Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball Comments by Rob Fahey

I am sorry to admit this but I thought the soundtrack was pure genius. It sounds pretty much like any Dance Dance game but I do not recall you slating those (it suits the holiday atmosphere superbly. I am not a pop fan by any means but to hear Bew*tched, Bob Marley and Spice Girls as part of the DOAX experience is far better than hearing nu-metal or uniform Brit-videogame-trance which pollute most games).
As a way of understanding the Japanese gamer this game is a perfect example. It is effectively a holiday sim game incorporating the classic Japanese pursuits of 'catchin' 'em all' item collection with the other Japanese pastime, girls in swimsuits. I went to Japan four years ago and was amazed by what I saw.
If any of you would describe yourself as a Japan-o-phile (amine, RPGs, etc) this will be right up your street.

LOL, the IGN score of 9.2 is ridiculous for a volleyball game with T&A.

I'd just like to say... This game is fun.

heh :)

[otto] - 05-Feb-2003
A crisp new fiver to the man who successfully manages to knock one off to this game. I can't see how it can be done, myself. Unless you've got a copy of Razzle propped up next to the TV.

I'll take that challenge, sir, un-aided by dubious literature.

dont place that bet, no doubt errol could get off on the thumbnail of the vollyball&leg alone

video evidence certified by an independent third party will be required before I surrender the fiver

From what we have now seen of the game, every single person who dismissed this as shoddy oversexed rubbish when the trailer videos appeared was completely right, although they probably weren't quite vehement enough about just what a load of utter rubbish this "game" actually is.

Ah HAVE been VINDICATED!

Any stuff we've missed in the First Impressions will be in the Review. That's the whole point of a first impressions piece - and we admit freely that this is only based on a few hours of play.

Maybe that's why we called it "First Impressions"....

ZeroGunner, your accusation is a bit groundless really. We're reviewing on the basis of the gameplay here, and frankly there's sod all of it. I think you'd find that I'm pretty unlikely to sit there fiddling with the right trigger - frankly, the DOA girls don't really do anything for me! :)

I know that the presents affect your teammates. However I also know that in decent Renai games, when you do something like giving a gift you get a proper response and either visual or audio feedback to indicate what the person thinks of it and how it's affecting their opinion of you etc. Even the most basic dating game has this mechanism; DOAXBV lacks it. It's the poorest beach volleyball game out (even shareware titles in Japan like Azumanga Daioh Beach Vollayball are better!) and it's also probably the worst Renai game I've ever seen on a console.

By the way, take the previous posters comment about Jap-o-philes enjoying the game with a pinch of salt. I'm about as hardcore Jap-o-phile as they come (I've watched about 500 hours of anime in the last year by my own reckoning, I'm learning to speak and read the language and I just spent christ knows how much cash during a two week stay in Tokyo...) and I think it's utter bloody rubbish.

Hey, no need to get all grumpy and defensive (or maybe I'm just being the sensitive one for taking it that way..).
Either way, I'm fully aware that this is merely a FI and not a proper review though you must admit that one can't help getting the feeling that the minds of the EG crew are already made up on this one. Hm, I think I'll stop here before I go off on a rant like my first post..

Though if Mugwum cares to debate the DOA3 score I'm all ears ;) DOA3 is pretty much DOA2 with nicer graphics and a couple of new moves and levels, is that reason enough to lower the score from 8 (doa2 on dc) to 6 (doa3 on xbox)? Granted, that's not a huge amount of progress but still, 6 seems a bit harsh. I mean sure, VF4 is really the greatest fighting game there is right now as far as I'm concerned. It has unmatched depth and demands on skills (gotta love Kumite mode also..) but DOA3 on the other hand is just plain fun to play against against a pal. Both doa2 & 3 are easy enough even for my girlfriend to pick up and put up a match though they're deep enough to make sure that the most skilled player always wins (when he wants to and isn't trying to keep his gf in a happy mood). To me vf4 vs doa3 is somewhat like comparing a real life fight to a kung-fu movie, I enjoy both (as long as I'm not the one doing the fighting), they just appeal in different ways...

I don't know what Tom's justification for the DOA3 score was, but I know that I personally wouldn't rate it highly because, well, it's an exact remake of a game which was out not eighteen months previously. I played DOA3 for about an hour, tops, when I got it - because I'd played the whole thing before on my DC and PS2. The review explained this I'm sure - and pointed out that to people who hadn't seen DOA2, it was probably worth significantly more. (I hope it did now and I haven't embarrassed mugwum :) )

Allright, fair enough. Though for me, I was spending crazy amounts of quality time with doa2 on my ps2 and wasn't tired of it when I got my xbox so for me it was a natural progression to switch to doa3 and keep on playing. I don't even want to think of how many hours I've spent on the doa fighting games...

Anyway, just noticed that there's no EG review for vf4. What's up with that? The best fighting game of the year according to you (and me) (also, the only fighting game to make it in your top 50, correct me if I'm wrong) and it's not even reviewed?? I'd really enjoy reading a vf4 review here, albeit a late one.. or how about a preview of the seemingly juicy vf4:evo? :9 Any word if it's even going to be published outside Japan?

Guys,
I won't go as far as to say it's a great game, but the gameplay is actually deeper than is at first obvious. Not that deep, but the preview is a little harsher than I feel is justified. Once you understand the general mechanics of the game, there actually is a relationship of what you enter into the controller with what goes on on the screen.

That said, this game isn't a volleyball sim in the vein of a sport centered game.

It's really quite japanese... and I don't mean it in a pejorative way... just that it's not designed with winning or losing in mind. Winning was never really an issue in final fantasy games... it was what you could do within the game constraints.

So... I think the game succeeds in achieving a certain feel. I think it's quite deliberately crafted. In the same breath, I suspect there will be a good number of people who find it pointless.

I think the best way to think of this game is as watching girls play beach volleyball in an interactive fashion.

It's a sim "day on the beach".

I get the feeling that a lot of people (myself included) had far too many preconceptions about what this game will be like. I know i was thinking (hoping, praying :P) that it would be an excellent volleyball game with the added bonus of plenty of skimpy polygons and tanned pixels. But thats not what the developer was after. As polymath said, its sim day at the beach, probably perfect for the Japanese audience, but disappointing for the rest of us. Ho hum.

video evidence certified by an independent third party will be required before I surrender the fiver

superstu.camwhores.com

Mail me to arrange a time. Heh.

er ta stu

spose it should be obvious but that link is nsfw :)

played this a little bit more last night, and got a handle on what i was doing wrong to make my spikes go into the net every single time the last time i had a go. having this new found mastery of the game i did find it quite a bit more enjoyable. i'd go as far as to says that it was good fun for a few matches. no way would i buy it, but its probably worth a rent for a couple of days before the simplistic nature of the gameplay becomes boring, which i'm pretty sure that it will do soon.

edit - my kind of playing, and stu's kind are completely different i hasten to add.

awww, did the nasty men hurt the widdle fanboy?

Actually a pretty good game. Didn't care much for the volleyball until I got the hang of it.

The partner and relationship system is much more complex (and subtle) than this review would have you believe. True, you largely just control if people like you more or less, but the effect it has on the volleyball gameplay is interesting. Especially once you learn that you can do much to undermine another team's relationships. Get a player on another team to wear the bathing suit you gave them and watch as their partner gets bitchy. Furthermore, if you really get another team's player to start liking you, the will obviously take it easy on you - even taking a dive on a couple of plays.

I really didn't know what to expect from this game when I got it. I suppose I just wanted to see the girls and what the hype was all about. After playing for about a week, I've become quite enamored with the game.

Do yourselves a favor if you've never played this game - don't write it off too fervently.

You've never played it, have you?

"20 years is a common time frame from concept to retail release."

Wow - what have you been playing now that we'll see fully realised in 20 years time?

Duke Nukem Forever?

Badoom...

/looks for the eleven o'clock cymbal

Kelly, i dont know if you have a good sense of humour or a bad imagination but your story is blatantly madeup.

it was named DoAX 20 years ago? tecmo didnt exist 20 years ago, and if you look up the copyright it was a measy 2 years ago. not to mention the fact the lead designer, from team ninja, would of been about 12 at the time.

actually, why am i even validating this.. nobody is mad enough to beleive that story in the first place..

i suppose u also played Mario64 on the ZX Spectrum? of course, it was called Mario128k back then and came in a blackbox :P

20 years is a common time frame from concept to retail release. In the same summer that I saw DOAX the first time I also saw Morrowind, and Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell.

LMFAO! Jesus H. Christ thats the funniest thing I've read in ages!

The statement "If you want porn, buy porn" really ticks me off. I want luscious, sparkling CGI babes! Not skanky porn!

If you want to discuss the philosophical ramifications of men preferring their pygmalion fixes to real women, and that it spells out the impending doom of civilization, then invite that!

If you want to say that you don't get turned on by stylized, graphical representations of women - then say that!

DON'T pigeonhole me into supposedly wanting porn!!! Grrr! That says more about you than me!

THANK you.

Issues there perhaps?

Peej

I love this game, and I'm definitly not using it as a Porn substitue. I have always thought that it was aimed slightly more at girls (who never truely grew out of playing with barbies). A few female friends of mine love this game, maybe your just assuming that it was targeted at the undesexed male market, when in fact it was targeted at girls who wanna play dress-up. Or maybe not.

Issues? Sure I got issues.. Almost everyone has. Farting an easy, effacing comment like that belies an aloof and somewhat holier than thou attitude, so I'd say you got some too.

But really - The whole problem with picking up the piece of harmless fluff and fantasy that is DOAXBV and chucking it in the same bag as porn is that it reveals a somnabulistic reasoning shuffling between political correctness and puerile remnants of guilt-fuelled puritanism.

Relax. Enjoy. The girls got nice boobies. The game isn't half bad actually. Put in a good soundtrack. Mellow out.

If you don't like stylized graphical representations of this sort then it probably isn't your cup of tea.

If girls liken it to erzats digital Barbie, and enjoy it, great. If guys get off to it, why not?

*Me ponders tea, page 3, and a country with odd standards when it comes to sexual mores, from somewhere in darkest Scandinavia*.

Sleepy