GameSpot has posted a preview of a recent build of Tao Feng: Fist of the Lotus toured by Microsoft. The preview breifly touches upon the game's visuals, combo and chi systems. In addition, the preview is accompanied by 46 new screenshots.

For those unfamiliar with Tao Feng, it is a new fighting game being developed by Studio Gigante, a company created by ex-Midway employees, including MK co-creator, John Tobias. The game is being published by Microsoft Game Studios and is currently a Xbox exclusive.

You can discuss everything related to Tao Feng in our own dedicated message board for the game.

According to Yahoo! News, Midway Games Inc. has closed their Milpitas, California development studio known as 'Midway Games West' (formerly the Atari Games Corporation, see related closure news here). Along with this closure, it cancelled work on two unnamed titles to be released in 2004 and let go about 70 people. Midway will be merging that studio's remaining development operations into Midway's San Diego, California studio. But rest assured, that since the Mortal Kombat development team is based out of Chicago, this should not effect them at all.

Gamespy has put up some slick looking concept-art character sketches from the Xbox-exclusive fighter, Tao Feng: Fist of the Louts. The spread features over 20 new character sketches and features some great insight to the game's art direction. Check 'em out. Tao Feng: Fist of the Lotus is expected to be released this March.

As a follow up to the hands-on report, GameSpot has a new preview that dives in deeper with Tao Feng: Fist of the Lotus and expounds upon the storyline, combo system, game modes, controls, graphics and audio. 26 new screenshots accompany the preview at GameSpot. 5 new movies and 14 new screenshots are at IGN Xbox.Thanks Shacknews.

Today is the release date for Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance in Europe. We welcome our vistors from the EU and would like to point you to some extremely helpful resources available from our team.

Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance Strategy Guide
Learn all of the fighting strategies and unlock the numerous secrets held within the most important game in the Mortal Kombat series.

MKDA Frequently Asked Questions
Got a question about Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance? Find out inside information and answers to our most frequently asked questions posed to our staff.

If you find something to talk about MK:DA and need to get it off of your chest, head over to our forums and start up a thread.

IGN Xbox is featuring a two part series spread over two days on the backstory behind the plot of Tao Feng: Fist of the Lotus.

The part one delves into the history of the alternate work Tao Feng is set in, where New China occupies the current western states of America, and the history of conflict between the Black Mantis and the Pale Lotus.

Part two follows the leaders of both groups and details their conflict leading up to the battles within the game.

In their Q4 quarterly conference call, Midway announced that plans were in development for a sixth installment to Midway's flagship franchise, Mortal Kombat. The planned release for this title is within the calendar year of 2004. This announcement comes as no surprise as sales of Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance were what kept Midway from sinking even lower in terms of revenue, while posting a dismal loss of $0.54 per share in earnings, as other titles failed to meet sales expectations.