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!

For those who had difficulty viewing Mortal Kombat Online's Exclusive Video Interview with Ed Boon (which can still be downloaded here [Right-Click/Save As]), the official transcript has now been made available! From the interview:

Scott Howell Alright, Question #2 is from Alfonso Navarro from San Paulo, California. "In the past, it was said there would be 24 characters in total for MK: Deception, the amount we've seen in most of the line-up or heard of their confirmation. Boon, are you planning more, meaning will there be more than 24 characters?"
Ed Boon Yes, there will be more than 24 characters. Your main grid of characters will be 8x3 which will be 24 characters, but we do like hiding additional characters in the Konquest mode that will be in addition to the 24 characters.

To read the rest of the transcript, click here. Thanks to forum member GuiltyByDesign for helping to complete this transcript!

GameTrailers.com, an affiliate of Happy Puppy, has come through with some new videos of Mortal Kombat: Deception. All of the videos appear to be the same ones we first witnessed and recorded by our video camera during the presentation that Ed Boon made at the Midway Games MK: Deception Launch party on May 11th. Now you can watch as we did in wicked detail as fatalities are performed by returning favorites, including Sub-Zero and Baraka. Hopefully these fatalities will put the same sick feeling in your stomach, just as they did to us at the party! Links to all of the videos are below:

• Mortal Kombat: Deception Fatality Video

• Mortal Kombat: Deception Gameplay Video

• Mortal Kombat: Deception Konquest Video

• Mortal Kombat: Deception Puzzle Kombat Video

• Mortal Kombat: Deception Chess Kombat Video

Thanks to Mortal Kombat Online forum poster austintrees for bringing these to our attention!

It looks as if the Mortal Kombat: Deception Development Team has started another round of post-E3 interviews. HomeLan has scored the latest, which although touches on almost everything that is already learned like gameplay features and online modes, Steve Baren makes the first public announcement of characters Kira and Dairu. From the interview:

HomeLAN - While you are bringing back old favorites from past Mortal Kombat games, there will be some new characters. What can you tell us about MK Deception’s new fighters?

Steve Beran, Character Designer - We have a lot of new characters in MK Deception. Kira is a leather clad beauty and the newest member of Kano’s infamous Black Dragon gang. Hotaru is a guardian of Order. His current mission is to restore order to Outworld. Dairu is a deadly mercenary. Ashrah is a demon hunter bent on purifying herself of evil.

To find out what other developers had to say about the game, you can read the entire article in full by clicking here. Thanks goes out to MK Online forum user prince_goro78 for the news lead.

GameSpot has posted a new 18-minute long video with a simultaneous direct feed, interview, and walkthrough of Mortal Kombat Deception with lead programmer and Mortal Kombat co-creator, Ed Boon. There's a nice detailed explanation of the Chess Kombat and Puzzle Kombat modes, as well as an explanation of what's new with the overall fighting engine. Of most interest:

• The Pit makes its 3-D debut, as one of the classic backgrounds found in Chess Kombat.
• The PS2 version has PS2 supports using the headset online.

The video is free to stream as a GameSpot Basic member, and you must be a member of GameSpot Complete to download the high quality version. So click here and begin downloading the movie now.