You can officially color me excited as EA have just announced that the upcoming fantasy RPG Kingdoms of Alamur: Reckoning will be getting a demo on January 17th.  The reason I’m so excited? Alamur is being created by a team composed of legendary RPG names and is looking absolutely amazing. Of course it’s still to early to tell if it will live up to expectations, but that’s what demos are for! And anyway, you can never have enough open-world fantasy RPGs in my eyes.

Reckoning’s demo will allow players to create and customise their own character and then play through the tutorial so that they can get the basics mastered. After that the demo will give you 45-minutes to venture out and explore the games open world and embark on a major quest. Not bad for a demo, really.

But that isn’t all, because EA have also announced that by playing the Kingdoms demo gamers will unlock two pieces exclusive gear to use in Mass Effect 3 when it releases in March, both of which are designed the man himself, Todd McFarlane.

“We are thrilled to have the opportunity to deliver this massive one-two punch with Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning and Mass Effect 3. We wanted to provide fans of the Mass Effect franchise with a unique set of rewards for diving into the expansive universe of Reckoning,” said Curt Schilling, Chairman and Founder of 38 Studios.

So what are these two unlocks that you can get your hands on? Well, these:

• Reckoner Knight Armor: This armor will maximize damage done in close-quarters combat while a beefed–up power cell feeds energy into weapon systems to increase projectile velocity.
• The Chakram Launcher: This weapon uses a fabricator to manufacture lightweight, explosive ammunition discs. This weapon is earned after completing the Reckoning demo and watching the trailer at the end.

But that’s still not all as EA also announced that playing the Mass Effect 3 demo gamers can also unlock two exclusive items to play with in Kingdoms of Alamur: Reckoning. Currently there’s no word on exactly when we can expect the Mass Effect 3 demo, nor what will actually be in it. Damn you, Bioware, damn you.

“We are excited to be collaborating with 38 Studios to bring pieces inspired by the Mass Effect universe into the world of Reckoning and to have items designed by Todd McFarlane in Mass Effect 3,” said Dr. Ray Muzyka, General Manager of EA’s BioWare Label and Co-Founder of BioWare. “This is an awesome way to reward our fans with unique content that not only looks cool, but also delivers some great in-game benefits.”

As for what cool toys you can get your hands on by playing the Kingdoms demo:

• N7 Armor: Players can unlock special armor inspired by Commander Shepard’s iconic N7 battle armor including Helm, Cuirass, Gauntlets, Chausses and Greaves.
• Onmiblade Daggers: A holographic blade stemming from Commander Shepard’s Omni-Tool, the Omni-blade allows players to stab enemies in close combat. Once players install and play the Mass Effect 3 demo, they will unlock the daggers.

Of course this is all just a clever marketing ploy by EA to ensure that you try out both demos and hopefully end up buying both games, but considering all the effort it takes to bag these shiny items is to download two demos that I would have downloaded anyway, you can count me in.

Now, enjoy these lovely pictures: