DEAD or Alive 4 XBOX 360-Anyone get it yet?
 

its being released today... just wondering how the first impressions were of the game

Well, to answer the subject line, I picked mine up from EB Games around a half hour ago, but as for the 'first impressions' part...I'll get back to you in a bit. :)

Fundamentally, it doesn't seem that different than <i>Dead or Alive Ultimate</i>, which I don't see as being a particularly bad thing. I've played through Story Mode four times with Hitomi, and at the default difficulty level, it's less ridiculously easy than DOAU. Not overly difficult or anything, but the first few matches don't seem like "gimmes" the way they did in DOAU. The levels are gorgeous, and some of the interactivity is pretty neat. Knocking Jann Lee off the ground and having him roll off the back of a tiny dinosaur is pretty nifty. The combos are a little tougher to pull off (no more getting walloped into losing half my health in one combo), and I feel like I might actually have to learn how to counter, something I never fussed with in DOAU. The characters themselves don't look significantly different than they did on the plain-jane Xbox. The textures of their outfits looks a little better, and some like Bass seem more detailed and expressive, but they're mostly unchanged. Sometimes that can look a little strange -- one pre-battle scene has Hitomi's hair blowing in the wind, which results in all sorts of odd clipping problems.

Apparently the 'regular' final boss is ridiculous, but Hitomi's last battle is always against Ein, so I haven't gone up against it yet.

So, very, very preliminary impressions are that DOA4 isn't dramatically different. Kinda more of the same (which is okay since I like 'the same') with some appreciated tweaks. If you like the other DOA games, it's definitely worth picking up.

Just got this today. It is very similar to the other ones. It took maybe ten minutes to go thru the story mode.The backgrounds are pretty stunning - as is the white-haired girl's outfit. I had hoped the character's spoken language would reflect their nationality this time. That has always been a pet peeve of mine. Maybe in DOA 5?

Graphics are AMAZING!!! When you knock a person off of a ledge or bridge, the flight down can be dizzying. So far, story mode isn't that hard. My hardest fight was Tina vs. her father (her end movie is my favorite so far). So far I've played through Kasumi, Kokoro, and Tina. Framerate is flawless. My only complaints ares that all of the spoken dialog is Japanese(?), and the hair on the long haired characters flows oddly. It looks like water instead of hair.

All in all...great game! Can't wait to go on Live!

After about an hour, my girlfriend and I decided it's another cheap button masher like the rest of the DOA's. Pretty arenas and bouncy boobs don't make up for fundamental fighting and tactical techniques. Tekken 5 and VF4 Evolution still walk all over this game. Oh well, back to Zuma until Saint's Row comes out in April :)

I believe I'm truly awful at this game.

I've been playing it for the last few hours... my fingers started hurting so I had to take a break.

I've played through Story Mode once and won. Can't say I understand the CG ending, even though it looked impressive. The backgrounds of the levels look amazing. My favorite is where all the monkeys are jumping around behind you excitedly. Monkeys make everything better.

I played Survival Mode for about an hour. Every time I'd get 9 wins without so much as a scratch, and then in the 10th match I'd have my ass handed to me. Finally got to 13 wins, but by that point I wanted to smash my controller.

Online is similar to DOAU. One match I was in was laggy, the next was very smooth. The lobby system will polarize a lot of people.

I won't argue that it's a deep game, but it's not a cheap button masher. If it were, cheap button mashing would win rounds, and at least when I got stuck and tried it, no dice. It worked on DOAU for sure, but DOA4's a little too brutal to let it slide.

It's pretty cool so far, very nice to look at.

Got it today as well. I guess my first impression of it was a little underwhelming. I think I expected more changes to the fighting and that just didn't happen. I've been playing DOA since 2 on DC (played DOA 1, never liked it) and though it's always been fun playing with friends, it's never gotten as good as VF, Tekken, or (especially) Soul Calibur. Funny thing is I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what exactly it is that it's missing and I think I finally came up with something.

There are no penalties. What I mean by this is for example Astaroth in SC you have lots of strong moves, but missed swings will cause you to stutter and be open for punishment for a split second. In DOA for the most part you can keep wailing on people without worrying much about stuns, stutters or whiffs. The really fast characters are especially tough in this series because of this. I just wish this aspect of the series were more balanced.

Otherwise I really like this game. Graphics are beautiful, frame rate is silky smooth, and fighting is as always fun with two or more friends. Online can be fun too, just try to stick to your skill level. The options make this easy as you can choose the skill level you wanna play with. If you have an HDTV this is a showcase game. The colors jump out at you and really show off what an HD display can do.

I slightly disagree on the no penalties thing. My mistakes always come when I hit a button one too many times, whiffing on a kick. Then the match is over as I'm getting wailed on mercilessly.

This is the second 360 game where I've actually commented outloud "wow, the water looks amazing!". There had better be some water-based games in the works. Bloodwake 2 would be fine.

I've been playing the game most of the day today and I'm really impressed with this game. *Spoiler free impressions*

The graphics are rediculous. While the character models aren't much of an upgrade, Itagaki likes their art style, the environments and clothing are phenominal. Seeing loose hair and clothing blowing in the wind during gameplay is just insane.

I've completed story mode with all the characters and have unlocked all but the last hidden character. The endings were all really good, some of them hilarious, and the final ending really tied things up nicely. The game had a fairly cohesive story for a fighting game, most ended up intertwining by the end.

Online play is a blast, although I lack blocking and countering skills apparently. 99% of my games have been lag free as I've been the host and have a 15meg/2meg connection.


You have to love Itagaki for throwing in joke achievements. I have 2 achievements worth zero points. 1 is for losing 5 times in a row online and 1 is for dropping to D rank.

For those who want to know how to unlock all the characters:

Unlock Gen Fu by completing Elliot's story.

Unlock Ein by completing Hitomi's story.

Unlock Leon by completing Zack's story.

Unlock Helena by completing all default characters' stories.

Unlock Spartan 458 by completing Helena's story.

Unlock Tengu by unlocking all hidden characters and beat time attack mode with everyone.

i like it so far, the enviroments are amazing, the water looks great the characters look good but not much better then the xbox. the flowing hair on the sholders is neat that it moves like that just doesnt look good.

pretty good game, CGI's arent that sharp looking and are wierd but some are cool looking.

Picking this up today. Can't wait.

Picked this up on Friday morning and played a couple hours last night and a bit this afternoon. It doesnt seem that different to DOAU but as I loved DOAU I'm really enjoying it so far. Doesnt seem to be as many costumes to unlock though. Brad Wong's ending although random had me laughing my ass off.

I could breeze through DOA2 and 3 on the normal level but I can't win a story mode in this game.
The computer is beyond cheap. I didn't think they could come up with a cheaper end boss then DOA3, but somehow, they did it.
It probably what caused the delay. It wasn't cheap enough.
If I can muster a decent hit, the electro girl just grabs me, says, "I think I want to win now", then proceeds to 500 hit combo as I watch in horror.

Is this fun for anyone?

I tried the tutorial but it made no sense, is there anyway to get out of the computer's never ending combo?

I got through story mode and that last one was tough for me. I'm just an average player with fighters, but I get frustrated too as I don't know how to get out of the multi combos the CPU does.. it can take down 50 of my health.

picked this up on Friday at TRU.

so far I am having a whole lot of fun with it. it's not a step-forward I believe for the series, but that wasn't my expectation for it. it's doing exactly what I wanted it to do, be a really fun fighting game experience. I think the backgrounds do look great, and some of them are really crazy (dinosaurs). the last boss is cheap and unforgiving at times, but really cool.

:) glad I finally have this.

Is it more like DOA2:Black (or DOA2 for the Dreamcast) or DOA3?

I didn't like DOA3 that much...

Charge attacks reportedly work really well. It took a few tries to win as Zack, but I eventually made my way through.

MY buddy brought this over last night. Since he had been playing for hours on end I figured he'd whip my pretty good and he did for a bit. He was saying how this game was more than a button masher and I'm sure that it is on a certain level. I still managed to hold my own with him after only 15 minutes of gameplay or so.

The game looks fantastic. The characters look great and move very well for the most part. The environments are very creative and should be very difficult for any other fighting game to match or beat.

There is a nice variety of game modes to keep you busy. The mode where you take pictures seems odd but comes in handy I guess when you put females in such creative costumes.

DOA was never my favorite series but it is still very impressive and has made a game the other fighters will have to work hard to match. I am planning on renting the game soon and it should give me my fighting game fix until some other franchise is released or until they hopefully announce a new Killer Instinct game.

Been playing it a bit here and having fun. It is a bit more difficult than the others.

Graphics are amazing in most cases, and the main thing is the character models that look more like enhanced xbox models than xbox 360 models, but that is ok.

5.1 works great on this game too, finally can hear things all around a bit more clearly than DOAU or DOA3. Can hear the dinosaurs behind you or the other "enviromental hazards" before they get to you.


Overall , will be in the xbox for a little while ... since you just have to have at least one fighter in the collection! (just an opition of mine :) )

I cannot stand the way the hair is animated in this game. All these girls with long flowing hair, their hair keeps rolling off their shoulders, then back on, then off again. It's horribly distracting. Also, does the instruction booklet seem maddeningly vague to anyone else? I don't think it adequately explains the countering system.

Edit: However, the ending of Hitomi's story mode may be the best thing I've yet seen on this system.

My cousin brought this over and I played it for a bit. Graphics looked great, but I just can't get into 3D fighting games. I tried to like it, but it's just not for me.

I'm still hesitant if I want this or not. I sorta like the DOA games, but I'm not the biggest fighting fan in the world. Part of me wants to get because I have credit to burn and it's the only new 360 game to be released (only 1 more game in January..so, nothing new for us)