Backbreaker (football) Available in May

I'm pissed that they cancelled the PC version, because that's what I was going to play. Ugh.

[quote name='CouRageouS']Is this the same as / related to Backbreaker Football on iPhone? If so I can't wait to try out a console version.[/QUOTE]

The iPhone game is basically a very, very basic tech demo for the full game. The console game is a full-fledged football game.
 
I got to attend a preview event last week. Coverage is embargoed until next week, but I'll post the link to the story once it goes up.
 
I cant wait for this, I am picking it up on principle alone but am really looking forward to seeing what this thing can do.
 
This game looks like it will be amazing, hope they have a successful launch and turn a profit. Hopefully this will highlight Euporia engine and get it into more games.
 
The tackle animations look great. The player models look a little off. With that camera, what is the local multiplayer experience like?

Label me a skeptic... for now...
 
I'm looking forward to this game and i hope it does well, i really hope it is a madden killer.
 
I am 100% on this games bandwagon. Just watching the tackles means I can never play another madden with their slip and slide 1 guy gets to tackle 5 guys get to fall over.


I am pumped for this like no other, been following it for a year.
 
No, as of right now there is no way to share anything via in game.

Most people are assuming they can use the Xbox usb support to somehow transfer jerseys and players and such but I am not holding my breath for it.

I am sure someone out there will find a way to make it happen...just have to wait.
 
Looks like it should at least be a better game than APF 2K8 because it has the modes I've expected out of football games for over a decade now, though the art style and design of the players just looks awful. I'm hoping the game plays a lot better than it looks.
 
Yea, you are just going to have to accept the non traditional way they the players look. Once you get past that you will noticed all the little things in the game that are completely mind blowing.

This is true next gen football...its not going to be perfect but I will be damn to shell out another 60 for a engine that was built for the PS2.
 
This game was never really on my radar, but I've been getting really pissed at Madden lately. It's just weird how there's a huge lack of info regarding any features other than the animations and the fact that you can create teams. What does this game have as far as modes go that Madden does not?

EDIT: Got the demo. Now I have to wait for the Tiger Woods demo to download before I can play either.
 
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Here is a clip of tons of plays people have ton. Just my lucky I cant even get to my xbox until SAT afternoon.

http://www.operationsports.com/forums/backbreaker/415610-backbreaker-demo-videos-thread.html

All I have to say is down goes madden. I knew this from the get go, I wont be able to go back to the slip and slide of madden tackling. There is a play where a defender just smacks the ball out of a players hands for a fumble in the open field and the ball carrier wasnt even touched just the ball.

No suction tackles, no tron jogging, no crazies....just football. I am really pumped about this game. Granted though I still dont know what the overall gameplay is but it has to be completely broken for me to not love it.
 
It's hard to do, since the motion they chose is terrible and they way they illustrated it is even worse. Do a quarter circle down/left, the go straight up in the middle like when you're kicking a FG in Madden.

EDIT: Sood, this game won't even be a blip on Madden's radar, no matter how it plays. If you think otherwise, you're crazy.

Also, quoting Operation Sports is like quoting GameFAQs. They get it in their heads that their opinion matter most and anyone who disagrees with them is wrong. They will literally delete any posts criticizing a game because they suck the game companies' dicks in order to get review copies and such.
 
I came in with low expectations and the game seems ok to me. I'll eventually buy it when it drops to around $10, but I'll be sticking with Madden or NCAA this year.
 
Dude you have played the demo for 1 day for at most a couple hours. They said from day one that although the controls are pick up and play you wouldnt be able to throw for 500 yards out of the gate.

Clearly they didnt spend 3 years on the game and never notice that their passing doesnt work what so ever.

Although I must say that I havent actually played the demo yet.
 
[quote name='Pure Apathy']I can't throw a lob pass in the tutorial. Any tips?[/QUOTE]

Still working on that myself. That's my only complaint so far regarding the demo.
 
[quote name='Soodmeg']Dude you have played the demo for 1 day for at most a couple hours. They said from day one that although the controls are pick up and play you wouldnt be able to throw for 500 yards out of the gate.

Clearly they didnt spend 3 years on the game and never notice that their passing doesnt work what so ever.

Although I must say that I havent actually played the demo yet.[/QUOTE]

I'm not talking about throwing for 500 yards, I'm just saying that both the motion and the way they illustrate it are terrible. Also, note what I said when I edited, which I don't believe you saw before replying again.
 
Yeah, didnt see your edit. I know OS is trash I was only posting it because it had a link of like 50 videos in the thread so people could see the gameplay. I dont even care about there opinions because you are completely right in that regard.

Also, I never said Madden should care about backbreaker anyway. I am not in the Madden Vs Backbreaker war that the internet has taken on. I am simply pointing out that all of the things I have complained about in madden over the last 5 years are absent from this game. Which means I seriously can not go back to madden.

I can not watch backbreakers tackle and then see maddens 1 guy tackle 5 guys fall over. I personally cant do it.

But since I have not played it I cant comment on the passing yet....I just want to point out that it might take some time to relearn how to play the way they intended.

EDIT: Hell I actually expect some parts of the game to either be gone or slightly broken...but on the other hand I have been dealing with completely broken aspects of madden for a long time. I gave madden 5 years to fix them at least I can do is give 505 a couple months to learn how play the game the way they intended.
 
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What have you complained about in Madden that Backbreaker has fixed? If anything, aside from the physics engine, they have ripped off Madden in every way.

Using the right stick to juke/spin/truck feels good and works fluently, but Madden's been doing it for years and they're improving on it this year. As far as the rest of the game goes, it's like they took Madden's Superstar mode and made it into a game, which is not a good thing. Yes, you can switch players, but too often on defense, you aren't even a part of the play.

Speaking of defense, the lack of control is astounding. You have no ability whatsoever to jump up to tip or intercept a pass. None. You just have to stand by the receiver and hope your man automatically jumps up and catches it. I'm complaining even though I got interceptions on nearly every pass. I saw no tips whatsoever in all the games I played.

The fact that fact that you face the same direction whether on offense or defense is really off-putting. In fact, everything about the camera angles sucks. I get that they were trying to put you "in the game", but you can't see anything downfield while passing. And, speaking of passing, they again ripped off Madden. Their receiver switching mechanism is exactly the same as the "vision cone" from Madden, just without the actual cone shape shown on the field. Again, not a good thing.

At its core, the game is pretty fun, but it falls well short of the hype. Not one single thing aside from the physics engine/tackling is better than Madden, NCAA, or the 2K series. Combine that with the fact that this game will drop in price to $30, if not $20, by the time the NFL regular season starts... I'll pick it up for that price, but I have no problem waiting. Keep in mind that this is coming from someone who has become increasingly frustrated and angry with how Madden 10 plays, the more time I spend with it.

6/10
 
Really guys, at the end of the day there's two reasons EA Sports football game sells the most:

1)Madden name recognition
2)NFL license

The rest really doesn't matter at the end of the day. Even the worst reviewed Maddens end up being among the top sold games each year.

Frankly, after seeing All Pro Football without the NFL license pretty much bomb in sales I'm actually a little confused as to why this game was developed/released in the first place. No matter how well it does in the reviews its not gonna sell at $50, plain and simple. I (like many others have already mentioned) am interested in this game but for $20-30 tops.
 
Just played some of the Backbreaker demo, few quick thoughts/impressions:

- The controls take some getting used to, but are pretty intuitive.

- The running game is kind of weird. You take the ball, and if you hold up, you wind up running almost backwards. Feels kind of like you're fighting with the running game where the game wants to go one way while you want to go another.

- The quarterback camera, albeit realistic as to what a quarterback can actually see, can be a pain. You cant see a single thing coming behind you, so you wind up getting sacked quite a bit. Like I said, it's realistic, but it's odd for a game that's this arcadey to choose to be realistic in that aspect.

- Defense is meh. It's easy to get disoriented after the snap due to the camera. It's not terrible and getting sacks or picks feels highly rewarding, but the camera could maybe be zoomed out a touch.

- The player graphics flat out suck. The field, stadium, crowd, etc... look great, but the players and uniforms are awful. Everything looks painted on and low-res.

- Kick-offs, while cheesy, are kind of cool as "Boom" by POD blasts while you kick and field the ball. Successfully fielding kicks can be a pain in the ass though.

Overall, the game plays pretty well and is a lot more fun than I expected. Not sure if I'd go buy it on release day at full price, but once this drops to $30 or so (which I imagine will happen soon), I'll grab it.
 
BREAKING NEWS!!! IMPORTANT!!!

Apparently, we don't need to discuss this demo at all. According to a guy at Operation Sports, demos have little to nothing to do with the final releases of games. Of course, when I contradicted that statement, I was jumped on by several OS members for having the gall to disagree with an established member whose name was in green text.
 
Wow. This game is a disappointment.

BTW, I also had some trouble with the lob pass. What you have to do after you snap the ball is drop back a bit with the qb and just push back on the right stick and then forward (the default throwing control). the U and then pressing up doesn't do a good job of telling you what to do.
 
Wow. The punt return is absolutely awful because of the AI of my teammates. 5 punts, three times they hit the punter after the kick, and two of those were in the same drive to change a 4th & 29 into a first down for them. The AI can tear the O-line a new one to get sacks easily, but can't control themselves on the punt return. The passing is pretty much next-gen Tecmo Bowl, so it's easiest to just pick a receiver that's likely to get open on his route rather than being expected to look around.

Maybe it's better in a normal game or franchise, but there are some issues like that and the camera that makes me hesitant about getting the game anytime soon. I'll probably rent it if anything, though I'd hope that this isn't a $60 game for NaturalMotion's sake.
 
It's releasing at $49.99, actually. But, as I said, I'm pretty sure it will drop to $30, maybe $20, by the time the NFL season starts. For $30 or less, I'd buy it.
 
Game is going to be $20 tops by the time Madden comes out.

Frisky, I had the same exact problems. 2 roughing the punters back to back.
 
[quote name='Matt Young']BREAKING NEWS!!! IMPORTANT!!!

Apparently, we don't need to discuss this demo at all. According to a guy at Operation Sports, demos have little to nothing to do with the final releases of games. Of course, when I contradicted that statement, I was jumped on by several OS members for having the gall to disagree with an established member whose name was in green text.[/QUOTE]

A member who was participated, at many a developers request, in community days, preview events, etc. He does have some experience in the area. You're not infallible, and neither is he.
 
Played the demo a few times. I dig it. Then again, I've been looking forward to this game since the debut trailer in 2008.

I'll probably write a demo impression sometime on my podcast's home site. I want to give it a few more playthroughs beforehand, though.
 
[quote name='SoulReaver']Guaranteed this will be less than $20 by the time Madden 11 comes out.[/QUOTE]

Yeah. I'm definitely waiting to buy this. I see it being much like APF2K8 in that I like the game, but it will be critically panned and in bargain bins across the country in two months tops.
 
[quote name='jza1218']A member who was participated, at many a developers request, in community days, preview events, etc. He does have some experience in the area. You're not infallible, and neither is he.[/QUOTE]

Who are you there? Same name?

I never claimed to be infallible; far from it. And I have participated in such things and have attended E3 while working for a certain website, so my credentials are on par.

Even if I was wrong, which I wasn't in that case, the point still stands about the Nazi mods over there. Ask Nate, or anyone else from here who posts there regularly.

EDIT: Oh, you're statnut. I'm surprised you noticed that post since thread has gone from 5 to 48 pages in the last 8 hours or so. Damn. People are definitely talking about Backbreaker, that's for sure. Good news... even though I'm in the middle as far as my feelings go on the game, I want it to do well.
 
passing is ridunkulous dude, and whats up with all the roughing the punter penalties on every punt? Mapping everything to the right stick will prove a costly mistake. Every time i am rushed into throwing to the same guy i choose pre-snap and more times than not the cpu intercepts me even on easy difficulty. That said, the engine does do some cool things, running the ball and defense works pretty well...i can see this being a BLITZ sort of arcade game with a new camera and new experiences every snap, but in no way is it a straight sim of the sport like APF 2K8. I will wait for it to hit inevitably hit the 20 dollar level in a few months then i will pick it up for fun.
 
[quote name='SoulReaver']Does anyone else do TERRIBLE on offense?[/QUOTE]

Nope. I play on Arcade/Medium and have won every game I've played. Passing is a breeze for me. Running is kind of awkward though due to the camera.
 
I haven't had one roughing the kicker penalty in about 5 games. Weird.

Passing takes some time to get used to, but once I learned how to do the lob pass, that helped greatly. You have to be quick with your reads when passing.

I like that you can tell the difference in teams. I've played as Charleston, and their QB is really good, and that's how you should play. However, I played as Chicago, which has a really good running game and an OK QB, so you need to run the ball to have more success.
 
[quote name='Scorch']this game is garbage.[/QUOTE]

I tend to agree :( I was looking forward to this. Maybe I just need to put more time into it.

For $49.99 though, that isn't going to happen. Will wait for the huge price drop and then probably still not buy it.
 
[quote name='Matt Young']Who are you there? Same name?

I never claimed to be infallible; far from it. And I have participated in such things and have attended E3 while working for a certain website, so my credentials are on par.

Even if I was wrong, which I wasn't in that case, the point still stands about the Nazi mods over there. Ask Nate, or anyone else from here who posts there regularly.

EDIT: Oh, you're statnut. I'm surprised you noticed that post since thread has gone from 5 to 48 pages in the last 8 hours or so. Damn. People are definitely talking about Backbreaker, that's for sure. Good news... even though I'm in the middle as far as my feelings go on the game, I want it to do well.[/QUOTE]

Eh, my kid was sleeping in my arms, so I was reading the thread on my phone out of boredom. I agree that the mods are ridiculous other there (for God's sake, they have threads about people getting games early, like Madden, but mod you if you mention where you got it).

Anyway, I should have my review copy soon, and I'll post it here when it goes live.
 
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