Though MK Online is unable to provide you all with our own E3 coverage this year, we are still dedicated to bringing you the latest MK news to come out of the convention. That being said, onward to said news.

After the second official day of E3, the first for Midway, IGN has revealed their hands-on preview of Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe! Though no new gameplay footage or images were revealed as of yet, there were some new details released involving several aspects of the game including fatalities, select screen and more on pro moves.

Today was my first chance to actually play this game, and I have to say it actually feels pretty good. Trailers and screens had made the gameplay look a little stiff in my opinion, but once I got the controller and started darting around the screen and pulling off combos with the D-pad, everything flowed nicely. The character select screen had 20 slots -- ten red, ten blue -- and had three characters available for each franchise. Representing Mortal Kombat was Scorpion, Sub-Zero, and Sonya; while Superman, Batman, and Flash made up the DC side.

It seems that every special move may have a "pro" version of itself, rather than just projectiles. Only time will tell, but IGN did see another pro move from Sonya in action:

Now, every move you have has a variation of itself called a Pro-Move. What happens is you'll pull off Sonya's handstand where she grabs a dude with her legs and slams him to the ground. If you pull this move off and hit a specific button at a specific time, Sonya will slam the opponent to the ground and his body'll pop back up so that she can link together some more shots. It might not sound like much, but these moves -- which in typical MK fashion will need to be spread by word of mouth -- give you that extra second to dish out more pain, and that's what makes pros, right?

Fatalities, finishers that all the MK characters and DC villains will possess, do not seem all that different from the "brutalities" that the DC heroes seem to have been given. Superman's finisher seemed exceptionally brutal for something that was designed "not to kill":

I got to see the difference between the moves today. After dropping all of his matches to Scorpion, Flash was left in a wobbly haze. Scorpion removed his mask, lit his skull on fire and spewed the flames onto the Flash, who screamed, burnt to a charred husk, and collapsed. On the flipside, Superman beat the tar out of Batman, and when it was time to finish him off, Superman's eyes began to glow, he raised his fists, and the Last Son of Krypton proceeded to pound Batman's body into the ground like a railroad spike. In real life it would've killed Batman, but I guess there's an outside chance that he'd just have every bone is his body broken.

Freefall combat was the one aspect that IGN still referred to as stiff in nature, the reviewer having abandoned his thought that the entire game was stiff. There are several other notes about the mode as well as a few others within the preview, so check it out in full.

Thanks to forum member for the lead on this story.

While everyone is ramping up for coverage of E3 this week (including ourselves, by proxy), a separate Mortal Kombat game from Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe seems to be slipping in under the radar. As seen on the online stores of GameStop and EB Games (the latter owned by the former), a game called Mortal Kombat Kollection is set for release around October 1st.

What is Mortal Kombat Kollection? There is very little information available. About all that is known is that the only platform it is listed for is Playstation 2, and that the title implies that it will be a compilation game. However, what it is a compilation game of is a mystery at this time, as is whether it will be appearing on other platforms. We've already contacted our sources within Midway, but with E3 a couple of days away we don't anticipate a quick answer. We'll be keeping an eye out and reporting as we learn more.

To see the GameStop product page for this game, click here.

Our thanks to forum/chat members and for the heads-up about this upcoming game!

EDIT - 11:40 PM CDT - After doing a bit of discussion and thinking, it's occurred to us that there is one bit of evidence that points to Mortal Kombat Kollection being a compilation of classic MK arcade games. Recently Midway opened Midway Arcade, which is a site where one can play many classic arcade games for free on the web. Conspicuously absent from the list of games are the MK games. Arguments that the MK games are too advanced or too mature to be on the site are invalidated by the fact that Primal Rage is amongst the listed games; Primal Rage was as bloody and violent as MK, and was released around the same time as Mortal Kombat 3. Why would MK be excluded, unless Midway expected to release a new compilation that would be for sale and didn't want to risk losing sales? This is only a guess, but it's one that makes sense to us. We look forward to seeing your theories on the forums, and we'll keep an ear out to see if we can learn more.

IGN has posted several high resolution screenshots of the upcoming Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe. The screens depict the thus far confirmed characters fighting to the death against the backdrops of Metropolis and Hell. While nothing new has been revealed, these in-game stills allow us an up close look at the detail of the game.

To view the screenshots on IGN simply click here!

Our thanks to for the lead on the official release of these images.

As promised yesterday by MK_Nat on the Midway Boards, GameSpot did indeed reveal new information regarding Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe today. It was however, in the form of the second official trailer and the preview for the fast-approaching E3 2008 event.

First a summary of the second trailer. This 1:18 showcase features a bit of everything gameplay wise that will be found within the game. Klose Kombat is featured very prominently and a few shots of Freefall Kombat as well many special moves from the characters fill in the gaps. At around 48 seconds into the video, Sonya can be seen performing a "pro move" (more on that below). The trailer ends with Scorpion removing his mask to reveal his flaming skull head and performing his Toasty fatality on Flash, but the screen goes black to hide whatever details lay beyond that.

The preview for E3 is in the form of a two page write up GameSpot created after playing a hands on demo, the one to be featured at E3 itself. The demo contains six characters: Sonya, Scorpion and Sub-Zero from the MK side of things and Batman, the Flash and Superman from the DC side. The stages featured will be the three we have seen in the gameplay videos released thus far. The Metropolis, Hell and the Graveyard. They start off mentioning the removal of dial-up combos from the gameplay:

... You won't find MKIII-st

yle chain combos that will clock up hit counts in the double digits; instead you'll find combos in the 3-5 hit range. This is still being tweaked so it may change but we have to say we kind of like how it's working.

The classic Test Your Might minigame also returns, if only in name form and perhaps similar mechanics:

As far as the new "test your might" minigame goes, we have to say we're very pleased by how it fits in to the action. We stumbled on it in the Metropolis stage when we'd backed an opponent into a wall. After knocking them through the wall our character, Superman, grabbed them and started running to the right, slamming through wall after wall. The sequence required us to mash face buttons which upped the damage. Much like the sequences we just mentioned, it's a quick break in the fight. While the timing is being tweaked we're liking how they work. You're not pulled out of the fight for too long and they all keep you on your toes, adding a welcome unpredictability to battle.

As mentioned above, something currently referred to as "pro moves" has been implemented within the gameplay to award those with superior skill. A brief description of this was given during the preview:

While the special moves are all straightforward, Boon and the team are adding timing-based variations on them which are tentatively being called "pro moves". For example, if you perform Sonya's energy ring move, and you can get a controller and button motion in during a specific window of time, she'll fire off a second shot in rapid succession. The goal is to have every special move have a "pro" variant. While not every character's move had a variant in what we played, we were very much liking how it all worked. Besides adding some depth to the combo system, the moves definitely added a new facet to combat we liked and should present a meaty challenge for veteran players to master for incorporation into their combos.

Among the many other notes in this writeup are complete lists of all six of the aforementioned characters' special moves, notes on both Freefall and Klose kombat and the current button mapping situation.

To watch the new trailer, click here.

To read the E3 2008 preview in full, click here.

Thanks to forum members and for the leads on these stories!

As mentioned in a previous story, the folks over at Midway have released MKast #2, the second in their series of podcasts about the upcoming Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe! Once again hosted by Hans Lo and Hector Sanchez, the podcast covers topics such as upcoming character releases, what can be expected out of the E3 and Comic-Con builds, and a couple more gameplay tidbits. Among the things revealed are:

• Like in MKast #1, the gun was jumped on characters due to be released by another site. In this case, it was revealed that the characters due to be announced on GameSpot are Captain Marvel and Liu Kang.
• Despite what had been announced earlier, the E3 build will have SIX characters (at least), and the lineup includes Scorpion, Sub-Zero, Superman, Batman, the Flash, and one other mystery character.
• The four characters that would be announced at Comic-Con would have a huge impact for fans on both the MK side and the DC side.
• Characters will have character specific moves in freefall kombat, and have their own fighting styles in close kombat (ie, Catwoman will scratch while Scorpion delivers brutal punches, etc.).

As before, we are making the MKast available to download via the following link.

• MKast #2 from MKvDCU

Our thanks to forum member for the heads-up about this new MKast release!