It's far too early to pass any sort of judgment, but we're intrigued by this first gameplay video of the upcoming football game Backbreaker, which seems to be more focused on putting players into the shoes of the athletes than the godlike skycam view of most football titles. No, it has no license, but it does seem to be a different take on the genre, and really, isn't that just as important?

The tackles also look fairly realistic and with good reason: The game is powered by the euphoria engine, the same one used in The Force Unleashed and Grand Theft Auto IV. We're going to hear more about this game (slated for a vague 2008 release) in the coming weeks. As such, we just want to be the first to make this joke: Gridirons of War. ... We don't have a wider context for it, but when you see it start to pop up just remember who dropped that bon mot first.

You've heard a lot about euphoria lately, especially from LucasArts, which is using the real-time animation generating software on everything from Indiana Jones to The Force Unleashed. You're even going to see it (someday) in Grand Theft Auto IV. Now, NaturalMotion, the company behind the software, has announced that they're working on a football game called Backbreaker utilizing the euphoria technology.

Predictably, the tackling looks great, and we're assured that the the footage in the video below the jump is generated on a next-gen console with euphoria, so we're pretty confident that they've got the tackling down. In fact, if creating a football game were just about how good your tackles looked, NaturalMotion would have a blue ribbon in their future. Unfortunately, there's passing and catching and stuff, so we have to withhold judgment. (On a side note, this is one football game that can't blame EA for their lack of a license. We think the NFL would have a hard time giving their blessing to a game named for the breaking of backs.) Anyway, check out the trailer and let us know what you think.

[Thanks, Christian]