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Author Topic: Dead Or Alive 4, Ntsc  (Read 929 times)

metalhead212

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Dead Or Alive 4, Ntsc
« on: March 10, 2006, 08:07:00 AM »

TITLE: Dead or Alive 4

PUBLISHER: Tecmo

DEVELOPER: Team Ninja

DATE RELEASED: December 29, 2005

NUMBER OF PLAYERS: 1-4

XBOX SYSTEM LINK: 1-16

XBOX LIVE COMPATABLE: Yes

GENRE: Fighting

PLATFORM: XBOX 360

ESRB: M (Mature 17+)

Retail Price: $59.99

Features: 16:9 Support, 480p Support, 720p Support, Dolby Digital 5.1, Memory Card, Online, System Link


     Ok, with that mess aside lets get into the review shall we? This was a game that I have long been waiting

for. I loved DOA 3, in fact it was the reason I first bought an Xbox. I loved everything about the game. It

looked awesome and flowed so smoothly. When I heard that they were making a DOA 4 I felt both joy and

pain. Joy because it was another DOA, pain because I felt that they were going to screw it up and make

another Soul Calibur 3. I myself do not own an Xbox 360 as of yet, but a good friend of mine does. He came

over for the weekend and I made it my mission to do nothing but play this game until it was 100% done.

When I opened the case and put the game in I felt a huge sense of exhilaration knowing that I was about to

play the best Xbox 360 game out, or so I hoped.


Graphics-

     One of the first things that caught my eye was the graphics. At first glance I didn't really notice too much

of a difference from 3, but I was so rushed by the anticipation of playing the game that I quickly got into

playing and didn't pay to much attention to anything else. Later, after I had played for a while I started to

notice all of the advancements made with the game. The frame rate was smooth as hell; the character

animations were tight and on point, and they paid as much attention to the environments as they did the

fighters, which pleased me greatly. I really have no huge complaints with the visuals of the game. At some

points the visuals do get a little cheesy as far as color combination choices and what not, but that is the DOA

style.

     This is one game that, to be fully appreciated must be seen first hand. The largest of gripes I could come

up with for the game is, in actuality, quite small. There is a bit of clipping in the game. Sometimes the longer

hair on the characters starts to clip through the character and what not. This is usually a problem with a lot of

games so, like I said, it really isn’t a big deal. I have not had any problems where that kind of clipping has

caused the game to lock up or freeze.

     I did encounter one problem that happened multiple times. In the “Las Vegas” arena where you have the

signs in the back-ground that constantly congrat XBOX 360 on launching I kept having the problem that when

I got hit by a car in a certain area my character would get stuck in the car instead of flying into the air. Then

the car would drive away, but since the character was stuck in it, it would “hit the invisible fence” and get

stuck. If the opponent inched forward then the car would move a little bit, like it was determined to get out of

there, but couldn’t. Other than those few tiny little problems, everything else is quite on par.


Sound-

     The second thing to catch my eye, or my ear for that matter, was the sound. There really was no hint of

twang or metallic sounding noises that plague some games. I know a lot of the time when the action really

gets going and a game has to really chug to keep up with things the sounds is usually the first thing that

takes a dump. Though it is sometimes hard to pick it up when it happens when you are playing on a normal

TV with no surround, when you are playing on a TV with 5.1 surround you can definitely hear the drop in

auditory quality. With DOA 4 I really didn't get any of that. Though there was a lot of action going on at one

time the worst thing that happened was some SLIGHT slow down and that only happened a few times (I can

count on one hand how many times it happened). Overall the sound is on the same level with the rest of the

game.

Game play-

     The signature selling point of this game is its counter engine. It makes the main drive of the game go

from just fight to fight with strategy. Every time a new DOA comes out the counter engine gets tweaked a

little bit more and a little bit more and a little bit more. Honestly I can say that where they have the engine

now should be adjusted just a little bit more. In 3 it was a bit to easy to perform a counter, in 4 it is a bit too

hard. The AI will just hammer you with counters if you let it. On top of that once the momentum gets going it

is very hard to counter and block the attack. Most of the time you end up being juggled or hit just enough

that it makes your character become disoriented over and over in consecutive attacks until you die. Most of

the time it goes like this: "Match starts- you perform your first attack, AI counters and knocks you to the

ground, you get up they knock you around and into the air, juggle you till you land, you get up they manage

to hit you in a way that sends your character into a state of disorientation and they keep doing that

disorienting move until you die". After a while this gets very frustrating, and the idea of trying to counter, or

block for that matter, soon leaves and is replaced by anger driven frustration. When that happens you just all

out, balls to the wall, attack in hopes that you can get the momentum in your favor. Sometimes it works,

other times it just serves to piss you off more.

     Aside from that annoyance the game play is relatively unchanged; if they changed anything major they

did a damn good job of masking it to make it look like it was no trouble at all. Everything is a bit more fluid,

and things seem to flow a little better as far as combo's go. The addition of some new characters really helps

to bring a lot of freshness to the game. Though there are a few “clone” fighters they are relatively unique

and each adds a different perspective on how to fight in the game.  This game shines in single player mode,

but it really takes off when you add more people into the fray. The human element really helps this game to

show how dominate it really is. I do not have direct access to Live, but I did play with my friend and my

brothers. Having just us play made the game so much more enjoyable. I can only imagine how frantic and

fun the game can get when playing on Live. Aside from live content and the single / multiplayer campaign

this game packs on a lot of extra modes. When playing single player gets boring you can jump in on a game

of survival mode. Now there is nothing really special about survival mode on the surface, but underneath it

all it becomes quite clear just how beneficial it can be.

     I have always been a big advocate of using survival mode as a means of truly practicing moves and

combos. I know many games, including this one, have a sparing or training mode, but that just doesn’t give

the player what he/she needs to really learn how to play the game. Sure it is easy to beat a non-moving

sparring dummy, but when it comes down to putting those moves into action nine times out of ten that

doesn’t happen. On top of that, when playing through the campaign you are not worried about learning the

moves you just want to 100% the game so you just do what works. Now all this is fine, but when the

competition starts going up a notch or two, like when you get on live and play against real people, you get

stomped because you have no idea what to do.

     Survival mode lets you practice in a way where while you are playing you are learning at the same time.

You do not feel the pressure to complete the game, because there is no completion to be had in survival

mode. It just keeps going and going and going… On top of that the AI gets harder and harder as you go, so it

is almost like playing against a normal person. Survival mode is the best way to bone up on the game and

hone your skills so that when the time comes to beat up on your friend or neighbor you can do it with style

and ease AND look good doing it.

Xbox Live-

     As I said before this game is live capable. Unfortunately I do not have much access to live, but I did get a

chance to play it for about an hour or so. If you think this game is awesome just playing it with some buddies

on a LAN try playing with some PRO’s on live. It is a real awakening. I thought I was a house playing the

game with my friends, but I got humble real quick when I jumped on live. The ferocity of competition on live

alone gives the game tons of replay value. The harder the competition the bigger the drive is to overcome it.      

     The best thing about live is that it comes with so many possible ways to bring a freshness to the game.

Updates through live could bring new levels, new costumes, hell even new characters…maybe. Live brings

with it an untamed plethora of goodness.

Story-

     What can I say about the story? It is a typical DOA story. It is much like Tekken in the respect that unless

you are Asian or know a lot about Asian culture you have no idea what the hell is going on. The basics of the

story are understandable, lots of people fighting a major corporation in hopes of taking it down for good with

lots of people bitching at each other on the side, but past that you just look at the TV slack jawed wondering

why the hell some chick is half naked performing intense karate moves to make her dinner and then falls on

her face while walking away, or why the hell some Bruce Lee knock off is playing the Jazz Sax randomly…IT

JUST DOESN’T MAKE SENSE!


Bottom Line-

     Bottom line this is an awesome game. This has set the bar for fighters on the 360 WAY HIGH and this is

only the start of the consoles life. If people could learn from what this fighter has to offer and improve upon

it we could be in line for some monumental fighters down the road. Though the game has been done before

in versions 1, 2, 3 and all other incarnations, this game seems so fresh and new. If all sequels could be like

this then people would not groan when the news of a sequel comes out for a much loved game, much like I

did when I first heard DOA 4 was coming out. This game is very much the Resident Evil 4 of the franchise.

The one thing that could possibly prove to hurt the game is the little problem with the AI juggling. Though this

is a small problem that has basically been around since DOA it does get very frustrating and could very well

hurt sales from people who only play single player.

     With that aside, though I hate doing the rating thing , I give this game a solid 8. A 10 means

perfect, and no game could ever be “perfect”, and a 9 is just a bit too high due to the minor flaws in the

game. I can safely give this game the “go out and buy” rating it is most certainly worth the price. For all

those who don’t have Live, or don’t play with other people I would say rent this one first only because the

story mode is quick, and the survival mode, as fun and beneficial as it is, can only entertain for so long

before it gets stale.


SCREEN SHOTS COMMING SOON!
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slidellsimba2

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Dead Or Alive 4, Ntsc
« Reply #1 on: March 19, 2006, 04:07:00 PM »

i love this game, it prolly gets 33% of my playtime.  others i play are call of duty 2, and nfs underground... oh yeah and halo 2 on xbl too
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spinr34

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Dead Or Alive 4, Ntsc
« Reply #2 on: May 01, 2006, 12:57:00 PM »

I like DOA4 as well as all of the other games in the DOA series.  However, I was disappointed by the sound.  It seemed that they recycled old effects.  The only reason why I say that is because new ones that are level specific are much clearer and better sounding than the average effects you hear of punching, voices, falls, etc.  Still an excellent game but that is just one small thing that kind of annoys me since the rest of the game was done so well.
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Rubix42

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Dead Or Alive 4, Ntsc
« Reply #3 on: May 15, 2006, 01:35:00 PM »

Great review!

Just to toss in a few thoughts.

The countering/stun system implemented with this game can be very tough, especially against an A.I. opponent that is capable of some pretty amazing combo strings.  Many's the time in solo mode that I have been punished for over half of my life bar by an AI opponent with seemingly no way to escape.

There is a slow escape method that consist's of holding the Free button, and mashing 360's with the controller.  Doing this with pull you out of the dazed stun a little bit faster and allow you to come out blocking a little faster stopping some of the damage.

Basically, it is very annoying and for tough AI opponent's make's for some crazy rides.  You can counter out of the stun, yet it is very difficult to predict high, med or low attack, and you take more damage for a missed counter.

Everything else is spot on, I jut wanted to show a little more of the depth of the game by mentioning this part.

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rajkamaliya

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Dead Or Alive 4, Ntsc
« Reply #4 on: December 04, 2009, 10:07:00 AM »

Nice review. Just you need to format it a little, that one line and spacing was distracting.
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deadlyisgreat

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Dead Or Alive 4, Ntsc
« Reply #5 on: January 30, 2010, 04:39:00 PM »

dead or alive is the best (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) . I dont know why people still play streetfighter and mortalkombat. Back in the day they was good but now its kinda boring (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)
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augustsalbert

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Dead Or Alive 4, Ntsc
« Reply #6 on: March 22, 2010, 06:43:00 AM »

Well I have played this a lot lately, and well what can I say this game is a must-have for your x360 collection.This game is hard, I mean the normal setting is hard, and learning to play will be a pain if you have never played another DoA game
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poole.gracie

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Dead Or Alive 4, Ntsc
« Reply #7 on: August 09, 2010, 05:17:00 AM »

The game is easy to pick up and play since you can just press any button and do some fancy combo. I'm not arguing that it's difficult to pick up and play. And I'm not complaining that the computer is too hard, just that the game doesn't teach you enough basic to grow with.
Of course you will get countered if all you do is button mash. But, even if it's your first shot at the CPU, it'll counter. Even if you mix your attacks, some enemies seem to be pre-disposed to countering kicks more often than punches, or vice versa.
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TicTac XD

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Dead Or Alive 4, Ntsc
« Reply #8 on: August 14, 2010, 04:10:00 PM »

I love this game wink.gif
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