Alice sequel in the works

[Tollbooth Willie]

Sweet. Not quite sure if he can actually pull it off.

LAS VEGAS--Today at the DICE summit, Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello announced that it is publishing a sequel to American McGee's Alice, the groundbreaking PC adventure game EA published back in 2000. Helping them in this effort is the original game's creator, American McGee.

Back for another Mad Hatter tea party, apparently.

Development of the new Alice will be overseen by McGee under the auspices of the EA Partners program, which gives independent developers access to EA's publishing and distribution expertise. Current EA Partners titles include the Rock Band franchise, The Orange Box, and Left 4 Dead from Valve Software. (Valve CEO Gabe Newell gave last night's DICE keynote address on digital distribution.) Future EA Partners games include id Software's Rage, Double Fine's Brutal Legend, and two unnamed titles from Epic Games and Grasshopper Manufacture.

American McGee's Alice depicted the heroine of the original Lewis Carroll story as an adult who, driven insane from her strange childhood experiences, fought to claw her way back to sanity while trapped in a world of her own imagination. McGee hinted that he was working on a sequel last year in a post on his personal blog. The title is expected to arrive on PCs and consoles, though a release date has yet to be revealed.

 

[Lucid]

I don't really see how the first one left any room for a sequel but whatever.
American McGee hasn't made a single good game since Alice so my hopes are low.

 

[2Fast4U]

How can you make a sequel to a game like that? He should adapt Wizard of Oz instead.

 

[kupocake]

A "designer" returning to the one half-decent game he ever made isn't exactly inspiring news. American McGee is just Jon Romero without the rock star attitude or the intention to make me his bitch.

 

[nipples]

Never played the first one, I take it it's a good game.

 

[Tagaziel]

Guise, guise, nobody wants to play games like Alice anymore, it needs to be reinvented.

 

[Adabiviak]

I liked Alice, and would re-visit that world (even if they used the same QIII engine). From American McGee, Scrapland was really fun, but I'm with ya - I haven't seen much from him since then. Did anyone try Bad Day LA? eek.

 

[Tagaziel]

It was fun and amusing.

Especially the ultimate weapon.

 

[Deleted member 56031]

I suppose it is interesting news as I did hear people say alot of good things about alice but I certainly can see what people are saying in this thread. I don't know of any other good games made by this guy.

 

[Ennui]

lol, I haven't heard anything about American McGee since all the Alice hype (which was back when I got PC Gamer, meaning it was a LONG TIME AGO).

 

[Tollbooth Willie]

That's because all his games have been shit after Alice afaik. There's one called Grim that's supposed to be good from what I heard, but it's only on GameTap.

 

[Yorick]

Loved Alice but there really is little room for a sequel and McGee has gone amazingly downhill.

 

[Thunderclap]

Perhaps it will be a simple remake, a la the Doom series. Alice had an amazing premise, but was limited by what could be done with computer games at the time. All these years later, they have the potential to deliver something quite spectacular if they focus on plotting and atmosphere without sacrificing gameplay. (Easier said than done, I'm well aware.) Still, if executed properly, this could be a very excellent game.

 

[Adabiviak]

Seriously, has anyone else played Scrapland? The races/flying missions in that game are soooo fun.It's like a high-speed cross between Mario Kart and GTA, but you're flying instead of driving. The third-person campaigns where D-tritus walks around are entertaining, but I think kids are the audience there (kinda campy). I'd go so far as to say this game demonstrates that fun gameplay by itself won't sell games - the excellent (in my opinion) flying campaigns are offset by the awful voices, cheesy characters, childish 3rd-person missions, campy storyline, etc.

I know American still has it in him to make something epic using today's game engines, I just haven't seen it in a while.