LucasArts - Working on an Open-World RPG?

Several sites have noticed a job ad from LucasArts looking for a "gameplay engineer" for an "open-world RPG". There's no other significant detail but Star Wars is the focus of their internal development studio, so unsurprisingly several sites are suggesting a "real" KotOR 3. We'll have to wait to find the answer but here's a snip from the newsbit at Eurogamer:

The maker of Star Wars The Force Unleashed is hiring for an openworld role-playing game.
A job ad for a gameplay engineer, Tweeted by LucasArts' Clint Hocking, mentions the genre of the game.
Hocking was the creative director of Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory and Far Cry 2 at Ubisoft.
He left in May 2010 after nearly nine years at the company to work as creative director for LucasArts on an unannounced game.
The job advertisement calls for console development experience, suggesting the mystery game will at least appear on home consoles.

Thanks, Frozen Fireball!
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Kotor 3 would be welcomed by me, alot.

oh I'd be so happy if it was kotor 3.

I hope they'd use the SW:TOR engine and the environments for that.

Could it be that SW:TOR is actually meant by this term of [an] "open-world RPG" ?

I'm not sure; I just wonder.

@Alrik….nooooooooo! SW:TOR has terrible cartoony graphics :-o Every time I see footage I cringe - it reminds me of those terrible Star Wars cartoon series. No, if they do a Kotor3 there are several proprietary high-end engines they could license..i hope.

Indeed, swtor feels too cartoony and shiny for my taste. Not only that the gameworld seems to lack detail and feels like it was drawn with map generator instead of by hand. I know we are talking about star wars and thus there is supposed to be lots of vibrant scenes and vivid colours, but they should definitely tone down the rainbows a bit. I don't want colours and glimmer to jump on my face.

Kotor should have more realistic look and feel similar to classic trilogy setting. In swtor everything looks brand new even if there is supposed to be a war going on. I can't see dust or dirt anywhere in those trailers. It feels too clean almost clinical.

Hm, strange, personally, I found the SW:TOR graphics relatively good-looking - for my taste - but I must also admit that I could never come nowhere near to a monitor to actually watch them …
On the Games Com and elsewhere, I mean.

Originally Posted by ikbenrichard
Kotor 3 would be welcomed by me, alot.

Originally Posted by Dez
oh I'd be so happy if it was kotor 3.

Noooo!

Personally, I'd strongly prefer a fresh story. Besides, if this is really going to be an open-world RPG, it has to be a lot different from the KotOR games anyways.

Originally Posted by Alrik Fassbauer
I hope they'd use the SW:TOR engine and the environments for that.

SW:TOR is based on a heavily-modified HeroEngine. I think its' only intended for mmo games. Bethesda incidentally is also using it for their unannounced mmo.

Originally Posted by booboo
@Alrik….nooooooooo! SW:TOR has terrible cartoony graphics :-o Every time I see footage I cringe - it reminds me of those terrible Star Wars cartoon series. No, if they do a Kotor3 there are several proprietary high-end engines they could license..i hope.

They have recently redesigned the character models. Check out the latest screenshots. To me it looks pretty much similar to the original kotor.

Maybe it'll be an Indy RPG or Monkey Island RPG. That said, I find those other Job Openings interesting as well, esp. entries for an Action/Adventure project and Aerial Combat title (X-Wing/TIE Fighter ?!).

@Alrik: TOR's graphics really aren't that good, esp. the animations. Hope you aren't thinking about those cinematic trailers that got shown a lot at GC. Those are amazing. Blur did a great job. But that outdated (albeit internally tweaked) early version of HeroEngine… no, not good. Wonder why they didn't upgrade to a newer build.

Originally Posted by lef
Hope you aren't thinking about those cinematic trailers that got shown a lot at GC.

No no no no no no !

Well, I'm not so much of a "graphics whore", so my demands are a lot lower that most people, I guess ?

I assume that's why these graphics look fine for me …

Edit : Looking at the latest screenshots, I must really say I find these graphics great !

I don't understand what people have against them ? For my eyes, I can see not much of a fault with them …

But again _ Maybe that's just because I'm not so much demanding concerning graphics …

I'm much more demanding regarding a story, though …