Backbreaker Hands-On Preview (Gameinformer)

[canes21]

Re: Gameinformer Preview

Like I said at thee official forums. This preview has made this game sound a lot worse than I thought it would turn out to be. This guy has managed to destroy most my hopes for the game. I still want to give it a try, but I almost need a demo now before I buy it. I used to be a Midnight buy type of guy, but this article has turned me to a maybe type of guy for the game.

[mvb34]

Re: Gameinformer Preview

Looks like EA SPORTS got scared and decided to throw money at GAMEINFORMER for that very PRO MADDEN, anti BACKBREAKER ,biased,new comer ***** write up it's real clear who's in bed with who around here. This website is evidence of the EA SPORTS love affair. People will have to make there own judgements come May 25.

You are joking right??

[Mbalmer]

Re: Backbreaker Hands-On Preview (Gameinformer)

When I first heard about this game a long time ago I thought it could be pretty good. However, the closer we get to release date the worse it sounds. So many hopes for alot of people are going to be crushed after they play this for about 2 hours.

[bjf1377]

Re: Gameinformer Preview

You are joking right??

I would be mildly amusing if he was cause its a pretty good parody of an internet conspiracy theorist. But when you realize he probably thinks that's true, its just sad

[TracerBullet]

Re: Gameinformer Preview

Looks like EA SPORTS got scared and decided to throw money at GAMEINFORMER for that very PRO MADDEN, anti BACKBREAKER ,biased,new comer ***** write up it's real clear who's in bed with who around here. This website is evidence of the EA SPORTS love affair. People will have to make there own judgements come May 25.

Really? Game Informer has no affiliation with EA. In fact the last time when they previewed madden they started off by talking about disgruntled fans at the lack of change from year to year. They also had a huge feature about All-Pro before it came out. This was the first year that live even came anywhere close to 2k in basketball this year when they reviewed it. I can tell you that there is no way that they are a biased magazine especially with sports titles. This isn't IGN where they pretty much always love Madden. And if you think Game Informer is a new comer then you're completely wrong. They say they don't like a lot of things and instantly they are EA lovers. You've got to be kidding. The only truthful thing you said was that people will make their own judgement on May 25.

[taqiyya]

Re: Backbreaker Hands-On Preview (Gameinformer)

Yes I am on the edge about jumping up and throwing my money in this collection bowl here. I will most likely give it a rent first. This game is to new for me to put it on lock in our household. We shall see..

[p_rushing]

Re: Backbreaker Hands-On Preview (Gameinformer)

As with the juke moves, there seems to be a slight delay between flicking the analog stick and actually switching receivers. The system also had trouble rotating between options when the receivers were closely bunched together. This could be a major issue when facing a heavy blitz.

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.

Every once and a while, however, a blocker tripped the quarterback by running into him.

I often found myself the victim of shoestring tackles from interior defenders who simply reached around their blockers.

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.

How is any of that a bad thing.

Given the quickness with which an offensive player can change direction in Madden, my defensive strategy is frequently to get close and attempt a diving tackle. In Backbreaker, I felt much more in control of my player and less worried about a split-second move leaving me in the dust. Maybe it was just the difficulty setting, but in Backbreaker it seemed easier to keep up with the kinetic action, which made the process of hunting down and burying ball carriers in the turf a lot of fun.

I thought the players were slow on offense, but on defense they are great?



I'm worried about some of the franchise and stats stuff, but I don't know how much "truth" can be taken with thise preview. There was just too much that he said was bad, when in fact, that is how it should work.

[BigZell20]

Re: Backbreaker Hands-On Preview (Gameinformer)

And winner, by T.K.O in the 12th round.....Madden

[booker21]

Re: Backbreaker Hands-On Preview (Gameinformer)

The one thing I like from the article


[ 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.]


About time we have throwing errors in a next gen football game.

Like I said before the AI make are break this game.

i was happy as you were, BUT.. after reading the part were it says the CPU couldn`t move the ball at all with a higher pass % of 30!! i felt saaaaaaaaaaaaad.

this is what i was saying all this long...when everyone were claiming this game would be great.

Tackles are only 1 part of football... what about the rest?.. it seems, it sucks. At least by reading GI preview.

[Hooe]

Re: Backbreaker Hands-On Preview (Gameinformer)

If I really can't edit player ratings, I'm cancelling my reserve tomorrow.

[KBLover]

Re: Backbreaker Hands-On Preview (Gameinformer)

How is any of that a bad thing.

Depends on how frequently that stuff happens, imo

It's great it happens - because it can and does happen in real life.

But it depends on frequency. "Several" isn't a good enough barometer for me.

[booker21]

Re: Backbreaker Hands-On Preview (Gameinformer)

exactly.

Like Bad snaps.. every once in a while is cool.. but if every 3 or 4 snaps, 1 it`s wrong.. it`s not good.

[TreyIM2]

Well, this doesn't sound much diff. than some of the other hands on prevs that were given a month or so ago. While I look forward to the game, this is just a tad disheartening that the game is still looking pretty much the same since those last previews yet I didn't expect much to change in so little time.
To me, it sounds like they're rushing this game. It sounds like it could use a year or so to get itself in a better position because, possibly by now, the game should have "gone gold" which means the final code is complete and ready for production. If it hasn't by now, it will soon. The retail game is due next month.
At any rate, like I last said, a rental, at least, from me. It will just be something different to fart around with til NCAA/Madden 11 hits.

[Crimsontide27]

Re: Backbreaker Hands-On Preview (Gameinformer)

I have become critical of Madden and Ncaa over the past few years and it would be unfair to criticize them over some of the major issues I see them having, and yet giving another football title a break.

Having read the preview multiple times, I see some huge deal breakers " to me" . What is a gamebreaker for some, may not be a gamebreaker to others.

Graphics = Mentioned they were robotic looking in nature, no cloth movement, all tinted visors etc... I can handle that, no problem

Recreating NFL teams, names , and logos= Cant take them online, but can mis-spell some names, add abbreviations etc.. I can handle that as well. Its not really an issue to me either

Customizing your players = Cant edit hight and weight. Can handle that as well. I dont play online, but I can see all the online players making every lineman as big as possible, making the WR as tall as possible, etc... So I see where they are coming from here...so I dont have an issue there.

Ratings = Limited rating system. Game only uses 4 ratings. Not an issue for me either. Madden probably has 20+ ratings for every player, but only 1-2 ratings have any impact anways. Since Maddens rating system is nothing more than a glorified spreadsheet with random numbers plugged in with no value, that makes no difference to me.

Gameplay = ================================================== =====

Offense

Good-

Offensive line formed pockets and had a decent blocking scheme.

Bad-

No team had over a 30% completion rate. Computer AI had no sideline awareness . End game clock management works for timeouts only. Computer would be down, yet still run the ball to let time expire. Qbs seemed to have no awareness when flushed from the pocket.

Defense

Good- Felt more fluid controlling the defenders.

Bad- Everything else. Almost zero defense logic. DBs didnt react to the balls , nor did they react to a QB taking off and having to run. Very easily exploitable by sending your recievers out for a deep pass and just running with the QB. Balls ghosting through DBs or WRs hands.

Presentation

Good = Nothing

Bad = There is none. Crowd is nothing more than white noise, however its still being worked on and will get refined down the road. Zero presentation with banners, stats overlays, etc. Cant pause the game to even look at the stats. Zero commentary, no play by play or nothing. Weve had play by play commentary in football games since 1992. There is no excuse for this to be left out 18 years later, none.


I can buy into the Backbreaker game and what its trying to accomplish. However, I pick up a football game to play a good game of football. If the core game is not good, all the wonderful animations and sequences are useless. It sounds like they forgot to program in the actual " footall " part of the gameplay so far and thats troubling.

I was VERY excited about this product, but I dont cut Madden and NCAA any slack, and Im not going to do it here. Everything about this game sounded great until the actual game of football was brought up.

[nyj721]

OK so no viewing stats in the pause menu, no challenges, no editing player attributes (if they even exist, other than the ones he stated), no editing player size (linebackers the same size as kickers?), and what appears to be a modified version of the QB vision from Madden 06 (which a lot of people hated with a passion), and thats not even going into the AI issues he mentioned.

Does it even matter if I can make Peyton Manning, but he has the same attributes as Jamarcus Russell. The only hope there is for the game now is if the AI is better on the pro mode with higher difficulty settings for both the CPU and the players AI controlled teammates. Either way this game just went from a first day purchase to a "if there isn't a demo I'm not touching this" game. Thank God for gameinformer