Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning - EA Games
Ken Rolston was the lead designer of The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. You all should really know who R.A. Salvatore and Todd McFarlane are. If not one of them is one of the best fantasy authors of last 15 years the other is creator of Spawn and multiple graphic novels.
This team was put together by a company founded by Curt Schilling. He’s a former American Baseball player and future MLB hall of famer. Ok If I was rich beyond belief I might think of doing it also but I am a nerdy computer database admin. Not one of the best pitchers to play the game. Here is a PAX clip with him announcing the game and talking about his company.
Reckoning PAX East Part 1 - EA
A great line from video “I have seen these guys play Frisbee and Flag Football and they are just not athletic.” and “We don’t call you our customer. We don’t call you our consumers. We call you our guests.” Mostly good marketing hype and playing the crowd, but I still liked it.
It looks to be a more action RPG. They have said in an interview that they have hired fighting game developers in order to give it a more action feel. The graphics seem pretty good from the gameplay video.
‪Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning E3 Game play Part 2/3‬‏ - YouTube
There are 3 talent trees that you can put points into as you progress. The Finesse tree I saw in one video had 26 different talents. So it looks as if there will be a decent amount of options to customize your game play. Speaking of customization there will be multiple races to choose at the start along with slider bars to change your appearance. A dev said that you could make Kirk if you really wanted to. Gotta love dropping a Trek reference.
The loot system is “Diablo Style” in that the random generator can create over 2 million pieces of loot. You will be able to equip right from the loot screen or can set items as junk to be sold quickly later.
It will be coming out on the PS3, Xbox 360 and PC just like most RPGs do lately. I am hoping that it is not a “port” and the controls for PC are smooth. I am not a fan of multi-platform games but companies are in the business of making money and I can see why it’s done.
Over all it’s likely something people may want to watch out for. With Diablo 3 and the new Elder Scrolls coming out it looks to be a good year from single player RPGs.
R.A. Salvatore, Todd McFarlane, Ken Rolston RPG 2012
