Let's Give EA Some Credit

'Twiggy', PushSquare: "Over the last three weeks I've played two niche games which I thoroughly enjoyed. Neither of the games were particularly successful at retail, but both enhanced my appreciation of EA as a publisher. Alice: Madness Returns was scorned for being derivative and classical in design, while Shadows Of The Damned was dismissed because of some poor gameplay decisions and an over-emphasis on mediocre gunplay. I'm willing to admit that neither of the games are particularly credible candidates for game of the year, and yet they're both imaginative enough to invoke a large dollop of goodwill in my reception."

[BeastlyRig]

Do they make the best multi-plat content? yup!

[darksied]

They (EA) might make some questionable decisions, but they also do a lot that other publishers don't. They will publish obscure and unique games where others will just want to rehash. I have to say that like 5 of my favorite franchises are EA published games. I haven't tried Shadows of the Damned or Alice Returns yet, but I'm sure they're good.

[InTheLab]

late reply here but...

Shadows is definitely worth playing. The game reminds me of Resident Evil 5 but Garcia (main character) has much greater mobility. Unfortunately, that mobility removes all fear from the game as you can either outrun or roll away from any damage as often as you like. It's pretty fast paced and I've enjoyed it so far.

Alice, on the other hand, is a much slower game and is best played a few hours here and there. I got weekend off and tried to beat it in a few days and that was a mistake. The levels are almost deserted aside from a few battles here and there and some of the puzzle are too simple. Between the puzzles and rare boss battles, there's the platforming, which is great, but drag on. All of these problems wouldn't exist if the devs removed maybe and hour or two of content. I don't say it often but the game is simply too damn long.

Anyway, you can't go wrong with either but I'd go with Shadow first and play Alice in between some other game.

[jdfoster00]

EA pass?

[Inside_out]

.
...they all are and the games mentioned where hardly unheard of. Both Alice and Damned are made by very well known development houses and EA exposure to losing money is relatively small compared to those games being hits..

EA is parasite that runs around trying to latch onto well known titles claiming they somehow invented the entire genre...lol...What have they done??? The makers of Dead Space are now working for Activision under the moniker Sledgehammer...WHY??? EA decided to buy Criterion because of their creativity and actually at the time, their popular middle-ware ( Renderware ) solution and where are they now??? They killed FPS Black, which at the time of it's release ( 2005 ) was more next gen than any titles releasing on the then new consoles. Now Criterion is making NFS instead of Burnout...0_o...MOH is a shadow of whatever made it a popular FPS. The two stooges behind Infinity Ward actually worked at EA before giving up and then making it big at Activision before the greed bug hit.

What exactly is EA's big contribution again...lol...Where's mirrors edge??? Is their contribution the monopoly they hold on sports licences??? When Dana white offered UFC and MMa to EA they said no thanks, nobody is interested in MMA and now it's like Hey, we invented MMA now that it is popular...O_o

Bioware started out as one of the best devs out there and are slowly be turned into a generic TPS dev...must be that innovative EA influence. :/

EA is a lot like a dog chasing his own tail. In this case, they are chasing Activision. Releasing their EA-Dice Battlefield game in the same launch window as COD ( and MOH before that ) shows how dumb these guys are and, Activision obsessed they are as well. Bioware and their Star wars MMo is another stab at W.O.W and it's dominate position. Sadly, their little scam is working. Release a similar game beside a break out hit and tap into that fanbase with no innovation. Shift/ Forza, MOH-Battlefield/ COD, UFC MMA/ EA MMA, NFS/ GT...etc

Activision has not been perfect but people hate activision because it's successful. They have signed Bungie up for the next 10 years..O_o...have one of the most popular MMo's ever in World of Warcraft. Guitar hero was one of the biggest and most popular franchises ever before the whole world descended on that fanbase with their Guitar Hero wannabe titles and diluted and basically shut down that demographic...for now at least. Activision tried with Bizarre Creations and while I would of like them to give them another chance, COD Elite has taken center stage and required the extra attention. It's not like Activision didn't try with BC...they Made The Club, Blur and the last James Bond game but had very poor results. Motion controls and Activisions ridiculously priced Tony Hawk skateboard hurt the last Tony Hawk game but that franchise is far from dead and is one of the bigger franchise's out there.

People just love to hate Activision but look who want to charge for demo's and this ill advised online pass nonsense???

@Red..they are not milking anything and that's a typical jealous fanboy statement. What Activision is doing is keeping the fan base engaged. Jealous fanboys say the same thing about Halo and any successful franchise. Those gamers have no problem buying 1 game a year or DLC for their favorite title's. You better get use to it, because that's the future. How is Activision trying to be EA. COD is 10x Battlefield or MOH and good luck trying to top W.O.W...O_o

[Redempteur]

"Activision has not been perfect but people hate activision because it's successful"

you cannot be fruther than the truth ..

Activision is milking franchises so much the market is oversaturated .

BUt overall your post is silly because you are reproching things to EA that activision does and things activision does that EA is doing .
funny

[Army_of_Darkness]

I would choose Ea over activision any day. I don't care for guitar hero, tony hawk, cod, blur, or spiderman. So really, they got nothing. Ea however, I've been buying several games from them:-] aside from that online pass crap, they are doing pretty good game wise.

[Aysir]

Grasshopper? Very well known? Are you kidding me? Shadows of the Damned was a big risk and it didn't fully pay off - but that's the point of EAPartners. EA provide the publisher duties without impacting development. Alice was also a complete unknown to console gamers.
"..must be that innovative EA influence. :/ "
EA don't tell Bioware what to do - unless you have hard facts to back that up I suggest you keep groundless opinions to yourself.
"Where's mirrors edge???"
In the shops I believe. Published by EA. If you're asking about a sequel - it'll get made when it's made.
"Release a similar game beside a break out hit and tap into that fanbase"
You mean like COD did to MOH originally? or Burnout did to Need for Speed? or PES did to FIFA. They're genres - of course there's going to other games in the same bracket.

People hate activision because they threw out small time games that weren't franchise worthy (Ghostbusters and Brutal Legend), drove Guitar Hero into the ground, killed True Crime 3, have the most arrogant prick around as CEO and make money with a really dumb money spinner. No one hates Blizzard by the way, just activision.

[perfectCarbonara]

They gave us Mirrors Edge, they can do no wrong in my eyes.

[Minartis]

EA have done loads of good stuff this year , I really like Alice and Shadows of the Damned , plus they did Crysis 2 and Dead Space 2 also.

[femshep]

there a publisher, yeah they may have some of the better games and pretty much let devs do what they want.....there still a big company and big companies like to screw everyone over

look at activision they use to have good games, but now they have next to nothing and the few games they have are just rehashes and giving extreamly low budgets and dev times

[bozebo]

But all publishers are no longer required, we have the internet for distribution now. All they do is steal money from platform holders (Sony, MS) by not paying royalties and they also steal from their developers and FORCE them to make bad games or keep making the same crap and then close them down because of bad sales.

Developers should just outsource any services that a publisher would normally provide, like localisation, marketing or bad Q/A testing.

But... that would only work for PC games or XBL/PSN games.