Mortal Kombat: Deception's Konquest Mode can be summed up in one word: Wow. Where to begin? Well, the star of the show is a pupil of Bo Rai Cho's named Shujinko. His name will probably be customizable in future versions, but for now he's known only as Shujinko as this was just the E3 beta of the game. Anyway, as you control Shujinko you meet your friend, Apep, who pals around with you and shows you what missions there are for you to accomplish. When he leads you to the dojo, you train with Bo Rai Cho to learn new moves.

You may have heard that Konquest Mode is a game all on its own, and this is absolutely true. You start out in a dojo with Shujinko as a young boy, and all the other kids in the village are acting out a play. The characters that the children are pretending to be are famous MK warriors, such as Kung Lao, Goro, and Shang Tsung, acting out famous events in the Mortal Kombat universe.

The main missions as well as the side missions there are to do are simply incredible. There is a sick boy who you help by finding medicine for him, or a guard that is hungry and you go to the butcher to get some food for him. By helping people, you can get various rewards such as Kurrency (koins), or being granted access to areas that were blocked off before. Many things such as secret fighting styles will be unlocked through Konquest Mode, so it is important to help as many people as possible.

It's been said multiple times that every MK character will be in this game. The Midway guys confirmed this again at the pre-E3 MK party and E3 itself. Even in this beta version, we are shown characters from Lin Kuei clan members to a messenger for the Elder Gods.

It is this messenger of the Gods that grants Shujinko the ability to develop the fighting styles of all the warriors he encounters. Herein lies in the customization: with all the fighting styles in the game available at your finger tips (through Shujinko), it is up to you to decide which ones you want to use. And you will have every fighting style in the game to choose from; as Shujinko's adventures lead him through the 6 different worlds that Bo Rai Cho sends him to: Earthrealm, Outworld, Netherealm, Orderrealm, Chaos Realm,and Edenia.

One of Ed Boon's answers in MK Online's 10-Question Fan Interview revealed that you can play as Shujinko in Konquest mode until he is an old man, at that point he will be playable in regular Kombat mode as well as online.

In short, Deception's Konquest mode is everything a die-hard Mortal Kombat fan could ever ask for! Check out these videos:

• Konquest Mode's Beginning
• Konquest Mode's End

Last night the E3 Expo came to an end. Mortal Kombat Online would like to thank its users that have appreciated all of the hard work that has gone into this year's coverage. The last day at E3 was spent getting final impressions of Mortal Kombat: Deception, as well as having our final discussions with various Midway contacts and team members. Most of us are already on the way home, or will be leaving later this morning- so don't expect our next update until sometime towards the end of this weekend. Once we get back and get things situated, we will post more information learned on the gameplay, and eventually get the rest of our videos up that we haven't had time to post. We've been very tired from long nights of reporting, so once we're fully rested, expect more updates. Even though the Exposition might be over, our coverage will continue soon!

Update: Well to hold you over.. we just remembered in two different brochures given to us at the Midway booth, that it confirms Raiden is in the character roster of MK: Deception. Also, we read earlier today that Gamespot has confirmed that Jax is also in the line-up.

Greetings from Los Angeles, CA on behalf of the entire Mortal Kombat Online staff! We have just wrapped up Day Two of our LIVE E3 Coverage, and it has definitely been an exciting (though exhausting) day at the Midway booth. We have had ample time with Mortal Kombat: Deception and the MK Development Team, and have learned a great deal regarding the next installment of this phenomenal series.

To headline, we are excited to announce that Mortal Kombat: Deception has been nominated as the Best Fighting Game of E3 2004! While the winner has yet to be announced, we are confident that MK: Deception will (literally) beat out the competition. Good luck to the Team MK! Next, we were finally able to access the online portion of MK: Deception, specifically the Kombat mode and the Puzzle MK modes. Scott Howell and D'Arque Bishop were able to kick it back arcade style by facing off in Kombat over XBox Live via the Midway booth's Local Area Network. This was able to provide us with a teaser of how the online functionality of the game will act, and we must say we are impressed. Though it was only over a LAN, we were unable to notice any amount of lag or decrease in game quality for the online experience. This was very promising, particularly as Steve Beran re-confirmed that MK: Deception Online will only be compatible with broadband connections. This is a breath of fresh air for those who feared choppy dial-up opponents.

Also of particular note, we were able to observe the PS2 and XBox versions of MK: Deception side-by-side. While the game looks beautiful on both formats, there are note-worthy graphical improvements on the XBox (including HDTV support, bump-mapping, and smoother textures). The PS2 version still looks fantastic, and both versions are sure to go through some major polishing. Steve Beran noted that the remaining months on the development cycle will go directly towards tweaking and tuning the game for each system, and fans are sure to be pleased with the finished products regardless of which console they play on.

In more exciting news, Midway granted MK Online direct access to the press booth so that we were able to capture exclusive direct-feed footage of MK: Deception! Be sure to check-out the downloads section to see ]{0MBAT and Mobster4Christ face off in battle and showcase many of the game's exciting new elements. The first three videos are in MPEG format, while the Press Kit footage is in Windows Media format.

• Hotaru Vs. Ashrah
• Nightwolf Vs. Bo'Rai Cho
• Sindel Vs. Mileena
• Press Kit Raw Footage 1
• Press Kit Raw Footage 2

As you check out our screenshots and videos, be sure to look out for the many Classic Mortal Kombat throw-backs. MK Chess features a montage of revamped MK1, MK2, and MK3 background elements. This includes The Deadpool (featuring Shang Tsung observing the match from above in his MK2 attire), The Courtyard, The Portal, and a Hall of Fame (with the Destiny Towers of MK1-MK4 looming in the background). Also, Dan Forden has obviously had his hand in remixing classic Mortal Kombat background tracks, as newer versions of these tunes appear in MK: Deception. These added touches truly make the game feel like a tribute to the fans of Mortal Kombat, retouching on the history we all know and love. You may notice that one of the screenshots was taken from Psi-Ops - one of its special features is the early MKD trailer included on the game!  And by the way... who is that old looking gentleman sitting next to ]{0MBAT?

Click here for the entire gallery of media - Well over 50 screenshots in total for this update. Reporting Live Los Angeles, see you tomorrow as we wrap up our final day of coverage!

UPDATE: We are providing a better quality (but unfortunately larger file size) version of the Fan Interview! This version is much brighter and has a much improved audio track derived from the WAV file created by Konqrr! To see the new Fan Interview video, click here. Our sincerest thanks to Konqrr for the better quality audio track used in this version of the video!

A couple of weeks ago, we made the call for the second Mortal Kombat Online Fan Interview. We had a lot of questions submitted, but in the end, we picked what we thought were the best ten. On Tuesday night, at the pre-E3 MK party thrown by Midway, Scott Howell and Justin Deering sat down with MK team leader and co-creator Ed Boon to have him answer the questions YOU submitted. However, as a surprise for you the fans, we are providing the interview not as a expressionless text file, but as a full movie file! This file is encoded in Quicktime format, and comes in at around 30 MB.

To download the Fan Interview, click here.

Our thanks to the many users who submitted their questions and participated in this Fan Interview!

Note: We're aware of the poor quality of the video and the darkness of it; we're working on a tight schedule trying to get everything up in at least some form for all of you as fast as we can. We should be able to get a better version up tonight. It was just the conversion from the camera that made it dark. Later tonight we'll try to get a better version up ;-)

We are now making available even more new screenshots from the Electronic Entertainment Expo as well from the official Mortal Kombat Party at the Standard Downtown LA, on Tuesday Night. Feast your eyes and enjoy... and who is that short guy standing with myself, CCShadow, and ]{0MBAT?

Check out the entire gallery in our E3 2004 Coverage Section!