March 29, 2002

3 new MK: Deadly Alliance pics
Just yesterday, Midway was in a good mood again and distributed to all its worthy MK fan sites a nice drawing of the ninja Sub-Zero in MK: Deadly Alliance.  Though it's only a sketch and not an actual screenshot, it appears to be really detailed and so far it looks like the characters are coming along nicely.  Then, shortly after, it was discovered that they posted a rendering of Jax on the official MK: Deadly Alliance website, who now looks like he did in MK: Special Forces, as well as a second drawing of Sub-Zero, but this time without his mask and looking like he was in MK3.  I believe that the two Sub-Zero pictures appeared in the Game Informer magazine, so it looks like Midway is slowly taking pics from there and posting them up.  You should keep an eye out at the official site as it seems Midway is updating their slideshow behind the scenes, so to speak.  You can also view the three new pictures right here in the MK Empire's MK: Deadly Alliance picture section.  Stay tuned for more info as it rolls in and especially when in-game screenshots start to appear.

New character Moloch revealed in MK: Deadly Alliance
During the week, Midway took another large step forward and posted up a picture on the official MK: Deadly Alliance website of a new character named Moloch.  The sketch of the ONI-Destroyer shows him to be a scary blue beast with a metal ball and chain wrapped around his arm.  He kind of reminds me of that green guy from Street Fighter.  Anyway, make sure you either go to the official site to see the sketch, or just go to the MK: Deadly Alliance section right here to see the sketch in the pictures section.

2 new Scorpion pictures released
A few days ago, along with the Moloch picture, Midway put up a new picture of Scorpion on the official MK: Deadly Alliance website.  The real sweet rendering shows him in all his glory right in the middle of the Kuatan Palace stage, spear and all.  Then, Midway got into a real good mood and sent to some of their favorite MK fan sites a stand-alone rendering of Scorpion as he appeared in the Kuatan Palace picture.  The picture is very high quality and very large because Midway made it huge and in .tiff format, so many sites had to .zip it up.  Fortunately, you can view both of the Scorpion pictures at a much more reasonable size right here at the MK Empire's MK: Deadly Alliance pictures section.  Enjoy.

Obeying copyrights
I'm sure you all know by now that no website can post up any scans of MK: DA from the Game Informer magazine because of the copyright laws and all that legal stuff.  So, if you really want to see the exclusive pics, you have to go out and get the magazine, not bother sites to post them up.  But, if you're too busy to grab the magazine, just check out this Italian gaming site that sloppily ripped the pics right from the magazine.  Let's see how long they can go until they get busted. :)

Game Informer magazine unveils tons of new MK: Deadly Alliance content
Boy, was I shocked when I heard all about this.  It seems that Game Informer has gotten their hands full of previously unknown MK: Deadly Alliance content and packed it into their April issue.  To avoid using a ton of space, I will just list some of what the magazine revealed to the public just days ago.
-Information and pics of three new characters...
 --Blind Kenshi: A new male ninja with a red bandana around his eyes and symbols on his clothes.
 --Malvado: A very buff, rough looking character with an overcoat.
 --Drahmin: A very built-looking African warrior wearing a green tribal mask.
-Sketches of Sub-Zero, Raiden, and Kitana (although this is probably not how they'll look in the game).
-Mentionings of Cyrax, Reptile, Sonya, Scorpion, Shang Tsung, Quan Chi, and Jax.
-Total amount of characters will be between 20-24.
-MK: Deadly Alliance will be so bloody, gory, and scary, that it will change all your thoughts about Mortal Kombat.
-Damage will be visible within a match (i.e. cuts, bruises, ripped clothing).
-More realistic weapons combat (i.e. you can cut your opponent and as they bleed out they lose power).
-All original fatalities... no old ones!

This information is great to hear, but let me make a few comments.  First of all, what kind of a name is Blind Kenshi?  Maybe if he takes the bandana off his eyes he'll be able to see.  Not my idea of a good name, but who knows.  As for Drahmin, it kind of reminds me of Brahmin, which is the universal god of the Hindu religion (or one of those religions), so that name is creative on Midway's part. On another note, where did Kitana and Cyrax come from?  I thought they said only eight returning characters, not 10.  Come on now.  Um, let's see, I am happy about visible damage and the weapons system, and all new fatalities is what we need.  20-24 characters is a good number, and it seems that we already know 13 of them.  Okay, I think that's it.  Make sure you check out this issue, and as soon as Game Informer allows people to start scanning their pages, it will be done.  As for now, check out the MK: Deadly Alliance section for all the latest news as well as the new sketches of Kitana and Raiden, which are now at the official MK: Deadly Alliance site, courtesy of Game Informer.

New MK: Deadly Alliance Director's Cut Video
During the week, the official MK: Deadly Alliance site updated its multimedia page with the promised Director's Cut video.  This video, which can be played directly as an .mpg or downloaded in 2 different sizes, is almost the same as the first teaser video.  It shows Scorpion doing his basic moves, but has a little more fireball action, better audio effects (listen to his breathing), and better music.  Overall, it is worth the time to download it, but it's nothing extra special.  For your convenience, I've also added links to it in the MK: Deadly Alliance Multimedia section of this site.  Enjoy.

MK: Deadly Alliance release date changed?
Did I peg this right or what?  On the information page of the MK: Deadly Alliance section, I listed the release date as September 30th, 2002, with the line "... almost 100% chance that it will change."  Just like every MK game before this installment, rumors are starting to spread around the web that the release date has changed.  No exact date is known as of yet, but it is speculated that the new release date will fall in between the 3rd-4th quarters (September-December) of 2002.  While there's no definite word on this yet, places like GameSpot are listing the 4th quarter as the new release date for the PS2, GameCube, and XBox, and since all versions will most likely come out simultaneously, we can expect that the new date of 4th quarter will apply to all systems.  I predict a release in December so that MK: Deadly Alliance makes a Christmas debut, but don't take my word for it, just wait and see...

MK: Deadly Alliance wanted video available for 2 weeks only
It seems like a lot of people were disappointed when Midway took down the 640x480 22MB version of the Scorpion teaser video.  But, to put on some smiles, Download.com has offered to put up the video for download in Hi-Res format for your viewing pleasure.  But, don't take your time to get it because they're only keeping it up for two weeks.  So, if you want the teaser in a larger and cleaner format, click here now.

Noob.com updated
Well, we haven't seen much action at noob.com in a long time, but alas, something has changed.  Boon has put up the 3 stage images of MK: Deadly Alliance as well as two versions of the Scorpion teaser video that has been out for a while.  What is more interesting, though, is that his page says that we should be expecting a MK: Deadly Alliance Director's Cut Movie very soon.  Could this be another gift of "Fatality Friday's" in March?  We'll see tomorrow.

News Archive down for repairs
On a quick note, if you try to access the Old News page here at the site you will not be able to view any news for a while.  The java thing that I had (which was cool) I wasn't able to fix and get working, so I had to scrap it and think of something else for the old news page.  It may have been because the program was a trial version, or it could be because I suck at it, but who knows.  I should have a solution soon, but until then, the old news is off limits.

New stage pics and sketches at official MK: DA site
Midway recently updated their MK: Deadly Alliance website with 3 brand new pictures of 3D rendered fighting arenas in the next MK installment.  In my opinion, the new "Acid Bath", "Lava Shrine", and "Kuatan Palace" are very strange, and what makes them seem even stranger are the weird captions that they have that explain each stage briefly.  I find it interesting, too, that Planet MK had 3 pictures up for about a week which revealed some arenas, and I thought they were fakes, but they turned out to be the ones Midway just released today.  Props to Planet MK for somehow getting these images first.  Now, as for sketches, there's 2 of some fat looking gargoyle puking up some junk.  This statue appears in the Acid Bath stage, and it is said that his acid puke could be an interactive feature.  To view all of the stages and sketches, go over to the MK Empire's MK: Deadly Alliance picture section and click on the thumbnails.  Enjoy.

MK: Deadly Alliance Q&A
I guess this can be considered part of "Fatality Friday's", but whatever we call it it's good news.  Today, GameSpot held a short Question and Answer session with Midway and was able to dig up some new information on MK: Deadly Alliance.  The most important details of the interview are as follows:
-MK: Deadly Alliance will not resemble any past MK games, but will be totally new.
-The story takes place after MK4, with Quan Chi and Shang Tsung's "Deadly Alliance" to increase their powers.
-No old fatalities, only brand new ones!!
-7,000-10,000 polygons per character.
-3D movement, attacks, and evasions.
-Expansion of the single-player experience, with new and old fighting modes.
You can click here to read the entire session, and remember to keep checking the MK Empire's Deadly Alliance section as info and pics keep rolling in.

Game Informer cover shot
Just yesterday we reported how Game Informer will be the first magazine to cover MK: Deadly Alliance.  Well, now we have a screenshot of the April, 2002 issue's cover, showing off Scorpion and the MK dragon.  It really doesn't look like Scorpion as seen in recent 3D renderings because it's a drawing, but Game Informer has always been known as a magazine that likes to sketch things, or at least that's my opinion.  As for the information they will have, expect to read about new characters, the story, weapons, gameplay, character sketches, and an interview with Ed Boon, who will discuss the violence of the game.  So, pick up this special issue of Game Informer (below) in two weeks.  Thanks to MK Gate for the pic.