Backbreaker Preview - IGN (original) (raw)

The sound of #47's breath seemed to echo louder than the stadium of 65,000 fans, all screaming his name. His vision blurred and shook as he hurtled forward; his prize tucked protectively under one arm, the other shooting out again and again, sending oncoming opponents crashing to the ground. His cleats slashed through the artificial turf as he crossed the 40 yard line... the 30... the 20--
He felt his knee pop as his vision zoomed upward, the beautiful sight of the goal line replaced by blinding stadium lights. His vision continued to twist, and a brief thought--"I believe I'm about to break my neck"--broke through the pain burning through his spine. His body screamed for him to cover up, to bind his hands over his head, to do whatever he could to protect his skull, his brain, his neck, but his reflexes would not allow his hand to loosen its hold on the ball. If he could just hold on a few moments longer, could just--

Something hit him again, higher and harder, sending him toppling in the opposite direction as his neck tingled and the ball burst from his grip as easily as the air had his lungs. He would have grunted as his face snapped hard against the ground, but he could not cry out. Feet shuffled beside and over him as #47 lay forgotten on the ground, one hand now clutching his head, the other twisted around to claw at his back, the ball now forgotten as the fallen warrior desperately searched for feeling that was not there.

Such a tackle would certainly be quite a spectacle, but, while brutal in execution, it would inevitably grow tiresome after being seen for the umpteenth time. To date, football games rely on canned animations, which means that if you've seen one tackle, you've seen them all. NaturalMotion, a company based on the research of its namesake, aims to change on that with Backbreaker, a football title due out next year on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

The idea of realistic, real-time animation is something that has long enticed Torsten Reil, CEO of NaturalMotion. "NaturalMotion started a few years ago," said Torsten as we sat down to discuss the upcoming game. "It was an Oxford University spin-out, actually. What we were trying to do back then was to create completely simulated humans. That started quite simply with stick figures, and then evolved into where we are now, which is, having a simulation of the human body, with simulations of muscles, and most importantly, we've got a simulation of the nervous system that controls those muscles. Think of that as a combination of biology and robot control theory."

Torsten then loaded a movie clip that portrayed a paraphrased account of the technology's evolution from beginning to end. A tiny model comprised of two mechanical legs attached to a horizontal bar took a hesitant step, stumbled, a fell, twisting itself into a metallic pretzel. The next phase showed the robot making slightly better progress, as it stumbled sideways before falling yet again. Almost twenty evolutions later, NaturalMotion finally gave birth to a technology able to nearly mimic a human being taking a stroll.

"The original research used a very biological approach," Torsten explained. "We used artificial evolution to allow our creature to learn itself, to learn how to perform a particular task. For walking, we started with a population of one hundred individuals, different in terms of how good they were at different things. We then used what's called a genetic algorithm to essentially allow those creatures to become better. So the best ones at a particular task are chosen to reproduce, generating offspring that are slightly different. We did that over and over again."

Undoubtedly, the technology's name would have to be something that accurately described the team's elation at finally completing such a momentous project. Euphoria seemed to fit nicely.

Owned.

But why a football game? "The idea originated maybe a year ago," Torsten said. "We were creating simulated tackles. We have a product called Endorphin, which is a PC application that uses our technology to create animations much faster, but it's an offline process. Just for fun, we started creating tackles, and we said, 'Hey, those impacts look much more physical than anything we've seen before with motion capture,' which is a more traditional approach.

"A few months later, we got to the point where we thought, 'Well, if this technology was used at runtime on a next-gen console, it would completely change the way you look at football games, because every tackle would be different.' You would know that that tackle was your tackle. We put a small team together a few months ago and are now developing the title in Oxford and San Francisco."

Most football games tend to incorporate a bird's-eye or isometric camera system in order to give players a detailed view of the entire playing field. Since Backbreaker's primary emphasis is on tackles, it would seem that a slightly modified camera angle would be necessary to view every backbreaking hit. Torsten agreed, saying that NaturalMotion's goal is to bring the player directly onto the field. "It's [Backbreaker's camera system] a third-person camera, very close-up. What we're trying to do is, have players stand on that line of scrimmage, and have them really feel that they're a quarterback after the snap. They should feel nervous that they're going to be sacked at any given second. That's the feeling we want to get across: You are on the field, you feel like you're in the middle of the action."

Of course, with such an emphasis placed on tackling, one might wonder if Backbreaker's gameplay will be closer to simulation, ala Madden, or perhaps an arcade style similar to NFL Blitz. Issuing a sly smile, Torsten shrugged and said, "It's probably not right to go with either arcade or simulation labeling at this point. It's going to be quite close to real football; there's nothing too crazy going on, let's put it that way. But we're not going all the way in terms of simulation, like Madden does."

Speak of the devil. A common complaint voiced by players new to the world of virtual football is that some games, such as Madden, feature controls and instructions geared toward experienced gamers, leaving those interested in learning the ropes without a Cleveland fan's chance in Pittsburg. Torsten stressed that NaturalMotion's objective is accessibility for everyone, not just all-pro thumbpad quarterbacks. "We want people to pick up the controller [and be able to play]. The control system is very simple when compared to other football games. When players can pick the controller up and just play the game, learn how it works in about a minute... that's our main design goal, but we're probably not going to simplify the rules too much."

Torsten went on by saying that "Everyone [at NaturalMotion] loves Madden, and the control system works, but it's something that people are used to, which is why I think it works for those people. We're starting with a clean sheet for this title. We want to see what sort of control scheme we can develop that will make the game really easy to play."

Hopefully, part of that control scheme will include ways to tackle opponents in different areas. A football game centered on tackling should feature different ways to dive in for the attack, after all. Unfortunately, Torsten isn't willing to divulge those particular details quite yet. "We're going to reveal that a little bit later. What I can say is, we want to give players a lot of control. And that makes a lot of sense, because the nice thing about our approach is, the slightest change in factors such as angle, speed, timing... those all make a huge difference in a tackle, and it's one-to-one [ratio] reflected. We want to give people as much control over [the game] as possible. There's going to be a real skill element involved in creating the ultimate tackle."

What's that? "Creating the ultimate tackle?" Could this mean, then, that players will be able to create their own takedowns, similar to creating plays in other sports games? Probably not. "You don't actually pre-create any tackles, the tackles literally are synthesized in real-time using the CPU," Torsten elaborated. "Every tackle will be completely different and interactive. Everything, executing and receiving tackles, is completely different every time. Your action onto the other player as well as the other player's reaction is completely different and interactive."

Honing gameplay to near perfection is a trial for any developer, but it will not be NaturalMotion's biggest hurdle. With exclusive rights to the NFL license, Electronic Arts seems to stand uncontested at the top of the mountain. Surprisingly, this doesn't bother NaturalMotion in the slightest. "It [not having the license] works for us because what we want to do is create a very pure football game, which is pretty much all about the player: it's the player on the field, it's the player's own team, everything. It's very much a customized experience."

Rather than compete with Madden, Torsten feels that Backbreaker will comfortably settle into existence as a fun niche title. "People we've shown the title to so far are very excited. They've seen the footage, they get the game; it's not a competitor to Madden, because Madden has the NFL license, and it's a great game. A lot of people buy it; a lot of people love it. What we're thinking instead is, Backbreaker's the sort of game where, if you play Madden, and you like it, you'll also like Backbreaker. We don't think there's going to be anyone who buys Backbreaker instead of Madden, but we hope there will be lots of people who buy both."

Since Backbreaker is not set to tap into Madden's competition, could this mean that NaturalMotion might attempt to one day license Euphoria to EA? "We've been talking to EA on and off, and I probably can't say too much about what we've been talking about. We like the guys at EA Tiburon, they're talented developers. Who knows what's going to happen, but right now, I can't talk about anything."

The future seems bright for Torsten & Company. In addition to their work on Backbreaker, other prominent companies such as Rockstar Games and LucasArts have signed on to make use of NaturalMotion's Euphoria tech in Grand Theft Auto IV and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, respectively. Taking an active role in the development of such juggernaut titles is nothing short of a dream for Torsten. "If anyone had told us a few years ago that we'd be working on those titles, we wouldn't have believed them. The other big thing has always been football, and sports in general. Football was something that, for us, was a dream genre, because it uses Euphoria to its best effect. Equally, you could think of other sports as well where having completely interactive characters changes everything. We don't think of this as a small cosmetic change; we feel it makes all the difference."