This week’s Video of the Week is the debut trailer from 38 Studio’s “Project Mercury” now called Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning.  I am going to play with some VOTW formats over the next few weeks, I want to be able to add insight and possibly education to these posts.  Let’s break this down:

38 Studio’s is owned by former major league pitching star Curt Shilling.  Kingdoms of Amalur is a collaborative effort between R.A Salvatore of Forgotten Realms fame, Todd McFarlane, the creator of Spawn and Ken Rolston, who was the lead designer for The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, arguably the best RPG ever – easily top 5.  Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is being designed at Big Huge Games, which is now owned by 38 Studio’s.  Big Huge are best known as the designers of the Rise of Nations series.

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is and open world, single player RPG to serve as the initial entertainment salvo in an onslaught of games, toys, comics, books and just about anything else Curt Shilling can throw at you and slam on the shelves of Walmart, EB Games and Gamestop.  I actually suspect we will see a book, or comic or something else BEFORE the game comes out, just for marketing purposes since the game is a year or more away.  The RPG is a only a pre-cursor though to the big fish – the MMORPG which is also in development and likely not to see the light of day until 2012 or 2013 – I would be SHOCKED if the MMO was released quickly after the RPG, then again, Nintendo DID announce 2 new DS’s on the same day, so stranger things have happened.

To sum this bad boy up – it of course looks promising.  There is a TON of cache when you drop R.A Salvatore, Todd McFarlane and Ken Rolston on the same project so I am 99% sure it’s not going to be a bad game.  The one thing I’ve been thinking constantly while following this for the last year or two, is that Curt Shilling is a gamer – he wants to play, and like – his own game.  I am thinking that with the names, and the will this will be nothing less than a top effort.

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