So, I've been playing Dead Space 3, and it got me curious about what news there is for Visceral's upcoming game. For those unaware, it's the second of two announced Star Wars games, following the multiplayer-only Battlefront. There's barely any information out there, but the wealth of speculation on the part of "official" news sites, drawn from Twitter posts and the off-handed remarks of voice actors is kind of hilarious. Here's what we know:

It's almost certainly about a bounty hunter or smuggler, possibly Han Solo, possibly Boba Fett. Regardless, it seems pretty squarely to be a game that reflects the Edge of the Empire corner of the setting.

Voice actor Nolan North said "It's a lot like 1313 (a cancelled game about Boba Fett on Coruscant)" which means it could be a game starring Boba Fett and/or take place on Coruscant and/or be a linear action/adventure game and/or involve bounty hunting. Or Nolan North could be talking out his ass.

Jade Raymond from Ubisoft is supervising, so it might be like the open world sorta stealth but mostly collecting things Assassin's Creed series.

But Amy Hennig is writing, so it could be a linear action-adventure game like the Indiana Jones-influenced Uncharted series.

But also the director at Visceral posted pictures from their old game Mercenaries, so it could be a big open world sandbox with an emphasis on blowing things up.

And also it's produced by Electronic Arts so there will probably be mandatory multiplayer and microtransactions.

Regardless of the lack of information, I'm actually psyched about it. I can't think of a good smuggling or bounty hunter game in the history of the franchise, and Visceral has a pretty solid track record. Dead Space 3, despite getting a bit of a bad rap from players, had a pretty great weapon customization system that would be an ideal fit for a bounty hunter game. Uncharted in space (which seems to be the direction some people are assuming it will go) isn't terribly appealing to me, but comments by Visceral employees and Raymond's presence would suggest we might be getting something less linear. Something between pure mission based game play and a vast open world would be ideal. My big concern would be whether or not Visceral has the chops to make a setting that's as wild and weird as Star Wars should be. Mercenaries and Dead Space were both a blast, but the former consisted of pretty generic deserts, and the latter funneled you through largely interchangeable grimy sci-fi ships and facilities. That said, I can think of a lot of things they've done right that would be perfectly suited to a big, bold Edge of the Empire style game.

Bioware is rumored to be working on a game too. If they can give us something solid and jedi oriented, then we'll have video game equivalents for all the FFG core books.

I would love a Star Wars Mercenaries style game though if they go that route I would rather have Mercenaries style play on planets mixed with Elite or Tachyon style play in space. I'm getting sick of all the Star Wars games that focus strictly on planetary play. The name of the setting is Star Wars not Planet Wars after all but its been over a decade since we had a non-mobile or web space focused game or even a mixed space/planetary game.

I would love a Star Wars Mercenaries style game though if they go that route I would rather have Mercenaries style play on planets mixed with Elite or Tachyon style play in space. I'm getting sick of all the Star Wars games that focus strictly on planetary play. The name of the setting is Star Wars not Planet Wars after all but its been over a decade since we had a non-mobile or web space focused game or even a mixed space/planetary game.

I'd love to see frenetic dogfights, but I'm not sure Visceral's the best studio to handle that. I'm actually not sure if there's any studio under the EA umbrella with experience in flight sims. That's a genre that hasn't seen much love in a long time.

As for Mercenaries, it could be a lot of fun, but I'd generally prefer to see something a little tighter. Huge sandboxes like Just Cause and Mercenaries are a blast, but I don't think they're especially prone towards immersion in a narrative or the setting.

(Don't get me wrong though. I certainly wouldn't kick a Grand Theft Landspeeder game out of bed)

I would love a Star Wars Mercenaries style game though if they go that route I would rather have Mercenaries style play on planets mixed with Elite or Tachyon style play in space. I'm getting sick of all the Star Wars games that focus strictly on planetary play. The name of the setting is Star Wars not Planet Wars after all but its been over a decade since we had a non-mobile or web space focused game or even a mixed space/planetary game.

I'd love to see frenetic dogfights, but I'm not sure Visceral's the best studio to handle that. I'm actually not sure if there's any studio under the EA umbrella with experience in flight sims. That's a genre that has.n't seen much love in a long time.

As for Mercenaries, it could be a lot of fun, but I'd generally prefer to see something a little tighter. Huge sandboxes like Just Cause and Mercenaries are a blast, but I don't think they're especially prone towards immersion in a narrative or the setting.

EA disbanded the two studios that I know of which they owned that had space sim experience. Still if they have no experienced space sim developers I would rather they try with inexperienced ones then have to wait until EA loses the license