Early Backbreaker Impressions (Pastapadre)

[swaldo]

Quote: Originally Posted by jeetaa6

...but do the significant issues wipe out the overall replay value and fun factor?

No, the first time you make a great play you'll be hooked.

[Valdarez]

Bleh, it's a typical Pasta Padre, on the EA paybooks, writeup and not worthy of a post on operationsports.com. Nothing but negatives and no positives. No surprise there. I can find more positives in the game just from playing the demo than Padre provided in his 'full game review'.

[allBthere]

Quote: Originally Posted by JerseySuave4

basically what ive seen from the user comments is that the people wishing and praying for this game to be unbeliveable hate this review and just brush it off as an EA-fanboy who doesnt know what he is talking about and is just focusing on the negatives and those with lower expectations and more unsure feelings on this game are glad that he goes in depth about the glaring weaknesses and issues this game provides. I agree with the 2nd group. For a game that ive never played before (cant even get a ps3 demo), that i have no background with, that is making their 1st football game... i want to know what issues are in this game before i decide to spend my money on it. The BB guys can talk about their great tackling system or how much customization the game has but how is them selling you on the positives any better than pasta talking about the negatives? If anything, what pasta is doing is more benefitial because he's telling you some of the things wrong with the game so you know in advance instead of after you spend money on the game and then get upset finding these things out on your own. There have been quite a few people on these boards that want BB to be the answer to football games. They are wishing the game is great. And they hate Madden. I'm not a fan of Madden either but i'm also not blindly hoping for some game to be amazing and praising everything about it and ignoring the negatives without having any experience with the game. Some of you just ignore or throw away any negatives people say about this game and brush it off as EA fanboyism or some other stupid excuse because you dont want to admit that this game is not what you are hoping it is.

who's doing that? My post was the first one slamming the POV of the author lol...and this goes back to me checking out his site every once in a while for years now.

We all know the negatives of the game. I do, I've mentioned them as well. I've played the demo too! I always get sucked into debates like this because it bothers me when people turn the criticism back onto the poster. I know the game has major flaws, I also played the demo the most I've even done except maybe UFC '09's demo. I'm buying the game and playing the demo not because I want the game to be good, but because I actually like it - comprende?

Believe me, if I didn't like it and though it was worthy of a thrashing like that article I wouldn't buy the game. I don't even blame people for disliking the demo and/or game. But with him, I have a sample and pile of evidence of his lack of objectivity and just irks the hell out of me.

As I said it's all in the tone and style - compare that with games that are in the same boat or worse (for people who don't enjoy BB) with those impressions and you see a clear discrepancy in fair journalism. As someone else mentioned, you could write the same thrashing for most sports titles out there.

BUT perhaps it's not journalism at all and more like a semi-popular blogger...I should probably just ignore it, but it's hard when it gets its own threads started here on this site.

One of my biggest points of posting in this thread was the basically scream out that if you're going to take any early impressions or otherwise thread seriously - this is THE last guy to listen to/read. I can prove the agenda by breaking down articles if it has to come to that (which it won't lol...mods would lay the smack down) If you're looking to get hyped about Madden and other EA sports titles, - THIS GUY IS YOUR MAN!!!

Anyway I'll end with this. What the 6-man team at natural motion in the beginning was able to do blows me away and gives me hope for the future of sports videogames. They delivered what in their words is a truly "live action sports game". The game is so fun and dynamic because it literally has it's own butterfly affect. The plays are determined by behaviours and positions and force etc... rather than "animations". They set out to revolutionize the genre, and I believe they have at least in some substantial way. It's not just 'cool looking tackles' ...the game's randomness will make it hard to go back to anything else. Kudos to them for doing the impossible, and making a decent football game that 's (to me) a lot of fun to play. What they've accomplished already imo is quite significant. My enjoyment of the game isn't blind at all, it's pretty damn fun...my advice to you would be to actually play the game and see if you like it before defending a niche internet blogger for slamming a game you've never even played.

[bkrich83]

Quote: Originally Posted by swaldo

No, the first time you make a great play you'll be hooked.

SWALDO did you pick the game up yet? Are you posting in the impressions thread? I am interested to hear your take on the final release.

I am picking my copy up tomorrow.

[bkrich83]

Quote: Originally Posted by SemperVictoria

Pastapadre is a HUGE EA fanboy. Just look at some of his previous reviews and such on Madden—it’s obvious. However, I don’t think anyone can sugarcoat what appear to be major flaws with BackBreaker. And no one is more disappointed than me…I feel as if I’m in football gaming Purgatory.

This is my stance as well. PastaPadre is what he is, a well known EA fanboy. But given what we've heard from people who have the game, plus what we saw for ourselves in the demo, he does not appear to be off, or overhyping the issues.

[SemperVictoria]

Quote: Originally Posted by bkrich83

This is my stance as well. PastaPadre is what he is, a well known EA fanboy. But given what we've heard from people who have the game, plus what we saw for ourselves in the demo, he does not appear to be off, or overhyping the issues.

Agreed. He only seems to be confirming what some of us had feared after playing the demo.

[EvanRG]

All these comments were more exciting than the actual impressions post!

Football Revolutionists vs Hardcore Realists

Unfortunately, I do fall on the latter side. Demo was a lot of fun, but we're only a month and a half away from NCAA 11, so I will be restraining from a purchase -- ultimately due to lack of sliders. This is still an important game for the progression of realistic football video games though and I hope it performs well in the market.

[dmick4324]

This is the first time I've read anything written by Pastapadre so I'm not going to pretend I know about his "EA fanboyism." That being said after I finished reading I was left thinking "O.K., so I guess part 1 was for the negatives, and part 2 of his impressions are going to discuss the positives." To say that he covered the positives with the quick comment about Euphoria is pretty funny. That was in between the 7 straight bullets of negatives.

Reviews mean nothing. Me and my friend played Dynasty Warriors 6 for hours upon hours. What did that review get, like a 6? We had a blast with that game. I read impression threads and articles to find out information I didn't already know, and I knew the negatives already. I won't allow an early impression tell me I'll never lose a game, I'll play the game and find out.