The Overly-Long Title Reckoning is at Hand! [Updated! x 2]

If you're into videogames then you've probably heard some buzz about Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning which comes out tomorrow. I've seen some adds, read a gripe that it was too long, and heard an interview* with the studio founder (and baseball hall of famer), Curt Shilling. These caused me to check out the demo, which sold me completely.

The easiest way to describe Reckoning is by saying that it's a lot like Skyrim, but less bleak and with much, much more interesting combat. Granted, it will take a lot to top the feeling I got the first time a dragon swept over the roofs of a small village and landed in front of me, queuing up that awesome music, but I'm more than willing to give it a chance. 

Being that the game isn't out yet, when I bought it earlier today it technically qualified as a "Pre-Order." Since I don't usually buy games at full price, this is the first time I've been in the position to choose between the various pre-order swag offers that have become so popular. At first I was just going to get the game off Steam, but all it came with was some  items for Team Fortress 2, which I don't really play. I had heard on a podcast that there were some bigger offers out there, so I Googled it and found this to really be the case. 

There were individual offers from Origin, Walmart, and BestBuy, plus even more stuff if you bought from Gamestop or Amazon. Nothing for Steam. Normally I dont think this would have bothered me so much, but the in-game items do look cool! In the end, I decided I would go with a digital copy from Gamestop because it gave the most (and most interesting) stuff. Turns out Gamestop also has a Steam ripoff called Impluse. So at this very moment I'm downloading Reckoning on Impulse. With some luck, maybe I'll be able to play it at midnight eastern time, meaning I can sneak in a few minutes at 10pm. 

I don't trust Gamestop for crap, so I made sure my login info was unique and didn't save my credit card number. We'll see how it goes having another platform just for one game. Hopefully I don't regret it. 

*That link takes you to the podcast page, which has a various options for listening. The interview is the last 28 minutes of the cast, starting at the 67 minute mark. 

*****UPDATE!*****
So, I got the game all downloaded and installed and what pops up? A prompt to download and install Origin, that's what! I guess I knew this would happen one day, but it made me wonder what would have happened if I had bought it on Steam. I'm never really heard of buying a game on Steam and then needing to install Origin. Anyway, I appear to be partway through installing the game again in Origin. I really hope I'm doing this right.... More updates to follow.

*****UPDATE! x 2*****
The game is installed and ready to go! I'm pretty sure I've got two copies installed, but I think I'll be able to erase one of them after an initial activation or something. However, in good news, Origin or whatever tells me that I can fire the game up Monday, February 6th 2012  at 22:00. Woot.