In two and a half months, Mortal Kombat 11 will hit the scene. Normally, NetherRealm Studios gives us about nine months to a year before the next big release, but with only four months between the announcement and launch, the studio has picked up the pace with the reveals.

Originally, NetherRealm’s Mortal Kombat 11 Kombat Kast live stream was supposed to happen last week, but due to weather, it was delayed. Now we’re all caught up and the inaugural episode has introduced one of the big returning characters: Kabal

Kabal was a bit overpowered in Mortal Kombat 9, so to hold him back a little bit, the developers have replaced his gas mask blast attack with a poison gas that weakens the opponent if they walk into the cloud. He also has a jetpack that allows air-dashes.

Let’s check out Kabal, the hook sword-wielding speedster:

Introduced in 1995’s Mortal Kombat 3, Kabal was a member of the Black Dragon syndicate who turned his back on crime and chose to fight it as a police officer. He and his partner, Kurtis Stryker, were overwhelmed by Shao Kahn’s invasion and Kabal ran afoul of a fire-breathing Kintaro. Burned beyond recognition, Kabal was rescued by Kano, who used Shang Tsung’s sorcery and makeshift Black Dragon technology to keep Kabal alive in hopes that he would return to the fold and fight under Shao Kahn’s banner. Kabal refused.

In the original timeline, Kabal became a vigilante until facing near-death at the hands of Mavado. Saved by Havik, Kabal chose to return to the criminal underworld and restarted the Black Dragon as its new leader. He and his new recruits eventually died during the Battle of Armageddon along with nearly all of the Mortal Kombat cast.

In the rebooted timeline, Kabal didn’t last so long. Shortly after joining the heroes, Kabal was one of many murdered by Queen Sindel. He was resurrected as a revenant, controlled by the whims of Quan Chi. Now, Quan Chi is dead, meaning Kabal’s fate is up in the air.

Due to the new game’s approach to time travel and timelines, you’re able to play as Kabal from before he was horribly scarred and fight without his trademark mask. It was also announced that D’vorah from Mortal Kombat X will be returning, though without any actual footage to go with that.

Mortal Kombat 11 will be released on April 23 on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and Windows.

In what will certainly come across as a surprising statement to many, Disney CEO Bob Iger stated that he’s actually happy with Disney’s partnership with EA. Why? Well, it seems to have something to do with his feelings that Disney has never really been that good at video games.

“We’re good at making movies and television shows and theme parks and cruise ships and the like, we’ve just never managed to demonstrate much skill on the publishing side of games,” said Iger during a recent earnings call. “We’ve had good relationships with some of those we’re licensing to, notably EA and the relationship on the Star Wars properties, and we’re probably going to stay on that side of the business and put our capital elsewhere.”

In the minds of gamers everywhere, this statement probably doesn’t make much sense. Even if you put aside the subjective feeling that EA’s recent Star Wars games are horrible compared to the Star Wars games of old (they are), there’s still the business-side of the relationship. EA hasn’t actually developed that many Star Wars games in recent years and one of their biggest games (Star Wars: Battlefront 2) featured such a controversial microtransaction system that Disney’s Bob Iger reportedly had to call EA and request a change. On top of that, EA has killed off some high-profile (and potentially incredible) Star Wars projects. 

Still, the sad truth of the matter is that Iger’s statement does make sense from Disney’s point of view. In the minds of Disney, the best thing about EA is that they’re a huge company that Disney can just offer a license to and (mostly) forget about it. If Disney isn’t really that concerned with the overall creative quality of the games that utilise their properties, it just significantly cheaper and easier to license them out to the biggest company that will have them. This point was driven home by the company stating that they expect to lose quite a bit of money on the Disney+ streaming service simply because they will lose the licensing fees they have with Netflix and other content providers.

That will probably offer no comfort to the legion of Star Wars gaming fans who are left to wonder whether or not we’ll ever get games like KOTOR 3. There was some hope that the success of Marvel’s Spider-Man for PS4 would inspire Disney to shop the Star Wars license, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. 

We suppose there’s always the hope that Jedi: Fallen Order turns out to be a worthwhile game. 

Despite the rumour mill strongly suggesting that it was going to land in our laps today, we still don’t know what the Star Wars: Episode IX title will be. Instead, what we got was some people taking to social media with their own amusing ideas about what the upcoming trilogy-closer should be called. 

Following on from Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens and Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi, this upcoming ninth instalment in the space opera’s main numbered storyline is being directed by J.J. Abrams from a script by Abrams, Chris Terrio, Colin Trevorrow and Derek Connolly. This as-yet-untitled movie is one of our most anticipated upcoming flicks and we are, at this stage, chomping at the bit like rabid mutts, desperate for extra info or even – imagine it! – an actual trailer.  

For now, while we have no clue about the title and not even the slightest whiff of a promo vid, we’ve compiled some of our favourite jokey title ideas from the internet at large. Prepare to raise a wry smile, or perhaps even break into a light chuckle…

One of the best jokes, which even Mark Hamill got involved with, harks back to a background gag from an episode of Futurama…

And, as for Balance Of The Force, which sounded like the most likely rumour at one stage, it looks like that idea has been quashed…

When we do eventually find out the title for Star Wars: Episode IX, we’ll be sure to let you know. In the meantime, what’s your guess? Let us know in the comments below…

With The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part due to assemble in cinemas on February 8th, fans around the globe will shortly be introduced to some cool new locations, vehicles and characters from Emmet’s extended universe. This, of course, means there are awesome tie-in LEGO kits available in real life. And the biggest kit from this new range, by quite some distance, is the epic ‘Welcome to Apocalypseburg!’ set.

With a brick-count that clocks in at several thousand, this kit recreates an apocalyptic location from the film that is built around the ruins of the Statue Of Liberty. It comes with 12 brand new minifigures and packs in loads of neat design flourishes and fun moving parts. The RPP price tag of £279.99 might mean that this kit is usually out of your reach, but we’re pleased to report that Den Of Geek can help on that front: we’re teaming up with LEGO to give away two ‘Welcome to Apocalypseburg!’ sets!

You can learn more about the kit, including such fun facts as the exact number of pieces it includes, by clicking over to The LEGO Shop website. Or, for more details on the competition, read on…

To be in with a chance of winning, all you have to do is correctly answer one simple question in the box below. Two winners will be chosen at random from the people that answered correctly, with each winner receiving a ‘Welcome To Apocalypseburg!’ kit. You must be aged 16 or over to enter, and the competition is only open to residents of the UK and Ireland. Here we go, then…

This competition began on February 6th 2019 at 2pm GMT, and it will close at 5pm GMT on February 11th 2019. The winners will be contacted by email before 5pm GMT on 15th February 2019. Postage costs will be covered by Den Of Geek.

Whether or not you’re lucky enough to win one, you can check out the full range of tie-in kits from The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part over on The LEGO Shop website.