Think of the type of game you’re looking forward to. Is it one based around American football? Probably not. Bar Madden’s yearly outing and the odd deviation from the template here and there – Blitz: The League being the only example that springs to mind – there really isn’t much on the radar. Which is why it comes as such a surprise that not only is Backbreaker on the horizon, but it also has something about it to get people genuinely excited: physics.

We broke our backs once. We're lying... we didn't.

Yes, we’ve all talked about physics for however long you would care to imagine, and we’ve seen them implemented in some fantastic (and some terrible) ways. But one way we’ve never seen them truly used to their fullest is in sports games – yes, FIFA 10 claimed its body weight system took the game to a new level, but it still came across as a canned animation with little basis in reality. This is where Backbreaker comes in, offering up something of a template for future sports games to come.

Players are modelled in their entirety, and we’re told that muscle, skeleton and even the nervous system associated with motor functions are accurately calculated, meaning players we don’t want to intentionally quote the PR blurb here, but we can honestly say no two tackles are the same. There are other interesting aspects, like a novel camera system and an emphasis on customisation (owing to the lack of NFL licence), but none strike us as amazing as the tackle physics.

But we do have concerns for Backbreaker, however great an idea it may seem. First of all, it’s impossible to ignore the fact that the game is being developed by a tech company, and not any kind of seasoned sports developer. While this does mean that the developer is more likely to take risks – and therefore more likely to come up with some interesting ideas – it doesn’t fill us with the most confidence. Aside from this, there were some bugs with the tackling system, though we’re sure these will be ironed out by release. If not, though, at least it will be a funny failing on the game’s part.

Backbreaker could be used to teach physics to jock meatheads.

As it stands, we’re finding little to get us genuinely enthusiastic about Backbreaker, beyond the fact that the physics system could well usher in a new generation of sports titles. So, actually, that’s a reasonably big thing to get enthused about. Nevertheless, it’s hard to see this coming in and knocking Madden from its perch at the top of the mount.