Bigger Question: What if BB Is sub par?

[CreatineKasey]

Quote: Originally Posted by canes21

The only thing really worrying me besides how much customization will we really be getting, but is many people will have too high expectations and forget that Backbreaker is the first football game NM has tried. So if it lacks something most people want, like a very very good franchise, then they will throw the game off has another "Blitz" or "APF". I don't expect BB to have anything groundbreaking the first time through besides the engine and customization. But I know there are those who expect it to beat everything Madden has in its 1st year and thats just impossible almost. Now this game has been in production for 3 years at least as far as we know, so NM could surprise us and just have an awesome game with everything Madden doesn't. I don't expect that, but we'll see....

Piggybacking off this...

Can a first time shot at a football game include things like:

- Extremely detailed playbooks

- Double team blocking - pass AND run

- Many solid, fluid football specific mo-cap animations (ball strips, catches, OL/DL, WR routes)

- Can they successfully differentiate player talent beyond speed?

- From a gamer perspective: can they create the holy grail of games - a game that's easy to pick up but very difficult to master?

- Will customization be encouraged and supported, despite the rampant fear of lawsuits a la APF and NCAA"s team builder?

- Will the game include "the little things" that all of us hardcore sports gamers live for? This goes beyond cool tackles. I'm thinking fumbled exchanges, bad snaps on FG/Punt, Fumbled QB/C exchange, players slipping in bad weather, bobbled and dropped balls.

- Can they even do somethign like create a real passing pocket and get interactions down? Really, some things regarding block shedding and other interactions go beyond euphoria calculations... real solid motion capture is needed for these I believe.

- If they cannot reach the level of detail desired can they put us, the gamer, into a position to enjoy the game and ignore what it misses? This was possible in APF. that may be a bad example, though since it had an exceptional amount of detail.

- Can they make head to head competition balanced and successfully test the game to avoid game-breaking advantages? This goes along the line of limiting people "gaming the game". No matter how cool a game can be, if there's a way to game the game all of that can get ruined. There's a reason so many despise online play. Can Backbreaker acknowledge and address that?


This was off the top of my head... as you can see they'd have to go above and beyond probably their own expectations to reach ours.

Us ==> <== devs.

At least there's a chance!

[Skyboxer]

If it has at least enjoyable gameplay and no magnet blocking I'll be very happy for year 1.
I seriously will buy a second copy if the game is even close to being playable with fun factor. Just to help support them so we can , with any luck, get an improved year 2 game.

[canes21]

Oh yea, I'll definitely buy it and a second one if I enjoy the first. I'm just worried people will buy the first, have some fun, but they'll overlook things like blocking, passing, etc. and they'll see things like the lack of features in the "franchise".

[therhino]

Quote: Originally Posted by dickey1331

isnt there dev team like 3 people. Prob a reason why its taken so long

Actually it's, but great point... It's almost as good as your sig

[canes21]

Not 3 people, but basically just one story of an office building. So not that many people as EA has like 3 stories of a Mall in 20 different cities that work on their games.

[Cryolemon]

Quote: Originally Posted by Skyboxer

I think we can all agree there will be issues. I just hope the company lovers stay out and don't start with the "told ya" crap.

I think we all know that's precisely what would happen, sadly.

[Tito78]

Quote: Originally Posted by canes21

The only thing really worrying me besides how much customization will we really be getting, but is many people will have too high expectations and forget that Backbreaker is the first football game NM has tried. So if it lacks something most people want, like a very very good franchise, then they will throw the game off has another "Blitz" or "APF". I don't expect BB to have anything groundbreaking the first time through besides the engine and customization. But I know there are those who expect it to beat everything Madden has in its 1st year and thats just impossible almost. Now this game has been in production for 3 years at least as far as we know, so NM could surprise us and just have an awesome game with everything Madden doesn't. I don't expect that, but we'll see....

I expect it to beat Madden in every way; it's not that hard, Madden is pure crap ! This is their first releasese; however it's the 3rd year of development. This game will easily beat madden as far as gameplay in concernen; however, for me, the bar is set a little higher than simply beating Madden. Madden 10 is a horrible vision of football in my opinion.

[t11]

I notice a lot of people like the idea of a "year 2 game." What I'm wondering is, if that's a figure of speech, or do people expect this game to become yearly once it comes out?

I sure hope it doesn't. Sports games have shown that yearly releases limit time for improvements. The pro is having a new game every year, but the con is it takes 5 years to implement something that could have been done in 2.5.