It's always nice to see a familiar face - something that Netherrealm Studios is keenly aware of judging by the roster. The newest character to be announced for MK's tenth outing is Ermac, the green-eyed bundle of souls who just loves picking fools up and slamming them down (with his mind).

Ermac was revealed on a recent hosted by developer NetherRealm. Based on the footage shown, it seems many of his iconic moves will be making a come back, including his teleportation- and telekinetic-based attacks. And just like the other MKX warriors, Ermac will have three fighting variants to choose from. These variants can either enhance his projectiles, telekinetic attacks, or give Ermac the ability of flight. To find out who else has made the cut, read on to find out who else is in the Mortal Kombat X roster before its release this April.

These guys and gals will definitely be in Mortal Kombat X.

This red-clad ninja might not be as iconic as Sub-Zero or Scorpion, but it's hard not to love Ermac for his ability to lift up opponents and slam them into the ground with nothing more than the power of his mind. Rather than fighting as an individual like the other Kombatants, Ermac is actually an amalgamation of lost souls channeled into one host body, which explains all his supernatural, Sith-like powers of telekinesis and powerful blasts of green energy.

Reptile has always lived in the shadow of the other Mortal Kombat fighters, but he recently got his very own trailer for Mortal Kombat X. Originally a hybrid of Sub-Zero and Scorpion’s fighting styles, Reptile can vomit acid, camouflage himself, and fire a green energy ball - all of which he demonstrated in the trailer. He also has a pretty nasty throw involving his long, prehensile tongue, something he never used enough in older games. It remains to be seen what Reptile's three variant styles will be, but we'll be sure to add that information here when it becomes available.

Kitana is the Princess of Edenia, and - despite her appearance - is 10,000 years old. She was at first loyal to her stepfather, Shao Kahn, but later made an enemy of him upon leaving Edenia. Kitana also holds something of a romance with Liu Kang, even after his murder. She attacks using her steel fans, slicing foes by throwing them across the stage. She’s just as deadly without them too, opting for sharp punches and flying kicks when her fans are at rest.

Liu Kang's maybe-cousin is best known for his giant razor-rimmed hat, which he can toss around like a boomerang or use to bisect his foes (preferably from the groin up). In Mortal Kombat X, it looks like he'll be grated even more space control thanks to his sharp-rimmed headgear. Kung Lao also fights on the side of good, preferring pacifism to aggression - though you'd never know it from watching him in action. Like Liu Kang, Kung Lao is trained in the ways of Shaolin and hails from the White Lotus Society.

You might remember this stark-white, Kratos-looking sorcerer from such games as Mortal Kombat 4 and Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero, but he actually originated in the Defenders of the Realm animated series. Being a master of the dark arts, Quan Chi's three movesets show off his necromancy powers in full effect. There's Warlock, which opens up portals for extra avenues of attack, Summoner, where Quan Chi calls a freakin' Netherrealm Bat to fight as his side, and Sorcerer, which allows space control through buff/debuff fields.

Hmm, something about this young lady that feels oddly familiar... Yes, Cassie Cage appears to be the daughter of Johnny Cage and Sonya Blade, two of the few survivors of the last Mortal Kombat. And Cassie plays like a combination of those two veterans, with Sonya's agility and propensity for firearms mixed in Johnny Cage's pompous swagger. She also inherited Johnny's love of hitting people in the groin, as she is equipped with multiple hits below the belt. In fact, her X-Ray Move involving ruptured testicles might be the queasiest attack in the game.

Raiden's back, baby! If you didn't know, this almighty God of Thunder is responsible for keeping all of Earthrealm safe from the forces of evil. He acts as a guiding light for the other Kombatants who wish to see Shao Kahn dethroned, sometimes stepping into the ring against lesser mortals to get the job done. As a god, Raiden controls the powers of electricity, able to teleport, fly short distances, and set up lightning traps around the stage. In MKX, he might have the most grisly Fatality yet: charging his dazed enemy with such a surge of energy that their eyes pop out of their heads, electric-chair style.

This character’s surname would suggest a relationship to Shao Kahn, and Kotal certainly fights with an intensity similar to Shao’s. Though Kotal is much more reminiscent of an Aztec god, particularly with his enjoyment of bloodletting and devouring hearts. Several of Kotal’s moves involves drinking blood for power, whether his own or his enemy’s. His love of gore is at its height during his Fatality, as he cuts out his opponent’s heart in a ceremonial style, then pours the blood all over his face. To each their own, huh?

If Scorpion were to write a memoir, it'd probably be titled "To Hell and Back Again." That's because this yellow-clad ninja was murdered by Sub-Zero, banishing Scorpion to the Netherrealm (the MK universe's equivalent to Hades) where he became a vengeful specter. Think of Scorpion as the archetypal anti-hero; he's not outright evil, but he has no qualms with killing anyone who gets in his way.

Who here saw Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome and wished that the Master Blaster character was in a fighting game? Because that pretty much sums up Ferra and Torr, two characters that play as one. Torr is the massive bruiser that can steamroll right over you, while Ferra will often dive into the fray with some quick, precise stabs. They’re a really fun combo, but what brought this pair together? Hopefully we’ll find out everything in the story mode. Oh, and don't worry: Ferra isn't a child, just a really, really tiny woman.

Of all the new characters, D’Vorah might be the one most at home in Netherrealm’s previous game, Injustice. This fierce woman is an odd human/insect hybrid that can command hordes of wasps and larva to do her bidding. And under that cloak of hers are sets of wings and devastating pincers used to stab kombatants in their most vulnerable places. But where does she hale from? Could she be the leader of some previously unseen insect kingdom in Outworld?

The yin to Scorpion's yang, Sub-Zero is a skilled assassin who hails from the Lin Kuei clan of ninjas. Sub-Zero is actually the persona of two different warriors: Bi-Han, who is killed by Scorpion in the first Mortal Kombat tournament, and his younger brother Kuai Liang, who took up the Sub-Zero mantle and swore vengeance on Scorpion. Sub-Zero wields the power of ice, able to freeze his opponents solid or create patches of frost at will.

These characters are likely to be included in MKX's roster, but there's no official word from NetherRealm Studios as of yet.

Here's the everyman hero of MK--an incorruptible warrior with the power to shoot fireballs from his hands and kick through the air as if gravity doesn't exist. Sound like any other fighting game frontman you've heard of? Liu Kang is a little like the Shaolin version of Goku, in that he's saved his world countless times and come back from the dead even more frequently. The evil sorcerer Shang Tsung is Liu Kang's primary adversary.

When you die after a life of cold-blooded assassinations, do you rest in peace? No--you come back as a shadowy phantom eager to do even more killing. Noob Saibot is actually the reincarnation of the original Sub-Zero, his soul now fully corrupted after decades of torment in the Netherrealm. His Ghost Ball attack can totally disable the opponent's attacks, and he's just as adept at teleporting strikes as Scorpion. And for you trivia fans out there, yes, his name is backwards reference to MK's co-creators Ed Boon and John Tobias.

Originally a clone of Kitana, Mileena holds a grudge against her blue-clothed counterpart. Created by Shang Tsung, she wants nothing more than to rid the realm of Edenia of its princess. She hides a hideous mouth of fangs under her facial garb, which she uses to tear the flesh from her enemies after leaping onto their necks. Other attacks include teleporting kicks and a tuck-and-roll.

Given that Mortal Kombat X will be coming to new-gen, this is an incredible opportunity to show off the power of PS4 and Xbox One with this obese drunkard. His belly-jiggling physics could be more disturbing than ever, and upgraded particle effects would let you actually see the chunks of last night's dinner in Bo Rai Cho's projectile vomit attack. Not to mention...OK, in all seriousness, we hope to never see this oaf in another Mortal Kombat game again.

Those are the fighters we hope make it into Mortal Kombat X--and in the coming months, we're sure to find out more about the game's roster. Do you have any favorites you want to see in MKX? Tell us about it in the comments below!

And if you're looking for more, check out the full .

Shigeru Miyamoto once said: "A delayed game is eventually good, a rushed game is forever bad". While he's not wrong, it's still a bummer to see that game you've been waiting forever to play get pushed even further away from your grasp. And when I take a look at the list of games coming out, with their tentative '2015' release dates, I can't help but sigh and think how adorably optimistic everyone seems to be.

Whether the scope is too ambitious, or the developer has a history of delaying games until they're just right, or that particular game has been stuck in development hell for far too long, these are the games of 2015 that we'll likely be playing in 2016 instead. I'll be really excited if all of these games come out this year, but I wouldn't put money on it.

North Americans are lucky we even got Xenoblade Chronicles in the first place (especially considering the game was eventually fully translated and released in Europe), let alone its upcoming Wii U sequel, so I'm going to preface what I'm about to say with my appreciation for Nintendo's willingness to bring niche JRPGs to Western shores. That said, there's no way in hell this game comes out in 2015.

Every single trailer Nintendo shows off for the sprawling mecha-infused RPG seems like it has 2015 slapped on the end of it, as if to say, 'Hey, no, seriously, it's actually coming this year! You can believe us!' And sure, it's currently slated for an April release in Japan, but that didn't prevent the first game from taking years to reach Western audiences. I'm a patient man, and I'll wait with bated breath for the day we get it. But I'll believe it when I see it.

It's fair to say that Hideo Kojima is one of the few true auteurs working on AAA games right now, and as such, he's a bit of a perfectionist. I mean, I can't think of a series other than Metal Gear that allows you to shoot a glass full of ice cubes, then watch those ice cubes melt into puddles on the ground just because. That's the absurd level of detail Kojima is known for, and it usually means we have to wait a little longer to get a chance to play his games.

While the glorified demo Ground Zeroes gave us a taste of what Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is going to look like on next-gen consoles, it was of what Kojima is planning with the open-world stealth game. That kind of shit takes time. And I wouldn't be surprised if it gets nudged into next year to make sure it's up to Kojima's exacting standards.

Mad Max has travelled a long and storied road. as a collaboration between a new studio helmed by God of War 2 director Cory Barlog and Mad Max writer/director George Miller, the new game was actually going to be inspired by an idea for a movie called Mad Max: Fury Road that had been on the backburner since 2003.

Well, something must have happened, because Mad Max: Fury Road is actually getting made (with a May 2015 release date, to boot) and a different Mad Max game was announced at Sony's 2013 press conference, to be released in 2014 by Avalanche Studios. 2014 came and went with no Mad Max game, and there's still no official release date other than a nebulous '2015'. The movie's out this year, so hopefully they can get that locked down at some point, but it wouldn't be the first time a high-profile tie-in got delayed until well after the film's release.

Between the over-hyped Watch Dogs and the technical mess of Assassin's Creed Unity, Ubisoft had a rough 2014. So it's even more surprising to hear that Ubisoft's ambitious action-RPG The Division was supposed to come out the same year. It wisely decided to delay the game until 2015 and hopefully put some distance between itself and the lackluster performance of those other titles.

But is that going to be enough time? The Division is supposed to be a large-scale squad-shooter with all of the MMO trimmings, and having all of those moving pieces to consider - and get working right - takes time. After some high-profile missteps from the massive publisher, The Division needs to be flawless at launch if it ever hopes to recapture our trust. I'm hoping it's as awesome as Ubisoft is saying it is. But I swear, I better not have to climb another tower to reveal more of the in-game map.

EA's 2014 E3 conference was something magical, as having actual smoke and mirrors on stage would've been more substantial than what they showed. 'Oh, hey, we've got a new Mirror's Edge! Here's a video of a guy parkouring up some stairs. Yep, a new Mass Effect is coming… What, you wanted to see the game? Uh… look over there, it's a new game from those guys that made Burnout! It doesn't even have a name yet!"

I'd love to believe that Star Wars Battlefront is going to hit shelves by the holidays and that balance will be restored to the Force, but considering the massively bungled launch (and subsequent year after) of Battlefield 4 and the delay of Battlefield Hardline, I'm guessing that the highly-anticipated return of Star Wars Battlefront won't be coming until the first quarter of 2016, at the very earliest.

Making games is hard <(i>that's an understatement) and it's very easy for a game's development to get bogged down by excessive features, technical hangups, staffing issues, or even . Development hell is a very real thing, and Team Bondi was so buried in it, it was looking like it would never make it out. Its first game, L.A. Noire was first announced in 2004. It finally came out in 2011, largely thanks to Rockstar Games' involvement. Hey, at least it released before Duke Nukem Forever.

Its second project, Whore of the Orient (wow, what a name, huh?), was revealed back in 2012, but practically nothing else is known about it other than a couple of leaked screenshots and the fact that it's set in 1930s Shanghai. And despite the fact that I probably know more about astrophysics than I do about this game, it's still set with a tentative 2015 release date. Even with a new owner heading up the company and Warner Bros. Interactive publishing, I highly doubt we'll get to play this game before the end of the year, if we even get to see it at all.

Coming out of nowhere in 2013 to surprise the spaceship-adorned underoos off everyone, No Man's Sky has many people excited for different reasons. Some people want to set off in their spaceship and explore the great beyond. Others want to explore individual planets until they have fully conquered them. And people like myself want to find out what secrets await those who reach the center of the galaxy. It's a hugely ambitious game with a massive scope, and it's made by a grand total of eight people.

But I can't help but wonder if developer Hello Games might have bitten off more than it can chew. The team has stated that its targeting a 2015 release date, but No Man's Sky seems like the kind of game you throw on Early Access and slowly patch to a full release, rather than simply dumping out fully finished. But this is a high-profile PS4 release (in addition to PC), and that kind of thing just doesn't happen on consoles. Time will tell if we'll get to see what No Man's Sky is all about this year. I know I'm rooting for them.

You'll notice that 'development hell' seems to be a recurring theme for many of the games featured on this list. Well, the Rainbow Six series has been in a weird limbo ever since Rainbow Six Vegas 2 came and went a mere 14 months after its predecessor. The next entry in the series, Rainbow Six Patriots, was supposed to be a combination of tactical gameplay and the gripping drama of TV shows like 24, but after years of delays and the removal of several key developers, Patriots was eventually confirmed dead in 2014.

In its place is Rainbow Six Siege, a more multiplayer-focused title that will pit players in high-octane online battles between terrorist and SWAT teams. We got to see a proof-of-concept gameplay video at Ubisoft's press conference at E3 2014, but little else has been shown. If this game is actually coming in 2015, we'll need to know more than a handful of conceptual ideas.

The Legend of Zelda series is certainly, well, legendary for its prolific delays. Ocarina of Time was supposed to hit in the fall of 1997, but didn't see daylight until a year later. Twilight Princess was similarly delayed a year from its original 2005 release date so Nintendo could simultaneously release a Wii version at that system's launch. Skyward Sword was slated to come out at the end of 2010 but was (you guessed it) also delayed another year to iron out its motion control gameplay.

So yes, I'm insanely hopeful that I'll get to play the new Legend of Zelda game this year as promised, and Lord knows Nintendo needs this thing to come out on time to hold on to whatever small amount of momentum the Wii U still has. And who knows? Maybe a Nintendo in relatively dire straits is a Nintendo that gets games out on time. Still, I'm not holding my breath.

I'm more than willing to eat my fair share of humble pie with a side of crow if any of these games end up coming out this year. And I wouldn't be surprised if any of these titles gets a solid release date mere minutes after this article goes up. Still, it's probably wise to temper your expectations. Is your gut telling you that your favorite game is going to get delayed? Let me know in the comments!

Looking for more to get your hopes up about? Here are our .