The Best Games of 2012

3. KINGDOMS OF AMALUR: RECKONING

At first glance, Kingdoms of Amalur would seem like a straightforward RPG: gather items, slash the bad guys, and level-up ad infinium. So why the hell is it so hard to stop playing? For one, the storyline grabs you from the first scene: You start the game as a corpse in a pile of bodies collected from the battlefield, are brought back to life by a scientist, and set out to discover who you are. Spawn creator Todd McFarlane worked as art director, and the Amalur universe history comes courtesy of best-selling fantasy author R. A. Salvatore. Got about 60 hours to kill? It certainly won’t feel that long.

Kingdoms of Amalur is the first release from developer 38 Studios, which is helmed by Curt Schilling (yes, THAT Curt Schilling), who just so happens to be an uber fantasy geek and hardcore gamer.