Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning

Status
Not open for further replies.

LOG

Lagrangian
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Nov 10, 2008
Messages
7,714
Reaction score
354
Location
Between there and there
Official Site
It will be an open-world RPG.

Slated for release Fall 2011

It is coming out on PS3, Xbox 360, and PC (thank you!)

As far as I can tell, the plot seems to revolve around two main things:
Saving the world, and
Seeking out immortality.

So we have an interesting team here:
Ken Rolston is leading, dude was the lead director of Oblivion, so I'm all for that. He is the "lead creative visionary" for this game.
R.A. Salvatore wrote together the lore, settings, and characters.
Todd McFarlane himself is in charge of art style.

That is quite the team...
Unfortunately the studio has little to its name. Big Huge Games was once part of THQ, but it's made few games, although they did produce the Rise of Nations series.

The music on the website is impressing me (and that's just the same score on a loop).


Also, after this they will be unveiling an MMO based in the same universe, currently titled Project Copernicus.
 

Lhun

New kid, be gentle!
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jan 30, 2007
Messages
1,956
Reaction score
137
So we have an interesting team here:
I'd rate that:
Ken Rolston is leading, dude was the lead director of Oblivion, so I'm all for that. He is the "lead creative visionary" for this game.
Meh
R.A. Salvatore wrote together the lore, settings, and characters.
Fuck
Todd McFarlane himself is in charge of art style.
Awesome!

So, seems like it could go either way right now. Though seeking out immortality as a goal sounds fun, i'm tired of how that's almost universally displayed as a bad thing in mainstream fiction.
 

LOG

Lagrangian
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Nov 10, 2008
Messages
7,714
Reaction score
354
Location
Between there and there
I said interesting not good.

Although I believe most people would agree that McFarlane is pretty awesome.
 

LOG

Lagrangian
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Nov 10, 2008
Messages
7,714
Reaction score
354
Location
Between there and there
Perhaps, still they have relatively few games and no RPG experience. Of course, neither did Blizzard, and WoW kicked ass.
 

Maxx

Got the hang of it, here
Super Member
Registered
Joined
May 26, 2010
Messages
3,227
Reaction score
202
Location
Durham NC
Got
Some
Screenshots.

I like the last one.

More info may be coming in early October.

Looks like good concept art. I guess I'm losing interest in large orange people in orange armor with orange axes much faster than I ever knew until just this moment.
 

Lhun

New kid, be gentle!
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jan 30, 2007
Messages
1,956
Reaction score
137
No that's just a myth, unfortunately very common, just like the idea that medieval swords were blunt heavy rods of iron, or that Japanese swords are superior to European ones in any way.
Although in the case of armour, it has some tiny little historical justification. Armour created for jousting featured extremely thick and heavy chest protection so it could protect against a square on lance impact. But that type of armour has no relation to what was actually used in battle, especially not to plate armour as used by unmounted men-at-arms.
 
Last edited:

Lhun

New kid, be gentle!
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jan 30, 2007
Messages
1,956
Reaction score
137
Why would people think that?
Good question. There are numerous reasons. For example one is that even supposedly knowledgeable historians have completely misrepresented the weight of medieval swords, stating them to be as heavy as 30 pounds (while in reality, a really heavy sword would have been 4 pounds), based purely on assumption and despite countless examples available in museums which show otherwise.
The biggest reason though for false myths surrounding European martial arts and weaponry of medieval and renaissance era is that those traditions were discontinued with the constant evolution in weaponry. Even sports fencing is nothing like fencing with actual fencing swords during the renaissance. Since no people with practical experience in these matters existed until fairly recently, false assumptions have a much easier time of taking hold.
You mean with the folding, or in terms of cutting power?
I mean in general. Folding steel is nothing special. The Vikings produced swords with that method for a while, but generally speaking, metalworking technology improved, and damascene steel became obsolete. The idea that folded steel is inherently superior is another myth, (separate from ideas about asian swords) probably somewhat attractive because damascene steel takes a lot of man-hours and seems like a more artistic material. But it is something of a stopgap solution in metalworking, if you can only produce too brittle or too soft steel, using folded steel of different hardness and welding on a hard edge (or hard core, depending on desired result) gives you a better end product than using either suboptimal material exclusively.
But if you're capable of producing steel with exactly the desired properties, there is no reason to use folded steel at all, and the resulting blade will be of better quality since the material is uniform.
Damascene steel looks really cool (i own a few knives made of it) but it is not inherently superior to non folded steel.
 
Last edited:

LOG

Lagrangian
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Nov 10, 2008
Messages
7,714
Reaction score
354
Location
Between there and there
Got some juicy bits from a recent PCGzine.

I find this all somewhat impressive considering that they say the game is only 50% complete...

Really hoping for good things from this one. Heck, if it's impressive enough, I might start asking that it stay out of the MMO market. We don't have enough good RPG producers.
 
Last edited:

LOG

Lagrangian
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Nov 10, 2008
Messages
7,714
Reaction score
354
Location
Between there and there
There's a trailer out featuring gameplay, check it out on the main site.

It looks like they’ve created God of War meets Fable.

That’s not meant to disparage their combined efforts. I love the art style of Fable, comfortably resting somewhere between realistic and cartoony. If allows for the sort of fluid animations that make an action-fueled game like this really sing. It’s a sexy combination of elements that will hopefully coalesce into a truly epic work of fantasy.
--Kotaku
 
Last edited:

LOG

Lagrangian
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Nov 10, 2008
Messages
7,714
Reaction score
354
Location
Between there and there
I'll be checking it out for the simple fact that RA Salvatore is involved. He's my favorite author...

His last book did not impress me, but all the ones before that were good.
I think my problem with Gauntlgrym was that it was really, awfully, predictable at points and terribly campy at others. Although the final big, long fight scene was as cool as ever.
 

LOG

Lagrangian
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Nov 10, 2008
Messages
7,714
Reaction score
354
Location
Between there and there
Some new info hanging around on the main site.
We got a map, and 5 races revealed: two types of humans, two types of elves (I believe both races names are based on variations of Nordic words), and Gnomes. No dwarves. Even in the basic description, it's clear that both type of elves have issues: the Dokkalfar seem to just basically have limited resources, especially in what seems to be far from their home. The Ljosalfar are control freaks, as are the Almain, although the Almain we see in-game may be more free-minded since they seem to be settlers trying to get away from the rest of Almain. They're also Fae, as in Seelie and Unseelie. Alternate name seems to be Tuatha. A lot of blending going on here.
There's also a series of videos on the site showcasing footage of a demo they did at PAX.

Here's some IGN articles on KoA:
http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/117/1170594p1.html
http://pc.ign.com/articles/115/1157269p1.html
http://pc.ign.com/articles/115/1153996p1.html

I get the feeling that rigid class types are becoming a thing of the past. Although I don't think any game would make it impossible to become purely one type of class.
 
Last edited:

JimmyB27

Hoopy frood
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Dec 29, 2005
Messages
5,623
Reaction score
925
Age
42
Location
In the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable e
Website
destinydeceived.wordpress.com
I get the feeling that rigid class types are becoming a thing of the past. Although I don't think any game would make it impossible to become purely one type of class.
Hurrah!

I loved the way you could mix and match in NWN. Dual-wielding Monk/Ranger ftw! :D
 
Last edited:

LOG

Lagrangian
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Nov 10, 2008
Messages
7,714
Reaction score
354
Location
Between there and there
X-Play preview.

One thing a commenter noted that I agree with: they cannot release this near Skyrim. Even if it's finished at 11/11/11 they should hold off for at least several months, or have it pushed out a few months beforehand.
Personally I'd say wait until sometime 2012, let Skyrim have 2011, they can always polish the game a little more, but bad initial sales could be hazardous to the studio's health.
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.