Kingdoms Of Amalur: Re-Reckoning arrived late last year, offering a chance at re-redemption for the cult fantasy Re-PG. Now Re-Reckoning has received its first new expansion in nearly ten years. Called Fatesworn, it's out now and offers a new, six-hour storyline.
]]>There's a real hint of necromancy about THQ Nordic. The mega-publisher has resurrected a few games over the past few years, with Kingdoms of Amalur probably being the one that made me go "Huh?" the most. Well, there’s more "huh" to go around, because they just opened up a new merchandise store and are selling Kingdoms of Amalur cushions with the game map on them.
]]>If you're in the market for a new hack and slash RPG adventure, you're in the wrong place, because Kingdoms Of Amalur: Re-reckoning is technically an old hack and slash RPG adventure. The remaster of the 2012 game came out today, bringing slightly nicer graphics and gameplay to an old fan favourite. There's a cheeky 50% discount on Steam right now too, if you already own the original game. If only THQ Nordic had given it a slightly nicer name. I've already triple-checked that I haven't written "re" too many times.
]]>Seeing as not many people played Kingdoms Of Amalur: Reckoning in the first place, let's just pretend that the impending remaster is a brand new game. Forget that it came out in 2012. Forget that it flopped. Forget that it took its creators down with it. Forget that this all made a disappointed John Walker shout "Why didn't everyone play Kingdoms Of Amalur?!" Breathe in, breathe out, and... we're a clean slate.
Oh hey look, here comes the first so-called "gameplay trailer" for Kingdoms Of Amalur: Re-Reckoning, which might look a fair bit like another World Of Warcraft-esque MMORPG but is actually a singleplayer game. That could be neat!
]]>THQ Nordic today announced a release date of September 8th for Kingdoms Of Amalur: Re-Reckoning, their re-release of the 2012 RPG, plus a little surprise. They've revealed plans for a brand new Amalur expansion due in 2021, though all we know for now is its name: Fatesworn. The re-release doesn't seem drastically different but if it leads to newness, that sounds grand.
]]>I have long described Kingdoms Of Amular: Reckoning as one of my favourite games. It has also been a long time since I checked. And as you can see, despite its status in my gaming life, I still can't spell its name correctly. AmAlUr. Am-ah-lure.
With the very welcome recent announcement that its most recent owners, THQ Nordic, are remastering it, I thought I'd return to give them a few pointers of what needs fixing. And that does not include the troll rolling.
]]>It seems a listing on the Microsoft Store went up a little earlier than intended yesterday, as it's revealed that a remaster of Kingdoms Of Amalur: Reckoning is on the way. The hack and slash RPG originally came out in 2012, and despite having a pretty adoring fanbase, it didn't quite reach the level of success players thought it would. Perhaps it'll do a little better this time around, though, when the remaster releases August 18th.
Oh, and it's named Kingdoms Of Amalur: Re-Reckoning, because of course it is.
]]>If you believe (incorrectly) that there's no such thing as bad publicity, you may be impressed that people are still talking about publisher THQ Nordic GmbH. Their 'Ask Me Anything' Q&A session on 8chan - an infamous image-board permanently delisted from Google for hosting suspected child porn - got people chattering. Unfortunately it's the kind of chatter that has brought parent company THQ Nordic AB out of the woodwork to publicly apologise for the incident to "group employees, partners and consumers", although it's a predictably rote and half-hearted statement.
]]>"We're doing an 8chan AMA and we have no idea why," announced THQ Nordic on their Twitter account earlier this evening. If you're not aware, 8chan is an imageboard website which has been de-listed from Google search results for hosting "suspected child abuse content," and which is associated with Swatting and Gamergate.
THQ Nordic's marketing director has since apologised and claimed ignorance, but both are hard to believe.
]]>The cruel legal realities of this world threaten once more to crush John's gentle heart. Despite reports last week that THQ Nordic had snapped up the intellectual property rights to his much-loved Kingdoms Of Amalur from defunct developers 38 Studios, those wanting to play a re-launch shouldn't hold their breath.
Any remaster or re-release of Kingdoms Of Amalur: Reckoning will likely need authorisation from EA, who still hold publishing rights to the original game as confirmed by Eurogamer in an email exchange with THQ Nordic. Still, a re-release isn't THQ's only option.
]]>I don't know what I did to deserve this, but one of my long-time gaming wishes has come true! THQ Nordic has bought the much-muddled rights to the completely wonderful Kingdoms Of Amalur from whatever remains of 38 Studios. Could there... could there be another Amalur game?!
]]>Have You Played? is an endless stream of game recommendations. One a day, every day of the year, perhaps for all time.
Few better games have been given a tougher break than Kingdoms Of Amalur: Reckoning [official site]. A truly wonderful epic, bright, and action-led RPG, it was screwed from every direction. It deserves your attention still.
]]>This is too sad. Kingdoms Of Amalur, the basis for one of the best RPGs in years, has failed to sell in 38 Studios' assets auction. As reported by Polygon, no one was prepared to put up what current owners Heritage Global Partners were willing to take, despite another $320,000 being raised for other sales, including the Rise Of titles. But poor old Amalur remains on the shelf of the money-eating firm, unloved, and undeveloped.
]]>There's a game you probably didn't play. It came out last year, it's a genuine epic, a vast, elaborate RPG with a sprawling story and vast numbers of sidequests. It features superbly in-depth combat, has huge variety in character design and levelling, and lets you instantly wander from the main plot and explore its enormous world to your own entertainment. It's Kingdoms Of Amalur: Reckoning.
]]>The saga of 38 Studios continues to be an eternally springing font of sad. A wrenching 379 layoffs are, of course, the centerpiece of this Shakespearean tragedy, but further fallout has revealed incredibly sketchy mortgage practices for relocated employees, and now, Joystiq's reporting that Reckoning 2 was in pre-production before Curt Schilling's money Titanic collided with an iceberg that was also the apocalypse. And, to make matters - in retrospect - worse, it sounded fairly promising.
]]>Generally, the weekend is life's pause button. But occasionally, things happen. Strange things. Vile things. Things involving incessant backstabbery and good people falling on impossibly hard times. Oh, wait, I'm just describing yesterday's Game of Thrones (wasn't it great?). No, no, the real world weekend actually yielded a bloom-lit bounty of good news. In short, Kingdoms of Amalur developer 38 Studios (and subsidiary Big Huge Games) managed to at least temporarily ward off the Grim Reaper using that $1.125 million it wasn't able to previously muster. Even so, this is just the beginning, and - somewhat terrifyingly - 38 still plans to plug the gaping wound in its bank account with an MMO. I've heard those things aren't exactly cheap.
]]>When we last glanced in Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning developer 38 Studios' direction, trouble was afoot - but it was tiptoeing, perhaps while disguised as some form of shrubbery. Now, though, things have taken a whiplash-inducing turn for the worst. In short, Joystiq reports that former baseball star Curt Schilling's unlikely venture has borrowed a total of $75 million from the state of Rhode Island - with a $1.125 million payment due on May 1. 38 - possibly now named after the amount of money in its bank account - couldn't pay. Today, however, the company gave it a go anyway. Unsurprisingly, that didn't end well.
]]>Kingdoms of Amalur creators 38 Studios, who are based in Providence, Rhode Island, are apparently in talks with that state about their financial difficulties, as reported by this Providence newspaper. Superbly-named governor Lincoln Chafee said: "We're always working to keep Rhode Island companies solvent, and that's what we're doing with 38 Studios."
]]>Well, in the game, at least. The latest add-on for Kingdoms Of Amalur: Reckoning will invite you to "Explore the city of Idylla, which magically floats in the sky above the Teeth of Naros." What are those things? Well, one is a city that magically floats in the sky, and has twenty new quests in it, and the teeth are "a forgotten land" which apparently constitutes "a harsh environment named after an ancient troll god". Mmm! It is also home to the Kollossae, "a devout race of giants". Bless. This $10 expansion will be available on April 17th.
]]>The Legend of Dead Kel, the first big DLC for swords and conversation RPG Kingdoms of Amalur is arriving tomorrow, letting you loose on the treacherous island of Gallow's End in search of haunted pirate booty. It's a chunk of story-driven content with a focus on player housing, featuring "the most expansive player housing option yet," and if there's one thing I need in my life, it's a holiday home with options in a location that sounds like where Satan goes for the weekend.
Honestly though, the new trailer below begins with "At the edge of the frostbreak sea lies a sprawling isle of mist and stone" and crikey! It might be the dragon-obsessed teenager grabbing at my brain stem and taking control but stuff like that just does it for me. Flowery descriptions of windswept fantasy lands full of decay and adventure, that's what it's all about.
]]>The news beacon of Electronic Arts has been lit, signalling the approach of a large story-driven DLC for Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning. The expansion, called The Legend Of Dead Kel, takes place on the island of Gallow's End, where you can "claim ownership of a vast personal estate" and also kill new monsters with new and interesting weapons. There's been lots of work put into the player-housing stuff, and EA explain that "Gravehal Keep is more than just player housing, it's a massive estate with multiple buildings and a full retinue of retainers, each with their own back stories, side quests, perks and quirks." So that told us. We thought it was just player housing. Stupid.
]]>Having poured many fevered hours into the release version of Kingdoms Of Amalur: Reckoning I can now ask you not to judge it entirely on its weak, wonky demo. Have a read of my review, and then mix the two experiences together to create a potion of critical insight +3.
Here's wot I think.
]]>We've already had a taste of Kingdoms' blank stares and fighting-game type combat in the demo, but a new trailer shows much more of the world, and rather fancy it looks, too. It shows how the stories are told, as well as showing off some of the more impressive locations. There's some emphasis on the side-quests, and it promises "secrets" scattered across the landscape, presumably to remind folks that this is an open-ended RPG like those other ones.
The game is out February 7th in North America and February 10th for the Kingdoms Of Europea.
]]>38 Studios/Big Huge Games' promising but awkwardly-named RPG Kingdoms of Ham Sandwich: Baconing is only three weeks away now, and you can treat your EYES and EARS and FINGERS and WHATEVER OTHER ORGANS YOU USE TO PLAY GAMES WITH to a fairly sizeable Amalur demo from the Steams right now. So far it's content I already played for a preview a while back, but it's well worth a look yourself, to grasp the tone of the game (exposition-heavy fantasy wibbling, I fear, but generously the cutscenes are skippable), the look and the slightly weird-feeling controls, as well as exploring the different playable races, the beard-tastic character customiser and the first touches of combat/skill specialisation.
]]>You know, I didn't bat an eyelid at the Mass Effect/Dragon Age pre-order crossover stuff, because it seemed like a random lark within Bioware games. Not so! And not limited to the preemptory pounds, either. EA look like they're going to try the cross-pollinatory approach across a bunch of their other games, too, starting with Mass Effect and Kingdoms Of Amalur demos. We mentioned this briefly yesterday, but there's now a video (below) detailing precisely what you'd be getting for playing either game's demo in the other game. This could be some clever meta-commentary on how trad sci-fi and fantasy settings are basically two sides of the same coin, of it could be a mad marketing ploy dreamt up to shift more units: YOU DECIDE!
]]>It's yet another Kingdoms of Amalur video. There have been so many that I almost skipped straight past this one, continuing on my way through the internets in search of something more succulent. An unfathomable urge caused me to linger, however, and to watch. I'm glad I did because it's the first time any footage of the game has managed to convince me there'll be more to do than stabbing, skewering and spellocide. Sneaking, robbing, persuading, charming and exploring. Those are the kinds of things heroes get up to when they're not committing murders. Take a look-see and then stick around for news of an imminent demo.
]]>What I presume will be the final 2011 "insider" video for Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning focuses on its action-RPGness, which means talking about the combat and the stuff that articulates the combat, the art and animation. It's quite an interesting angle to take, actually, looking at how the animators have to try and portray the fight 'em up mechanics that the designers are trying to put into it. And it looks good. There's no doubt that Kingdoms will be quite a light Swords & Conversation sort of a game, and I'm certainly interested to see exactly where they take it, particular in terms of how open their open world actually is.
]]>Bonjour! Je suis le happy de vous bring les nouvelles il ya un nouveaux Royaumes de Amular: Reckoning vidéo, et pour some raisons, il est en français. Eh bien, il a subtitles français. C'est sous!
]]>Footage of Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning makes it clear that the fateless hero will spend a great deal of time ending the destinies of almost everything he comes across. As Alec's hands-on experience taught him, having an open world doesn't mean an RPG has to be about exploring and collecting vegetables. It can also be mostly about killing things, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. To that end, here's a video showing a variety of things being killed in a variety of ways. It doesn't make me care a jot about the no doubt lore-laden terminology describing elaborate special attacks, but it does make me want to try them out.
]]>The latest dev diary from the Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning team (which you can see below) details a bit about how the class system works. We've heard a bunch about this before, it's their "destiny" system that tries to let players make decisions about their character creation as you progress, rather than being defined by your character choice at the start, and then only slot in a few attributes. It basically turns the tradition on its head, allowing you to unlock new destinies (read: classes) depending on how you spend points on the various skill trees. There's also some fancy in-game footage of what is shaping up to be an interesting-looking, if very trad looking, RPG.
]]>I’m writing this about Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning while sat on the train on the way to go play a few hours of Skyrim, which means I’m suffering more than the usual degree of mental discombobulation. Which open world is which? Which was the one with the Red Legion? Which was the one where I was battling rock trolls atop wobbly rope bridges? Which was the one where I was compared to a god? (Oh yeah, that one’s both of ‘em.) That’s the thing with vast, free-form RPGs: there’s only so much room in your head. Usually we only have one at a time to contend with, but 38 Studios’ surprisingly sandbox roleplayer is due to arrive at about the time we’ll have finished climbing Skyrim’s icy mountains and be ready for something else. If all goes to plan, we’re going to be spoilt for choice.
]]>Pleasingly-looking RPG Kingdoms Of Amalur: Reckoning (which Alec got to have a look at in detail recently and will be writing about soon) has a new trailer, with a lot more detail about what's going on in the world, and what you can expect to see and do a "hero" of that world. Go take a look, below. (Via Blue.)
]]>Twenty-two minutes! That is longer than some wars. It's a big watch, but I have to admit I am 67.34534% more interested in this fantasy RPG combat game now, having seen a little more of what it offers outside combat, combat, combat. I mean let's not be tricky about this: there's a lot of killing beasts going on in the breadth of these twenty-two minutes, but there's some other stuff within its heaps of character customisation and wandering about in the hub sections of the game. It is also lavishly pretty in places. Possibly even a bit too much lipstick, some would say.
Full thing below, courtesy of the great beast of IGN.
]]>38 Studios' fantasy RPG Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning will be swooshing its magical weapons in our direction on Feb 7th 2012, according to today's announcements from its publisher, Electronic Arts. What does that mean? Well, it means 'epic' fantasy action, much of which will involve hitting monsters in the face with the aforementioned tools of chopping. 38's bossman Curt Schilling apparently claims that the game will be an experience half way between God Of War and Oblivion. That sounds like quite the marriage.
I can also confirm that it has kobolds in, because they're picture above. A trailer, meanwhile, is below.
]]>Kingdoms Of Amalur: The Reckoning hasn't been seen all that often, and if it's not something you've heard of you should probably expect to. 38 Studios, a team headed up by former baseball bloke Curt Schilling, took an enormous loan from Rhode Island to move their offices over there, which means Amalur's kingdom is a cash-rich one. As demonstrated by the below...
]]>I'm still a touch nervous about Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning after the developers announced it's the precursor to an MMO set in the same universe, but EA's just released the game's PAX demo online and the game does look like fun. The action seems weighty and robust, and the attack effects are explosively pretty without getting in the way of things (click here to see some explosive prettiness getting in the way of things). The world looks oddly empty, too, but never mind that. See for yourself after the jump.
]]>There are some fairly big names associated with Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, including Todd MacFarlane and R.A. Salavatore. It's an action RPG from 38 Studios (a studio which is owned by Curt Schilling), and the debut cinematic (which was shown at SDCC10 this week) also mentions that Ken Rolston (of Elder Scrolls games) is involved in the design. It's apparently a kind of action precursor to 38's real project, which is an MMO set in the same universe. Anyway, go browse the lavish official site, and check out the trailer below. Interesting stuff. The game is due "Fall 2011," apparently.
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