Well, originally this was going to be a Wednesday post but circumstances redirected that effort so it was revised to a Thursday post, initally created, then lost completely when Blogger went down for Emergency Maintenance so it's now a Friday post that will hopefully get completed as such.
David picked up a XBox 360 + Dead or Alive 4 early on in the week, I nearly got Guitar Hero as well since $45 for the entire thing is easily dwarved by the $60 cost of 360 games. He went out again later and traded in the old XBox to pick up Condemned: Criminal Origins, Morrowind 4: Oblivion, and Ian got Wario Ware: Touched for the DS.
I haven't seen Condemned, but I did play a bit of Oblivion. Actually, my father and both brothers did too. David's playing a Cat-race Stealth-type, Archery, Sneak, Hand-to-Hand, Acrobatics, Athletics, under the Rogue sign. Clive's got a Warrior, Blade, Heavy Armor, High Strength, etc, human. Ian's playing a mix of the two, Blade and Stealth Cat person. I'm playing the Mage. Wisdom and Endurace Focus, Sign of the Mage; Alchemy, Blade, Heavy Armor, Destruction, Restoration, Security (Should've chosen Alteration, just cast Unlocking). It's odd for me to play this style of RPG and not have a Personality/Speechcraft character, but at least most games aren't as unwise as Fallout was (I could literally take a Signal Flare into a store, and end up with the store's entire stock). Oblivion is pretty cool in the short time I played. Lots of travel nothingness to deal with at the start, and I really hate murky questlines (Ie: Not set with giant blinking objectives or concise journal objectives), but it's still fun.
DoA4 has at least a few new characters. Haven't unlocked anything past Gen Fu and Leon so far, plus a few costumes. They've added a Brazilian Masked (Mardi-Gras style) Wrestler, Gen Fu's Apprentice who's a very girly looking boy who uses what looks like a combination of Crane Style and Gen Fu's martial arts. There's also Kokoro who's another generic Japanese girl, traditional dress and fighting style. Brad Wong has an outfit that looks just like Gen Fu. Christie's main Costume (Costume 1) is a open-front black jacket with no undershirt. Zach still has the horrible alien/teletubby costume. Tina now has a cowgirl outfit, complete with hat. And Bass is even bigger than before.
Story mode now ends with different enemies for different characters, and an uberboss like DoA3 had (much as I hated his cheapness) isn't present. There is, however, an equal evil that some characters get to face. DOATEC's Alpha 152, which is a transparent-greenish energy being, built off of, I believe, Kasumi's model. She's a floating enemy with the ability to teleport as a counter or just of her own free will. Her attacks are lightning fast and her knock range is obscene. She has a few combos that involve swinging her legs at an incredible rate. Most of her combos can deal 1/4th - 1/3rd of your life, and in one particularly nasty juggle I did lose more than 2/3rds of my total life without a chance to counter or break. She has 3 grabs, all wicked. One is Kasumi's jumping leg neck break, but is executeable from a much much greater distance. Another begins like Kasumi's leg-based should grapple throw, but instead of using her legs to throw you, she drops you to a leg-based neck lock and spends awhile pummeling your head (a long ass, duration, combo). The third is absolutely the nastiest, she grabs your character's head, cracks their neck, and holds them with one arm while holding her palm in front of their face and charging energy, then releasing it in a blast of force sending you flying away.
The stages are a bit more dynamic, though not alot. There are a few object here and there that can be broken. The game also introduces low collison barricades, which someone can jump over, or be knocked over, but otherwise act as barriers. Things like fallen logs (outdoors) or the lane divider for the street (Casino Street level). There are also a few enviromental effects: T-Rex in the background, speeding cars on the Casino Street, that can do a bit of damage and add a bit of fun.
I'm thinking I need to at least look at the demo of Heroes of Might and Magic V, though from what I've read via Penny-Arcade's Rants, it's just a magically colorful as the IV, still probably worth my time though. I'm also considering Civ 4, because it is a good series, even if Civ 3 was a rather botched product.
Till then I'll just be waiting for Disgaea 2 and Final Fantasy XII, or for Atlier Iris 1 and 2 to crash a bit more in price.
