NaturalMotion Preps for Game Development with Backbreaking Football Title

August 23, 2007 10:08 AM

While commonly cited for its Euphoria animation engine used in upcoming games like LucasArts' Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, NaturalMotion is now using the technology to internally develop its own game. The appropriately titled Backbreaker will use the Euphoria engine to portray a more natural football experience in the area of helmet-splitting tackles.

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"Backbreaker is the first football game with truly interactive tackles," said NaturalMotion CEO Torsten Reil. "By utilizing our motion synthesis engine, Euphoria, players will never make the same tackle twice."

The developers say the gameplay will be more along the lines of Midway's Blitz series, presumably without the drug use and other debauchery of recent installments, than EA's Madden Football. NaturalMotion released several screenshots and a trailer for the title, expected to retail on unspecified "next-generation" consoles in 2008.

Carlos Bergfeld

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SatansFist

 reply
August 23, 2007 10:26 AM

Damn that looks awesome. Very realistic.
- sjpeters79
  
   reply
  August 23, 2007 10:34 AM
  
  perhaps but there is more to football than tackles
  - Ziz
    
     reply
    August 23, 2007 10:49 AM
    
    like cheerleaders
    - Chris Faylor
      
       reply
      August 23, 2007 11:00 AM
      
      Given its expertise with physics, I don't imagine NaturalMotion will have any problem with cheerleaders.
  - mrwolf710
    
     reply
    August 23, 2007 11:06 AM
    
    Not in a perfect world there's not.
- [deleted] 2048834275
  
   reply
  August 23, 2007 11:17 AM
  
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  - SockMonkeh
    
     reply
    August 23, 2007 11:27 AM
    
    ubrokn
    - [deleted] 2048834275
      
       reply
      August 23, 2007 11:37 AM
      
      [deleted]
  - Ajax
    
     reply
    August 23, 2007 11:41 AM
    
    This is a teaser. I think they're just trying to highlight what the animation technology looks like in action, and not what final game play is going to be like. Check back when the game is ready to ship and see if they haven't fine-tuned things a bit.
    - [deleted] 2048834275
      
       reply
      August 23, 2007 11:48 AM
      
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      - Ajax
        
         reply
        August 23, 2007 12:49 PM
        
        They're using reskinned versions of a single model. You're being shown a smaller piece of the puzzle and not the entire work. And given the offerings that the competition has brought to the table, I'd say that the animation samples that we received here are head and shoulders above anything else out right now.
  - Jackass1233
    
     reply
    August 23, 2007 11:48 AM
    
    have you ever played or watched football? lol
    
    plays exactly like that occur, maybe not so much in the pro's but they definitely happen.
    
    Even if some of these look sort of unrealistic, id rather see this ANY day over having the same six preprogrammed animations like madden, which coincidently do not look realistic AT ALL.
    
    So whats the problem? That its not REAL LIFE PERFECT?
    - [deleted] 2048834275
      
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      August 23, 2007 1:54 PM
      
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  - tavis
    
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    August 23, 2007 12:43 PM
    
    Maybe because when your feet get knocked out from under you, you put your arms out to break your fall.
  - Mansmells
    
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    August 23, 2007 1:17 PM
    
    why did you write this like a poem?
    - [deleted] 2048834275
      
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      August 23, 2007 1:54 PM
      
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  - jlavrenz
    
     reply
    August 23, 2007 2:32 PM
    
    Other than the guy randomly dropping the ball when he probably would've tucked it in there, I think the tackles looked pretty good. The tackle right before that one was the only one that seemed "rag doll" to me.