A great fighting game that locks up regularly online.

PC Games have long been scrutinized for their lack of stability, bugs and rush-to-release executions. These games may have glitches a plenty at launch, but ultimately evolve into reasonably bug free games through the miracle of downloaded patches. Many predicted that the Xbox games that included Live support would be riddled with this kind of issue. Relatively speaking though, Xbox games were by and large bug free. Apparently, the same can't be said for the 360. Several games, Dead Or Alive 4 included are riddled with glitches. This really bothers me too, because I love everything about this latest incarnation of the DOA series. The online mode is just terribly buggy.

There are other issues to pick at as well, but they are nits for the most part. When it comes down to the actual game play, the developers at Team Ninja have made significant strides in tackling some of the deficiencies in earlier versions of the Dead or Alive series. The common complaints from these earlier DOA versions were a fundamental lack of depth and counter systems that were too easy to execute. These prior issues have been addressed; they've added some interesting new environmental effects, fixed some moves and greatly improved the graphics.

The end result is a Dead or Alive game that's arguably deeper, dizzyingly beautiful and a blast to play online when the damn thing isn't just locking up.

The easiest thing to talk about in any video game is usually the graphics. It's the first thing you see and something that even a novice gamer can distinguish. It's also the first thing you can scrutinize about a game, often this happens before the game even comes out. Surely everyone with an Xbox 360 and an Internet connection watched the videos of the flowing cloth and incredibly detailed environments. Many were skeptical that the game would perform as advertised given the complexity involved in animating fabrics and insanely large numbers of polygons. The game does both with incredible precision. There are occasional collision issues where this flowing geometry intersects something it shouldn't but when you look at the game in motion it looks unbelievable.

Where the game really just blows me away is in the environments. Many of the stages available in Dead Or Alive 4 will blow your mind. I wouldn't say they were photo-realistic, because they happen to be so intensely vibrant. There is more than enough geometry there to pull off true photo-realism, but why would you want to? The real world is a drab, boring place. The world in Dead Or Alive 4 is excitingly colorful and full of detail. Grass in the real world just doesn't get that green. It was a stylistic choice to make the environments in the game perfect the same way it was a choice to make the character models look like perfect, porcelain dolls with overly exaggerated bouncing boobies. In short, Street Fighter: The Movie, this game is not. Detailed it most certainly is. Expect to see swirling breezes full of floating cherry blossoms or leaves. Sparks will fly, crates will be smashed and carts overturned, all in beautifully vibrant, fantastic colors.

But this game is more than just an excuse for ninety-nine year-old perverts to glimpse a little Ayane side boob. This is a sophisticated fighting game with some significant new features that any fan of fighting games will be able to appreciate. The most prominent is the counter system. The biggest change here is that the counter move for medium kicks is forward and the hold button as opposed to backward and the hold button for medium punches. This theoretically reduces your chances of guessing the appropriate counter from 33 percent to 25 percent. It's even worse being in the opposite direction from the other counters and it adds a little more variety to how you mix up combos. Instead of just mixing up highs and lows, you can choose to vary middle punches with middle kicks to throw off your opponent and extend combos that may have been instantly countered in previous DOAs.

It seems like they have taken another look at some of the game mechanics as well. Moves that used to work "too well" in previous Dead or Alive games no longer seem to function in DOA4. One example is Jann Lee's cheesy jump kick. This move is still difficult to avoid, but it no longer seems to hit after combos like it did in previous revisions. It was one of the first moves I tried to pull off when I got the game and I was quite surprised to find that it was no longer effective. Instead of getting that last pounding kick, you glide right over the top and miss completely.

These improvements to the counter system and character moves are then expanded on by new interactive environments. In the previous versions of the game, there is wall damage and of course the occasional knocking a chump out a window. In DOA 4, they add environmental interactions beyond just the walls. On one stage that reminds of Las Vegas, you fight in the street with cars driving down both sides of the street. A well-timed kick can send an opponent flying backwards into oncoming traffic that sends them flying up into the air. If you're quick about it you can even pull off juggle combos on them on their way down. On another stage, presumably in Africa, a cheetah sits on a rock and makes angry swipes in your direction. If you get too close, he jumps of his rock and runs you down with an effect similar to the autos.

There are now walls, obstacles really, inside the stage. You send someone flying backwards over one of these and are all of a sudden on opposite sides of an obstacle in the middle of the stage. You double tap in the direction of the wall to vault over it and pickup the fight where you left off. These come in the form of fences, broken up logs or even the occasional rhinoceros on the Serengeti.

Many of the stages include sloped terrain like staircases that work with certain throws on certain characters. You've no doubt seen the video of Jann Lee riding his foe down the steps of the temple. Unfortunately, not every character can do this type of move, but it's definitely awesome for those who can.

Probably the most endearing feature of this game is also its most broken. I'm speaking of course of the online mode. When the game is running with a solid connection, it runs beautifully. You have time to perform split-second counter moves and the responsiveness to pull off the harder moves in the game like Hayabusa's Izuna drop combos and counters. Even when the game slows down a bit, it is still playable. The ranking/point system is great. You get cash for defeating online opponents that goes up or down depending on the differences in player rank. You can use this cash to unlock avatar accessories or even character costumes. These can also be unlocked by beating story mode, but if you've got the credits, why not?

The whole concept of unlockable characters, costumes and items is great for bragging rights. There's nothing like picking a secret character to play against another guy that can't even pick him yet because he hasn't unlocked him. The same goes for the costumes, but not to the same degree since many of them are disappointing palette swaps of other costumes. There's enough variation there to keep you sated for a time, but it'd be great to see more actual different costumes.

Along with bragging rights comes the Xbox 360 Live Achievements. These are pretty standard fare, beat 50 people online, win 5 in a row, 10 in a row, etc. What you have to watch out for though, are the hilarious negative achievements. These are totally awesome. They don't take points away, but if you go online and, let's say lose 5 matches in a row, you unlock a secret XBL Achievement that's worth 0 Gamer Points, but will always be there on your profile mocking you. I don't think the specific details of the achievement are public in your profile, but the fact that it's worth 0 points are a big clue.

There are a ton and a half of game modes and styles of play that there should be something for every style of gamer. There are classic winner stays on rules and options for including only friends or anyone from Live. I've tended to gravitate towards these, and have put up with the frustration of having my ass handed to me in a blindingly short period of time and then waiting an eternity for 5 people to play so I can repeat the vicious cycle anew. Well there are alternate rules like Loser stays that eliminate that kind of issue. In this one, if you get rolled because you weren't warmed up, you get more tries to actually win a match. My first time playing it, it struck me as odd, but now I can't imagine a better way to do it.

Unfortunately, that's where the praise for Team Ninja's online execution ends. What are left to discuss are the broken achievements and horrible lockups that have me doing hard reboots of the 360 at the console itself. What the hell good is a system with wireless controllers and the ability to cycle on/off the console if I have to get up from the couch, walk over to it and press the Big White Button? This problem happens at least once per session and it often occurs several times during sessions lasting for longer periods of time. Speculation leads me to believe that it's related to people with crappy connections joining the match. I can't be perfectly sure, but it seems like as soon as "xx CraPpy Connexion xx" joins the match everything starts locking up. Then someone reboots his Xbox 360 and if you're lucky the game comes back a while later. I've even had the game lockup when I went to the Xbox Live Guide so I could accept a friend request.

Of course these lockups wreak havoc on an already finicky Achievement system. As far as broken achievements go, I've noticed a few issues. One is that when going for the 5, 10, or 20 straight wins it doesn't show up anywhere how many wins you've accumulated from different sessions. In one case I had a buddy win a bunch of times in a row, but we took a break in between a couple of matches. It didn't seem to unlock anything until he got that many wins in the same online session. Having the game lockup screws with your streak too. Since you often times get booted out to the lobby, when you join back in you may find yourself at the bottom of the pecking order when previously you were on the throne.

There is an achievement for time played that has bugs too. You'd think the owner of a profile would have to actually play the game for the 5 or 10 hours to get credit for the achievement. Nope. All you have to do is log onto an Xbox 360 that has had it unlocked for another profile and now it's yours too. Maybe that's by design, but it was strange to see a friend of mine log his profile in on my 360 and get the 10-hour achievement even though he doesn't even own the game.

What was the absolute worst though, was the way I achieved the Bronze and Silver Star achievements. To get these you have to swoop down and beat a guy in the middle of a 11-14 or 15-19 win streak. I had no idea I was even close to getting these achievements because we were playing Loser stays. Well it just so happened that the guy in the loser seat was having a hard time getting out of it. Incidentally he built up a little bit of a losing streak. A losing streak, oh about, 11-14 long. When I beat him for his 11th loss, I unlocked the Bronze Star, on my next turn it was his 14th loss and I unlocked another Bronze Star. The very next time, I beat him for his 17th loss and I was awarded the Silver Star. So let me make sure you understand what I am driving at here. I unlocked two tough achievements for beating a guy when he had just finished losing 10 times in a row. Only a superior fighter can defeat a guy that has just lost 10 times in a row.

I'm sure there are other issues that I haven't personally encountered, but even if there aren't it's still a lot to swallow for someone who's evaluating this particular title. It's even worse for the fact that I love the game so much. I love the mechanics, I love the visuals, I love the combos and counters and I love the bouncing boobies. If this was any other game, I'd rip it apart and move on without a second thought. It's not any other game though, in fact, it's currently my favorite game on the Xbox 360 despite its online issues. But there's no way I could give it the A score I want to. It's definitely better than a C-, but nowhere near the definition of excellence. Perhaps if Team Ninja decides to tighten up their show and release a Hurricane Pack for this game, I'll reevaluate.