Alice: Madness Returns – Has it really been 11 years since we were graced with the joy of American McGee’s Alice on PC? As someone who is more of a console gamer than a PC gamer, back then, American McGee’s Alice was just too good to resist. The game was creepy, gothic, funny and engaging, and by using the Quake 3 engine, it was a game that was definitely advanced for it’s time.

Story
Now here we are in 2011 and we have American McGee back, brining us more trippy gameplay from the dark and unnerving Alice, in Alice: Madness Returns on Xbox 360. The story kicks off with Alice as a teenager, under the watchful eye of Dr Bumby, a psychiatrist. For those who have played the first game, this probably isn’t too much of a surprise, since Alice’s mind and her adventures in wonderland have clearly taken their toll on her idea of reality. The story progresses from there, and it’s not long until Alice is thrown back into a world of gory, creepy, gothic horror.

Gameplay
Alice: Madness Returns, is a solid platformer which has its fair share of hack and slash goodness. The controls feel effortless and you can easily shrink Alice down to enable her access to smaller areas in the game. The weapons such as the Vorpal knife and the pepper-grinder, are sufficiently gruesome and weird that they fit perfectly into the overall feel of the game. At times there are plenty of enemies on screen and the AI is pretty good, so the controls and the weapons work perfectly well together to make hacking and slashing your way through levels quite enjoyable. You can lock on to target and kill them at long range, as well as hop around on different levels to avoid them if you need to. As well as Alice’s excellent fighting abilities, she’s also perfectly capable of jumping and floating effortlessly around the levels. The checkpoints are strategically placed so that it doesn’t become infuriating if you need to do part of a level again and the fact you can’t fall off ledges helps ensure you make it through many levels unscathed. There’s no multiplayer in Alice, which is probably how it should be, but there are cute rhythm mini-games in it, although you don’t need to play these if you don’t want to.

Graphics
One of the most impressive aspect of this title is the graphics. From the beginning, it has a very surreal feeling to it, reminiscent of the French animated classic “The Triplets of Bellville”. NPC’s are as full of character in their faces as the characters you can interact with and you feel that Alice’s madness pours out through the depiction of these characters beautifully. The backgrounds and levels of the game are also absolutely gorgeous to look at, accurately representing Alice’s troubled mind. The game grabs you with it’s aesthetics and although there are a few pop up issues here and there, the frame-rate is solid throughout.

Audio
As with the graphics, sound plays an important part of this title and the creepy score which accompanies the game is spot on. It adds to the overall experience and the dialogue from the characters is great. At times it becomes a little cliched, but there are some stand out characters, including of course the dryness of the Cheshire Cat. Alice herself sounds a lot like Lara Croft which is always a nice bonus.

Female Character Angle
Obviously the female character is the lead character in this title, so it’s always welcome to see that. Alice is a very interesting character and her background and decent to madness is quite gripping. Through the 15 hours or so it takes to play the game, you’ll find yourself becoming more and more intertwined in Alice’s psyche and she’s definitely a character that can hold her own on screen.

Overall
Alice: Madness Returns is a welcome return to gaming for American McGee. The game is eerie, interesting, gory, surreal and extremely dark. It’s a very close likeness to Lewis Carroll’s original vision for Alice and the levels and gameplay compliment this perfectly. If you haven’t played the original, you can still pick this up and will enjoy it as it’s a solid platformer with great aesthetic touches.

8/10

Just a quick heads up since this involves one of the first ladies of gaming, BloodRayne. Sure her games have kind of sucked in the past (pun intended), but she is a kick-ass female character, so we had to give her some news coverage. Of course she’s as sexed up as ever, what with her being “The Sexiest Dhampir Ever” and all. Full press release for your fangtastic selves below.

BloodRayne: Betrayalis Now Available!
Epic 2D hack ‘n slash reboot of legendary franchise hits PlayStation®Network today and Xbox LIVE Arcade tomorrow

Majesco Entertainment Company announced today that its highly anticipated side-scrolling BloodRayne: Betrayal launches today for PlayStation Network followed by a release tomorrow on Xbox LIVE Arcade for the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft. The PlayStation Network version is included as part of the PlayStation Network PLAY program.

The original video game femme fatale, Rayne, has returned to battle and feed in a brand new hack ‘n slash adventure developed by WayForward, the seasoned team behind some of gaming’s most critically acclaimed brand reinventions. BloodRayne: Betrayal delivers over-the-top stylish action with a healthy dose of bloodshed. You are Rayne, the sexy dhampir with superhuman strength, speed, and agility, recruited by the vampire hunting Brimstone Society for one last mission. The target is a lavish, yet sinister, ball in a secluded castle with plenty of dark surprises. With the help of a mysterious friend, and members of Brimstone, Rayne must infiltrate the manor, take out the fiendish horde, and stop an evil master plot once and for all.

BloodRayne: Betrayal is available now on PlayStation Network for $14.99 and tomorrow on Xbox LIVE Arcade for Xbox 360 for 1,200 Microsoft Points. For more information about BloodRayne: Betrayal, please visit the official game site at www.bloodraynebetrayal.com and be sure to Like us at www.facebook.com/bloodrayne.

Thanks to our sister-site Lesbian Gamers we’ve got a look at one female gamers thoughts on the winner of the FemShep (Female Commander Shepard) competition that BioWare recently ran. The winner has caused quite a polarizing response with a lot of (mostly male) gamers loving the choice because she’s “sexy”, “blonds have more fun” and “my penis voted”, other gamers (male and female) seem to have had a severely adverse response to the winning FemShep. I have to say I’m with the latter bunch, I don’t like her. I think this is a massive FAIL on BioWare’s behalf and it seems completely at odds with what we’ve come to expect from the developer. All the choices were lackluster and seemingly a lot younger than the standardized Female Commander Shepard (FemShep) we’ve come to see and love.

Why BioWare didn’t just use the standard FemShep in the videos and boxart is beyond fathoming. Anyway, let’s get on with that article shall we, thanks to The LG.

The New FemShep – Female Commander Shepard FAIL

Let me preface this piece by saying I love BioWare, they are one of my favorite developers and I support them by buying their games and even their merchandise and have done so for many years. I’m upset with the FemShep debacle however. Firstly it being touted as a ‘beauty contest’ (by some) demeans what the female Commander Shepard (FemShep) is all about, it belittles her as nothing but an object of beauty, a woman to be judged on her appearance rather than action and that angers me. Somehow this “vote for your preferred FemShep” thing went from “cool they’re finally using FemShep on some marketing” to “oh shit FemShep was voted on and now she’s a blond bimbo”. I don’t understand why BioWare put it to the vote. I don’t understand why BioWare didn’t take control and make a decision to make the marketing material feature the base model FemShep, with her bobbed hair and non-pouty lips.

FemShep too young to command

Turning FemShep into this young looking blond Samus Aran type just irks and it irks a lot. This isn’t a ‘lesbian thing’, though I’m sure there will be those closed minded fools who assume as a lesbian of course I would prefer the short-haired ‘more-masculine’ Shep. To them I say give me a break, I just prefer the female Shepard who looks like you’d listen to her if the galaxy were in peril and frankly if some jumped up 18 year old blond pouting kid needed me on the front lines, I’d be questioning things big time.

Standard female Commander Shepard looks better

The standard female Shepard looks like she can tote a gun, she looks like she’s a leader and most importantly she looks severe and old enough to have lived through battle. The new FemShep we’re now stuck with for marketing and merchandise just doesn’t cut it. I was so excited to purchase a “Mass Effect” game with female Shepard I’ve ranted it to all my gamer friends, now I’ll be buying the male version because frankly I just can’t take blonde kiddy Shep seriously.

FemShep Beauty Contest poor form

I realize the result of this ‘beauty contest’ was never going to please everyone, after all, we all have our own FemShep versions and the chance of seeing your exact version on packaging or as an action-figure was never going to happen, but COME ON BIOWARE SERIOUSLY!!!!!!! Shepard number 5 is bland, bland, bland, bland and worse than bland, she panders to an audience that don’t and possibly never will ‘get’ what FemShep is all about. Thanks for that Bioware, thanks for placing the decision of iconic female battle icon in the realm of what statistics suggest is the mostly male voting audience. To those male gamers who voted for a different FemShep, thank you, clearly all our votes just didn’t amount to enough, but then that’s hardly surprising with the “Gentlemen prefer blonds” doing the rounds on the various male run gaming sites presently. It just makes me want to shed a tear because it feels like gaming has once more taken one step forward, two steps back.

Oh and for the record, none of the choices were that great.

Check out this awesome female Commander Shepard (femShep) video by YouTuber “gametourists”. The video shows off many of the female Commander Shepards in game, all so neatly knitted together with a funky soundtrack. There’s even some girl on mono-gendered alien lovin (and femshep with dudes.. ugh). I know I spotted someone that looked very like my Commander Shepard, how about you? check out the awesome video and let us know. “I’m just here to get the job done, let someone else be on the poster”. Genius.

Via [TheLG].

Yeah well what do you think of the screenshots in this post, they don’t look more than a little like Lara Croft do they? Yeah Jillian Michaels, or rather the people behind her new game “Jillian Michaels Fitness Adventure” probably had no idea this is generally what Lara Croft wears when she’s out ‘adventuring’. “Jillian Michaels Fitness Adventure” is coming Exclusively to Kinect this Fall. We’ve got the full press release below… now if we could just shake the feeling we’ve seen all this before… hey.. now a Lara Croft fitness game.. that sounds pretty cool!

Best-selling author and Co-Host of ‘The Doctors’ brings you on an interactive journey in this unique, fully customizable experience.

Majesco Entertainment Company, an innovative provider of video games for the mass market, and Microprose announced today that Jillian Michaels’ Fitness Adventure is coming exclusively to Kinect™ for Xbox 360® later this fall. Renowned health and wellness expert Jillian Michaels makes her Kinect for Xbox 360 debut after selling more than one million units across her franchise.

Get ready to use your entire body this time as players join Jillian on an interactive adventure, which of course is also filled with Jillian’s trademark intensity! Jillian Michaels’ Fitness Adventure, the latest iteration of the Jillian Michaels franchise, takes your fitness routine beyond a basic workout and turns it into a real adventure through a mission-based, thrill-seeking journey set in a lush jungle temple environment. The high-energy and fully customizable motion-based experience offers a results-oriented personal training experience that you can expect from teaming up with Jillian to achieve your fitness goals.

Jillian Michaels’ Fitness Adventure features include:

* Multiple Exercise Modes: Fitness Adventure Mode – featuring Parkour-style action (a free-style mix of proactive and reactive running, jumping and climbing) set in an exciting jungle temple environment; Circuit Training – 10 exercise circuits hand-selected by Jillian herself available in three difficulty modes, giving you complete freedom to customize your session; and Individual Fitness Training – offering exercises of varying difficulty allowing you to work out at your own pace .

* Use Your Own Equipment: Jillian Michaels’ Fitness Adventure has training programs that can easily integrate various types of fitness gear you may already have at home. Or you can use the game’s complete regimen of training exercises that use your own body weight to get you back into shape…the choice is yours!

* Social Integration: Check out your own and your friends’ performance in the online leaderboards. Keep up the great work because Jillian will be monitoring the boards and the best performers will be honored on Jillian’s Facebook page.

* Stats: The game provides statistics to track your progress, including a calendar that shows you what days you have worked out from the moment you started playing the game to present day. It also displays the breakdown of calories burned, number of exercises/circuits completed, and time spent exercising. These can be viewed on a daily, weekly, monthly and even yearly basis.

Developed by N-Space and produced by Microprose, Jillian Michaels’ Fitness Adventure on Kinect for Xbox 360 is expected to launch this November.

Well this is interesting. BioWare’s marketing director David Silverman has been chatting to VG247 and there’s a few bits within we thought you’d like to know about. First up comes word that 18% of gamers choose female Shepard, I actually thought that would be higher for a few reasons. Next up only 13% of players choose the default character and dive straight in. Most interesting though comes news that FemShep will be making her “first official public appearance in marketing materials”, including on the packaging! Nice one BioWare, about time. This is something we’ve mentioned at Lesbian Gamers before, that all the trailers feature male Shepard, all the action figures, statues etc also feature male Shepard (see bottom of this news for linkage). It’s cool that BioWare are finally doing this and recognizing the awesomeness that is female Commander Shepard aka FemShep (voiced by Jennifer Hale).

So why no FemShep love in previous marketing materials? Silverman blames ‘consistency’ for the lack of female Shepard stating: “When creating a rich sci-fi epic like Mass Effect, you need to keep a certain level of consistency so people unfamiliar with the property can clearly identify who the hero is that they get to become”. Fair enough… to a degree.

Kudos to VG247 for looking at – as they put it – “the OTHER Commander Shepard”. I didn’t want to just do a cut and paste of all the good points, because frankly this sort of coverage deserves a link and for you to read it in its original entirety.

Some FemShep coverage from our sister site The LG:
No FemShep action figure for us.

No FemShep boxart – surprise surprise.

A non gender specific trailer .. FemShep it could be.

The Female voices of Mass Effect 2.

The Mass Effect movie and the female Commander Shepard.

The female characters of Mass Effect (gallery).

OMG! It’s finally here!!! The first full length teaser trailer for the new “Tomb Raider” game! As Lara Croft first spoke I thought “oh no, she doesn’t sound like Lara”, by the end of the trailer I didn’t care and she sounded just like Lara. Check out the trailer for the new “Tomb Raider” game below and let us know what you think. This has been high on our list of must have purchases since the artwork released back in December last year. What do you think of the new younger Lara?

We’ve got the full press release for this trailer after the jump. Nice to see the “Gears of War” franchise FINALLY adding a female COG to proceedings, though there’s not much word on the campaign playability. Multiplayer though they’ve finally added some female characters in the forms of Samantha Byrne, Anya Stroud, Queen Myrrah, and Bernadette Mataki, a character from the Karen Traviss novels. Sure Stroud has been in previous “Gears of War” titles, but only as the usual exposition crutch female characters tend to be in this type of ‘macho’ title. Full press release about the game after the jump and of course that all important campaign trailer.

World Premiere of the “Gears of War 3” Campaign Trailer Ignites the Countdown to the Biggest Blockbuster of 2011
Marcus Fenix and the Locust Horde invade TVs around the globe through a new trailer airing during the NBA Playoffs in the US and the Champions League Final in Europe

Assemble your squad and brace yourself for a stunning look at the most anticipated blockbuster of the year, as a new trailer for “Gears of War 3” premieres Saturday, 28 May during two of the world’s biggest sporting events of the month.

This action-packed trailer offers a riveting look at the epic-scale campaign in the “Gears of War” trilogy finale, and debuts on 28 May during the Champions League Final Match at approximately 9:45 p.m BST around the world, and during Game 6 of the NBA Playoffs on TNT in the U.S.

Laced with explosive new gameplay, the pulse-pounding trailer offers a gripping preview of the enthralling cinematic story in “Gears of War 3,” as Marcus Fenix and his brothers-in-arms wage a desperate two-front war against the Locust and Lambent menace to save humanity.

The spectacular conclusion to one of the most celebrated sagas in video games, “Gears of War 3” has already surpassed one million pre-orders worldwide, making it the fastest pre-selling Xbox exclusive in the history of the platform. As further testament to the immense anticipation surrounding the game, more than one million players participated in the “Gears of War 3” multiplayer beta this spring, helping refine and polish the hotly anticipated juggernaut.

Developed by acclaimed studio Epic Games, “Gears of War 3” launches worldwide on 20 September 2011, and is available for pre-order today in three distinct editions – Standard (£49.99), Limited (£59.99) and Epic (£99.99). For additional details on the game, please visit gearsofwar.xbox.com. (UK prices)

Dragon Age 2 was not at all what I expected. Of course, I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect. I knew the game wasn’t a true sequel to Dragon Age: Origins, and I vaguely knew it was going to be about the same time frame, but other than that, I went into the game with little knowledge, but high expectations of a good story. For the most part, Bioware has once again crafted a great game with compelling characters and a decent storyline. You play as Hawke, a refugee from Lothering who makes their way to Kirkwall, where you will eventually become The Champion. You can play as either a male or female, with the basic Mage/Warrior/Rogue classes. For this review I played through as a female warrior, and am currently on my second play-through as a female rogue. As with most of my reviews, I break it down to the Good, The Average, The Bad, and the Romance. This review is for the Xbox 360 version, and I will keep it as spoiler-free as possible, although expect some minor ones.

The Good: Some of the best parts of Dragon Age 2 are the characters and their interactions. Once again, Bioware has done a great job of creating characters that you not only care about, but are more than one dimensional. Some of the background dialogue was hilarious, and there were times when I stopped moving just to hear them finish out a conversation. The writing was so good I found myself bringing different characters to different missions just to hear the banter between them. Each character has a unique personality, and learning how to interact with them to get their friendship or rivalry up was a challenge. The rivalry/friendship aspect was also fascinating. Making someone a rival wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, as competition is good. Someone with 100% rivalry unlocked different skills and still made them loyal to you, though in a different way.

The graphics and the voice acting were also excellent. Without giving away any spoilers, some of the characters from Dragon Age: Origins return at different times, depending on if you imported a save from Dragon Age: Origins or went with a set background of your choice. The graphics and visual style were given an overhaul, for the better. The art direction was excellent, and some of the areas were gorgeous. Your main character has a voice this time around, and the dialogue tree is styled similar to the Mass Effect games. Icons show you how your response is going to sound. You can tailor your responses to 3 overarching types: the helpful, peaceful personality, the smartass who jokes around, and the hardass who is slightly arrogant. The more you use a certain personality type, the more your character begins to spout lines in cut scenes that match how you have been playing. So if you have been playing as the joker, during a random cut scene your character automatically jokes around. This system makes you feel invested in your character as a whole, and makes you feel like you created someone that is true to you and your style.

The Average: The combat system has been changed since the original story. I have heard mixed reviews of it, but overall I enjoyed the combat system. For those players who enjoy a true RPG experience where you micromanage every movement of your party, you will be disappointed. It’s still possible, but takes a lot of work. I was happy to set up some tactics for my party members (for some reason none of them had any healing tactics set automatically- and it took me forever to figure out why they all kept dying,) and then letting them go about their business. The combat was much smoother- you press a button and your character just flies into action. At the beginning, there is a little of button mashing and hitting the “A” button, but after you level up a few times, you can map your talents to different buttons. I found myself increasingly using different tactics for different bad guys, and the button mapping helped.

The inventory system has also been streamlined. The good part about that is all the junk you pick up is literally put in a slot called “trash can.” There is no secret trick- if an item you pick up shows up in this part of your inventory, you can safely sell it. The not great part of the inventory system is that most items don’t have a name anymore. For example, all rings are just called “ring” and have a different number of stars next to it. The higher the stars, the better the ring is. Once again, for someone who loves a pure RPG, this will not be a welcome change. For the casual player though, this is a welcome relief.

I personally loved the story, but I know there are many people who weren’t as fond of it. And since this review isn’t just all about me, I will look at the different aspects. The story is a break from Dragon Age: Origins. There is no real “ending goal” that you know of at the beginning. The story is told in a framing narrative, with one of your companions, Varric, telling the story of The Champion of Kirkwall (you) to a Chantry Seeker named Cassandra and the fight between the Templars and the Mages. You know something big happens, but not exactly what that thing is. It is truly a story of your life over 10 years. The story is broken up into a prologue and three acts, with a few main quests in each act, but a ton of side and companion quests too. People have lamented that there are too many side quests, but side quests do play an important role. They shape how people in the city look upon you, and slowly you begin to take a side:- Templar or Mage. I found this storyline to be fascinating, and watching someone you helped (or didn’t help) show up 3 or 4 years later could either be an awesome thing, or bite you in the ass. That mage you helped in act 1? They could come back as a blood mage in act 3 and try to kill you. Your decisions have consequences, and all the choices are morally grey – very few are black and white.

The Bad: The only really bad element to me was the lack of dungeon/mansion maps. They reused the same 5 or 6 maps for every dungeon or mansion you went into. This got to be boring and repetitive over time. Would it have killed them to create a few more different maps?

The Romance: Bioware really outdid themselves with the romance options this time around. There are four romance options, two men and two women, and they are all able to be romanced by either a male or a female protagonist. Well played, Bioware. It’s so rare to see bisexuality in a video game, that this pretty much blew me away. The two male romance options are Anders and Fenris, and the female options are Merrill and Isabella. In my first playthrough I thought for sure I was going for the rogue sea captain Isabella…. and then Merrill opened her mouth. Merrill is played by Torchwood actress Eve Myles, and I had no clue she was doing a voice in the game. In about two hot seconds I had changed my mind and went after Merrill. It takes awhile to be able to romance anyone (think in terms of years) but it was worth it. I did have a good laugh that you can ask her to move in with you the day after you sleep with her. I had about a thousand lesbian U-Haul jokes running through my head, but I’ll refrain from putting them in this review. Merrill was pretty easy to romance, and in my current game I am going after Isabella, and it is much trickier to win her heart.

If you have bought the DLC The Exiled Prince, you have the option of a fifth romance with Sebastian. Only women can romance him, and from what I hear it’s a very chaste romance with no option of “closing the deal.” Not really my thing, but some people might enjoy going for that.
I enjoyed that the romance wasn’t just a one-time thing. If you visit your home at night, your love interest might be there and start up a unique conversation. If you bring them along on a quest, there might be some hilarious dialogue between them and the other companions about your relationship. During one quest a NPC (non playable character) was flirting with me and Merrill got jealous. Her comments made me laugh out loud. In general, the romance aspect was well written, well acted, and well thought out.

Overall, I thought the game was fun, the storyline compelling, and the ending made me scream “there better be a third game!” They ended the story on a cliffhanger that will make me storm the Bioware offices if they don’t make another game to answer the burning questions they left the players with. The gameplay was decent, the graphics excellent, and the chances of you playing this game multiple times to see different scenarios is quite high. As a lesbian gamer, the romances were just the icing on the cake, albeit a very tasty rainbow-uhaul-gay cake. I would recommend picking up this game, but be prepared to have 50+ hours of your life sucked away…. in a good way.

Review by: Dany, aka Xan

Images and content via LesbianGamers.com and used with permission.

As you’re no doubt aware we like to cover ALL female games character news we can. We love our female games characters here at Thumb Bandits and we love them more when they don’t conform to developers type ie huge breasts, little substance. When the developers try something a little different we applaud them, and that’s what it seems Naughty Dog has done here. Meet “Uncharted 3″ villain Katherine Marlowe, voiced (and motion captured) by English actress Rosalind Ayres. Lead designer Richard Lemarchand said of Ayres: “We are extremely lucky to be working with her. She has brought an tremendous amount to this character. At Naughty Dog, we feel that a big part of the success of the Uncharted games is due to the effort that we put into our performance capture process where we work with the actors, improvising scenes with them and very often some of the best lines come straight from the actors, the things they invent while we are rehearsing with them and Ros has been fantastic in helping us in developing Marlowe’s character”. Sounds like Marlowe will be a great villain, because she’s a more cerebral villain as opposed to heavy handed. She kind of comes across in this trailer as a Peggy Mitchell type, with her Mitchell boys at her side (from UK soap “EastEnders” in which cockney Peggy Mitchell is a bit of a rough nut). Check out the awesome Katherine Marlowe reveal trailer and see what you think. Kudos to Naughty Dog, for once more thinking outside of the box.