Saturday, August 19, 2006

I have returned!

Yesterday was my last day working at EA, as I'm returning to school on Tuesday.

Let's see... where to begin. EA had me sign some confidentiality agreements when I got hired, so I can't spill the beans on what I worked on. But I can tell you about some of the cool perks and events I got to see while working there.

All employees at EA get free access to the "IRC", a media library where you can borrow movies and games of all sorts. The idea is that this lets the employees see what EA's competitors are up to, and just plain have fun after work . So I got to play Meteos, Nintendogs, Nanostray, Castlevania, and Mario Kart for the DS. Onimusha 2 and Darkwatch for the PS2, and Thief: Dark Shadows for the PC. You can see the IRC in this Gamespot video tour of EA campus (look for the 7/13/06 show).

EA employees also get some great discounts at the EA store when buying EA published games. All console games, no matter how old or new, are $20, while all PC games are a mere $10. Battlefield 2 Deluxe Edition (BF2 + Special Forces) was just $10! I picked up Battle for Middle Earth 2 PC for $10 as well. Yum :)

Probably the most exciting event was the mid-July press event. Here, EA revealed Sims 2 Pets, Need for Speed Carbon, and demonstrated Battlefield 2142. I got to play Battlefield 2142 and even got some gameplay tips from the producer. I don't think I can say too much about the game besides that it was farkin' awesome :). Many BF2 fans feel that 2142 may be nothing more than a sci-fi "mod" of BF2, and thus not worth a purchase, but I thought it was incredible. I got to play against the EAUK game testers of the project, and I was stabbed to death by 7 of them at once. Best death ever.