Dead or Alive 4
The latest in the Team Ninja fighting series, DoA4 has recently slipped from being a launch title to being a 'very soon after' title. As with Gotham, the fundamentals of the game are the same as the previous DoA titles on the Xbox, with some new characters, some new game modes (including online) and a tweak of the control scheme to accomodate the different layout of the 360 pad.
The game was visually stunning on the Xbox, and the 360 version has taken the visuals to the next level. The characters are all exceptionally high polygon, and frankly, look incredible. There is a radiance and crispness to the textures and the figures that make these incredibly attractive. Characters also now have motion blur when executing series' of fast moves. In screenshots, this looks tacky, but to play actually looks really funky.
The backgrounds are phenomenal. The one thing that really stands out is the resolution of the textures on the backgrounds. Rendered in full 720p, they look sharp as a razor, easily matching anything in FEAR or Call of Duty 2 on the PC. The water and lighting effects that accompany the levels are truly next-generation. Remember the gasp of breath you took when you saw the 'Autumn Forest' level in DoA3? Prepare to do that every time you load a new stage in DoA4. Well, presuming you have a High Definition display, of course.
It's disappointing that DoA4 hasn't made the launch, because it's one of the games I'm looking forward to playing most. The time I've spent with it so far has convinced me that it's more of the same great DoA gameplay, just with better graphics and better online capability. What's not to like? As far as next-gen showcases go, this is definitely one of the best, so it's a shame that it won't be out to wow your friends with from day one.
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