Well getting engaged this last week (thursday to be exact) didn't allow for much gaming this weekend cept for Friday night of which I stayed up till 6am playing Fable. I'm almost finished with the game and I must say, it's been one hell of a ride. Yet another game I need to review. :|

Mortal Kombat may not be your thinking mans game, but what you do have to think about is how to kill your opponent.

Mortal Kombat: Deception

Obviously Midway set out to make their next installment of the Mortal Kombat series the be all end all of what encompasses the MK franchise. Obviously some people are or may be turned off by all the little mini games like Chess Kombat, Puzzle Kombat (in homage to Super Puzzle Fighter by Capcom), but honestly the meat of the game comes from the two modes that seem even more refined for this years installment. Arcade, the Krypt and Konquest mode are what drive MK:D to be a blast. I might add, that you cannot play through arcade mode just by itself and hope to unlock anything in the Krypt, you MUST play through Konquest in order to get certain keys for the graves this time around. While I actually found this annoying at first, playing through konquest allows you to learn the characters in the game and ultimately make you a better fighter.

Touching briefly on the konquest mode, you are a student of Bo Rai Chi and is instructed to go around Outworld and basically learn fighting skills and get koins for the Krypt. Along the way you’ll unlock characters w/ keys you find, unlock new stages and of course, learn new moves for the characters. That being said, I won’t spoil any of the story that goes along with Konquest mode.

Arcade mode is of course the best I’ve seen the MK series at. Adding elements of MK2, MK3 and taking the ideas developed in MK:DA, this feels like a very polished MK game. Basically you have 3 fighting styles; Two with fists and one with a weapon. Most characters have their own unique style but sadly some are pallete swap that have the same moves but different special moves. That being said, my other gripe is you CANNOT impale your opponent with your weapons in this installment. I was dissapointed since I figured they would only expand the MK universe and gameplay not take away. I’m sure that Midway figured that was a cheap way to win since it would drain your energy, but they should’ve considered allowing the opponent to either throw them back at his enemy or take the blade/sai’s etc out and throw them to the ground that the player would have to pick up on his/her own again. Anyways, minor gripe but lets move on.

The areans almost need their own review. The interaction with the enviroments is absolutely stunning this time around. Basically throwing in some elements of Dead or Alive with multi-terried fighting, this with taking into account the multiple ways to kill your enemy. Each stage generally have a killer (no pun intended) to end the round quickly by knocking your opponent into a death trap. These are so twisted and so well concieved that you’d have to worry for the guys at Midway since it’s so sickning it’s fun to watch.

The other modes of course which I’ll just breeze past is Puzzle Kombat and Chess Kombat. Puzzle is kinda fun, basically only play it online or with another person, it just doesn’t seem as fun playing with the computer. Chess Kombat on the other hand can be fun against the CPU but again, is more fun online or vs a player. Either way, these mini games are quite fun to kill time if you don’t have a full 30 mins to playing MK in arcade or Konquest; Also, good at parties as well. 
So with that said, Mortal Kombat for the fans is one that keeps inline with where the series has been and gives us a fresh breath of air in where the series is going. With that in mind, I’m giving MK:D a 9.4 overall for a thrilling experience from old characters (Liu Kang?) to new ones to a expanded Krypt Koffins to an even deeper Konquest mode. Hats off to Midway for a great game.



Aaron Hockett gives this game a:
9.4 Superb

Once again, as with Burnout 3, you feel overwhelmed. There's so much to do, you feel like... *gahh.... Where do I... how... can...dammit!! WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED?!?!?*

Regardless, it feels much better than MK:DA. However, I'm dissapointed that you can't implae people with your weapons anymore. :(

Anyhoo, more impressions later.

As far Colin05,

A m a z i n g.

Honestly, 04 feels like crap compared to this. The physics engine + the new graphics engine overhaul is amazing. The blurry effect when you run into stuff and the *stun* motion is simply brillant. Honestly this is the best I've seen the WRC represented. I can't say since I haven't played WRC4 (only in the EU) but hey, if you want WRC action, BUY COLIN05!!!

*drools*

Thinkin' about takin off early from work today to get some quality time in with those two games. 8)


I'll be posting up some impressions later tonight along with my own personal review of both of them sometime tomorrow.

Thus far though, I've given MK:D a 9.5 (simply because it looks freaking awesome, but we'll see what my final review of the game is. Colin05 looks amazing. I played the PC demo of 05 and it rocks! I got 04 and played through that and this just adds a bunch of new features and refinement. Anyways, back to work for the time being. :)

Well, there seems to be a rash of n00bs running lose on the board and I've been trying to help moderate the boards as best as I can. Honestly though, it's getting a little out of hand.

Anyways regardless. Something rather pointless.... Called up Babbages to see if they were getting MK:D today, of course they say: "No, it's coming in tomorrow." *Sigh* I love how when a game goes gold, they ship the monday, and then get it tues/weds/thurs. I'm almost thinking of starting a petition to get games released on the monday instead of just having to wait a freaking day to get the game. :|

Beyond that, started a new position (promo) at Intel today. Working as a roaming PC tech. Kinda boring when there's down time, but cool when there's lots going on. Anyhoo, that's it for now.