Dead or Alive 4 demo now on the Xbox Live Marketplace

[Savok]

From Major Nelson (http://www.majornelson.com/archive/2006/07/24/Demo_3A00_-DOA4.aspx):

You can now download a ‘Dead or Alive 4’ demo from the Xbox Live Marketplace. This demo is available in all regions.

Size: 680.76 MB
Yeah the game's been out since... well, launch almost, but some of us are just buying our 360s now and renting this would take more effort then we're willing to give.

[Adam Blue]

Hell, with a library of Demos available at purchase...that's just awesome. Even if you didnlt have enough money to by some games at first, you can try out a whole bunch beforehand.

[bean19]

I guess this is good for the system, but I owned DoA for a while, and honestly, a demo would have prevented me purchasing the game because the difficult of countering in the current iteration of the game means that instead of the cool rock/paper/scissors game that I enjoyed before, it has become a spammy button-masher/combo builder.

Wish they had done this demo prior to release.

[Sl1pstream]

I hope this continues for every game on the system. It might not help early adopters, but if each game has a demo by this christmas, it's a good thing for the people who are buying the system. They should put the demos on the HD of the premium system. People could just buy the system and try every game when they get home before buying anything else.

[MagicAlex]

Do these demos show up on store kiosks? I don't have the money for a 360 yet, but I really want to try out DoA4.

[violentp]

This turned out to be perfect timing for me. Been considering the purchase.

[EGO]

Man, you're right... for people just purchasing a 360 it's crazy how many hours of gaming they have without spending money on anything but a Live account (which really you shouldn't have a 360 without a Live account ;) ).

As for DOA4... yeah, if I had played a demo before buying the game there's NO WAY IN HELL I would've bought it. It's just horrible! I had more fun with the fighting in Rumble Roses! DOA4 was the first game in a long time to make me almost break a controller!

[Achilles]

Man, you're right... for people just purchasing a 360 it's crazy how many hours of gaming they have without spending money on anything but a Live account (which really you shouldn't have a 360 without a Live account ;) ).You don't even need to spend money on that. The demos can be downloaded with the free Silver account I believe. Though some are multiplayer only, so then you'd need the Gold.

[Savok]

There's only a few demos you can DL with only Silver, rest you need Gold for.

[Kelegacy]

There's only a few demos you can DL with only Silver, rest you need Gold for.
I have silver and I can grab every demo, at least as far as I know.

Paying to play demos is a bit silly, I think, if it is true. I do, however, understand the online demos needing Gold. That only makes sense.

I love demos. They save me so much money, which why I haven't bought many 360 games.

[dr_wily]

i bouhgt it used from a guy from hardforum for 25$..

played only for 30 min so far, but heres my mini review:

way worse presentation than soul caliber, it loads up to a silent arcade-like menu
the character selection screen is a joke, takes more time to load up a face when selecting than it does to load up a match

which brings me to a plus, load times, man oh man i died a plenty but retry was SUPER quick..

I dont know how to play worth shit, but i still managed to beat single player with 1 character in about 30 minutes. I died alot, but the difficulty seems to be right. I would probably go to gamefaqs to get better.

Havent connected it to live yet, Im just a silver so far (although that walmart 35$ 1 year gold membership is tempting.. i would have to bite through my hatred of walmart though).

The cut scenes are a joke, the animation is excellent, the characters are like creepy barbie dolls with dead eyes, and the hair physics are hilarious, (lots of clipping, and no volume, as if they never got their v8 hot oil treatment!)

Still for 25$ the amt of hours ill get, plus playing with the friends makes it worth it.

Even being a newb i countered quite a bit, although it could be easier, as the computer could counter whenever he wants, i mean shit, its a computer.

[violentp]

What about the fact that, if memory serves correct, it's the only real arcade fighter currently available? I think some consideration should be given to that fact for the sake of fighting affictionados out there unless the game is absolutely unplayable.

I know Street Fighter is coming out but I don't really consider it as a serious alternative.

[DeadScreenSky]

DOA4 is the best game on X360 currently, and people that are whining about single player difficulty are a bad joke. Don't bother with the game if you aren't going to play real competition, whether that means online or friends offline (both are highly recommended). Did people complain that SF2 was a bad game because Bison was a bitch in single player? :rolleyes:

You aren't going to know how to play the game great right away, but if you give it a few days and find the right character for you it'll be fine. Survival Mode and Versus against the computer AI (particularly turned up to Very Hard difficulty for the latter) are probably the best single player methods of getting up to speed, but just playing a lot against other people will do the same. Make sure once you get a handle on your character you check out Sparring Exercise so you learn their moves.

Unfortunately I don't believe the demo has online multiplayer, so there's going to be a lot of fools that only play the AI and decide it's cheating (it doesn't, though Alpha152 comes close), or that the game is a button masher (it isn't), or that it's shallow (it may not be VF4Evo, but it's a very deep game), etc.

[captainstrombosis]

DOA4 is the best game on X360

Uh huh.... Crack...much?

[DeadScreenSky]

Obviously if you dislike fighting games you'll disagree, just like if you dislike racing games you won't like PGR3 (which would probably be tied if it wasn't lesser in so many ways to PGR2 - DOA4 is a true sequel in that it one-ups everything). But unless you really heavily prefer team games it's definitely the best deep multiplayer game on the system, and the fact it does it so well offline is a huge advantage over the various generally choppy splitscreen games that is the rest of the system's library. Like most good fighting games it will have legs, too. Hell, I've already been to local tournaments for it, and those will be running in some fashion for years. Has anybody been to a tournament for other X360 games?

[TalkingOctopus]

Obviously if you dislike fighting games you'll disagree, just like if you dislike racing games you won't like PGR3 (which would probably be tied if it wasn't lesser in so many ways to PGR2 - DOA4 is a true sequel in that it one-ups everything). But unless you really heavily prefer team games it's definitely the best deep multiplayer game on the system, and the fact it does it so well offline is a huge advantage over the various generally choppy splitscreen games that is the rest of the system's library. Like most good fighting games it will have legs, too. Hell, I've already been to local tournaments for it, and those will be running in some fashion for years. Has anybody been to a tournament for other X360 games?

I'm a big fighting game fan, and having just moved, I have no one to play againist. I have been comtemplating buying a 360 to play DOA4 online (and some of the live arcade games). I haven't had a chance to play DOA4. This thread really discouraged that plan. Is doa4 worthwhile? At least DeadScreenSky thinks so.... At least SF2 will be out soon.

[rival81]

Major Nelson had a few words of rebuttal regarding the lateness of the demo.

"Remember guys, you all have probably had your Xbox 360 since November ... but thousands are being sold every month, so that means a lot of new people are coming on to Xbox Live and the Marketplace that may not have the game, or even heard of that game. So in that regard, this is new content for a LOT of new people."

[DeadScreenSky]

I'm a big fighting game fan, and having just moved, I have no one to play againist. I have been comtemplating buying a 360 to play DOA4 online (and some of the live arcade games). I haven't had a chance to play DOA4. This thread really discouraged that plan. Is doa4 worthwhile? At least DeadScreenSky thinks so.... At least SF2 will be out soon.
Well what fighting games do you like?

I've personally spent hundreds of hours playing the game since I bought it, and I know plenty of friends (online and offline) who have done the same, so it obviously is appealing and fun for a fairly large segment of people. The online setup is great, as it's basically a series of virtual arcace machine you can fight on with other people. SF2 for X360 is copying the same basic setup. Lag isn't much of a problem if you have a decent connection, but because a fast paced fighting game is so much more susceptible to lag than a FPS or strategy game you do occasionally run into problems with the odd individual. Usually the game just slows down to compensate, which isn't actually that bad. I've found the playerbase to generally be pretty nice and respectful (lots of compliments for good moves, etc.), as it seems the game's depth and complexity dissuades a lot of the trolls and little kids that ruin so many Halo 2, etc. games.

I wouldn't look into this thread too seriously. You get a lot of silly complaints from people who have barely played the game, or people who seem to have only spent time in single player. Would you trust the opinions of someone who only spent half an hour playing SF2, especially when talking about things like whether it was a button masher or not? Of course not. DOA4 is a deep, well balanced fighting game. It doesn't have the raw technical and mechanical complexity of a game like VF4Evo, but it compensates by making the mindgames (truly the best part of every fighting game) much more accessible. In VF4 it might take months of play before you really start getting into stuff like yomi layers (http://www.sirlin.net/archive/yomi-layer-3-knowing-mind-of-the-opponent/) - I'd be shocked if you weren't into that in half a week of DOA4 play.

A lot of complaints the series gets are for non-problems like the anime-inspired artstyle or vaguely sexy themes, as well as issues with the older games in the series (which probably are too shallow) and a long-running stupid fanboy war with DOA getting slammed by VF and especially Tekken fans which leads to a lot of silly game mechanics misconceptions. None of that effects the actual gameplay, which in DOA4 is rock solid and loads of fun.

[bean19]

Unfortunately I don't believe the demo has online multiplayer, so there's going to be a lot of fools that only play the AI and decide it's cheating (it doesn't, though Alpha152 comes close), or that the game is a button masher (it isn't), or that it's shallow (it may not be VF4Evo, but it's a very deep game), etc.

What I want in DoA is a game that lets me pull of insane counters when people try to button mash/combo me to death.

What I don't want is a game that plays like a test. Where I need to learn every possible combination in order to learn where their last attack will hit so that I can THEN pull off a counter move.

I want it to play like DoA 2 - that I loved on my Sega Dreamcast. . . until they go back to their roots, which I understand will never happen, I'm giving up on the series.

[Savok]

I have silver and I can grab every demo, at least as far as I know.

Paying to play demos is a bit silly, I think, if it is true. I do, however, understand the online demos needing Gold. That only makes sense.

I love demos. They save me so much money, which why I haven't bought many 360 games.
Friend of mine was on Silver before my constant whining made him get Gold. He only had access to like 5 demos instead of the 30 or so the rest of us got. Maybe it's a regional thing, he still can't dl Chromehounds...

[Rirath]

There's only a few demos you can DL with only Silver, rest you need Gold for.

Don't really care less about the DoA4 whining in this thread, but I don't think this is true.
I can download any demo, just can't play the online ones.

Unless they've changed something since I last checked, which I quite doubt.

[Kelegacy]

Friend of mine was on Silver before my constant whining made him get Gold. He only had access to like 5 demos instead of the 30 or so the rest of us got. Maybe it's a regional thing, he still can't dl Chromehounds...
Yeah, I can't d/l Chromehounds, but I'm guessing it's because it's an online demo maybe? If it IS regional, that sucks for you guys. I looked at the demo list last night and all of them were on there except Chromehounds.

[needoptic]

I won't diss doa4, but I will say that for a casual fighter gamer it is too similar to the previous version for me to warrant a purchase.

I would be very interested if someone made a kickboxing game that would play similarly to Fight Night. A slower, more realistic approach.

[Planetbuster]

Major Nelson had a few words of rebuttal regarding the lateness of the demo.

"Remember guys, you all have probably had your Xbox 360 since November ... but thousands are being sold every month, so that means a lot of new people are coming on to Xbox Live and the Marketplace that may not have the game, or even heard of that game. So in that regard, this is new content for a LOT of new people."

I am one of those. Havnt owned a console since the Genesis and first Playstation until 2 weeks ago.

PB

[TalkingOctopus]

Well what fighting games do you like?

Recently, I've played mostly ps2 fighters, Tekken 5, Guilty Gear X2, VF4 evo, Soul Calibur and the Street Fighter Collection. Out of those, I am probably best at Tekken 5. I really enjoyed DOA2 on the Dreamcast and I think I'd probably enjoy DOA4 as well. The main reason I hesitate with DOA4 is that it is really expensive. In addition to the buying the 360 and game, I'd also need to get an HDTV and that 360 arcade stick. I'm sure I'll get it eventually...

[needoptic]

I really really want a HD cell animated fighting game ala Guilty Gear XX. That would look fantastic!

[Achilles]

Recently, I've played mostly ps2 fighters, Tekken 5, Guilty Gear X2, VF4 evo, Soul Calibur and the Street Fighter Collection. Out of those, I am probably best at Tekken 5. I really enjoyed DOA2 on the Dreamcast and I think I'd probably enjoy DOA4 as well. The main reason I hesitate with DOA4 is that it is really expensive. In addition to the buying the 360 and game, I'd also need to get an HDTV and that 360 arcade stick. I'm sure I'll get it eventually...The story mode is very thin (think Street Fighter or Guilty Gear), as are the other single player modes. DOA clearly went the online multiplayer rout instead of the Soul Calibur single player rout. I liked the gameplay a lot, and if you’re a fan of all kinds of fighters, which is sounds like you are, you may get enough enjoyment to make the $60 worth it. However it is expensive, especially since you're starting from the ground floor as far as HDTV and whatnot goes. Maybe just keep an eye on it for when you eventually break down and get all your modern equipment?