From the Article:

Midway recently held an event to show off its 2004 lineup. The company is headed in a much different and much better direction this year. Gone are the days of Freaky Flyers and Dr. Muto, and in are edgy action games like NARC, unique stealth-action games like Psi-Ops, and ridiculously smooth arcade-sports titles like NBA Ballers. The company's future is looking bright, but the best is yet to come. Midway showed a teaser of the next Mortal Kombat and talked a bit about John Romero's (remember him?) work on the next Gauntlet.

There are oodles of goodies for you to check out. We have previews of upcoming titles, tons of screens, great movies, impressive presentations, and a special video of what Psylancer really does when he's at a press event. Soak it all in!

The Article covers several games, some new, and some older titles given a new lease on life.
Games such as NARC, Area 51, Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy, The Suffering, Mortal Kombat: Deception and several others are previewed.
And, of course, Videos and Teasers such as The Mortal Kombat: Deception Trailer and a Midway Gamers Day 2004 spycam video are covered as well. (downloads require at least a basic fileplanet membership)

You can find the full article with links to previews and content HERE, courtesy of Gamespy.com

The guys over at GameSpot have written an article entitled: When Two Tribes Go to War: A History of Video Game Controversy. Of course, no such article would be complete without mentioning Mortal Kombat - one of the main games that inspired the rating system still used by video games today.

What made it stand out? "Everything was over the top," said Greeson. "From the pools of blood spewing from your character, to the outrageous gruesomeness of the game's fatalities. Mortal Kombat not only shocked anyone who had ever played the game, but those who simply walked by the game were mesmerized by its gore."

Head on over and read the full article here - and thanks to forum/chat member Agilo of Scorpion's Realm for alerting us to the presence of this article.

WorthPlaying has updated with five screens from Mortal Kombat: Deception! The screens (which appear to be identical to some shown in the recent PSM article about MK: Deception) feature a screenshot of Puzzle Kombat, Sub-Zero kicking Ermac through a barrier, Scorpion being knocked through a wall, the Archon-like MK strategy game (which appears to use sprites from MK: Deadly Alliance), and Sub-Zero facing off against Baraka.

To see the article in its entirety, click here. Users of software or browsers that block pop-up windows should be warned that the full-size images will not be displayed until the pop-up blocking is disabled.

Our thanks to the many members of the forum who gave us the heads-up on these screenshots!

Forum/chat member Hydro was able to get us a copy of the PSM feature article on Mortal Kombat: Deception, and it was worth the wait! The issue is chock-full of information on the different play modes. Rather than quote the article, we're going to summarize what we have learned.

Konquest mode has returned in a much expanded form. Unlike MK: Deadly Alliance's Konquest, the new version is much more akin to something out of Grand Theft Auto. You still have to attend the dojo to learn from characters like Bo'Rai Cho, but there are also random encounters and events in the village that can be the clue to secret techniques and other rewards. (You can even beat up hapless villagers for the heck of it). As in MK:DA, the goal of Konquest is to learn the combos and strategies of the game. Best of all, Konquest acts as a create-a-character mode, where you build up your generic monk character through the Konquest, and when done, can use him in the other game modes, including online play.

As far as characters go... Nightwolf is indeed confirmed to return in the game. Noob Saibot is also poised to return. One surprise, though, comes in the form of Sindel, who, like Nightwolf, is making her first appearance in MK since Mortal Kombat Trilogy. New characters include an armored warrior named Hotaru, and the mysterious white-clad woman in the trailer, called Ashrah. The unknown warrior referred to in the last news article is in fact Sub-Zero's alt costume; not much is revealed about him either. Moreover, it is revealed that the boss in this game is the Dragon King, whose unseen presence figured prominently in the events of MK: Deadly Alliance. Speaking of said events, it is also confirmed that the game takes place in the aftermath of Deadly Alliance.

The gameplay also has been tightened up since the last MK. As before, each character has three fighting stances, though they are barely touched upon in the article. However, the characters are now quicker and easier to move around. In addition to their armed fighting styles, the arenas now have weapons available that can be picked up, and they are more powerful than the characters' standard weapons. Also, stages have what are known as "Death Traps" (aka, stage fatalities), which are red areas in which a stage fatality can be performed. It doesn't say explicitly, yet it sounds as if Death Traps can be used in mid-battle. Other, more minor traps can be present, such as flames and the like. The levels are often huge, taking up multiple levels. An example of one arena was shown in the form of the Netherbelly, which is presumably the interior of the Nethership from MK: Deadly Alliance. This is the arena featuring the swinging corpses, and concept art shows Kenshi being grabbed if he gets too close to a wall with people looking through a window. Each character, according to Boon, will have two or more fatalities, and there are even rumours of "hara kiri" moves, which bring to mind the Suicidality rumours of yore.

Side games? They show that as well. These side games are different from the Test Your Might/Sight of old. The first is a strategy board game akin to chess or Archon, with the kombatants as pieces on a chessboard. Attempting to capture a piece requires the opponents to duke the characters out a la standard arcade mode. The other game, Puzzle Kombat, is similar to Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo, where small deformed characters have it out in the middle of a Tetris-style puzzle game.

Due to copyright reasons, we are not able to provide scans of this article. You can find the PSM article in newsstands near you very soon!

Our thanks to Hydro and Dragula21 for the heads-up on the article!

PS2 IGN has revealed PSM's exclusive preview of Mortal Kombat: Deception, with an image of the front cover featuring Sub-Zero's new look, and a page from the actual magazine. The magazine page confirms the return of Noob Saibot by showing him fighting against Ermac, and also a glimpse of the mechanics of the Slaughterhouse stage fatality, by showing a red "danger" area from which a stage fatality can be performed. The stage fatality image shows an unknown warrior against Ermac; could this be another of the new characters?

The images (in both low-res and high-res form) can be found here. We'll report further as we have more information.

Our thanks to forum moderator Mobster4Christ and forum member TemperaryUserName for the heads-up on this story!