Backbreaker: The future of football video games?

December 8, 5:51 PMGames ExaminerDaniel Nations

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Never heard of Backbreaker? I'm not surprised. It's a simple game of 11-on-11 football that's not due out until sometime in 2009. And while Backbreaker won't be crunching the bones of EA Sports football blockbusters like the venerable Madden series or the increasingly popular NCAA Football series, it may very well shine the headlight on where these games are headed.

Instead of using an animation-based model, Backbreaker uses NaturalMotion's Euphoria engine, which brings Dynamic Motion Synthesis to the football field. You see, in Backbreaker, every tackle will be unique because the animation is created on the fly rather than recorded through motion capture and simply reproduced.

This brings us one step closer to really seeing the action on the field rather than just seeing the same animations over and over. While EA Sports has done a great job adding to their animation-based engine through the years, motion simulation will not only allow a more unique experience, it can provide a more realistic one since any animation can be stopped at any point as events on the field unfold.

The Euphoria engine has already been used in Star Wars: The Force Unleashed to provide for greater realism in the artificial intelligence. Watch the YouTube video about Euphoria in The Force Unleashed.

The Backbreaker Trailer: