I just got Virtua Fighter 5 Live Arena for the Xbox 360....here's some of my early impressions:
Virtua Fighter 5 = extremely satisfying fighting game.
I tried playing it on Xbox Live today, and despite my location [and relatively slow connection] here in the Philippines there's little to no lag in online play! I did get some hitches but the controls were still manageable.
The gameplay in VF5 is slower than Dead or Alive 4 but it feels much more strategic. Doing special moves is a bit easier since it's easier to remember the button combinations to do special moves...they require less arrow presses (and it helps that there are button shortcuts on the 360 controller for those tricky P+K+G combos). There are moves that are really hard to pull off but you only really need a few of them, and it's quite easy to string different moves together. Winning in matches feels less 'random' compared to DOA4 since button mashing won't help you in this game.
Virtua Fighter 5 = extremely satisfying fighting game.
I tried playing it on Xbox Live today, and despite my location [and relatively slow connection] here in the Philippines there's little to no lag in online play! I did get some hitches but the controls were still manageable.
The gameplay in VF5 is slower than Dead or Alive 4 but it feels much more strategic. Doing special moves is a bit easier since it's easier to remember the button combinations to do special moves...they require less arrow presses (and it helps that there are button shortcuts on the 360 controller for those tricky P+K+G combos). There are moves that are really hard to pull off but you only really need a few of them, and it's quite easy to string different moves together. Winning in matches feels less 'random' compared to DOA4 since button mashing won't help you in this game.
Overall my early impression of VF5 is extremely positive. Maybe it helps that I played VF2 to death on ye olde Sega Saturn. Highly recommended for fighting game fans. If you're looking for an overreaching plot to go with your fighting game (ala Tekken series), VF doesn't have that. It's really all about the fighting, and the satisfaction comes with pulling off great combos and fighting moves.
I recommend the Xbox 360 version over the Playstation 3 version, considering that the 360 version comes with better graphics, online play and is based on VERSION C of the arcade game, which includes the latest tweaks and balances to the characters.