Steam recently got a boost when Electronic Arts decided to start porting over a number of their Origin-exclusive titles to the platform, which was probably a necessary move on their part. It’s a win/win for gamers who didn’t appreciate EA’s approach to its games store, which came hot on the heels of a number of questionable business practices.
Regardless, Steam’s EA Play is an opportunity for gamers to enjoy some of the best titles in their lineup, courtesy of a subscription service similar to Origin Access. A lot of these titles are oldies that have made a definitive and positive mark on the gaming community, and they’re definitely worth checking out.
Spore (2008) / Metascore: 84
Spore was one of the most inventive sandbox games ever created, focusing heavily on species evolution. This oddball take on the SimCity formula was a welcome addition to the gaming world when it was released in 2008, and remains of the quirkiest, cutest and most enjoyable strategy titles ever made.
Players literally experience life from the very beginning as a one-celled microscopic organism, before evolving into an intelligent species that eventually makes its way into space. It’s a remarkable and oddly beautiful exploration into the mechanics of biological evolution, and the wonders of life itself.
Dragon Age: Inquisition (2014) / Metascore: 85
The Dragon Age series was a hit BioWare property that played upon the company’s earliest successes in decision-making RPG gaming. Inquisition is widely regarded as the most accessible of the series, and one recommended for first-time Dragon Age players who want to jump on board.
This is thanks to a colorful assortment of excellent characters, a strong narrative, and exciting, dynamic RPG/combat elements. Multiple play styles combine to give players maximum freedom in how they pursue not just combat, but interactions and romances with other Dragon Age characters.
Dead Space (2008) / Metascore: 86
Sci-fi horror gaming took on a whole new persona when Dead Space was released in 2008, and it continues to be one of the scariest games in the genre. The mixture of tactical based third person shooting, and a strong storyline focusing on a parasitic alien species is a welcome one.
The first game took great strides when it came to bringing the visceral horror elements to life, and it remains the most iconic of the series. The versatility of weapon and armor upgrades helps break up fights against the repetitive enemies, while pushing forward a story every bit as psychologically unnerving as the action itself.
Titanfall 2 (2016) / Metascore: 86
Believe it or not, Titanfall 2 is still getting massive play from the community, thanks in large part to a huge influx in players since the title moved to Steam. This is great news for fans of this run and gun tactical FPS shooter, which has been tragically underrated in recent years.
Players switch between pilot mode, where they dart across rooftops and run along walls to dispatch opponents, and the Titanfall mode, which puts them in the pilot seat of a gigantic armed robot. Multiplayer is especially strong with this title, centering heavily on squad-based tactics and optimized weapon loadouts to score an advantage.
Burnout Paradise (2009) / Metascore: 87
This popular racing title sets itself apart by focusing on open-world gameplay, giving it an edge against peers like Need for Speed. Burnout Paradise may be long in the tooth, but it continues to stand tall as one of the best racing titles around. In fact, it’s so popular that it recently scored a Remastered edition in 2018.
The free-form, casual progression is one of the highlights of the game, as is the focus on crash mechanics. It’s largely a vehicle for Grand Theft Auto nuts who adore the chaos of vehicular carnage, while still enjoying a decent racing game underneath of it all.
Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (2010) / Metascore: 87
The Battlefield series got a massive jolt in the arm when Bad Company 2 was released, and it ended up becoming one of Metacritic’s highest-rated Battlefield entries. The game portrays a very real scenario where Russia and China have united against the United States and Europe, forcing a prolonged conflict.
As usual, multiplayer is the real draw, while a single player campaign is tacked on for the sake of extra content. It would help pave the way for future installments of Battlefield that have become the face of the franchise, particularly since it adopted the Frostbite game engine.
Plants Vs. Zombies (2009) / Metascore: 87
Though heavily popularized thanks to smartphone and tablet ports, the original Plants Vs. Zombies made its initial splash on PC, and it helped revolutionize the tower defense game. Deceptively simple, PvZ relies quite heavily on strategy in order to score victory against hordes of the quirky undead.
The game is renowned for its tongue-in-cheek family-friendly humor, not to mention a plethora of cultural jokes. More than a decade later, the gameplay remains highly addicting, which is bad news for impulsive gamers with a tower defense fetish and a love of classic zombie horror films that Plants Vs. Zombies resembles.
Battlefield 1 (2016) / Metascore: 88
Battlefield 1 tossed the WWII FPS formula out the window, and went further back in time to the First World War, which gets far less attention. The strategy was smart, as it gave seasoned gamers a chance to check out an earlier 20th Century war which was just as destructive and costly to the world at large.
The game was praised for its excellent use of the Frostbite engine, not to mention the franchise’s well-evolved multiplayer gameplay. Though game took flack for fudging a number of historical facts – including the types of weapons used during the conflict – it still worked as a “what-if” type game.
Crysis (2007) / Metascore: 91
The original Crysis was not an actual video game, but a PC benchmark in disguise. Indeed, even the most powerful PCs were incapable of running it the way it was intended, which gave rise to its notoriety. Nevertheless, it was a landmark achievement in FPS gaming, and one of the best in the genre.
Crysis took everything that made Far Cry so successful, and expanded on it with a tense sci-fi storyline taking place in a large, believable open world jungle. The inclusion of the Nano Suit helped beef up the gameplay, allowing players to change their tactics in mid-battle with the flick of a switch. Crysis‘s classic graphics still hold up today too – one of only a handful of video games that can say that..
Mass Effect 2 (2010) / Metascore: 94
The first Mass Effect helped revolutionize BioWare’s storytelling RPG strengths, but the sequel turned it into a full-fledged pop culture phenomenon. Mass Effect 2 chucked out everything that didn’t work from the first game, and drastically overhauled the best parts, creating the definitive chapter in the series.
The storyline was immense and amazing; the gameplay was tight, frantic and fun; and the character interactions, relationships and romances were second to none. ME fans got their chance to revisit this chapter in the series with all of its DLC included, thanks to the recently released Mass Effect: Legendary Edition pack.
