Yesterday I spent a couple hours with Dead or Alive 5 after deciding sort of randomly to give it a shot. The last DOA game I played was actually the original, so I've missed a cool 14 years of the series and was completely unfamiliar with how to play.

As I commented to my wife while getting my ass handed to me, thank goodness there is a difficulty setting lower than "easy."

Although I've still got a really poor understanding of the fighting mechanics (and there doesn't seem to be anything within the game itself to explain them), I was still having enough fun mashing the buttons and occasionally damaging my opponent. The pace of battle is faster than I remember, which is nice because I recall thinking the original game was a bit sluggish at the time.

I only played arcade mode last night, but I'm going to start the story mode tonight. There appears to be a decent amount of single-player content; certainly more than Soul Calibur V, at least.

Is anyone else playing? Any other impressions or tips for a newcomer?