There's more to being a top-flight football player than tremendous strength, precise reflexes, and blistering speed. One of the more overlooked attributes of a position like running back is vision, specifically peripheral vision. After all, what good is all that strength, speed, and precision for a ball carrier who can't see a defensive end coming in from the side to clobber him? That's one of the challenges the developers at Natural Motion are facing with the upcoming Backbreaker, the upcoming unlicensed football game for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

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　　Backbreaker Interview

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　　It's a challenge that is partially the developer's own making; in an effort to bring immediacy to Backbreaker's on-field play, the camera is drawn much closer to the ground than in a game like Madden NFL or the NCAA Football series. And while that lowered camera adds to the impact of Backbreaker's bone-crushing procedural hits--one of the game's biggest talking points--it takes some getting used to, especially when running the ball. If you manage to break through the initial contact, for example, and get a few yards upfield, you might think you have some open ground ahead of you, only to be nailed by a vicious hit from a defender you didn't notice coming from offscreen, something that rarely (if ever) occurs in other football games.

　　Still, with a few months to go before Backbreaker ships, the developers behind the game are well aware of potential camera issues and are still exploring potential solutions to the problem of peripheral vision. It's doubtful that a complete camera overhaul is likely--which may not be entirely a bad thing; after all, the lower angle and manually panning across the field when playing as quarterback work pretty well for the passing game.

　　A potential answer to the peripheral vision problem could be found in Backbreaker's focus mode, which is engaged by holding down the left trigger. When you're playing as quarterback, focus mode tightens your field of view onto your locked-on receiver. Passes thrown in focus mode are more accurate, but the reward of accuracy is offset by the risk of a further zoomed-in camera, which further reduces your peripheral vision. During my brief hands-on time with Backbreaker, I gave up multiple sacks by using focus too much, and made more than a few gorgeous long passes too.

　　But focus mode also works for ball carriers, which is where things might get interesting with some tweaks. The way it works now, engaging focus mode as a ball carrier will put the focus on the nearest threat (read: the nearest defensive player set to make a tackle). It's interesting in theory and can be disconcerting at first in practice; because your nearest threat is often behind you (especially as a wide receiver on a long pass), the camera will often swing completely around. As a result, if you leave the left trigger held down and move the stick, you'll start running in the opposite direction of where you should be going. With enough practice, you'll presumably learn to use the focus mode only in quick bursts as a ball carrier--showing any nearby threats and then reacting accordingly. If focus mode is used intelligently (and the camera reacts quickly enough without giving you motion sickness in the process), it might be a decent fix for the peripheral vision problem in Backbreaker.

　　Camera angles aside, developers are aiming to make Backbreaker an easy game to pick up and play. There are two basic modes of play--Arcade and Pro. Arcade mode has stripped-down playbooks (basic run plays; short, medium, and long passes; and play action essentially) and lots of on-field indicators to help you with things like primary receivers (who are colored red), receivers you are currently focused on (who are highlighted in yellow), and so on. When playing defense, your offensive assignment will be highlighted when playing in Arcade mode. Pro mode, by contrast, strips out much of the artificial highlighting and adds in more complex playbooks. Those who want a middle ground between Arcade and Pro mode can choose to toggle specific aspects of presentation on or off.

　　In terms of control, Backbreaker has taken a similar easy-to-learn approach. When you're carrying the ball, most of the moves you'd expect to be able to do--things like jukes and spins--are controlled by moving the right stick; flick the stick left or right for a juke, or turn it in a quick circle for a spin move. We've already covered focus mode, which uses the left trigger; the right trigger engages aggressive mode. Think of it as turbo mode with attitude. When it's engaged, your runner will crouch a bit lower and sprint faster. Using the right stick when in aggressive mode will execute moves like stiff arms either left or right, or the trucking move by pressing up on the right stick.

　　Before the snap, you can pull up the camera to get an elevated look at the field with coach cam--you can even use the coach cam in the middle of a play and the AI will take over the player you were previously controlling. You can switch between players during a play by pressing the X button, and the game will choose the player it switches to next; producers claim it will be the most "intelligent" player (that is, not necessarily the closest player but a nearby player who is in a position to make a play). There are still some questionable control features in Backbreaker--do we really need a button to manually switch the ball from one hand to the next?--but for the most part, the game's learning curve isn't that steep.

　　The low-down camera brings an immediacy to the action on the field.

　　Beyond the on-field play, Backbreaker will include things like online play, the Tackle Alley minigame (which has become a popular iPhone game in its own right), and a season mode that will come in two flavors. The first season mode variety is aptly called Season mode, and it will let you play any of the game's more than 60 teams in an 8-, 16-, or 32-team league. You can play multiple seasons in a row, and there will be college player scouting in between seasons and a team draft before the start of the season (with the number of draft rounds dependent on the size of the league). In addition, there looks to be a monetary system of sorts at play in Backbreaker--you'll earn credits in-game by doing things like winning games or making big plays; you can take those credits and use them to buy free agents for your team as you progress.

　　The other season mode variety is known as Road to Backbreaker mode. Unlike in the traditional Season mode, you'll be using a created team here, which you create from scratch using the game's extensive team, uniform, and logo creator. You can save up to 32 created teams in the game, and if you aren't much of an artist, you can copy an existing team's logo and adapt it to your liking by changing designs and color schemes (via a Forza Motorsport-like tool of basic geometric shapes).

　　Road to Backbreaker mode starts you off in an eight-team league, and in a nod to Natural Motion's European roots, the mode will feature a promotion and relegation system. Should you end up in the top three of your league at the end of the season, you'll be promoted to the next league up (either a 16- or 32-team field). Winning a league's championship bowl game will also unlock special stadiums that you can use online (bringing the total number of stadiums in the game to 13). Failure to end up in the top three will mean dreaded relegation to the next lower tier and a long road back to promotion during the next season.

　　The promotion/relegation option seems like a smart inclusion to Backbreaker's approach to football, which needs to do as much as possible to separate itself from its high-profile competition. There are some lingering questions about the game's depth--for example, there are no injuries in the game (though players do have backups at each position). Amid those questions we do have one cold hard fact: Backbreaker will be released on the Xbox 360 and PS3 on May 18, so stay tuned for more on the game in the coming weeks.