spicy-horse posts

It looks like the trailer and web site that was launched late last weekend that looked like an official promo for the upcoming American McGee's Alice remake was not official after all. McGee's blog site has posted up word that the trailer " . . . does not represent any of the final art direction or story elements in Alice 2."

Even though the video is not an official promo for the game McGee admitted in a forum post on his site that the creator of the video, Troy Morgan is a friend of his. Morgan posted on his official site that the video was made as an ad pitch to McGee and the game's publisher Electronic Arts. McGee also admitted he helped in launching the ReturnofAlice.com web site where the video was previously hosted.

However he still states, " . . . *i* never said the thing was "official". i distinctly remember saying the word "unofficial" - which last time i checked means the opposite of official." He also admits that his efforts to highlight the efforts of a fan have caused him some problems with EA. He adds, . . . "i *wish* we could release actual official stuff. but we can't. because we live in communist controlled china - oh wait... not because of that. for another reason. i won't dare mention it. i might get in MORE trouble."

Fan original American McGee's Alice might be intrigued by this early trailer for The Return of Alice. It looks like after rampaging through fairy tales in Grimm, American McGee and his his development studio Spicy Horse will be going back to the roots and continue Alice's twisted tale. The game is expected to come out sometime in 2011, so we can look forward to more information in the coming year.

Download HD The Return of Alice Teaser Trailer (11 MB)

Last February, Electronic Arts made the surprise announcement that they would release a new version of American McGee's Alice. The remake of the 2000 released game from former id Software designer American McGee is being handled at his Spicy Horse development studio in Shanghai and is being titled Return of American McGee's Alice.

It's been several months since any news popped up on the Internet about the game but apparently a teaser site was quietly launched late on Friday. There's not much to the site at the moment other than a couple of Flash pieces which link to a teaser trailer that, in a bit of a twist, is handled like a stop-motion movie rather than pre-rendered CGI. The trailer shows that Alice is apparently being treated as a mental patient after her first visit to Wonderland. The end of the trailer shows a "2011" release date for the game which means we still have a long time before its ready for prime time. You can check out the trailer after the jump:

The Gametap digital download service continues to release new chapters of its episodic game series American McGee's Grimm. Today the latest episode is released, based on the Mulan legend, as as with previous releases this new chapter is free to play for the next 24 hours. As you may know the development team behind the game, Spicy Horse, is now working on their next project which is a new title in the American McGee's Alice series for publisher EA.

Gametap has also put one of their library tites into the "free-to-play" section until March 5. This time it's Sacred Gold, the 2004 fantasy action-RPG and its expansion pack from developer Ascaron Entertainment. Of course Ascaron has already released a ful sequel, Sacred 2, that was released for the PC back in October. In addition Gametap has returned a number of game titles to their free section, including Psychonauts, Metal Slug and Tomb Raider: Legend. They won't stay free forever as Gametap plans to rotate games in and out of the free section once a month.

The DICE Summit just had its first surprise new game reveal thanks to Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello. In a speech made at the currently running Las Vegas event, Riccitiello stated that a new version of their 2000 action game American McGee's Alice would be released for the PC and consoles.

The original 2000 game was released just for the PC and had former id Software designer American McGee leading a team at Rogue Entertainment to create a warped version of the original children's book. However the game itself didn't sell that well and a planned console version of the game was canceled by EA. That decision lead to the shut down of Dallas-based Rogue soon afterward.

Update: EA has now issued their official press release for the game and American McGee's development studio Spicy Horse has posted up what looks like a concept image from the game (reproduced here) on their site. They also state the title for the game is currently "the Return of American McGee's Alice."

It's Christmas Eve which means if you haven't gotten your Christmas cards in the mail yet..well, you're a tad late to the party. Thankfully there's the Internet which can allow companies to release online Christmas cards for everyone to see.

Our sister site Joystiq has collected a number of game industry Christmas cards they have received in the mail and online. However, their gallery doesn't include everything so we at Big Download decided to collect a few other online Christmas cards in our own gallery. The images come from publisher Akella (promoting their game A Stroke of Fate), American McGee's game developer Spicy Horse, Age of Conan developer Funcom, publisher NCsoft (with cute versions of various game characters) and publisher Paradox Interactive who have not one but three different online cards promoting their upcoming strategy-sim game Majesty 2.

As 2008 winds inevitably toward the new year, so too has another season of American McGee's Grimm, the second of three, come to an end. This season has seen smatterings of innovation amidst a large dose of the same gameplay found in the first season. No too surprising, given the episodic nature of Grimm, but that doesn't make the repetitiveness any less disappointing.

In fairness, when Grimm Season Two was good, it was great. Episodes such as The Master Thief, The Pied Piper and Iron John are some of the most enjoyable casual gaming romps I've experienced -- quite a feat, considering the plethora of free flash-based games available within the Internet's many tubes. The conclusion of Season Two, A Christmas Carol, isn't one of the series' best offerings, but its excellent art direction, as well as its depressingly truthful analysis of the true meaning of Christmas circa 2008, does make it quite entertaining.

The fables detailed in American McGee's Grimm can be divided into two camps: the ones everybody knows, and the ones with which only a few may be familiar. The former type is enjoyable due to arkening your favorite (or least favorite) characters with Grimm's pestilence, and the latter is enjoyable due to learning a new story. But the problem with all Grimm episodes regardless of their respective camps is that no matter new or old, each episode unfolds in almost exactly the same way. You watch the fairy tale unfold in one theater, then play through roughly six stages connecting the dots to a fairy tale you just observed, and then watch a dark theater that, in essence, provides a replay of everything you just finished doing.

American McGee's Grimm: The Pied Piper takes a slightly different approach: you view the fairy tale before beginning Grimm's filthy adventure, but the ending is intentionally omitted. While the gameplay mechanics are the same as any Grimm episode you've played before, the drive to learn what happens makes The Pied Piper a compelling download even for those who have tired of the series' repetitive antics.

The California Gold Rush of 1848 hasn't got anything on King Midas's gift. After being blessed with the golden touch by the Greek gods, Midas sees the error and foolishness of his ways when everything and everyone he increases in value at his touch -- but perishes as a trade-off. Does that bountiful gift extend to the quality of American McGee's Grimm: King Midas? Somewhat. While the newest installment in American McGee's episodic series doesn't set a gold standard, it's at least worthy of a silver medal.

Former id Software designer American McGee has been living in China for a while now, developing titles with his own company Spicy Horse such as the continuing American McGee's Grimm episodic series. Now his official blog site has posted up a new game concept from McGee called BaiJiu Racer, a MMO-lite racing title that revolves heavily around Chinese culture.

The game is still in pre-production but McGee already has some concept artwork and a YouTube video showing off some early gameplay concepts (you can see it after the jump). The game already has a Chinese publisher but McGee is looking to see if Western publishers would go for the concept. It should be interesting to see if a game with such a Eastern theme could resonate with Western gamers.