Dead or Alive 4
 

Alright, this is easily the most glitch-filled game I've played in years. First of all, the rank glitch is awesome times two, and I've abused it more than thirty times, but the other glitches are unacceptable.

I spent like thirty hours in this game, unlocked all the costumes, characters, levels, got 700 points, and had the save glitch. Bam, everything's gone. Worst piece of software ever.

But except for it being the worst piece of software ever created, it is a pretty sweet fighting game. The Spartan is pretty nifty, even though she only has 2 moves.

I've played it at a mate's house and frankly, but for the shiney graphics it doesn't really add anything to the last one.

I know it's asking a lot to expect some actual development in a fighting game series but they could at least have tried.

Not had a chance to play online yet though, that might change my opinion.

Does the spartan have an ending movie?

To me the game was allright, nothing great. The endings were stupid, except for that new character, that boy with blonde hair.

Playing online will do nothing but make you agree with Tube even more. Online play has a few extremely annoying bugs that can (extremely rarely) make a fight lose sync and sometimes a whole roomful of people will leave because of a glitch that can cause you to stare at the winner in his/her victory pose until someone leaves. Pretty annoying stuff.

Fortunately, I haven't experienced the save game bug (yet). With all costumes unlocked and a bit of survival and time attack work done, I hope I don't ever experience it. Of course, I would just copy my save file to my other memory card, but it's copy protected. Genius.

EDIT: No, Nicole can't be played in story mode and therefore has no ending video.

For me, online mode is what gives the game lasting appeal.

You just can't replicate the psychology that happens when you play against another human player. The only purpose of playing against the AI is to practice, and to watch the ending videos.

To avoid the save glitch, I currently always start up the game by:

1) Opening the tray to turn on the Xbox 360.
2) Load up my profile.
3) Close Tray / Load up the game.

I read somewhere that this should avoid the glitch. It has worked so far...

Thanks for the tip, Newbie. I've read that somewhere before, but I'd since forgotten about it. Actually, now that I think about it, I do usually start up the game like that. That might explain why I haven't ran into the glitch yet.

I agree, you can't repicate the psychology that becomes apparent when playing the game against another human. However, as far as online play goes, because of lag, online play changes much of the gameplay in DOA4. Lag takes you out of a controlled setting, which is something any competetive game requires. Online play requires you to learn “lag tactics”, a seperate set of tactics to help you flow with the lag. Since lag is sporadic, what hits are guaranteed, what ways you can break combos, and what ways you can dodge moves change from one set of sixty frames to another. This can cause you to learn bad habits that will do you nothing but harm in offline versus, where fighting games are meant to be played.

Since DOA4 online plays differently than DOA4 offline, you must treat them as separate entities. DOA4 online brings inconsistency into competitive play, so if you are striving to be the best, DOA4 online shouldn't be taken seriously for anything beyond memorizing moves and strings. DOA4 offline versus is where the psychology in mixups and such makes the most difference because of the controlled environment.

The best thing to do is try to find a DOA4 tournament near you and meet people to play. If you can't find an offline tournament, then start one. Surely you have at least a couple of friends that play DOA4 as well. Let them know of your plans, and see if they know anyone who might be interested in a DOA4 tournament as well. If you can get the people together, you might just meet some people you really like that you can play against and get better with. Even if you don't, at least you've got the people together that are obviously interested in offline DOA4 tournaments. You or someone there could host the next one.

Just thought I'd bring up something that seems to be overlooked by so many people. (Not the lag, but the impact the lag can have. If you've played DOA4 online, you know how much people can complain about the slightest bit of lag.) Online play isn't to be taken too seriously unless that's the way you see DOA4. If you bought the game just because it's an online fighter, go ahead. Play online and have loads of fun; that's what the online mode's there for. If you bought DOA4 for a serious fighting game, don't let what online play you do partake in screw up your offline game.

A title update for DoA4 with balance tweaks and fixes for the profile and crash bugs has been in the works for a month now; it missed the Feb release date and hopefully will be out shortly.

As for the game: I have to weigh in with it being a really excellent title. While some may feel it doesn't "fix" enough from the past DoA games, it is in fact quite different in the details due to many changes to move priorities and the timing of the counter hold system. Even a lot of fighting game experts that trashed the series before have given this version a nod of respect for actually advancing the game - it's just not blaringly obvious at a glance, the ways in which it has been overhauled.

Also, the way DoA4 handles lag online, is probably the best that can be hoped for in a fighting game; slowing the game down to match connection speed. Despite issues that are inevitable on the highly imperfect internet, I've had a ton of fun with DoA4 online so far... it's a tremendous resource for practicing general fighting game strategy against a live opponent anytime you wish.

Does tecmo have any plans to release a patch or something to fix the bugs?

I've tried it briefly during the evening of the Xbox 360 launch and some time before that, and I wasn't impressed at all. Sure it looked good, but not much was changed.

However, I love the fact that there's 0 GP if you behave badly. What next? A complete GP wipe for being born? (Yes, I stole that from Edge. I'm not proud of it...)

Seems like it...
I'm no fan of the series (by a long shot), but I have to say from what I've played of it at a friend, this is one of the better instalments. The broken parry system has been kinda fixed, and it looks pretty. It's still a pretty flimsy game in my opinion, but I think that's by design.

Gotta like the spectator mode though, best mode ever. Even Tecmo seems to know that the gameplay is inferior to the visuals.

Well, I bought DoA 4 because it's an online fighter. The lag doesn't bother me too much, as the better player will come out the victor regardless most of the time.

Of course if you're going to play any serious tournaments, online isn't the ideal battleground.

They just did today. I can only assume it fixed some glitches & bugs, I haven't noticed, because I haven't personally seen any glitches before. But it does add some other things too that you will notice right away.

I have been playing DoA4 for a few days but I have noticed that the d-pad is not the best for this game because it's not easy to execute some moves like qcf, hcf, etc. I also noticed that most of times when I press back or forward I end up pressing back and up or forward and up. At first I thought it was me but my friends have this problem too. :(

It sure as fuck doesn't bring your glitchily erased game save back from the dead though.

DOA4 is a buggy and unplayable piece of crap.
 

I could go into the broken fighting system, including the horrible new counter system, but I wont.

Instead, I'm going to bitch about the worst bug I've ever seen in a big name game. Ever.

We all know about the SAVE DATA BUG. The one you get from loading the game before signing into your name on the dashboard.

It's killed my progress twice.

Since then I've been good. I sign in, then put the CD in. I did that tonight.

When the game turned on it told me there was an update, so I had it download.

After the download, I just kept going to the main menu and guess what?

I lost everything. Again. Almost every costume in the game, my rankings, everything.

Thank you Tecmo, for not only rushing your game out to retail with a bug that makes it almost unplayable, but for not even caring enough to offer a bug fix.

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...pix/nelson.gif

Threads merged.

Last saturday I have been playing DoA4 because my counsin bought a 360 with DoA4, Im not very good playing fighting game but I have noticed that the d-pad was useless because for some reason I try to turn back in case of of doing what I want the character jump :eyebrow:

Well all people I know say only good things about DoA4 and most of them think that's the game that player should buy X360 for.

Well I love DoA series so I don't think I can judge it well... anyway I look forward to have some fun with the game.

I've heard rumors about a peripheral called a joystick that works with the game.

Then they haven't played Call of Duty 2, Ridge Racer 6, or PGR3. Oh, and Ghost Recon is out now. Trust me, DOA4 is not a reason to buy a system.

That's an interesting rumor.

I guess that makes it okay for the 360's pad to be a piece of crap.

Zeo: Learn the facts before making a statement my friend. Actually there is an arcade stick for the 360 which boosts the fun factor of DOA4 by 33%.
http://gear.ign.com/articles/689/689498p2.html

And as far as the game goes, it's good (not Tekken5 or SouCalibur 3 good though) hence not GREAT (mostly due to the final boos, cheapest fighting boss since the SNK days). And the only way I can see someone justifying buying a 360 for this game is unless they're planning to play it over live, or is seriously lacking a girlfriend. Either way, if you have a 360 it's worth a try, and if you don't have a 360 simply get the system for COD2, GR3, PGR3, or Condemned (as many deem the only "next gen game" to this date) and then pick this game up when it goes platinum.

Slayer X: Learn the facts before making a statement my friend. :P

I never once said there wasn't an arcade stick for 360.

And I doubt it'd "boost the fun", because I personally hate arcade sticks.

Well then allow me to correct myself for thoes new school fighters. It boosts the fun factor of DOA4 by 33% if you like arcade style fighting. (which is what DOA4 is designed to simulate)

Perhaps I took your response to Megalith's comment out of context, because it came accross as being sarcastic to me, implying that you were saying that he was wrong. If that was the case I apologize. But if that wasn't the case then I stick to my previous statement.

Who tested DoA4 on HDTV? My friend have one and when I ask him hi only say HOLY SHIT!! Is it really that good?

Obviously any HD image looks better than SD. Why people always ask for specific games "How much better does this look in HD" I will never know, since it's the same deal for all of them. It looks great, but it doesn't change the fact that the character models are basically DOA3.

There's a new content patch! Has some balance changes, and added some moves.

Hopefully they've MASSIVELY balanced the Alpha boss, though I diught it.

As for that whole HD thing, for TV it makes a HUGE difference for games not as much. Sure it makes a noticible amount of difference, but nothing I can't do without.

I really wouldn't classify Condemned as a next-gen game as it has a terrible current gen flaw. I would get the console if you want GR3: AW or CoD2. I felt PGR3 kind of dissapointed. Oh, and I am definitely picking up the joystick as my broken in 360 controller just began shutting off randomly on me so I will have to go collect on a warranty and use a non-broken in one.

I wouldn't get a 360 for either of the games you specified; I beat CoD2 on my PC and it looks just as good as the 360 version (IMHO) and I'll be playing GRAW on my PC too.

But then again...I got a 360 for PDZ so what can I really say. :p

Why would you wait until May to get a version of GRAW that isn't nearly as good as the one on the system you currently own?

http://www.gamespot.com/xbox/action/...ml?sid=6146108

That is the version PC gamers are getting.

Are you serious. Call of Duty 2, while a decent FPS, is not even close to "next-gen" reference. The graphics are absolutely terrible.

Because I like my shooters with mouse and keyboard on the side. But I'll probably rent the 360 version a little bit later down the line before I decide if I'm buying it for PC or 360.

I love my 360 but somethings just play better on my PC.

Uh, doesn't the 360 have a mouse and keyboard.

I mean, how else would these nerds be playing FFXI.

LOLLERSKATES.

Of course it doesn't.

And the nerds use dice to cast spells on the controller because they don't have macros.

lol, good one.

But the 360 does have keyboard support for games and communication, but unfortunatly there is no mouse support. Fortunatly the PS3 will have full support for both mouse & keyboard support. Therefore PC gamers can play FPSs as if they were playing it on a PC.

COD2 is nothing next gen ,it can be played on PC with equal amount of detail.
Same goes for GRAW and Condemned.
I have ended Graw but am not much impressed with graphics.

DOA4 gameplay is better than previous titles but again if you will switch to normal form HD,DOA4 ,GRAW and COD2 all will look current gen xbox version.

I want to go with Silver valk.
Only PDZ and Kameo looks Next gen ,PDZ has excellent detail but all in HD.

Next gen is useless without HD.

Anyone try out the arcade doa4 stick?

Here's a post I made when it first came out with pictures and impressions.

If you like Hori sticks or Japanese sticks in general, you'll like the DOA4 stick. The buttons are typical, mushy Hori, and the stick is as clicky as ever.

Oh. And you can use it on your PC. Sup cheap MAME stick.

THanks for the link and the nice pictures.

The fact that you can use it on your pc is a definite plus.

DOA4 would be pimptastic if it weren't for the godawful lag online. Also, I have to agree with whoever mentioned the shitty counter system. It seemed a lot smoother in DOA2. And the end boss...even Jinpachi on Tekken 5 didn't piss me off that much.

And it'd be awesome if the 360 supported a mouse along with the keyboard. It'd make Call of Duty 2 and Quake 4 so much more fun. My laptop can probably run those games, but it'd be a bit laggy. Especially with World of Warcraft on it.

Heck the 360 can't even run Quake 4 properly, hence why I've given up on the darn game. (due to poor coding, not lack of power in the 360.)

I myself like the counter system in DOA4 better then any other counter system in previous DOA games because I remember playing DOA2U online and that 70% of the time the fights became counter battles instead of fights.

The last boss of DOA4 is also just stupid. She's not even hard, it's because they programed her to be able to do counters even if she's currently being hit and also a single punch from her take off like a quarter of your health.

Finally as for Tekken 5. Best 3D fighting game ever. Freat balance, great graphics, and it's fun for the inexperianced and hardcore players. It's just too bad that it doesn't have online play.

*This post has not been spell checked*

I've played it at a friend's house a few times. It's pretty good from what I've experienced, not sure if it's worth the money, but it's definitely better than a gamepad.

I don't see what there is to complain about on the boss. Just do charge up attacks, and wait for the boss to come at you. Works 90% of the time. Plus she doesn't have that many moves, so after fighting her a few times you can counter a couple of her obvious combos.

It's pretty sad when the only way to beat a bodd though is to be cheap yourself. Though I do have to use that strategy 90% of the time, it makes me fell unskilled having to steep to her level. But when you're that cheap I suppose there's not much you can do about it. (Alpha is right up there with the cheap SNK bosses)

I Decieved myself against alpha 152.

first time playing I beat her with ayane in the first round...never had that luck again. But I never did do any chargeup attacks to beat them either.