38 Studios is Working on a Game, Apparently, Afterall (Kingdoms of Amular)

[sickrubik]

I guess I lose my bet on 'vaporware'.

EA Partners, 38 Studios Announce Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning

The game, led by a creative all-star team of Spawn artist Todd McFarlane, best-selling fantasy author R.A. Salvatore, and Elder Scrolls III and IV lead designer Ken Rolston, is billed as a classic RPG with a new level of intense action combat never before seen in the genre.

It has more graphics than any other game! Also, needs a long name.

[Murgos]

3 years to get to a title announcement?  Don't give up hope, I've seen far more capable ventures still go poof like a fart in the wind.

[Jobu]

Remember this is their console game that they acquired/spun-off/started up(?) when they bought Big Huge Games. This is not the big, secret MMO but it shares the same IP and setting... I think?

[Typhon]

I think that thread is for the MMO/Curt's game company, this thread is for the single-player game they are just announcing?

[UnSub]

Remember this is their console game that they acquired/spun-off/started up(?) when they bought Big Huge Games. This is not the big, secret MMO but it shares the same IP and setting... I think?

If it is the same title 38 talked about, the plan did seem to be to build some kind of awareness for the IP by releasing a single player title, then release the MMO later.

[Bill]

I'm digging the off centre 1999 Photoshop tutorial splash graphic. HYPED.

[Sky]

At least the title isn't generic. I mean, who doesn't love Kings? Although I think Reckoning might be too niche, catering to a southern-only market.

[Lucas]

http://www.reckoningthegame.com/

(now with video teaser in the "Explore" section, featuring a VERY oversized hammer).

Oh, and screenshots too feature a REALLY oversized hammer!! (website is getting HAMMERED as well!!!)

BIG pic  

Feeling da hammer, yet?

[Malakili]

featuring a VERY oversized hammer)

Well, to be fair, they are BIG HUGE Games.

[Typhon]

See, with a hammer that big, aren't you essentially saying that you have a super hero game?  Or a demigod game?  As a human, if you tried to wield that you'd rupture... well, everything.  And then that monster would eat you.

May as well allow the characters to pick up car sized boulders if you are going to have hammers that big.

[Rendakor]

Because players wielding huge hammers is less unrealistic than players throwing fireballs. 

[Malakili]

See, with a hammer that big, aren't you essentially saying that you have a super hero game?  Or a demigod game?  As a human, if you tried to wield that you'd rupture... well, everything.  And then that monster would eat you.

May as well allow the characters to pick up car sized boulders if you are going to have hammers that big.

Its been enchanted with a spell of holding this isn't so bad as it should be, or something.  Notice that you are picking on the giant hammer and not that apparent ability to call forth some sort of blade of blue energy from his hands/arms.

[Abagadro]

It's the Segway of Slammination!

Maybe the head of the hammer is just really close to the camera.

[Typhon]

In a word, yeah, because in all cases these are stylistic choices and the HUGE HAMMER LOOKS STUPID.

A normal-sized hammer with glowy effects looks cool.  A gargantuan hammer just looks stupid.
A fireball flying out of someones hand looks cool and isn't such a leap from someone with a RPG.

And then there is this -  if you could create a spell that could change the apparent mass of a huge hammer to make it so that you could wield it, couldn't you also change the apparent mass to whatever it was that you were hitting with a NORMAL sized hammer?  So, if you could do both, WHY would you carry around a HUGE FUCKING HAMMER?  ... it's about the penis somehow, isn't it?  I'm so ashamed.

I'm really bored today, which is why I have time for topics that have been beaten to death with huge hammers.   

lol, "Segway of Slammination"

[Rendakor]

Big weapons look fucking cool. I don't get all the hate on huge swords and giant axes lately. Would you really him rather be wielding a small weapon "but it glows so it hits harder"? 

[Lucas]

And don't forget POINTY, SHARP leggings, folks.

http://content.reckoningthegame.com//sites/default/files/concept-art/reckoning_concept5.jpg

I have this sick image in my mind with the hero returning home after a long day of fighting with those things on, putting the Slamminator on the couch and saying "hello honey, I'm home!". Yeah, silly me :P

[Abagadro]

The facial expression on that troll is cracking me up.

"Hey, no fair, no one said anything about metal high heels to the face!"

[WayAbvPar]

Big weapons look fucking cool. I don't get all the hate on huge swords and giant axes lately. Would you really him rather be wielding a small weapon "but it glows so it hits harder"? 

They look like the wielder (and probably the artist) is suffering from tiny penis compensation syndrome.

[Segoris]

Big weapons look fucking cool. I don't get all the hate on huge swords and giant axes lately. Would you really him rather be wielding a small weapon "but it glows so it hits harder"?  

They look like the wielder (and probably the artist) is suffering from tiny penis compensation syndrome.

So.... made in Asia?  


I'm okay with big weapons, only for me they need to fit with the rest of the game. You can't have all regular realistic size weapons and what not then have some random huge weapon. Though if the theme is over the top and all the weapons are bat shit crazy, I"m alright with it if they look cool.

Edit: Also, this:

Because players wielding huge hammers is less unrealistic than players throwing fireballs. 

Arguments for realism always seem pretty out of place when there is magic.

[Engels]

Not really. Every fantasy/sci-fi story has to have a 'rooting' in a believable physical world. It's been long accepted that magic is part of a fantasy world, while melee combat traditionally follows the basic physics we're all bound to. It creates the nice contrast between the real and the imagined. When you start fucking with the actual physics we're all familiar with (lifting objects...a hammer for example), you break the contrast and make the whole thing entirely indigestible.

It saddens me, to be honest. I thought that what with RA Salvatore, the asshattery that's so polluted our fantasy games would have been culled.

[Rendakor]

Uh, what? You're implying that mages get to throw fire, but warriors aren't allowed to be super strong. Do I need to start pointing to examples of "physics defying" shit in iconic fantasy games? Characters in fantasy games are just that, fantastic. The fighter can lift big things, and smash them into people. The mage can turn people into toads. The priest can bring back the dead. Why is the first wrong, but the second two are acceptable suspensions of disbelief?

[Engels]

Dude, super human strength is alright, but that hammer weighs more than him! Even with super human strength, he'd need to have some magnetic boots while standing on a metal platform to lift it! That's where it breaks the boundaries of "believability". You can't have a believable, immersive environment if -everything- is up for grabs.

[Ingmar]

I'm with Engels. The line between superhero stuff and more traditional fantasy is basically drawn around this sort of issue. I strongly prefer a 'realistic' setting myself in this genre. "But it has magic" has never been a good excuse.

[Malakili]

I'm with Engels. The line between superhero stuff and more traditional fantasy is basically drawn around this sort of issue. I strongly prefer a 'realistic' setting myself in this genre. "But it has magic" has never been a good excuse.

I prefer a low magic grittier realistic setting as well, but I just can't find it in myself to split hairs on giant hammers when there is magic.  I know you don't think its a good excuse, but I don't find it too difficult to suspend my disbelief on this particular thing when people are casting spells like nothing.

[Aez]

I love your thread title.  The real name is pretty bad but Amular would have been hilarious.

[dusematic]

It saddens me, to be honest. I thought that what with RA Salvatore, the asshattery that's so polluted our fantasy games would have been culled.

Really?  I'd equate R.A. Salvatore's writing ability to be somewhere on par with this: 






The graphics don't scream WoW enough for me. 

[Margalis]

People sure are getting worked up about a big hammer.

Maybe it's made of something light. Or maybe nobody cares whether or not a ridiculous fantasy game has some pretense at simulation.

I see another problem with the screenshot - where is his food? How can he go around the countryside fighting with a huge hammer with nothing to eat! IT DOESN'T MAKE SENSE!

[Pennilenko]

Thar be neckbeards on the loose.

[Lt.Dan]

It saddens me, to be honest. I thought that what with RA Salvatore, the asshattery that's so polluted our fantasy games would have been culled.

Really?  I'd equate R.A. Salvatore's writing ability to be somewhere on par with this: 
The graphics don't scream WoW enough for me. 

You mean RA Salvatore, creator of Emo-elf Munchkin's Wetdream?  No pollution there.

[dusematic]

I don't think you meant to quote me there.

[Falwell]

Shitty trailer but I like the screen shots. The engine looks very Darksiders-ish which isn't a terrible thing.

[Azazel]

Hm.

New Generic fantasy game is Generic.


And so the world turns...

[Bill]

Hm.

New Generic fantasy game is Generic.

And so the world turns...

Couldn't care less if it's generic so long as the combat system is genuinely something new and interesting, which I doubt - but here's hoping...

Even better if the combat system in this singleplayer game translates at all into the MMORPG... what am I saying?

Ok fine, I'll settle for overhead damage numbers with a sexier font, now that's progress.

[Typhon]

I'm not done talking about his big hammer! (heh)

I see a dude/chick in a dress throw a fireball from his hand and I go, "ok, he's a wizard of some sort, we're in fantasyland". 
I see a dude/chick in leather kilt and not much else with a legitamtely-sized sword, axe or hammer and I go, "ok, we're in fantasyland and this dude is going to be crazy good with that sword, axe or hammer".
I see a dude/chick in spandex and I say, "ok, he's probably going to pick that car up in just a minute, we're in superhero land".
I see a dude/chick in asian garb and I think "ok, he's a martial arts master and pretty soon he's going to be flying around and kicking ass".
I see a dude/chick in black asian garb and I think "Ninja! cool!"

In each of these cases as soon as I see the visual queues, I'm good to go with wherever we're going in that particular world and I don't need a lot of explanation as to the way things work.

I see a dude/chick in leather kilt and not much else with a super-sized sword, axe or hammer and I go, "sigh, someone didn't have a tight grip on the art director.  Does the size of hammer indicate it's power?  How does he lift it? Magic?  Is he super-strong?  Are all weapons oversized?".  But what really galls me is that there is then no discussion about the oversized weapons.  None at all.  They're just "weapons".  The warrior has this semi-truck on his shoulder and he's looking at you like, "What? I don't understand what you are talking about.  Is there someone behind me with a huge hammer?"

I'm all about variety and mixing things up and not taking style choices too seriously BUT THE HAMMER HEAD IS AS BIG AS HIS ENTIRE TORSO.  It's just not right.

[Draegan]

Jesus fucking Christ Typhon.  Why don't you go lick a window instead.  It might be more productive.

It's a fucking big hammer.  Who cares.