New languages to be humiliated in

I finally hooked up my original Xbox to Live. This wasn't as easy as I'd hoped, since I had to use the Gamertag recovery function to get set up and I found zero instructions on how to do things from 360 to Xbox and not the other way around. (In the end it was all logical, I just felt like groping in the dark.) We'll see if I have to move the Gamertag back to the 360 once I'm done. If so, well, that sucks. However, I discovered something so good on the Live-enabled Xbox that I just might be willing to suffer the pain of the gamertag recovery again.

(Edit: no additional hassles once the ethernet cable flew back to the 360. Go Microsoft.)

The reason being that playing Dead Or Alive Ultimate online was even sweeter than I'd imagined. Playing in the "winner stays on" mode and watching the others fight it out before my turn was really damn near the best online experience I've ever had. It felt just like the arcade! I didn't win a single match (rounds, though), but I've never had so much fun getting my ass handed to me (I'm at C- rank currently.)

I got to play several Japanese guys. It felt really weird to hear realtime Japanese in-game. I don't have the slightest idea of what they were saying, but you know, the language of buttkicking is universal. I was rather surprised to discover that the only time we had trouble with lag (I was hosting) was when playing with Americans. There was some lag, yes, but I didn't find it a problem.

Dead Or Alive 4 on the 360 is a no-brainer for me, now. Of course, it plays a lot differently than Ultimate, but I never was any good at Ultimate. I've played DOA3 lots, but it can be argued that it has a broken system due to far too easy countering. From my DOA3 experience, my favorite character by far is Hitomi.

There aren't too many things as pure as playing real humans one-on-one in a beat 'em up.