New Mortal Kombat details inKoming

The Earth realm has been a pretty quiet place since 2006's Mortal Kombat: Armageddon pummeled PlayStation 2 and Xbox owners into submission with more than 60 playable characters--and even a kart-racing minigame. A handful of ports in the series have surfaced since, but fans have had to go without an all-new installment for nearly two years.

Now, the evil forces of the Outworld appear ready for another round. Later today, Midway Games will officially unveil the Mortal Kombat game at its Gamers' Day event in Las Vegas. Presumably, the title in question is the next-generation installment of its famously gory fighting franchise that the company announced last October.

Since then, Midway has been mostly mum on the next Mortal Kombat, but the publisher has confirmed for GameSpot that it is being built on a "highly modified" version of Unreal Engine 3. The Chicago-based company has made much use of Epic Games' oft-licensed engine, featuring it in games like Stranglehold, Area 51: Blacksite, Hour of Victory, and Unreal Tournament 3.

[UPDATE] Midway has pulled back the curtain on the game and revealed it to be Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe. The comic-book-crossover game will feature characters like Sub-Zero and Scorpion brawling with Superman, Batman, and more as their two worlds overlap in a cosmic incident. For more on the game, check out GameSpot's first preview.