EA Starting Subscription Service for PC Games with Origin Access

Throwing their hat into the ever expanding world of subscription-based services, EA has announced Origin Access. With this, people will be able to pay a monthly subscription for access to Origin and the PC games that they have on it for about $5 per month, expanding the service beyond the Xbox One where it originated via EA Access...no pun intended...

So far, there are only about a dozen games from their library that are available for use with some glaring exceptions. Of the titles available, one can play any of the Dragon Age games, a selection of Battlefield titles, the Dead Space series, Need for Speed Rivals, Plants vs. Zombies Garden Warfare, FIFA '15, Sim City, and The Sims 3. So, there are some glaring omissions, such as the entire Mass Effect series, but the company says that more games will be added to the service in the future.

With us living in a world where many people have gotten into the habit of buy games on Steam simply because they're cheap, and then never actually playing them, I wonder if this may actually be a decent alternative. Paying a few bucks a month simply for access to games and playing them at one's leisure seems a reasonable way of going instead of just scooping something up and possibly not playing it ever.

That being said, the service could still stand to be improved in some ways, of course. As it stands, there's only a monthly payment option as opposed to a discounted annual one. A lot of folks do like to pay once yearly, especially if they make a lot of use of the service. Outlets like Netflix and Crunchyroll are good examples of places that have benefited from this. Also, we'll need to see more games be made available before it really catches on, I think. Expanding the sports games selection seems like a no-brainer in that regard.

I'm also curious how EA will handle adding highly anticipated newer titles to the service. Will they be delayed with people purchasing them first alongside all of the season passes and what not for big bucks, and only after that cohort of consumers have been bled dry will it be added to Origin Access? Notice that Star Wars Battlefront isn't on the service. There's probably more money to be made from traditional sales avenues on that game, so EA may be holding off on that one and I could see the same thing happening when Mirror's Edge Catalyst comes along.

This is something that I could see potentially revitalizing somewhat older online games with dwindling player bases as well. How many people will install some iteration of Battlefield that is available on the subscription and give it a go just for the hell of it? Assuming EA has the wherewithall to provide basic support on those games, I could see some people sticking with them. It could even breath some new life into games like Titan Fall and Syndicate too if they get added to Access.

As much as some people like to poo-poo EA and their business practices (and really, much of the time it's totally deserved), I can see this service being pretty good if the company supports it well. Games are becoming more and more commoditized all the time now, so a switch from straight up buying them to a subscription model for access to them could well be embraced by a sizable number of people. This all leaves me wondering if / when Access will come to the PS4.

Review: Battlefield Hardline (PC)

Video games are an escape from reality. Where else can one explore strange new worlds and so on? Not only is it an escape from reality, it's an escape from consequence. Mow down a dozen (or more) mercenaries and it's no biggie -- you'll never be brought up on charges. It's fantasy, which makes it all the more confusing that Battlefield Hardline's main conceit feels so ridiculous. And most video games are ridiculous.

Review: FIFA 15 (Xbox One)

The annual release of sports titles continues!

FIFA 15 is still quite fresh in my mind having just a few months ago taken a swing at the World Cup title – but the EA team does not sit on their laurels and they continue to improve their masterwork. With the mid-year release, the improvements over last year's title are not as drastic as most iterations but that's not to say that there aren't any. Graphically and aurally, FIFA 15 is pretty much the same game as last year: still looks amazing, the sound from the crowd noise to the in-game commentary are top notch. No disappointments here, at best minor nit-picky points.

Review: NHL 15 (Xbox One)

It's the start of hockey season once again; a time for players to wash their equipment before they stuff it back into their rank smelling hockey bags. All teams start fresh, and for those that insist on not winning every game by 20 goals… there's NHL 15 to get the results that you really want.

Review: Madden NFL 15 (Xbox One)

The Madden franchise exists to remind you of the sheer depth of complexity that exists in the game of football. Earlier Madden iterations gave you the opportunity to tinker around a bit in formations, do some play-calling, and perhaps a bit of clock management. Madden '15 comes with a requisite love of football, because if you aren't fanatical, the huge information dump that is forthcoming will be painful to say the least.

Review: EA Sports UFC (PS4)

It seems like every time a console cycle starts, there's always a title or two that shows off the graphical powerhouse of the next gen consoles.

On the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 it was Fight Night; for PlayStation 4 it is UFC. It just happens to be a "coincidence" that both Fight Night and UFC are published by Electronic Arts.

UFC is a drop dead gorgeous game. Little details like sweat, muscle and tattoos look photorealistic. Even the instant replays show off the games graphical prowess. Seeing every muscle react to an opponent being punched in slow motion shows what these next generation (now, current gen) consoles are capable of.

Review: 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil (360)

World Cup Soccer – the most important month for futbol fans every 4 years, or as we celebrate in North America: as good as reasons as any to go drink at 11 am and not look like you have a "problem." With half of my family coming to Canada this generation, and the other half having lived here in excess of 400 years… the World Cup gets a differing amount of care depending upon whom you are talking to. Needless to say, I cheer for my Dad's country because cheering for Mom's and my homeland would have been a tremendous waste of time in this tournament.

Review: EA Sports UFC (Xbox One)

It's been a few years since my last crack at a UFC game, the original Undisputed made by THQ. There have not been many revolutionary new changes to MMA since then, besides the popularity increase of the sport, of course. Any time you switch companies, you are obviously going to switch engines and likely design philosophies. I was a little disappointed to hear that the Fight Night Boxing team was going on hiatus to work on this franchise – I've always enjoyed that franchise and will look forward to it's return down the road.

Review: Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare (Xbox One)

In 2009, a tower defense game came out that had plants defending their gardens from zombies, a ridiculous premise that worked surprisingly well. The overhead or side view works well in this kind of tower defence game, so there were those who were skeptical when PopCap Games announced that they would be releasing a third-person shooter game based on the franchise. Skeptics, relax.

While this isn't anywhere in the league of a Call of Duty or something similar in size, if you just want to have some sit-down fun this game is exactly what the botanist ordered. There are various modes and while the graphics won't blow the lid off of your Xbox One, they are quite decent and clearly charming at the same time.

Review: FIFA 14 (PS4)

My first experience with the FIFA series was back during the 1998 World Cup. Back then, I rented FIFA 98: Road to the World Cup for the Nintendo 64, not sure what to expect.

I fell in love with the series immediately. So many teams, arenas and options!

I was 12 at the time and had a sleepover birthday party with a group of friends and we were up the whole night doing a two-on-two tournament on the indoor soccer court. We even had a little trophy we gave to the winner of the tournament. Fast Forward 16 years and I come to to FIFA 14 for the PlayStation 4. Even after all this time, FIFA still has that great gameplay I first fell in love with, but doesn't quite match my memories in some areas.

Review: Battlefield 4 (PC)

Diagram 1

Battlefield 4 is really difficult to peg with a numerical score because it's a constantly moving target. The game leaps up and down radically over time, which is something the series has suffered from since the start.

Upon its release, Battlefield 4's multiplayer -- the main draw for the series -- featured server instability, inexplicable crashes and lock-ups, bizarre sound issues, and very short stretches of fun. The early going sparked a rant from this writer about how anyone could possibly review Battlefield 4 (at launch) with any honesty because, although it wasn't unplayable, it was close enough that any writer should have had second thoughts about slapping a score on the game and calling it a day.

In my experience, even the single-player campaign featured a plethora of random lock-ups until a few weeks had passed since the launch. Since the single-player campaign is so inconsequential and acts as a training ground for multiplayer -- glimpses of the gadgets, the scope of the conflict, etc. -- the last time it crashed out was the last time I spent any time with it. As much as the campaign is a cool graphical showcase the story is limp with almost no charm and characters I couldn't care less about.

Review: Madden 25 (PS4/Xbox One)

1989 saw the official end of the Cold War and is also marked as the year that the World Wide Web was conceived. It is also the first year that John Madden Football hit the pavement in a big way (technically the first release was in 1988, but don't tell anyone). The game was available on MS-DOS machines (PC's), the Commodore 64, and the Amiga. If you are not sure what those platforms even are, you need to do your gaming homework.

Review: Need for Speed - Rivals (PS4)

 

Need for Speed: Most Wanted was one of my favourite games last year and perhaps the best racing game I have played in recent memory. Criterion Games, the developers behind Most Wanted don't return this year as development of Rivals was handed over to Ghost Games. The only similarities between Most Wanted and Rivals is that both games take place in open world environments and feature the Autolog system.

Battlefield 4 (PC): Pre-Review Thoughts

At this moment, if I were to write an official review of Battlefield 4 it would be decidedly unfavourable. 1 star on Amazon, maybe a 2 for a Metacritic User Review because right now Battlefield 4 is like driving the ultra high-end sports car of your choice, with a twist. It looks gorgeous, the lines are great, the sense of power is incredible. But imagine that the hidden "feature" of this vehicle is that the front wheels will fly off without any indication that something is about to go horribly and dramatically wrong.

Review: FIFA 14 (360)

Last year I reviewed both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions of FIFA 13. It took me a long, long time to achieve a familiarity with the game mechanics, you know, just figuring out how things worked. The learning curve was a lot less steep this year, but I'd be hard-pressed to point out the specific differences between FIFA 13 and FIFA 14. I mean, besides the cover athletes.

Review: Secret World (PC)

Secret societies?  Balderdash!  The idea that any sort of secret society can survive in this day and age is utter nonsense.  The purported power of so-called mystical sites like Stonehenge and [REDACTED] boggles the rational mind with yclept of fantasy that yclept yclept [REDACTED][REDACTED][REDACTED] filth [REDACTED][REDACTED].

***SCANNING ERROR***
*ATTEMPT RECOVERY
***SCANNING ERROR***
*ATTEMPT RECOVERY
***TERMINAL SCANNING ERROR***

Good, the text scrambler is in place and operating normally.  We can talk, if only for a short while.  It's important to pass along this information with a minimal amount of interference.  Maybe they're allowing it come out, just enough truth to salt the field of lies.  Or maybe they've slipped up this once.  After all, even in a secret society, people are only human.  Mostly.

Review: Madden 25 (360)

A quarter of a century. Hard to believe it's already been that long since the first Madden football videogame first appeared, revolutionizing sports videogaming entirely. One of Madden 25's cool features is during loading screens, as gamers wait, screenshot flashes of Madden games from the past appear, with a little interesting fact about that particular edition. Seeing some of those early games, it's amazing to see how far Madden and gaming in general have advanced visually and technologically.

Review: NHL 14 (360)

With the NHL hockey games, the question that EA Canada has to answer every year is: If a player holds up the latest NHL game and compares it to the previous year's release, will they be able to tell the difference?

This year, the answer, at least my answer, is, No, except for the inclusion of an "homage" mode to NHL '94.

Review: The Sims 3 Island Paradise (PC)

Crystal-clear waters, beautiful beaches and warm and super sandy beaches. Just another day living in a tropical paradise. But this isn't a typical day for Sims 3 gamers, as The Sims 3 Island Paradise introduces a whole new boatload of gameplay features that makes this more than just the usual Sims 3 expansion. From running a resort, to decking out a houseboat and sailing around isles-a-plenty, to exploring the mysteries under the sea, Island Paradise has more gameplay possibilities than the normal expansion pack.

And what an amazing setting for the new gameplay. Escape the Sims suburbia and cityscapes for the sunny and sandy realm of Isla Paradiso, where every day is a vacation. Unlike the regular Joe working stiff, however, Sims 3 gamers can stay for as long as they want, and gamers will definitely want to, with so many things to enjoy.

Review: The Sims 3 University Life (PC)

That Steely Dan song proclaimed you could never go back to your old school, but the Sims have done just that in The Sims 3: University Life.

For the Sims 2, gamers could take their Sims to college. And now Sims 3 gamers can do the same, by sending off their Sims to school for a degree and experience college life, including the whole dorm experience, in a college campus addition to the Sims 3 realm.

Obviously the main focus is studying and earning one of six Sims degrees, but what would college life be without the social scene? University Life has that covered.