Our sources within Midway Games have come through for their fans again, providing new exclusive screenshots from their upcoming game, Mortal Kombat: Deception! This first set of screenshots features Mileena facing off against Sub-Zero (in his alternate costume) inside the Netherbelly:

This next set of screenshots features Mileena and Hotaru battling at the Sky Temple, with one character taking a fall...

The final two screenshots are of a game of Chess Kombat in what could be the Portal stage, and Mileena delivering an uppercut to another character in Puzzle Kombat:

We'll be sure to keep you all posted as we learn more about the game. Our thanks to our source within Midway for the screenshots!

The good folks over at GameTactics have posted a ten minute Mortal Kombat: Deception video from E3 that's part interview, part direct feed. Mortal Kombat team member Steve Beran gives us a walkthrough of the game this time.

We've all seen the Stage Fatalities/death traps/multi-tiered stages. What we learn in this video is that this applies to every background!

Also in the video, they go in-depth with the various modes of game play. We are shown that you can place bombs in Chess Kombat, and if your opponents land on one, their piece instantly dies. Another interesting tidbit of information is on Konquest Mode. We have known for months that this mode will feature every character in the MK universe, and they specifically mention Rain will make an appearance here. (This should please many of the MK Online forum users.) Puzzle Kombat is also featured in the video.

The video itself is 7.96 MB in the Windows Media Video (.wmv) format. Start the download now over at www.gametactics.com.

Thanks to MK Online user sub0s for the tip this time!

GameSpot is reporting that Sumner Redstone, the CEO and Chairman of entertainment company Viacom, is looking towards an eventual takeover of Midway Games, maker of the Mortal Kombat series. From the article:

All signs point to the eventual takeover of the venerable but limping game publisher Midway by Viacom CEO and Chairman Sumner Redstone. Such a scenario is bolstered by reports that Redstone, in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission today, said he has hired a financial advisor to evaluate options should he increase his interest in the publisher to 80 percent of its common stock from its current 72.4 percent level.

In addition, Dow Jones is reporting that at Redstone's request, Midway will reduce the number of seats on its board of directors from eleven to eight, and that Redstone has nominated his daughter, Shari E. Redstone, to join the board.

In spite of the stock reporting 17 consecutive quarterly losses, Redstone has demonstrated unflagging interest in the company, increasing his stake in it from less than 30 percent at the beginning of the year to its current level. He now owns 49,389,066 common shares of Midway Games, including 687,600 additional shares he purchased on both Friday, June 4, and Monday, June 7.

As we receive more information on this news story, we will be sure to report it. To read the article in its entirety, click here.

Our thanks to forum/chat member ShingoEX for the heads-up on this news story!

Last week we were fortunate enough to conduct a conference call with Eric Engstrom, CEO of WildSeed. During the call we conducted an interview in a question/answer format, learning many new details regarding the company's GameSkin technology that will allow gamers to play in a Gameboy Advance fashion, Midway's Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance on Curitel's new Identity cell phone. When asked about what carriers would offer the Identity phone, Eric answered:

We have announced a deal with Dobson, which is the ninth largest regional carrier in the United States. The other carrier deals are not announced yet. You might imagine that the carriers are picky about when we announce things. You can, and I think that's reasonable for them to do that. You can obviously buy the phone un-SIM locked, put your GMS SIM in it, so that would be AT&T, T-Mobile, Cingular or some other regional carrier, and the phone will work fine. That's the beauty of GSM.

He continues to explain how the GameSkins in general will stand up against current mobile gaming technologies that are out, or will be coming out within the next year. From the call:

I think the way to think of this is to compare it favorably to a Nintendo GameBoy Advance. The screen's a little smaller, the processor is a lot more powerful, and you're connected. So, while we will move a lot of GameBoy Advance style games over to Identity, what you will also see is the ability to download new levels, upload scores, download new weapons, that sort of thing. But you know, I believe that the next generation game platform for the next year will be ahead of Indentity. So if you look at the Sony Playstation/Personal Playstation.. you know you can't put it in your pocket and it's not a cell phone, but it's probably a better game device. If you compare us to Nokia's N-Gage I think we win hands down. If you compare us to Nintendo GameBoy Advance, I think it's a much better gaming experience for a little older player, I guess is the way I would put it slightly. If you look at the demographics for GBA they tend to be 14 and down and our phone is targeted, for well, 15 and up.

During the rest of the conference call Eric provided us with a great deal of information regarding the technology behind the GameSkin itself, as well as what to expect out of this Deadly Alliance port. Coming in at 19.2 MB, we are providing a 21 minute MP3 file of the phone call.

WildSeed's GameSkin for Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance is expected to hit shelves by this summer. More information will continue to be released as we receive it.

Team X-Box has posted an article in which they give their impressions on Midway's Mortal Kombat: Deception, based on the build they saw at E3! Nothing new is really revealed in this article, though they do take the time to give their impressions of the game. From the article:

There have also been a couple of tweaks made to the engine which powered Deadly Alliance, but for the most part, the game plays much the same. Gamers are still able to switch fighting stances on the fly which balances out any apparent advantages between most of the characters. Each fighting style has its own group of combos, along with special moves which can be activated with the right controller inputs. The button configs are the same but now there is the ability to pick up and dispose of level weapons. The weapons are best saved for trying to knock opponents into a death trap since they are extremely hard to swing and really slow a character down (the ones we experienced were always near a death trap). Picking up a weapon is a one button affair and getting rid of one can be done merely by changing styles.

There is an obvious increase to the overall speed of the gameplay in Mortal Kombat: Deception which will confuse fans of DA for awhile. After some quality time with Deception, we actually liked the faster game pace since it really separated itself from its predecessor and made the action feel more advanced without feeling hokey. We’re sure that the game speed will be tweaked even further since it seemed as though the aerial moves still were running at the slower rate. Even at the higher speeds, the game seemed to retain a satisfactory framerate, even when breakable objects and multi-tiered drops were in effect.

To see the article in its entirety, click here.

Our thanks to forum/chat member CAMK for the heads-up on this news story!