Backbreaker Hands-On Preview (Gameinformer)

[Steve_OS]

Gameinformer has posted their hands-on preview of Backbreaker.

"With All-Pro Football and Blitz hanging up their cleats, EA is the undisputed king of football games. That isn’t stopping Natural Motion from going for it on fourth down with Backbreaker. Armed with the Euphoria engine that has powered the impressive animations for games like Grand Theft Auto IV and The Force Unleashed, Backbreaker aims to take down the NCAA and Madden publisher with its gritty, up close and personal brand of football. To get a better sense of what this game’s about, 505 Games supplied us with a preview build."

[LingeringRegime]

Re: Backbreaker Hands-On Preview (Gameinformer)

Great! Off to read it now.

[DaveDQ]

Re: Backbreaker Hands-On Preview (Gameinformer)

That was a pretty rough write-up. It seems that the game is extremely shallow.

One thing that really bugged me was this comment, "Like All-Pro Football, Backbreaker lacks split-second responsiveness, so to properly juke past defenders you must activate the move well before you’re in the position to perform it."

Using the word, "lacks" gives the impression that the writer assumes a football game should allow your moves to spring out at the touch of a button. They shouldn't. While a game like Madden does give you that twitchy responsiveness, it's that very lack of momentum that often gives the game a very arcade like feel.

[mgoblue]

Re: Backbreaker Hands-On Preview (Gameinformer)

That was a pretty rough write-up. It seems that the game is extremely shallow.

One thing that really bugged me was this comment, "Like All-Pro Football, Backbreaker lacks split-second responsiveness, so to properly juke past defenders you must activate the move well before you’re in the position to perform it."

Using the word, "lacks" gives the impression that the writer assumes a football game should allow your moves to spring out at the touch of a button. They shouldn't. While a game like Madden does give you that twitchy responsiveness, it's that very lack of momentum that often gives the game a very arcade like feel.

From that writeup I got the feeling that the game will be fun but won't live up to the lofty expectations of people here.

Not enough customization (height, skill ratings, etc), just missing enough little things that people will expect.

[moylan1234]

Gameinformer Preview

http://gameinformer.com/games/backbreaker/b/xbox360/archive/2010/04/02/backbreaker-hands-on.aspx

[jp7588]

Re: Gameinformer Preview

"The skill ratings feel rather empty considering the depths to which Madden credits attributes. Each player, no matter the position, is rated in four areas – focus, agility, speed, and strength. While these ratings may be fine for creating basic skill sets, there is no way to deduce what ratings affect abilities like quarterback accuracy, zone coverage, man-to-man coverage, etc."

wat

[jp7588]

Re: Gameinformer Preview

"You can edit the name and number of each player, but have no control over their skill ratings, size, or weight. The only way to get better players on your roster is to move the slider that controls how many gold tier players are on your roster."

"You can throw the ball without using focus, but I found the accuracy was severely compromised; balls flew all over the place with no rhyme or reason as to why they would be so unruly."

"How the receivers react to a pass seems to be intrinsically tied to whether or not you used the focus button to throw the ball. When I used the focus, the quarterback tended to throw the ball in a location that made it easy for the receiver to aggressively make the catch. When I didn’t use the focus throw, oftentimes the receivers would just stand there and not challenge for the ball if a defensive back was nearby. This was most evident in curl and comeback routes. The receivers also demonstrated a lack of awareness when negotiating the sidelines, and one ball ghosted right through the receiver and into the defenders hands – both problems that have plagued Madden for years. "

"The defensive zone coverages tend to sag, so your best bet for large gains is to scramble on a play that sends everybody upfield with go routes. With half the defenders playing 30 yards downfield, once you get past the line of scrimmage nothing is stopping you from making huge gains. This is compounded by the general lack of awareness in the defensive backs, who frequently stayed in coverage instead of pursuing a quarterback scrambling up the field."

"I saw several instances where the quarterback tripped on an offensive lineman before handing the ball off. I also witnessed more than one fumble where the quarterback pitched the ball into the side of the fullback when it was intended for the tailback, resulting in a frantic scramble to recover the ball. The AI hardly fared better in the passing game, with most plays ending in a sack or an incompletion after the quarterback scrambled around indecisively. My opponents’ highest completion percentage in all the games I played was around 30 percent."

"Player chatter is nonexistent, and the crowd basically sounds like a blanket of white noise, hardly reacting to big plays. Natural Motion says it’s still working on fine-tuning the crowd noise to make the stands come alive during key moments, and the music hasn’t been integrated into the on-field experience yet, which should go a long way toward livening up the field."

"The instant replay option could also use some work. In its current state, you can rewatch any play, but the camera angles are not adjustable, meaning if something happens away from your defender you can’t get a better look at it."

"I did notice there wasn’t an option for making player trades, a peculiar omission."

Totally killed my boner.

[SemperVictoria]

Re: Gameinformer Preview

"The skill ratings feel rather empty considering the depths to which Madden credits attributes. Each player, no matter the position, is rated in four areas – focus, agility, speed, and strength. While these ratings may be fine for creating basic skill sets, there is no way to deduce what ratings affect abilities like quarterback accuracy, zone coverage, man-to-man coverage, etc."

wat

I have no idea yet how the abilities will play out with Backbreaker. What I do know however, is that 99% of player's ratings in Madden mean zip, ziltch, nodda. They're simply for show and that's it.

[TheWatcher]

Re: Backbreaker Hands-On Preview (Gameinformer)

Wow, a thorough and brutal (without being intentionally brutal) hands-on article. Lots of bad news items there for BackBreaker.

Some of this stuff is going take some major heat when this game reaches the public.

[Afrikan]

Re: Gameinformer Preview

it seems like negative preview....the stuff he was complaining about (while playing in Arcade mode, which he chose....because of Balance issues??) either way he was complaining about stuff that usually no game does right anyway. and also other weird stuff.

and he keeps spouting that NM is competing with Madden and NCAA....even though they have said they are not....this was mentioned in the radio interview and he did this in this article.... I mean read this.

"Backbreaker aims to take down the NCAA and Madden publisher with its gritty, up close and personal brand of football."

that is just asking for curious Madden Fanboys to go explode, haha....

He complained that you can't do defensive shifts or what ever...but admits that was in Arcade mode...why didn't he just play in the other mode JUST TO SEE IF HE CAN....if there were balancing issues..so be it, but at least see if what your reporting is correct for all play modes....before writing about it, as if it were fact.

again, I don't expect this game to be perfect....but what I do expect is some reviews to nitpick this game on things that get ignored in Madden.

I mean he complained about this.....

"The running backs’ lack of wiggle makes it extremely tough to slide through tight holes, and I often found myself the victim of shoestring tackles from interior defenders who simply reached around their blockers."

as far as "extremely tough to slide through tight holes" we saw it in one of our favorite running clips...where the running back made his way through....he makes it seem like when there is a tight hole, you just bounce back or stay still like in Madden.

also about the defenders "reaching around" their blockers to trip up runners...as if that is a bad thing?...we have never had that in our football games....

running the ball in Football games should not be expected to be easy.....if it were, then everyone would run all the time to get a win.

I don't understand the whole thing about sending everyone up field to get yardage all the time with a QB, I wish he got into more detail about that (formation, play call, etc), before making it seem like it is an exploit or money play.

again, I don't expect this game to perfect...I would hope no one does....but I would have liked for him to get more detailed about some of his complaints...before writing them off as facts....

I'm sure most will be disappointed after reading the preview......don't worry though, I'm sure most of us who buy the game will tell you what is *really* lacking, and what is overblown.

[TheWatcher]

Re: Gameinformer Preview

^^^ No matter what, any football game that comes out is going to be matched up against Madden by the media and by fans, too. That's just the way it is. The same thing happened with All Pro Football when it came out.

[kjcheezhead]

Re: Gameinformer Preview

Kind of left me with mixed feelings. A lot of disappointing things, but he sounded like some of them could be tweaked and the game still has potential. Defense sounds like it will be fun to play.

Some of the ai concerns could just be the level he was on too, just like he said. It's easy to hold the cpu to under 30% completion when you play on rookie or pro in other games.

Not being able to take NFL teams or players online really sucks, no other way to put that.

[JayBee74]

Re: Gameinformer Preview

Either EA paid Gameinformer $50 million or Backbreaker has a he!! of a lot of work to do. I was about as optimistic as anyone about this game, but this preview is not encouraging.

[ty5oke]

Re: Gameinformer Preview

Road to backbreaker mode sounds like fun.

[capa]

Re: Gameinformer Preview

Ouch...