Dead or Alive Online Announced 21
Tim Grube writes "Gaming Horizon is running a story
revealing Dead or
Alive Online for the Microsoft Xbox. An anthology is planned, and the
original graphics for Dead or Alive will stay as if it was being played on the
Saturn, plus DoA 2 will contain improved graphics." Of course, half the fun of DoA is getting my ass kicked by my Lei Fang wielding wife, but I guess then, she could kick my ass when I'm out of town on business too.
Odd Choice For Tecmo (Score:5, Interesting)
It's even more odd that Tecmo would go in this direction considering the fact that Itagaki's (Team Ninja's head honcho) preference for the Xbox is based on the technical superiority of that system over the PS2 and Gamecube, which superiority they've used to great effect with Dead or Alive 3 and Dead or Alive: Xtreme Beach Volleyball (whatever you think of the latter as a game, in graphical terms it's friggin' beautiful). Going backwards and trying to get extra life out of old games/engines seems like the last thing someone so concerned about system specs would want to do.
I have no doubt that these two games will be as good as the games were originally, and maybe even better graphically. And, yes, the online component is interesting and could attract people who haven't played the games before. But the positives of online play seem to me outweighed (especially in terms of the wider market, as opposed to DOA fans) by the fact that DOA and DOA2 are now, by video game standards, ancient.
Speaking as an owner of an Xbox, DOA3 and DOA:XBV - and someone who enjoys all three - there's no way I'll buy this package unless they've improved the DOA2 engine to such a degree that it matches up with DOA3 (and if they had, wouldn't they just make it DOA3 online?). Even then, and even with online play, it'll still have a hard time getting more than 25 of my gaming dollars when Soulcalibur 2 - a game whose import version has already met with critical and gamer acclaim - is right around the corner.
hrm (Score:4, Interesting)