Backbreaker Preview - Natural Motion based football title

warnerwlf98 · Post by **warnerwlf98** » Tue Aug 21, 2007 9:44 pm

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/814/814249p1.html

Natural motion technology put to use in a new football title next year. Should be interesting to see how it turns out.

Rodster · Post by **Rodster** » Tue Aug 21, 2007 9:47 pm

Finally we get natural motion but I read over at OS that some are saying they believe it's going to be arcade like. I hope it isn't and I hope they allow for in-depth customization.

MizzouRah · Post by **MizzouRah** » Tue Aug 21, 2007 9:53 pm

This looks incredible!

pk500 · Post by **pk500** » Tue Aug 21, 2007 10:08 pm

That gang tackle from the 36- to the 40-second mark of that video was INTENSE.

This will revolutionize football gaming graphics if this company can pull this off. Cool sh*t.

Take care,
PK

Sudz · Post by **Sudz** » Tue Aug 21, 2007 11:10 pm

looks good....wonder how it will play...

i bet EA buys them out...

looks like great technology.

JRod · Post by **JRod** » Tue Aug 21, 2007 11:43 pm

Sudz wrote:looks good....wonder how it will play...

i bet EA buys them out...

looks like great technology.

I bet there is no football title and these guys are doing this SO EA buys them out.

Leebo33 · Post by **Leebo33** » Tue Aug 21, 2007 11:52 pm

JRod wrote:
Sudz wrote:looks good....wonder how it will play...

i bet EA buys them out...

looks like great technology.
I bet there is no football title and these guys are doing this SO EA buys them out.

Is that why they included a fumble?

Post by **ScoopBrady** » Tue Aug 21, 2007 11:54 pm

I thought it looked way too over the top and completely unrealistic. I could see where that technology would be awesome if toned down though. Unfortunately as it is every body being hit looked like a sack of potatoes.

Sudz · Post by **Sudz** » Wed Aug 22, 2007 12:04 am

Leebo33 wrote:
JRod wrote:
Sudz wrote:looks good....wonder how it will play...

i bet EA buys them out...

looks like great technology.
I bet there is no football title and these guys are doing this SO EA buys them out.
Is that why they included a fumble?

ha! nice.

Jimmydeicide · Post by **Jimmydeicide** » Wed Aug 22, 2007 1:34 am

ScoopBrady wrote:I thought it looked way too over the top and completely unrealistic. I could see where that technology would be awesome if toned down though. Unfortunately as it is every body being hit looked like a sack of potatoes.

yeh whats natural about dropping the ball because someone hit me on the foot. Maybe pop warner football title

Did look good tho only matter of time and it does have EA written all over it. Maybe if 2k start taking a chunk again this will be their Atom bomb to 2k.

GTHobbes · Post by **GTHobbes** » Wed Aug 22, 2007 10:08 am

Now that's the football game I want to be playing...I wouldn't care if it was from 2k, EA or this natural motion company, I'd definitely buy it. When I think next generation, this is what I have in mind. I'm just a little pissed that we haven't seen this kind've technology in a football game before, especially since EA has more than enough dollars to afford it (or maybe they would if they hadn't grossly overpaid for the NFL license).

wco81 · Post by **wco81** » Wed Aug 22, 2007 1:26 pm

This company has been showing their football demos for awhile now, I think hoping to get EA to license it.

In the trailer, they show these over the top hits but the point is, these would be real-time and no two tackles would be the same, instead of the canned animations we get now. So not all of them would look like these kill shots.

Now, I wonder if this real-time nature would make for better or worse control responsiveness compared to the precanned animation approach. EA has shortened the animations to increase responsiveness with Madden 08 but will NaturalMotion be inherently more responsive? Or will the CPU demands to synthesize a tackle in real time cause any lags?

The CEO says it will be very simplified controls. So maybe you can't have separate controls for using your arms versus lowering your shoulder or wrapping up or launching your helmet high or low.

Would be cool if you can do that, kind of like a fighter game.

Anyways, they've licensed their tech to a couple of companies already. Was hoping since Take Two had licensed this presumably for GTA4, APF might consider using it.

EA seems to be more inclined to use existing tech and with Madden's market share, they have no reason to make a huge change like this. Or really push technology in general. Just be good enough to keep the sales going.

Brando70 · Post by **Brando70** » Wed Aug 22, 2007 1:35 pm

wco81 wrote:In the trailer, they show these over the top hits but the point is, these would be real-time and no two tackles would be the same, instead of the canned animations we get now. So not all of them would look like these kill shots.

Yeah, I'm sure they just showed some exaggerated tackles to show off the potential of the engine.

It's very, very cool looking. It would not only great for tackling, but for blocking motions and breaking tackles.

Post by **ScoopBrady** » Wed Aug 22, 2007 1:47 pm

There's no doubt it looks cool but I still stand by the fact that it is not realistic at all. If you watch the video you will see that it is basically using ragdoll physics after the hit. Football players' bodies do not go completely limp upon contact. The fact that they do in every tackle here means that the end result of each tackle is bogus. Now if they could make the tacklee (now I'm making words up

) react more realistically this would be cool as hell.

pk500 · Post by **pk500** » Wed Aug 22, 2007 2:36 pm

This engine would be insane for boxing, mixed martial arts and fighting games, too.

And Rugby 2010 with this engine? I'm in HOT LUST.

Take care,
PK

webdanzer · Post by **webdanzer** » Wed Aug 22, 2007 2:39 pm

ScoopBrady wrote:There's no doubt it looks cool but I still stand by the fact that it is not realistic at all. If you watch the video you will see that it is basically using ragdoll physics after the hit. Football players' bodies do not go completely limp upon contact. The fact that they do in every tackle here means that the end result of each tackle is bogus. Now if they could make the tacklee (now I'm making words up ) react more realistically this would be cool as hell.

...and we all know Scoop's an expert on going limp upon contact...

wco81 · Post by **wco81** » Wed Aug 22, 2007 3:41 pm

The company seems to have a Euro heritage as well. So it's strange they focused on American football as opposed to futbol.

Or maybe they just want to get in with EA (the guy is very diplomatic about how they love Madden and so on), which might also get them into FIFA and Rugby and the rest.

That Star Wars game should show how well this tech. works.

Jimmydeicide · Post by **Jimmydeicide** » Wed Aug 22, 2007 3:42 pm

webdanzer wrote:
ScoopBrady wrote:There's no doubt it looks cool but I still stand by the fact that it is not realistic at all. If you watch the video you will see that it is basically using ragdoll physics after the hit. Football players' bodies do not go completely limp upon contact. The fact that they do in every tackle here means that the end result of each tackle is bogus. Now if they could make the tacklee (now I'm making words up ) react more realistically this would be cool as hell.
...and we all know Scoop's an expert on going limp upon contact...

High five

Post by **ScoopBrady** » Wed Aug 22, 2007 5:45 pm

webdanzer wrote:...and we all know Scoop's an expert on going limp upon contact...

Oh how things have changed my friend. That was the old me. Ever since joining my new band things are much different. Here's our first video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PH9qAGPULk

RobVarak · Post by **RobVarak** » Wed Aug 22, 2007 5:53 pm

ScoopBrady wrote: Oh how things have changed my friend. That was the old me. Ever since joining my new band things are much different. Here's our first video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PH9qAGPULk

Coffee spit funny!

Jimmydeicide · Post by **Jimmydeicide** » Wed Aug 22, 2007 6:24 pm

OMG is that serious commercial wow.
Great come back scoop.

GameSeven · Post by **GameSeven** » Thu Aug 23, 2007 1:09 am

ScoopBrady wrote:
webdanzer wrote:...and we all know Scoop's an expert on going limp upon contact...

Oh how things have changed my friend. That was the old me. Ever since joining my new band things are much different. Here's our first video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PH9qAGPULk

Bravo [/golfclap]

Elvis has to be flipping out in a nursing home some where...

wco81 · Post by **wco81** » Mon Dec 03, 2007 2:23 am

Some new info. at 1up and IGN.

Some screens showing 1Up and IGN logos in the helmets.

So it appears their approach to dealing with not having a license would be to allow user-customization.

I guess unlike Take2, they don't expect to get the NFL license ever so they don't care about letting users customize to fake NFL teams and players.

In addition to dramatic, ragdoll physics for tackles, they promise to eliminate suction blocking.

Still their strategy seems to be to carve out a niche and entice EA to buy their engine. But EA will probably never do that unless this game really takes off and eats into their market share.

GTHobbes · Post by **GTHobbes** » Mon Dec 03, 2007 10:38 am

I can't wait for this game. I'm glad to give my money to any company whose end objective is to force EA to improve Madden from its rather embarrasing state.

JRod · Post by **JRod** » Mon Dec 03, 2007 3:35 pm

Hate to pimp my blog...

I dug around a little to see what exactly this company is doing. It's not FBi work or anything.

But it still sounds like they are trying to find someone to buy their engine. The whole company is set-up to sell it's physics engine to other companies.

Although watch the trailer, the last few tackles were amazing.