Alice : Madness Returns (aka American McGee's Alice 2)

Looking good. I have to admit that "oooo, Alice is CWAZY" is kind of an eye-rolling theme, but I enjoyed the first game, and I think I'll like this: There's a lot to be said for settings full of whimsy, even if it's excessively bloody whimsy. No brown-on-brown testosterone-bags with boring guns here. Clouds of blue butterflies all the way!

The first ten minutes has leaked (spoilers, obviously):

It looks. Hmm. Surreal, which is a plus, but also plagued by weird non sequiturs and a little dull.

Not really sure what part is supposed to be dull. Looks pretty interesting so far.

The original wasn't that good -- extraordinarily difficult and just not that memorable. There were a couple of bits that were good -- I remember a chessboard piece that I liked.

But on the whole, it was just kind of dreary and no fun. I don't think it sold very well, and I'm somewhat surprised it's getting a sequel.

I'm interested but not excited. The first game had some very cool concepts but too many segments felt unnecessarily padded (maze of mirrors anyone?) Though it will be a platformer with blood, I think they're overselling the gore.

Watching that 10 minutes reminded me that what I really want is a sequel to Rule of Rose. That was a heart-rending, beautiful game with some of the same themes. Ruined by too much combat.

I agree with Malor: the original wasn't that great, and I'm surprised to see a sequel. The leaked ten minutes of gameplay seemed quite disjointed to me. I don't mean the storytelling bits, which are clearly disjointed on purpose, but the gameplay itself seemed a bit random; I couldn't clearly tell from watching the video where the player was supposed to go or what they were supposed to be doing.

Looks like you chase the white cat and wait for the story to happen to you. The lack of rabbit is annoying but I suppose they wouldn't put a white rabbit in jolly ol' London town. Even Alice would be all like, "Wait a minute. You're trying to have a sequel aren't you?"

Sure, but how did the player know to follow the white cat?

Dear EA: Why are you not pre-selling this game to me on Steam, where I want it? kthxbye.

Heh. Seems they're doing everything they can to make you buy it from their new "origin" store. If you play an iPhone game they give you a $10 off coupon if you but it from their store. You get a free download of the original game (consoles too) if you buy it from their store.

Tricky.

Hypatian wrote:

Dear EA: Why are you not pre-selling this game to me on Steam, where I want it? kthxbye.

That's an ongoing trend with EA.

Yeah. I'm getting the feeling they're not going to be selling anything on Steam until their sh*t tanks.

Last time I'm certain I bought a (non-Bioware) EA thing from Steam is Mirror's Edge. Why do I remember that one was an EA game? Because I'm still pissed off at the "no DLC for Steam version" thing.

*sigh*

I'm okay with it not being on Steam, even. I just want it to be somewhere I trust: A company that is an *online retailer* and invested enough in that setup to not change their sh*t around whenever they feel like it.

I was actually shocked to see MS sell the Fable3 DLC through steam, rather than force you to go through their store. Now when MS does that, I'm gong to give them credit (guilty until proven innocent) that they think it's better for the end user for all their purchases to go through the same system, so if you buy the base game on steam you can buy all of it through steam. EA seems to be of the mindset that what the player wants is secondary unless their arm is twisted.

Scratched wrote:

I was actually shocked to see MS sell the Fable3 DLC through steam, rather than force you to go through their store. Now when MS does that, I'm gong to give them credit (guilty until proven innocent) that they think it's better for the end user for all their purchases to go through the same system, so if you buy the base game on steam you can buy all of it through steam. EA seems to be of the mindset that what the player wants is secondary unless their arm is twisted.

Steam wrote:

To activate the downloadable content after your purchase, launch Fable III and copy the Product Code from the Steam overlay into your clipboard. Once the game launches and the Gamertag sign-in process completes, press the Home key to bring up the Games for Windows Live overlay. Click your Gamertag, select Redeem Code, and paste in the Product Code to initiate the download process.

Well. They're *selling* it through Steam...

I decided to pre-order Alice via Origin to give EA a chance. After all, I'll probably be running this thing when TOR comes out, anyway.

Looks like they are in fact aiming at Steam, with community features, etc. (although how they imagine they can convince people to use it routinely when it only has EA stuff? Dunno.) In an indication that they do not understand how to make a community tool, you can choose your avatar from a select set of avatars based on various EA games! Huzzah! There is a "profile page" for people, so you can see things about your friends. It's pretty minimal. It can only be viewed in the Origin client, there is no web access.

First major strike: "Alice: Madness Returns™ - The Complete Collection" comes with a copy of the original game. I pre-ordered, and assumed that I would get both games and the original would be available immediately while the new one wouldn't be available until it comes out. That way I could re-play the original without having to hunt around for my old discs! Nope. Looks like when the new one comes out I'll be able to download "The Complete Collection" which has both. Yay.

I will be extra cranky when EA puts Alice on Steam.

Pre-ordered in the name of journalism. I plan to review it for my wife's horror media blog. I'm also scheming to record my playthrough and then do a sort of "let's play" of highlights with commentary from her and our friend Rae. We can analyze the parallels to horror films and the character treatment of Alice in general. And make fun of any stupid bits.

The game is out!

Except not for people who pre-ordered it on Origin. Going guess is 10am for it to be available to start downloading, although nobody is quite sure if that's right, or in what time zone. At least one person had a support chat person tell them "it will be available at 1am Eastern time". Not so much.

Origin continues to fail to impress.

Any news if this'll eventually release on Steam? Origin ain't for me.

If it does, I'll be extra annoyed. I'd much rather have it on Steam.

Just released on Origin--midnight Pacific time. Could be worse. Still rather annoying--I could have started downloading it three hours ago. :l

I did find a page that listed that time--the page you got on the Origin web store. But with the several conflicting different times from different sources... meh.

Hmm...hopefully a Steam version will show up before Friday (the UK release date). Otherwise I'll have to grab a physical copy. I remain unconvinced by Origin.

Hmm, Quinns is underwhelmed. Not quite mad enough, not quite sane enough and unnecessarily padded.

I tried to stay up late to start the download but I think they release on Pacific time. It's downloading now.

I already contacted Origin support twice. The first time because my past purchases list didn't show the game but my credit card did. I got a prompt and pleasant reply that the game was indeed in my account and would show up as soon as it was released. I wrote back because the pre-order bonus code to download the soundtrack still hasn't appeared anywhere. We'll see what happens. Origin itself is underwhelming but at least they seem to have stepped up the customer support for its launch. That will likely not lasts as the user base grows.

I'm not sure that EA even have faith in this game. They are using it to launch their experimental also-steam service and releasing against a hotly anticipated title. They've packed in another game and all the DLC for downloaders along with a bonus for pre-orders and even on top of that they gave away $10 off coupons through the free iPhone tie-in app. That's $80 of material for $40. Unfortunately this sounds like the throwaway movies Hollywood studios turn out to fulfill contractual obligations on weekends they don't expect to win.

MrDeVil909 wrote:

Hmm, Quinns is underwhelmed. Not quite mad enough, not quite sane enough and unnecessarily padded.

Gameinformer gave it a 6.75 in the recent Darksiders II cover issue.

nel e nel wrote:

Darksiders II cover issue.

Speaking of "Madness Returns"...

Well, these reviews are rather unfortunate.

Weirdly, my memory has the original Alice getting a lot lower reviews than it actually did. Which means my expectations were sort of pre-lowered. I recalled it having some serious flaws but gorgeous visuals and not doing well, but still enjoying it anyway. So with the new one I was expecting some serious flaws and gorgeous visuals and hoping to still enjoy it anyway.

Hopefully that will translate to not being to disappointed with how Alice actually plays (once my awful awful internet connection finished downloading it.)

Hey I just played through Duke Nukem Forever....this sounds like the best game in the world in comparison

I put about 45 minutes in, and I say it's OK. Controlling with K+M feels pretty wonky, but I have a feeling a controller won't be too bad. Locked at 30FPS. Graphics aren't bad, but it doesn't have the wow factor I remember from the original.

IMAGE(http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh150/Wakim_1/alicetwo.jpg)

IMAGE(http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh150/Wakim_1/alicefour.jpg)

IMAGE(http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh150/Wakim_1/alicefive.jpg)

IMAGE(http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh150/Wakim_1/alicesix.jpg)

After playing through the original 3 or 4 times and loving it excessively, the lack of ability to play it on a Mac has me more than a little upset.

Waiting for a sequel for the better part of a decade and they can't even release it on Mac as well? The original was for both. So much anger!

I don't care how badly rated it may be, the original is a game I never got tired of and I was ready to throw money at this one too. If they had let me.