When you think of an RPG, you think of dragons. Loot. Fireballs. Goblins. Worlds where entire ecosystems change every two miles. Basically, a whole load of stuff that's make-believe, and despite the frequent "medieval" setting, about as far from actual history as you can get.
So an in-development RPG at Czech studio Warhorse, which is setting out to take historical accuracy seriously, sounds very interesting.
Warhorse is led by Dan Vávra, who directed the first Mafia and was lead designer on the second game. He's joined by other developers who, aside from work on the Mafia games, have titles like Operation Flashpoint, ArmA and UFO: Aftershock on their resumes.
The game, which is so early in development it doesn't even have a name (or proper media), will be running on CryEngine 3, and "is historical and takes place in entirely specific real places". So real that the landscape is being modelled on satellite maps, which have been converted to CryEngine 3.
The game will be open-world, but rather than cramming everything in "so that every ten metres you could find something fantastic or at least could be attacked by a monster every ten seconds", they're taking a more realistic approach to the world, which it's hoped will be roughly the same size as that found in Oblivion.
You can get more information on where the team is headed with the project. Given the talent involved and the ambition on display, it's certainly something I'll be keeping an eye on.
A LESSON IN CARTOGRAPHY IN POTATO LAND [Warhorse]