Alice: Madness Returns The Complete Collection [Download]

Edit, 1/12: a gentlemen posted a review below stating that the games don’t support 360 controller for PC…he’s wrong. Both games have built-in plug-and-play 360 controller support, and I can personally attest that this ‘complete collection’ is no different from all other editions…all that I own and use support 360 controllers with no effort, thought, or issue (I use a 360 controller exclusively, and have never had any trace of a problem using my controller with any edition of this game). I don’t know why his controller isn’t working, but don’t let that fool you into thinking that it won’t work for you…it will. If not, reply below and I will assist you (though I have no idea what the problem would be, since said gentleman provided no insight into his issue or anything he did or didn’t do to attempt to resolve the problem…).

I originally bought AMR for $8.99 some time ago; expecting nothing, I played through it four times, with 50 hours in at 99% (damn that one memory I can’t find…I refuse to use YouTube to cheat). I then bought a second copy from GameStop’s download service, just in case Amazon goes under or something (yes, the game is that good; of course, GameStop is probably going to go under soon, but hey, until then, I have two copies of the game).

Today, I noticed that this version includes the original Alice, something I’d been considering spending $100 on (used copy); while you can simply go into AliceEngine.ini and unlock the costumes and guns (did this a long time ago) (make sure you set max fps to 60, as well [the game is illogically limited to 31 fps without this modification [reply if you need me to tell you how to do this; for God’s sake, please don’t judge the game if you’re playing it at 31 fps (or any game, for that matter)]), the Alice files aren’t present (even though the option to play the game is unlocked on the menu). I expect this $14.99 to resolve that problem, and finally allow me to play what I expect to be the second greatest game of all time (behind Alice: Madness Returns, of course [just some hyperbole for you]). I’ll update this after I download, install, and successfully access Alice, but dang, am I excited.

Edit (same day, later on): As expected “Alice1” is now present, a 955MB folder that contains…you guessed it…Alice. Thankfully, it supports 1080p and has built-in 360 controls (not unexpectedly, as it’s clearly a 360 port). Time to start playing. 🙂

Edit: because you must not play AMR limited to 31fps (for God’s sake and your own), here’s what you need to do (right now…do not play the game before doing this):

C:Users(your name here…)DocumentsMy GamesAlice Madness ReturnsAliceGameConfig

Open AliceEngine.ini (with notepad), press control and f simultaneously, enter “smooth;” you should see the below:

bSmoothFrameRate=TRUE
MinSmoothedFrameRate=22
MaxSmoothedFrameRate=31

Make it look like this:

bSmoothFrameRate=TRUE
MinSmoothedFrameRate=25 (this is up to you, really, but I’d personally consider under 25 fps unplayable)
MaxSmoothedFrameRate=60 (these settings permit a maximum frame rate [at all times] of 60, and cause the engine to drop the “smoothing” effect at below 25fps [the game is a choppy mess with smoothing set to FALSE][if you’re playing on a weak laptop or something and can’t do much over 30 fps, set min to 20 and max to 30])

…save the file, and enjoy the game at 60fps (assuming your hardware is capable of it; it takes a 560 (give or take) to max the game at 1080p/60, and also a decent CPU [my 2500k at 4.3 uses about 30% (of the typically 50% available to most games, as most games can’t utilize more than two cores simultaneously)]).

Also, Alice (1) seems to be locked at 62 fps; great, but tearing is tearing. Force V-sync in Control Panel or D3DOverrider and play it at 60 fps.

*Also,* don’t play AMR with PhysX on high; set it to medium and forget the ridiculous oil slicks that destroy fps (just a suggestion).

AMR is one of my favorite games, both for its interpretation of the Lewis Carroll story, and for its unique art direction courtesy of American McGee.

Although the gameplay does get repetitive (there are only a few weapons); the art and story line move the plot along. Each new world is designed in extremely gorgeous detail; I ended up buying The Art of Alice: Madness Returns.

The Steam version does NOT include the original American McGee’s Alice. Since this is the Origin version, it will have the Original American McGee’s Alice as well as AMR.