Tag Archives: big huge games

Despite being a single-player game, EA has tossed an online pass code into the packaging of Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning. According to the insert included with review copies of the game, players are locked out of seven faction quests in the RPG called the “House of Valor” until they enter the code included with the title. While it hasn’t been confirmed as of yet, if Reckoning follows similar releases from EA, the quests will be available for purchase to those who buy the game used sometime after its released next month. Thanks, Destructoid.

Ian Frazier, lead designer on Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, has said each designer working on the game brought various ideas to the table in terms of development in order to create an IP Big Huge Games hopes will be redefine combat for the RPG genre.

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“It’s big. Really, really big. And perhaps more importantly, it’s incredibly dense. I couldn’t tell you the exact square footage of the overworld map, but I can tell you that it takes over half an hour to sprint at full [speed] across the map, even if you somehow avoid all combat. As for dungeons, there are around 130 of them in the game, and each one is hand-crafted in several different art styles, from crystal caverns to the organic innards of an ancient tree, so there’s an awful lot of variety to experience there.” – Big Huge Games’ Ian Frazier to 360 Magazine on the size of the game world in Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning.

“Despite the fact that RPGs have made such deep and passionate inroads into the mainstream market, I still feel they are slow-paced, abstract, and awkward. Reckoning reflects my hunger for a faster pace of action and combat drama, and a desire for simpler, easier-to-use interfaces. RPGs are naturally the deepest, longest, and most complicated kinds of videogame entertainment… that’s what makes them great. But making them just a tiny bit less clumsy in the interface, and just a big, fat, huge amount more physical and exciting in combat, gives them more fun-per-unit-time. Me? I want All-Fun, All-the-Time, Right-Now, thank-you-very-much.” – Ken Rolston to GameFront on how the current state of RPGS affected the design of Kindoms of Amalur: Reckoning.

38 Studios has released a new developer diary for Kingdoms if Amalur: Reckoning, featuring Tim Coman and Sean Murray explaining how the game’s deep lore and a signature style make it stand out from other RPGs. The demo for the game is out now on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360, in case you haven’t tried it already. It releases on all three platforms February 7 in North America and February 10 in Europe.

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38 Studios and Big Huge Games have released the demo for Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning on Xbox Live. Currently available for Gold members, the game provides you with a taste of the RPG created by he New York Times bestselling author RA Salvatore, Spawn creator Todd McFarlane, and Ken Rolston, lead designer on Morrwind and Oblivion. Players will be able to create their character using various customization options and continuously evolve it to their play-style using the game’s Destiny system. We’ve got 15 minutes of 720p gameplay for you below. Reckoning releases on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 February 7 in North America and February 10 in Europe.

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“I’ve never experienced a game like it before, and that’s been the difficulty of talking about this game. It’s an RPG with good combat, and people have a hard time figuring out what that means in their own heads, because there’s no example of it, really. Now we’re in this age where we have all these action games that have RPG elements, that right there has just destroyed to me what an RPG means because we’re talking about RPG elements. There are all these different ways we can spread out, and these are all valid representations of RPGs. But you ask any different person what an RPG is and they’ll give you a different answer.” – Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning’s lead combat designer Joe Quadara to Gamespot.

We’ve already told you about the upcoming double-act that is Mass Effect 3 and Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning – play the demo of one game to receive unlockable items in the other?

In case you’re not so familiar with the deal, EA has thoughtfully sent over a new trailer to explain what’s what.
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Playing the upcoming demos for Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning and Mass Effect 3 will unlock special “inspired” items for both games, all of which were designed by Reckoning artist Todd McFarlane.

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38 Studios has released a new video for Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, showing off the various crafting options in the game. Crafting skills shown include blacksmithing, sage crafting, and alchemy. It also delves into how to develop the mercantile skill in order to negotiate pricing with various merchants across the game’s landscape. Players will also need to practice using a silver-tongue in order to get out of sticky situations using persuasion or intimidation. Stealth and lock picking were also touched upon in the video, which is posted below courtesy of Gamespot. Reckoning is out next month on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360. A demo for the game is also now available on Xbox 360 for Gold members.

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38 Studios has released the full list of minimum and recommended PC specs for Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning. Got the belly rig to run it? Find out below. The EA Partners-published RPG launches on PS3, 360 and PC on February 7 in the US and February 10 in the UK.

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EA has announced limited editions from 38 Studios and Big Huge Games’ RPG, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning.

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Ken Rolston, lead game designer at Big Huge Games, has said he feels RPGs are reaching “a boon period”, but because there’s still plenty of variety on the market at the moment, the genre isn’t tired just yet.

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“I think what a single-player game is, it is a tailored experience for the single-player, and there may be publishers who are rightly aware that if you had more multiplayer stuff in it, they would have some virtues, but I know that the single-player game experience is the one that we can best tailor to the player right now and that there are technical and asset reasons why we can’t gracefully make them all go co-op player or multiplayer. So for the short term, I believe the single-player game has an unambiguously solid market. There are people who prophesise that they’re going to make their MMOs better narrative experiences. I’m sure that they’re right and I’m sure that they will only make them, say, 5% better. And that’s still not like 100% it’s all about you, Mr. Player. I’m pretty confident single-player still has a real big market. – Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning’s Ken Rolston to Industry Gamers.

A new combat video for Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning has been released, and it provides more information on different fighting styles and combat modes in the RPG. Kingdoms of Amalur is due on PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in February 2012. Watch the video below, courtesy of Gamespot.

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Kingdoms of Aamlur: reckoning rejects the RPG convention of picking your class before you’ve had a chance to play the game.

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EA is aiming to show why you shouldn’t judge a game by its genre with this action-RPG hybrid. Hands-on impressions and words from EA’s Ben Smith.

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A new trailer outlines the unusually freeform but story-driven character progression of Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning.

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Jumping on board an increasingly prevalent industry trend, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning roped real-world actors into ping-pong ball covered suits to build its cinematics.

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Big Huge Games and 38 Studios have found a neat work-around for the dilemma of scaling difficulty levels and gating.

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