Electronic Arts

Good benefits - employee stock purchase plan, discounts at the company store, and the IRC (a place where you can check out games or movies for free for a week, which really helps you keep up to date on games and research games that you wouldn't normally buy).

Organized process - Production staff is good at running teams efficiently and communicating across teams, as well as maintaining task schedules and making sure deadlines are transparent and well communicated to the team.

Strong mentorship culture - I always felt like I had a clear go-to senior engineer for mentorship, and the mentor spent enough time to help me grow in the technical skills that would allow me to proceed in my career path.

Top-down management: I often felt that game designs were handed down to me to be implemented to a spec, as opposed to feeling like I could be part of a creative process. Attempts to improve upon the spec were not impossible to get designers and production to buy into, but I never felt rewarded for doing so. It was generally more rewarding to deliver work on schedule than to actually deliver fun gameplay.

Professionalism - depending on what team you are on, you may run into team members that act kind of frat boy-ish. On the Sims team, there was a shipping tradition that the team called "Forties to Final" where team members drank way too much alcohol to celebrate shipping a finished expansion pack. It used to be conducted during work hours and in the same offices where you worked, which was a little uncomfortable if you didn't want to participate. I think this kind of culture may be just on the Sims, and if you are on a different team the experience may vary.

Poor work life balance - When the game is close to shipping, you should expect to live at work for several months to a year. My team had a policy that when we were close to ship, you had to be at zero bugs every day before you went home. But sometimes bugs came in late in the day that could take up to a whole day to fix. That basically meant you couldn't go home that night. I have no idea how that policy was fair.

EA's methods are pretty efficient at delivering games on time and on budget that are just high enough quality to sell and make money. So, from a business perspective, EA is actually pretty strong. You will also be treated with respect relative to other game companies that exist in the industry.

But I do think EA's talent could produce better games if the culture rewarded building fun gameplay in addition to hitting deadlines.