Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning—Big Huge Games’ upcoming action-RPG—is just under a month away from its February 7th release, and I couldn’t be more excited about it. I’m willing to bet before even playing the demo scheduled to drop on Tuesday, January 17th that it’s going to be in my top five of 2012! If you haven’t already been following this one, it’s being co-developed by former MLB pitcher Curt Shilling’s 38 Studios and features writing from renowned Forgotten Realms fantasy author R.A. Salvatore, art direction from cult-classic Spawn creator Todd McFarlane, and game design by the former directors of Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Talk about an all-star line-up.

Not that I needed any convincing, but Bioware and EA have teamed up to bring Mass Effect 3 and Kingdoms of Amalur together with in-game items as rewards for trying out each game before it releases. According to the official Reckoning website, if you download and install the Amalur demo, you’ll unlock the “Reckoner Knight armor” in Mass Effect 3 when it releases later in March.

If you like what you’re playing next Tuesday and manage to complete the Amalur demo, you’ll be rewarded with a ”Chakram launcher” for your Shepard. Starsiege Tribes much?

If you really like what you play on Tuesday and decide to purchase Amalur in three weeks—I know I will—you’ll also receive an EA online code to be redeemed for Shepard’s battle armor for use in Kingdoms.

On the other hand, if you download and play the Mass Effect 3 demo tentatively scheduled for release later in January, you’ll be rewarded with “Omniblade daggers,” also for use in Amalur.

All these items look really snazzy, and they’re for use in two great games that are going to be worth playing if you have any interest in role-playing or action titles. The best part is that they’re rewarded simply for checking the games out for free before they’re even released!

You can currently pre-order Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning at Gamestop to receive both the fate-touched weapons and exclusive destinies choice bonus packs, to get your character started off with a bang; or from Amazon to receive the ultimate treasure hunter pack, which includes a dousing rod that reveals collectible consumables on your map. Given my love for alchemy in games, I think I know which I’ll be choosing.