It uses the Euphoria engine? Interesting...

Nice lighting, too. Good to have an alternative to Madden—which I haven't played since 2002.

rthis game just looks hot hands down

So when does EA's NFL monopoly end? Seriously, if they were smart, the guys at Madden would have bought the license for this tech a long time ago. I also find it interesting how much better this looks than Madden( except for the texturing). The lighting/shadowing is better, and I much prefer the dimensions of the players, to speak nothing of the animation. The grass is grass like in the Socc...er.. Football games, too...

Too bad Game brands sell games, not quality or innovation.

Reminds me of TF2.
But yeah, I like how Madden is lacking simple gameplay functions we had last generation. What a goddamn joke. They don't even care anymore.

This game looks amazing. I've been following it for some time now, and it just gets better and better every time I see it - doesn't hurt that it only costs $50.


2012. Chances are however, that EA will move to renew their exclusivity contract . . . yet again. But on second thought, they may not have to. It's not like they have any competitor out there with both the financial backing and a halfway decent gridiron engine who could compete with them, even if they no longer renewed license exclusivity.

If my understanding of how events went in the first place, EA's unwillingness to license Euphoria for Madden, is the root cause behind NaturalMotion deciding to go it alone and make a football game featuring Euphoria, on their own. So if Backbreaker turns out to be as good as it looks, we can all thank EA Sports for being idiotic, myopic dopes.

I usually only buy one or two of any sports game per generation - most annual updates after the initial release are marginal anyway, so the money I save by not buying new iterations every year, can go to more deserving games. That stated, from what I have seen of Madden so far this generation, I honestly believe that Backbreaker represents the first, true current-gen football game. The graphics, the tech under the hood, the presentation, and many of the game play elements that I have read about, all add up to the first true current-gen game of American football. Sad that Madden, which now has exclusivity to the NFL license and no competitors in the market, has come out on current-gen consoles every year since the Xbox 360 launched in November 2005, and still cannot make that claim. Last year's Madden 10 got close, once EA Sports stole a bunch of presentation features from NFL2K5. But even then, those are still last-gen features they stole, as NFL2K5 came out six years ago.

I'm crossing my fingers that Backbreakers turns out to be every bit as it looks like it is. I know that it's chances of selling as well as Madden, are slim to none, even if NaturalMotion gave the game away for free. However, it is looking more and more like the only American football game I will be purchasing this generation.