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.

Street Fighter x Tekken: Comic Con 2011 Trailer

I am currently looking forward to so many games coming out this fall and winter that I actually had to make this sentence longer so I could keep linking. Lately though, I haven’t been able to think about any other upcoming release more than Street Fighter x Tekken (pronounced “Street Fighter CROSS Tekken”); I’ve been thinking that I’d really like to invest some serious, dedicated time into getting good at Street Fighter games, and this iteration looks like it’s going to be so much fun.

So does Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 of course, but it’s basically a giant expansion pack for a game that’s still relatively fresh in my rotation. The anticipation is definitely there, but I feel like I can only be so excited about a game that, in essence, I am still playing. Even if Capcom didn’t tweak the gameplay or add any new modes, I’d pick up uMvC3 just for the added content, but it’s going to be great to sit in a lobby of friends and actually get to see what’s going on.

That being said, I really hope Street Fighter x Tekken ships with a spectator mode—third time’s the charm, right? In all seriousness, I actually think I like the idea of returning to 2v2 combat so I don’t have to think about assists more than the actual characters themselves, and it’ll be refreshing to be rid of that air launcher button that took MvC combos from already crazy to downright ludicrious. Launchers do make a return in SFxT, but it looks like they’ve been scaled back a bit to a more manageable level, serving as a sort of tag-link in mid combo.

Perhaps most exciting is the fresh blood that’ll be joining the Street Fighter cast for the latest entry in Capcom’s crossover catalog. I’ve never been even remotely good at Tekken, but it’s sort of been a secret ambition of mine because I really like the cast. It’ll be really interesting to see how the Tekken characters control in a Street Fighter universe where heavy punch and heavy kick exist, though. Also, will Tekken fighters suddenly gain the ability to launch projectiles so they don’t feel imbalanced, or perhaps they’ll deal slightly more melee damage than their Street Fighter rivals?

I’m hoping that these tricky decisions will find natural solutions as the Capcom team helps the Tekken roster make the difficult transition from 3D to 2D fields. Prior to the unveiling of SFxT, I always thought this to be such a Herculean task that I would laugh at myself whenever I would fantasize of a crossover, but now that it’s actually happening, the potential for new technical mechanics is just as exciting to follow through development as the rosters are, and I think there’s a lot to be said for that when we’re talking about a genre whose steps into next generation were paved by more graphical overhaul than gameplay innovation.

The other big difference that sticks out in my mind is that Tekken has always seemed more open to grapple-based fighers who employ a variety of wrestling moves in their repertoires, whereas current-generation Street Fighter games have…Zangief. Okay fine, and Haggar, but personally I wish he was the ‘Gief anyway. Does this mean that fighters who want to play as King better start brushing up on their double-full-circles now in order to even stand a chance against the versatile shotokans? As long as the Tekken team isn’t oversimplified to the point where down-forward-anything does everything, I’m open to learning.

There are still a lot of crucial variables and subtle nuances that need to be addressed before I’ll be completely sold on Street Fighter x Tekken, but I’ll definitely be following it very closely until its projected March 2012 release date. If this crossover goes as well as I hope, maybe we’ll start to see some more obscure new challengers approaching! (Note: that was a joke.)

With E3 2011 in full force this week, I’ve found it incredibly difficult not to spam tumblr with hundreds of new screenshots, each with their own overzealous interjection. If you know me in person, chances are you’ve been bombarded all week with “DUDE, CHECK THIS OUT” and “OH MY GOODNESS, YOU GOTTA SEE THIS” every time you happen across me in a stroke of total mistfortune; this game, however, is simply too cool to remain level-headed about.

Enter Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure. Developed by Toys for Bob and published by Activision, Skylanders looks to be a co-op-oriented action/adventure game in which you take control of Spyro and a band of sidekicks, some of whom are making their triumphant returns while others are new to the series. While initially a Wii-exclusive title, eventual releases for Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 are planned. 

Toys for Bob goes on to explain that there will be an experience and level-up system which indicates character progression, and lots of loot for Spyro and his compatriots to grab as they romp around battling evildoers. This is starting to sound more and more like it might be yet another dungeon crawler that’ll completely captivate me. And I haven’t even gotten to the good part yet.

What sets Skylanders apart from traditional co-op action/adventure games is the way players will go about obtaining new characters. Toys for Bob is a studio comprised entirely of hobbyists who have utilized some very unique and special skills to bring a completely new innovation to their new game: toy integration.

Skylanders will ship with a device dubbed “the portal” that will connect directly to the console and function as a sort of “reader” for a line of figurines that will be tied into the game. When players acquire new figurines, they can place them atop the portal (which glows in color associated with each character’s respective element) and import them directly into the game, where they will arrive ready and willing to lend their unique individual skillsets to Spyro’s cause. Toys for Bob assures they’ll all play differently enough to warrant purchasing more figurines.

This fall, expect a $70 launch package that contains the game, the portal device, and three figurines to get players started with their Skylanders adventures. More characters will arrive in expansion sets later down the road--their numbers, however, will depend on a variety of variables.

Much to my own chagrin, Skylanders is already under fire and being hailed as “another Activision cash-grab” (*ahem* CoD:Elite). I don’t think that’s fair; players who like the game and are willing to spend the extra money will build a tangible collection of awesome-looking figurines and expand their gameplay with additional characters. Provided the figurines aren’t outrageously expensive (I would be okay with paying about as much as I would for some typical DLC) or spaced so far apart that the game dies before stabilizing after a hopeful groundswell, I think this is a really, really neat idea. As a lifelong fan of both obscure peripherals and nerd-culture figurines, count me in once this launches on Xbox 360—I call the troll-faced earth giant!

Fuck you, let the dragon fight ensue.