GameCube owners now have the chance to enjoy Mortal Kombat: Deception, which is available in game stores everywhere as of today! Owners of multiple consoles also have an incentive to purchase the GameCube version for two exclusive characters, Goro and Shao Kahn. Midway has issued a press release which announces the game's availability and mentions many of the awards that MKD has won, including:

• Best Fighting Game of 2004 - Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences
• Best Fighting Game of 2004 & Editor's Choice Award - GamePro Magazine
• Best Fighting Game of 2004 - GameSpot.com
• Best Fighting Game of 2004 - SpikeTV
• Best Fighting Game of E3 2004 - IGN.com
• Best Fighting Game of E3 2004 - GameSpot.com

To read the press release in its entirety, click here.

Midway Games has released a render from their upcoming release of Epic Games's upcoming X-Box game Unreal Championship 2! This render is of particular interest to MK fans as it includes everyone's favorite thunder god, Raiden! As can be seen in the render (and in previous UC2 media), Raiden retains his pre-Deception appearance; this is obviously the "good" Raiden as opposed to the dark one.



To see the image in a smaller file-size (more appropriate for dial-up users), click here. To see the full 2 MB render, click here

Our thanks to forum member kubaidragon for this heads-up, and to Mortal Kombat Guides who first broke this story!

The guys over at GameTrailers also attended Midway Winter Gamer's Day, and have now posted their videos of the whole event. Their footage is exactly the same as what we have posted up earlier, but they're broken up as several smaller videos which many should find convenient. Check them out here:

• GT Interview – Quicktime .MOV (10.3 MB), Windows Media .WMV (10.5 MB)
• GD Kombat – Quicktime .MOV (15.6 MB), Windows Media .WMV (16 MB)
• GD Moves– Quicktime .MOV (8.3 MB), Windows Media .WMV (8.8 MB)
• GD Backgrounds – Quicktime .MOV (8.9 MB), Windows Media .WMV (9.3 MB)
• GD Gameplay – Quicktime .MOV (4.2 MB), Windows Media .WMV (4.3 MB)
• GD Weapons – Quicktime .MOV (3.4 MB), Windows Media .WMV (3 MB)
• GD Bosses – Quicktime .MOV (4.8 MB), Windows Media .WMV (8.8 MB)
• GD Ko-Op – Quicktime .MOV (6.3 MB), Windows Media .WMV (8.8 MB)
• GD Fatalities – Quicktime .MOV (5.5 MB), Windows Media .WMV (8.8 MB)

You can also check out the full list of videos here. Thanks to MK Online forum member black_dragon for the news tip!

IGN has posted a new video interview with Midway's Ed Boon, in which Ed discusses the upcoming action/adventure game, Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks! For the most part, the interview consists of Ed talking about different features of the game, intercut with footage from the trailer that Midway released during Gamers Day. Not much new is mentioned in this interview; however, Ed does make a few points not previously mentioned. For one, he does confirm that fatalities can be upgraded like special moves can, becoming such things as brutalities, for example. In addition, fatalities can only be performed on non-boss enemies. Also, Ed states that he would like to see a cycle of an MK game coming out every year, with fighting games and action/adventure games alternating every year.
The videos are in Quicktime format for IGN Insider members, and Windows Media format for non-Insiders. To view the video in its entirety, click here.

Our thanks to forum/chat member DECEPTION for the heads-up on this interview!

Game Informer has just posted an interview with Midway's Ed Boon and Shaun Himmerick concerning their upcoming action-adventure game, Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks! The interview gives some new insights into the game not previously mentioned. For example, they give the definite answer as to whether the game is online-capable. From the interview:

Game Informer: First off, will I be able to fire up Shaolin Monks and go online and play cooperatively with someone else?

Ed Boon: No, so far there isn't a plan for this game to go online yet, but for future games it may be a consideration.

Shaun Himmerick: We looked at online and the things that we would have to cut back on, and what we found were some things that we didn't really want to do gameplay wise. And, it would have been too expensive. We really want to maximize gameplay and that's the decision that we ended up making: no online.

In addition, there is word that Liu Kang and Kung Lao may NOT be the only playable characters in MK:SM. From the interview:

GI: How many playable characters have you settled on so far?

SH: More than two! There isn't a final number yet. We could fit in a ton of playable characters if we were willing to sacrifice differentiation. If one character fights the exact same way as all the others, heck, we could have everyone be playable. But, we don't want to do that. We really want to make each character feel and play differently. Right now Liu Kang and Kung Lao feel and play completely different from each other. So there may be as few as three and the most there would probably be is six.

The article also goes into detail about the state the game is in at present.

GI: We broke the first news on Shaolin Monks, but so far, how is the development cycle progressing? We got to see a lot of illustrations of boss battles and plans for other characters, but what sort of plans do you have for that element now? How are you going to make each boss battle different?

SH: Believe it or not, content wise, the team has reached their limit in what they've put in the game. So basically we have from now until the game ships to add a ton of stuff that's related to storyline and camera and other things. We have a tremendous amount of time now to just polish every single piece of the game. All the boss fights, in particular, will get a lot of this sort of attention.

EB: One of the things that we'e balancing right now is being able to have all sorts of gamers be able to pick up the gameplay. We'e dealing with queues and flashes in certain areas to get people in tune with what they need to do at certain points in the game. Once we can communicate these nuances, the game is so much more fun because you realize what you need to do. Some people still pick up the game and can instantly figure out what to do, and those are the people that we need to say that you need to do more than simply mash on the buttons.

The interview also contains details on gameplay, elaboration on how the extra characters will work, and gameplay information. It ends with a brief discussion of Mortal Kombat: Deception online, and a quick word on Raiden in Unreal Championship 2.

To read the interview in its entirety, click here.

Our thanks to forum member justycist for the heads-up on this important interview!