Backbreaker Hands-On Preview (Gameinformer)

[boooey]

i still think that this game was originally just meant to be a tech demo, and at some point for whatever reason, they just decided to go ahead and attempt to make a real game out of it.

What they have done with the limited resources and budget they have compared to EA should be applauded even if this game does not turn out to be everything we want.

I will still be buying it.

[bigjake62505]

I wonder what these guys would write about backbreaker if it was made by ea sports. Serously how many years have these so called reviewers wrote positive reviews about madden and ncaa. I have no fears about buying this game because I have spent 5 years wasting money on ea's junk. If anyone thinks that ea isn't effected by this release of back breaker just take a look at the additions to ncaa and madden this year. Competion is good for football no matter what anyone says.

[TheWatcher]

Quote: Originally Posted by boooey

i still think that this game was originally just meant to be a tech demo, and at some point for whatever reason, they just decided to go ahead and attempt to make a real game out of it. What they have done with the limited resources and budget they have compared to EA should be applauded even if this game does not turn out to be everything we want. I will still be buying it.

Sums up my thoughts, exactly.

[LeonM]

Quote: Originally Posted by LIVEDEHTMAI666

After the latest hands on review of Backbreaker, unfortunately my hype score went from a 9, to a 7. The two main selling points for Backbreaker with me are the Euphoria Engine, and the quote, "Full Customization." Judging by the review, the game falls far short of the quote. This is a non NFL licenced game, i need to b able to make it my own, in every aspect, not just logos and uniforms. The Euphoria Engine is completely awesome, but i think i speak for all harcore sim football game players when i say that Backbreaker is just going to need more than that. Not having full customization when creating players for my teams is highly unacceptable. This is where All-Pro Football 2k8 failed to me, an awesome game, but the lack of customization kept 2k8 from realizing true greatness. ESPN NFL 2k5, best football game ever made period. I welcome Backbreaker into a genre where compitition is feared and bought away instead of faced and challenged. To me EA Sports has killed football. I don't trust that they will ever be serious about creating a quality sim football game so long as they have the exclusive NFL rights. Yes the game gets better every year, but honestly that's not saying too much. They would rather address cosmetic issues than fix the gameplay and AI issues that have been lingering for years. We need Backbreaker to step it up so that the real sim football game playing guys and gals can play FOOTBALL again. Hopefully the developers at Natual Motion will read the reviews, read our comments, and add more of what needs to be in Backbreaker before the May 25th launch.

The customization in Backbreaker is going to be the deepest and best customization engine in the history of football games. Will it be enough because NM and 505 took the neccesary steps to cover themselves here.

In offline mode, In two franchise modes. You can create any team with their logos and uniforms. You can put any players on your team that you want.

In online mode, You have to be creative. You can still have for example, The Pats colors and uniforms. You can have the logo at midfield and in the end zone. You just have to word everything differently for your team name and players. Instead of The New England Patriots in offline, You'd be the N.E. Patriots or The New England Pats online. Your QB is Tom Brady offline but T.Brady online.

This is all stuff that can be worked with and is much better than the massive limitations in APF where you couldn't even name your team what you wanted. For example, If you wanted to create The New York Jets. You can do the colors and uniforms but you didn't have the capability to make the logo and there is a limited amount of names you can use. The New York Jets became the New York J's with some strange plane like logo on the helmet. You were also not allowed to edit the player names on every player on your roster like you can in Backbreaker.

The real limitation in Backbreaker's editing is the report that you can't edit your players rating or appearance. That sucks.

505 Sports and Natural Motion are small companies that can't afford to go into litigation and take on the Giant that is the NFL and EA sports. They did all this to cover themselves. They need to retain every resource that they can and they need to maintain every profit that they can. They can not afford to use any resources in battling the NFL.

[Nicknam4]

Remember, he had an alpha build.

[CreatineKasey]

If I were releasing a demo, I'd ONLY release a tackle alley minigame. Do NOT release real gameplay, they will definitely lose sales from that in my opinion. I would like if they did, though so I could at least try the game out. My instincts just tell me it'd go bad given how this whole game transpired.

[booker21]

Quote: Originally Posted by LeonM

The customization in Backbreaker is going to be the deepest and best customization engine in the history of football games. Will it be enough because NM and 505 took the neccesary steps to cover themselves here. In offline mode, In two franchise modes. You can create any team with their logos and uniforms. You can put any players on your team that you want. In online mode, You have to be creative. You can still have for example, The Pats colors and uniforms. You can have the logo at midfield and in the end zone. You just have to word everything differently for your team name and players. Instead of The New England Patriots in offline, You'd be the N.E. Patriots or The New England Pats online. Your QB is Tom Brady offline but T.Brady online. This is all stuff that can be worked with and is much better than the massive limitations in APF where you couldn't even name your team what you wanted. For example, If you wanted to create The New York Jets. You can do the colors and uniforms but you didn't have the capability to make the logo and there is a limited amount of names you can use. The New York Jets became the New York J's with some strange plane like logo on the helmet. You were also not allowed to edit the player names on every player on your roster like you can in Backbreaker. The real limitation in Backbreaker's editing is the report that you can't edit your players rating or appearance. That sucks. 505 Sports and Natural Motion are small companies that can't afford to go into litigation and take on the Giant that is the NFL and EA sports. They did all this to cover themselves. They need to retain every resource that they can and they need to maintain every profit that they can. They can not afford to use any resources in battling the NFL.

you still can´t assign ratings to each player.

So you may do the Vikings but the RB could be a bronze player... instead of gold.

[JayBee74]

Quote: Originally Posted by CreatineKasey

If I were releasing a demo, I'd ONLY release a tackle alley minigame. Do NOT release real gameplay, they will definitely lose sales from that in my opinion. I would like if they did, though so I could at least try the game out. My instincts just tell me it'd go bad given how this whole game transpired.

You're kidding right? If they suck they suck. Let the world see what they have in a playable demo. There's always Tecmo Bowl Throwback
to fall back on.