Mortal Kombat X

Microsoft has announced more games coming to Xbox Game Pass in December.

Publisher Warner Bros. has gone some way to repairing its shattered reputation on Steam by fixing the PC version of Mortal Kombat X.

As Eurogamer commenters are very keen to remind me, I don't often look cool. As a result, I'm all the more grateful when a video game makes me feel like I am capable of doing something impressive, however temporarily.

Earlier this week Mortal Kombat X launched its Kombat Pack 2 DLC for PS4 and Xbox One, adding Leatherface, Triborg, Bo' Rai Cho and the Xenomorph from Alien to NetherRealm's fighting game. Now, you can play these characters for free this weekend.

Video game publisher Warner has been accused of abandoning customers who bought Mortal Kombat X after it confirmed key downloadable content will not be released for that version of the fighting game.

Warner's announced Mortal Kombat XL, an expanded version of the fighting game that includes all the downloadable content released so far.

Mortal Kombat X will get four new DLC characters in the first half of 2016.

Tremor smashes into fighting game Mortal Kombat X tomorrow, Tuesday 21st July.

Developer NetherRealm has shown off Predator in fighting game Mortal Kombat X.

A recent Mortal Kombat X update has added three new Brutalities to the comically gruesome fighting game.

Some tremendous steps toward LGBTI equality have been taken of late - the gay marriage referendum in Ireland being one particularly inspiring example. There's still a ways to go, of course, but overall it's encouraging to see acceptance growing in the public consciousness.

The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 editions of Mortal Kombat X have been further delayed until this autumn, a new report suggests.

Mortal Kombat X's Blanche is the old lady who pops up in the background of the fighting game's Outworld Marketplace arena. She is a "Level Interaction", meaning players can grab her and smash her against their opponent. Since Mortal Kombat X's launch, using poor old Blanche to smash up your foe has always left her in a bloody heap on the ground.

UPDATE 06/05/2015 10.57pm: High Voltage have released a fixed version of the Jason patch that won't wipe players' progress, the developer announced in a Steam community update.

Unfortunately, this won't bring back lost progress to the unlucky folks who downloaded the patch before it was fixed. "We are truly sorry if the recent patch did cause you to lose your game save," the developer stated. "Affected players should be hearing from us soon with details on how we are addressing the situation."

The developer added that if players don't hear back by Friday, 8th May, at 12pm EST (8pm UK time), they should submit a customer service help request by heading to the game's support page, and clicking "Ask for Help" then selecting question type "Gameplay Help Request" and choosing "Save Game Issue" under specific question.

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Jason Voorhees, beloved slayer of annoying teenagers from Friday the 13th, will join the kast of Mortal Kombat on 5th May for Season Pass... ahem, Kombat Pack, holders.

Why would Sonya Blade fall in love with Johnny Cage? Mortal Kombat X does not even attempt to solve this riddle, choosing instead to lean into the sheer impossibility that their union would not only happen but result in a beautiful, bad-ass baby named Cassandra Cage. (Why would she take her dad's name? The unsolved mysteries abound.)

Mortal Kombat X introduces a new generation of kombatants in a story that falls a couple of decades after the 2011 Mortal Kombat reboot, during which time the development team has clearly undergone some soul-searching. The embarrassing jiggle physics of Mortal Kombat 9 have been replaced by practical sports bras; the cleavage-revealing "battle damage" mechanic has been axed as well.

Mortal Kombat 9's story, which depressingly concluded with the white-as-snow duo Johnny and Sonya getting saved by Raiden, has been followed up by a narrative that revolves around a much more diverse cast of four new characters, including Mortal Kombat's first canonical gay character, and also a black woman who survives all the way to the end of the campaign. There's more of a focus on the women, and - I can't emphasise this enough - they get to wear real bras this time. Real bras, people. Like, for fighting.

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Mortal Kombat X enjoyed the series' biggest ever launch in the UK.

NetherRealm's gory fighting game debuted at number one in this week's chart, scoring the second biggest launch of the year so far behind Battlefield Hardline.

61 per cent of physical sales went to the PlayStation 4 version, Chart-Track reports, with 38 per cent on Xbox One and one per cent on PC. As always, it's worth noting that Chart-Track's data does not include downloads, so sales of MKX on Steam, for example, were not counted.

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Though soon to launch on last-gen consoles as well, Mortal Kombat X has the distinction of being the first in the series to take specific advantage of PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Based on early reports, development began before the Unreal Engine 4 was available, and so NetherRealm Studios' fighter builds further on a heavily customised version of UE3 designed to target 60fps. Despite not using the latest build of Epic Games' middleware, the technology allows for a true generational leap in graphical quality over 2011's self-titled Mortal Kombat reboot - the game featuring considerably more detailed character models, environments, and a liberal increase in the use of post-processing effects and lighting.

According to an enthusiastic tweet by creative director Ed Boon, native 1920x1080 visuals and a 60fps update are the goal for Mortal Kombat X. However the reality is somewhat more complicated, as the resolution does vary between platforms while frame-rates fall short of the desired 60fps ideal in a number of areas. Booting up the PS4 version for the first time, we can confirm a 1080p resolution is in place along with anti-aliasing that falls closely in line with standard FXAA. Thankfully, sub-pixel heavy structures in Mortal Kombat X are rare - an aspect that post-process AA algorithms usually fail to correct - and so the use of FXAA works well in addressing the subject matter. However, some light texture blurring is present as a side-effect, meaning fine details in the artwork don't pop out as noticeably as they could do.

In comparison, the presentation of the Xbox One release isn't quite as refined: details are softer while edges feature a slight fuzziness not visible on the PS4 game's native 1080p image. In this case, pixel counting strongly indicates a drop in horizontal resolution, which hovers in the region of 1360x1080 to 1344x1080 instead of the more common 900p setup used on the platform. Anti-aliasing appears identical to the PS4 game, and the coverage provided by the FXAA helps to smooth over upscaling artefacts to a degree.

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A Mortal Kombat X modder has had a dig around the PC version's files and made currently unplayable characters playable.

You can buy easy to perform Fatalities for fighting game Mortal Kombat X.

Editor's note: This is an early impressions piece based on a weekend with Mortal Kombat X. Our full review will be up in the near future once we've properly tested online features.

UPDATE 23/03/2015: NetherRealm has confirmed Predator as a playable character following last week's leak.

A set of leaked images have revealed Erron Black is a playable character in fighting game Mortal Kombat X.

The last-gen versions of fighting game Mortal Kombat X have been delayed.

Hi Eurogamers, and welcome to your weekly recap of goings-on at Outside Xbox. This week, we've come to the conclusion that Mortal Kombat X will be the goriest Mortal Kombat yet, if the painstakingly anatomical gameplay footage is anything to go by.

Sonya Blade and Johnny Cage are playable characters in NetherRealm's fighting game Mortal Kombat X.

Publisher Warner Bros. released a new video, below, that shows off the Cage family: Sonya, her ex-husband Johnny and their daughter Cassie Cage. Johnny looks like he's getting on a bit, but his Fatility is, well, check it out. It's pretty special.

The addition of Johnny and Sonya bring the number of announced playable characters to 20. Here's the lot:

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Warner Bros. has announced Mortal Kombat X: Mobile, due out April for iOS and Android devices.

As you'd expect, it's a mobile version of NetherRealm's gory fighting game Mortal Kombat X. Unlike its big brother, however, Mortal Kombat X: Mobile is free-to-play and is described as a "fighting/card-battler hybrid".

The trailer, below, doesn't give away much, but we can see you need to swipe to "Finish Him", so there are Fatalities, card collecting and multiplayer.

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Fighting games are, by their nature, competitive. They're built for player versus player combat. This, for millions of fighting game enthusiasts, is central to their appeal. Mastering combos, learning strategies and putting them into practice online is for many - me included - what the genre is all about.

Mortal Kombat X's PC version's system requirements have been unveiled on Steam.

Warner Bros has made a £100 Mortal Kombat special edition that includes a Scorpion figurine designed by Coarse.

Ermac - the now-established Mortal Kombat fighter who originated as a fan-fabricated character who was sparked into life by an alleged glitch in the original 1992 game - is playable in Mortal Kombat X - and developer NetherRealm has released a short 1080p60 gameplay video showcasing his special moves.

Ermac is a soul-harbouring ninja who uses telekinesis to chuck himself about and break his opponents' bones from afar. You get a good sense of this with Ermac's X-Ray move. Warning, it's not for the faint of heart.

We also catch a glimpse at Ermac's Fatality, although in true Mortal Kombat X trailer tradition, the video ends before the gruesome payoff.

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Pukey fighting game veteran Reptile is a playable character in Mortal Kombat X.

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment has released the first gameplay footage of Kitana and Kung Lao in NetherRealm's bloody fighting game Mortal Kombat X.

As is Mortal Kombat tradition, Kitana uses her fan blades to slice and dice, and Kung Lao uses his razor sharp hat to cut up his enemies. Be warned, the video, below, is pretty gruesome.

As we reported back in September, four-armed Mortal Kombat brute Goro is a pre-order bonus. Now we know he's tied to GAME in the UK. So, yes, you have to pre-order Mortal Kombat X with GAME if you want to play as Goro. Sigh.

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When I think back to my time at this year's EGX London, the thing that stands out the most was the abundance of blood. Maybe it has something to do with the games I chose to play, but whether it was the unmistakable crimson of the succinctly titled Bloodborne, the claret carnage of The Evil Within or the outlandish neon of Sunset Overdrive, there was enough heart juice on show to open a blood bank. Still, if you think about it more in terms of quality over quantity, there was one game that took the crimson crown by a landslide, and that was none other than Mortal Kombat X.

New fighting game Mortal Kombat X will be released around the world starting 14th April, Warner has announced. That's a Tuesday and that's definitely the date for the UK, Warner PR confirmed.

The game's due out on five platforms: PC, PS4 and PS3, and Xbox One and Xbox 360.

Goro, the iconic four-armed brute, has become a pre-order bonus character (and presumably paid DLC at a later point?). I'm sure that'll go down well. There's no word on which UK retailers you'll have to pre-order at to enable the deal.

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Gamer Network, which also publishes this website, has announced that Dead Island 2 and Mortal Kombat X will both be playable on the EGX London showfloor.

Some new Mortal Kombat X footage has arisen, this time showing the revamped version of cybernetic soldier Kano.

NetherRealm Studios has announced thunder god Raiden as the next playable character in fighting game Mortal Kombat X.

The developer unveiled a gameplay video, below, at the Evolution Championship Series fighting game tournament in Las Vegas overnight.

In it we see the three variations of Raiden you can choose from. Thunder God Raiden focuses on electrocution combos; Displacer Raiden revolves around teleportation; and Storm Lord Raiden is all about setting lightning traps.

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Sony debuted the first footage of Mortal Kombat X during its E3 conference tonight.

It showed Scorpion fighting old pal, err enemy, Sub-Zero, and two other characters I don't know the names of. One was a hulking brute with a little child on its back, a bit like Hodor and Bran if you know what I'm talking about.

This was next-gen footage and the game looked handsome if somewhat unremarkable. But remember that Mortal Kombat X is coming to PS3 and Xbox 360 as well as PC, PS4 and Xbox One.

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