a sci-fi shooter, the game truly shines in its character development and personal interactions whose importance didn’t become clear until the shocking final mission.
Fans are hopeful that Bioware and EA will bounce back from the disappointingAndromedawith the upcomingMass Effect 5,though they would have to produce something special for it to come close tothe modern classicMass Effect 2.
