American McGee's Alice 2! Or the Return of...they don't know.

[MonkeyWrench]

Continuing it's assault on classic literature EA have plucked American McGee out of obscurity to slap his name on a new installment of Alice. I've not seen anything in the way of details other than a piece of art showing a giant steam-powered snail vomiting on Alice's clean apron. Well, it might be spitting, you decide...

http://www.spicyhorse.com/news-detail-pages/items/ea-announces-partnership-with-spicy-horse-to-make-the-return-of-.html

[elmuerte]

potentially interesting...

let's home they don't "make it stinky!"

[thorn]

Wasn't the sequel to Alice meant to be based on The Wizard of Oz?

[soupface]

According to Wikipedia:

Production of the Oz game has been put on hold, which McGee attributes to a lack of interest at game publishing houses in new ideas and products without established market names. In order to get a publisher, McGee has decided to sell the game as a film before actually finishing it. He was recently set to write the script for the Oz films, which is said to be a trilogy, that would be produced by Disney and Jerry Bruckheimer.

[snoopeasystreet]

Nice, I always liked the art style of the original but I never got around to playing it. In fact, I don't recall ever seeing it in shops around these parts.

Here's hoping this will be good.

[Lechimp]

Is Spicy Horse also the group that did Bad Day LA? If they are, their track record hasn't been too good. Oh well, hope it turns out well, I liked the original a lot.

[miffy495]

I thought Bad Day LA was made in China by some studio McGee moved out there to start. I assumed they went away after that game sucked. Maybe Spicy Horse was them, but I don't think so. I think all they've done so far is Grimm.

[MonkeyWrench]

Nope, that was done by Enlight Software, who also published one of McGee's other game - Scrapland. McGee is basically the littlest hobo of the gaming industry, moving from developer to developer allowing them to tag his name on to their shit games. Like his name fucking means anything!

[elmuerte]

Scrapland isn't a McGee game. It just says "American McGee presents". The (great) game scrapland was made by Mercury Steam, they also did Clive Barker's Jericho. ... well, at least scrapland was good.

The piece of shit call Bad Day LA was made by an other McGee studio called "The Mauretania Import Export Company". I think they're dead now.

Or at least, they have an interesting website: http://www.tmiec.com/

[Nachimir]

It's a pity Bad Day L.A. sucked, I liked the premise even if it was a bit cheesy, and Kozyndan do some nice work.

[Erkki]

Nope, that was done by Enlight Software, who also published one of McGee's other game - Scrapland.

Interesting. I remember Enlight mainly from Seven Kingdoms -- a strategy game that was awesome, if flawed, at its time. I think they mostly do strategies.

Why hasn't anyone made something like Seven Kingdoms? The same concept with modern graphics, AI and UI would totally rock. Or maybe there is something similar that I'm unaware of -- I'm rather ignorant when it comes to the strategy genre, only liking a few very specific games (Seven Kingdoms, Knights of Honor being some of the favorites).

To get back on topic, Scrapland was nice, I liked the demo but for some reason never got the full game.

[Erkki]

Why hasn't anyone made something like Seven Kingdoms?

Hmm.. maybe I shouldn't ask such questions: apparently Enlight made a pretty horrible sequel recently. Gamespot gave it 2.0

[shawsie64]

I thought the first one was pretty good, hopefully this one is

[brkl]

Isn't Alice like the only good game Mr McGee has made, after which he's been shoveling out horrible crap? He seems to be all talk.

[DanJW]

Reading the thread would tell you that people liked Scrapland. And I don't think Grimm was bad per se, just a bit simple.

Alice was a fairly simple shooter underneath (courtesy of the Quake 2 engine), but the strength of its vision made it great. It was like the best Total Conversion ever. I look forward to seeing what they can do with a custom engine and mechanics that are created specifically for the story.

[Roderick]

Is Levelord doing the levels again?

[brkl]

Reading the thread would tell you that people liked Scrapland.

And also that he didn't actually develop it...

[DanJW]

And also that, um, hey look over there..!

[Chris]

I thought Bad Day LA was made in China by some studio McGee moved out there to start. I assumed they went away after that game sucked. Maybe Spicy Horse was them, but I don't think so. I think all they've done so far is Grimm.

Spicy Horse is that studio, but that studio didn't make Bad Day LA. Spicy Horse made Grimm.

[miffy495]

Fair enough then. At least I was right about Grimm...

[Vorlonesque]

Reading the thread would tell you that people liked Scrapland. And I don't think Grimm was bad per se, just a bit simple.

Alice was a fairly simple shooter underneath (courtesy of the Quake 2 engine), but the strength of its vision made it great. It was like the best Total Conversion ever. I look forward to seeing what they can do with a custom engine and mechanics that are created specifically for the story.

It was actually the Quake3 engine (well, a modified Quake3 engine that was used for FAKK2 or something). Its one of those games that I always meant to play (both to actually play it, and back when I bought it to see what they did with the Quake3 engine (as I was modding Quake3 at the time...and still am sort of, though I'm now messing more with the rendering code and some GLSL functionality I have working in it to help out a mod I like)).

[Kolzig]

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/02/15/its-dreamy-weather-new-alice-teaser/

I'm getting bad vibes about Alice 2, mainly because American McGee is full of shit and his cheap labour companies have only done really bad or mediocre games, but I'm leaving the bar low so they can have an easy attempt at amazing me.

[Kolzig]

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/04/08/alice-madness-returns-shots-are-yes-mad/

The colors seem to have faded away and all that is left is purple and brown. I hope the whole game doesn't look like these latest screenshots. Earlier Alice's costume was like bright blue etc.

[Nappi]

She will have different costumes throughout the game. I'd imagine that different areas will have their distinct look as well. Those screens are probably from Mad Hatter's quarters:

http://www.giantbomb.com/ask-me-anything-alice-madness-returns/17-3984/

[Drath]

The best part about the original to me was the atmosphere... not even so much the gameplay which was mediocre I found (although some of the puzzles were fun). So the thing I am hoping for is more of that atmosphere and surreal feeling.