Introduction

Do you remember 1999? Bulky CRTs were still the monitors of choice, Microsoft had just introduced the world’s first commercially successful optical mice, USB devices were rare and NVIDIA introduced the ‘GeForce’ product lineup for the first time. If you were not old enough to have experienced the games back then, you can only imagine (or even better, Google it) how primitive they look compared to today’s graphics. Games being developed during that time period had to present an interesting and unique gameplay experience in order to stand out from the rest and be considered memorable.

One of the most fondly remembered titles from that era was American McGee’s Alice, a cynical and macabre take on the Lewis Carroll classic. Using the Id Tech3 engine, American McGee’s Alice was groundbreaking in terms of art direction and elaborate visual elements. Not surprisingly, it received critical praise and has reached somewhat of a cult status among gamers. More than a decade later, the sequel has finally arrived.

Alice Madness Returns revisits the twisted and haunting world that the eponymous heroine left 11 years ago. Alice Madness Returns now incorporates hardware accelerated NVIDIA PhysX effects and 3D Vision support to enhance the PC gaming experience. Volumetric smoke, interactive fluids and exploding particles are just some of the dynamic realism achieved in Alice Madness Returns using NVIDIA’s Physics API. Physics effects can often look tacked on if haphazardly implemented, but NVIDIA has worked closely with Spicy Horse Games to seamlessly integrate the enhancements into the surreal narrative.