Don't get me wrong. Standard DOA4 load times are pretty darn awesome. Where I see it a little slow, however, is when you pull up a character picture/preview in the character select screen. Takes a few seconds and I can hear either the disc or HD spin. I haven't heard anybody else comment on this. In fact, some friends say loading the character pictures/previews are instant on their boxes. Is it slow for anybody? Like few seconds slow? Or is something wrong with my disk? Thanks.

thats the way it is, both DOA2 and 3 were like that as well..

Yea same.... dont you think they could make them load up a bit faster by downgrading the quality of the preview just a tad, it gets really annoying. The levels load up VERY quickly so im not sure why that doesnt as well. Maybe it renders the image with the costume on the fly or something.

just a quirk of the doa front end
they really should update the darned thing, as its getting quite old

The DOA seires is like Madden or World Series Baseball. It's the same game every time, with minor updates. I guess the same can be said about Soul Calibur though. If they're gonna keep remaking a game, I wish they'd stick to Ninja Gaiden. All of the Tecmo games look great, but that's the only one I think they got "right".

Well not quite. In Madden you literally get just a roster update, and a fancy new feature like trading cards or mini camp (neither of which made it to Madden 06, neither did Madden's commentary). DOA definitely has a little more than a roster update, it has new characters, new stages, new costumes, destructible scenery, new moves, and neat little online lobby system and credits you can earn and spend. Not to mention things like HD graphics and online play....

Actually DOA went through a complete engine up rewrite from DOAU to DOA4

The quirk with the character select screen is probably the same programmer programming the interface in the same inefficient mannor...

Some other games do that too,

The reason is they're loading the whole friggin character model, when really a low poly version of the head and shoulders would be just fine (heck even a still image would be fine). If you think about it... probably about 25% of the graphics it loads for a level is the character model, and if it's loading that whole damn think in the selections screen UI... then it makes perfect sense that it would take about a second to load.

They may have rewritten the engine and tweaked the counter system a little, but it's nothing revolutionary. Look at the difference between DOA 1 and 2...that's what I'd expect from a generation leap and engine rewrite. Similarly, compare Soul Edge with Soul Calibur (1).