Backbreaker

[JeffHCross]

True, true. You don't think Backbreaker brought out the need for a Locomotion type engine and some other stuff from the ncaa team though? I think it had a lot to do with some of the gameplay improvements that they chose to pursue this year. Mainly motion and blocking AI. So in a way, competition was a part of it. At least in my opinion.

I think it's possible, but it also could be total coincidence. For all we know, they've been working on some of these improvements for two years (because, honestly, this seems like a lot to do in a one year dev cycle).

No matter what, if Madden or NCAA ever get true physics, everyone's going to point to Backbreaker. Maybe it'll actually be true, maybe not. I'd guess not.

[JeffHCross]

If Sony made a NFL/College football game, I'd be all over it. The Show is golden. And yes, CDJ, I think you're right. I'm 99% sure that the exclusive license only applies to 3rd party publishers. If Sony or Microsoft wanted to, I'm very sure they could develop a NFL game.

No.

The NFL/EA arrangement encompasses action, simulation, arcade-style, and manager games made for PCs, consoles, and handhelds (both the DS and PSP, included), giving EA a firm hold on the football gaming market. The deal does not include titles for mobile phones or Internet-based games, but does include online features of consoles.

The MLB deal with 2k is the only one that allows first-party developers (i.e. Sony) to develop a game using the license. The NFL and NCAA licenses (or at least NFL, I can't find details on NCAA) is exclusive for everything except mobile.

[I OU a Beatn]

Interesting, that's a bummer. Not like they see the interest or appeal of making a college football game anyway.

[JeffHCross]

Give us backbreaker you saps. You’re going to hurt sales for Naturalmotion.

Found on the response to the PSN update blog. Lmao. Yes, because that's a reason for Sony to release Backbreaker early rather than when it's done.

[I OU a Beatn]

I love reading those. The most idiotic people you'll ever find make their home in the comment section.

[JeffHCross]

Copying from the Utopia BB thread:

It's too bad EA is willing to just sit back on their laurels. They have the resources, the money, the talent, the ability ... they could make (if they used Euphoria) the best football games EVER.

Instead they seem content with making piece meal improvements year to year and trying to squeeze by with just adding a few new animations and features.

Something I've been convinced of as I've watched this year's development cycle (and Madden's last year) is that EA Sports did a disservice to themselves by rushing to put out Madden 06 and NCAA 07 on the 360.

MLB: The Show 07 released in May 07, nearly three months after the same title released on PS2 and PSP. The Show 07 is notably known for having barely above PS2 level visuals, while getting in the vast majority of the featureset from the PS2 version.

Compare with NCAA 07, which had significantly better visuals on 360 than PS2, but was lacking all but the basic features.

Since then, we've heard on several occasions that one of the issues plaguing NCAA has been the framerate. The graphics engine was built in such a way to max out the visuals based on the 22 players already on the field. Thus, there was no room for growth in the graphics engine. This means that time (and resources) must be spent on optimizing the current engine to get a few more visuals out of it (i.e. players on the sideline, refs).

I have long believed that the primary issue series like NCAA face is prioritization. We all believe here that we "know" the direction EA should go with their series. And to satisfy the hardcore, we're probably right the majority of the time. But the hardcore, the userbase of Utopia, is not NCAA's primary target audience. It never has been. So that's why features like Season Showdown may make no sense to the hardcore userbase, but the casual fans might find it very interesting (judging by participation in it last year, I think they did).

Finally, one more point to make. In 2004, the late Randy Pausch (he of "The Last Lecture" at Carnegie Mellon ... look it up if you've never seen it) spent some time at EA (not EA Sports, but EA Corporate) and wrote up an academic paper about his observations.

A few major takeaways:

One of the biggest challenges for EA is the centralization of tools and technology; currently most titles "fend for themselves," with very little code reuse across EA's portfolio. (There is more code reuse in the Vancouver studio, especially amongst the various sports titles).

(Note when I was recently talking about the lack of code sharing between EA titles, I didn't even remember this quote. I had come up with it independently after looking at Online Franchise and Online Dynasty.)

EA, like Intel, is a very paranoid company; there is no sense of resting on their laurels or of taking anything for granted. They are well aware of what they perceive their weaknesses to be.

I thought there was something about legacy code and maintenance, but I can't find the quote now.

[jaymo76]

I was looking forward to dowloading backbreaker today... but... ps3 strikes again. First tecmo now backbreaker. I would suggest Sony not drop the ball with the NCAA demo or else there will be hell to pay. I can live without tecmo/backbreaker but NCAA is entirely different.

[JeffHCross]

Re: Tecmo

Has Tecmo ever confirmed they actually submitted it for PSN? All I've seen is "no release date" since the very beginning.

That just means the title was being planned for PSN, but says nothing about where it is in the process. It seems like people are assuming it's in Sony's QA queue. I find it difficult, at best, to believe that, since we still haven't seen an official date. Contrast that with BB which told everyone who would listen that both M$ and Sony had their demos for review.

There's a significant part of me that believes Tecmo still isn't done with the PS3 version and hasn't even sent it to Sony yet.

[I OU a Beatn]

I very much doubt the PS3 version is even done yet.

[jaymo76]

I very much doubt the PS3 version is even done yet.

But I thought backbreaker was advertising a Tuesday PS3 release???

[I OU a Beatn]

I meant Tecmo Bowl.

Backbreaker is releasing Tuesday. Sorry for the confusion.

[Jayrah]

I think it's possible, but it also could be total coincidence. For all we know, they've been working on some of these improvements for two years (because, honestly, this seems like a lot to do in a one year dev cycle).

No matter what, if Madden or NCAA ever get true physics, everyone's going to point to Backbreaker. Maybe it'll actually be true, maybe not. I'd guess not.

Yeah, definitely most of this stuff was 'set up' through the groundwork of last year. We commented a lot before 10 came out that it seemed ea was waiting for 11 to take it up a level. Last year was definitely a 'get through it' year, with the focus being to lay some ground work and update just enough to get it on the market, with some eye candy features. This year obviously is a different story, and I don't know if they were going to hire a new executive producer or not, but that seems to have worked out well too.

[Rudy]

Something I've been convinced of as I've watched this year's development cycle (and Madden's last year) is that EA Sports did a disservice to themselves by rushing to put out Madden 06 and NCAA 07 on the 360.

MLB: The Show 07 released in May 07, nearly three months after the same title released on PS2 and PSP. The Show 07 is notably known for having barely above PS2 level visuals, while getting in the vast majority of the featureset from the PS2 version.

I agree. I'd rather a company port over a game with all it's features and substandard graphics the first year. At least the game will have some polish and claim to be better than the past gen version. After that work on upgrading player models and improving the graphics and animations. EA has usually struggled when going to a new console. Look how bad they ruined NBA Live when they went from the PS1 to the PS2. NHL was pretty crappy too.

[cdj]

Thanks for the correction on the info, dudes.

So is the PS3 delay due to Sony being backed up, them finding an issue in the BB demo or what?

pastapadre had a nice write-up on demo impressions.

[Anton32]

I agree, ppl that hate ea will still say bb is better then madden! WRONG

[Deuce]

Thanks for the correction on the info, dudes.

So is the PS3 delay due to Sony being backed up, them finding an issue in the BB demo or what?

pastapadre had a nice write-up on demo impressions.

Wow. After reading this I'm glad I wasn't able to dl Backbreaker. Would have been a waste of 30 minutes and half a gig or so of memory.

[JBHuskers]

Wow. After reading this I'm glad I wasn't able to dl Backbreaker. Would have been a waste of 30 minutes and half a gig or so of memory.

That's what I thought about Backbreaker, except I gave it over 60 minutes.

[morsdraconis]

Just to reiterate everything that JB has said about this game; it's basically the most nauseating experience I've ever had playing a football game. That camera is THE WORST and throwing the ball is the most unappealing thing I've ever experienced (and that even includes the vision cone thing from Madden a few years back playing as a QB in Superstar mode where you HAD to switch the cone to whoever you were throwing the ball to before you threw it to them).

The controls are stiff, sometimes unresponsive, and awkward. Even switching to the other control mode, the spin move is atrocious. It's the most canned looking animation crap I've ever seen.

[JBHuskers]

I'm very curious to see the reviews on this. I love how on another site people who were so optimistic on the EA games is so blind. But yet when they're called blind on saying how great Backbreaker is, well you just can't call them a hypocrite.

[I OU a Beatn]

But it has Euphoria physics!!!1!!11