Author: Trafficblast

Rockstar Games has announced job listings for new, unannounced titles, which the company has described as “next-generation” projects. Whatever the creators of Red Dead Redemption 2 and Grand Theft Auto V have planned next, it looks like we won’t see it until the release of whatever comes after Xbox One and PS4.

First noticed by Gear Nuke, Rockstar India is hiring for technical artist positions, including a senior environment artist, to join a team tasked with creating “next-generation worlds for some exciting upcoming projects.” The India branch is also hiring a vehicle artist, and the description sounds like it could be for something like GTA 6. Also, Rockstar New York is looking for a MoCap tools developer to help create and build “upon the next generation of MoCap tools and pipeline,” as well as a technical face developer to “help research and develop new technology for future titles.” Rockstar Toronto is also hiring for projects that use next-generation technology.

For fans of Rockstar or people familiar with the process with which the company makes games, these announcements might not be a surprise. Rockstar spends many years developing new titles–the original Red Dead Redemption and its sequel released nearly a decade apart–and the company still hasn’t finished with Red Dead Online. Both Microsoft and Sony have hinted at their next consoles possibly being announced by 2020 and released soon after, so Rockstar pushing out another game before the end of the Xbox One and PS4’s lifecycles seems unlikely. It makes sense for the company to be looking ahead to whatever is next.

Rockstar’s last game, Red Dead Redemption 2, is our Game of the Year for 2018. When describing the title, our senior reviews editor Kallie Plagge wrote, “It’s hard to shake the kind of connection you develop with Red Dead Redemption 2’s world and characters. It’s a game that can try your patience, for sure, but it simply wouldn’t be the same if it didn’t. It’s an unforgettable experience that challenges your expectations as often as it meets or exceeds them, and there’s no question that it’s our Game of the Year.”

CES 2019 is underway, giving us a glimpse at some of the new tech products that are on the way in the coming year and beyond. HTC was the latest company to host its CES press conference, and it made a number of big announcements during the event, from revealing a new Viveport subscription model that offers unlimited access to VR games to unveiling its next VR headset, the Vive Cosmos.

If you weren’t able to follow along with the press conference, we’ve rounded up all of the major news from HTC’s CES 2019 event below so you can catch up on the company’s biggest announcements.

Vive Pro Eye

HTC kicked off its press conference by announcing the Vive Pro Eye. Described as “an evolution in the enterprise VR space,” the headset is geared more toward business than gaming and integrates eye tracking natively to give users “greater accessibility, gaze-oriented menu navigation.” No release date or pricing details have been announced. [Full story]

Viveport Infinity

HTC announced it is launching a new model of its Viveport subscription streaming service, dubbed Infinity. As its name suggests, the service will offer subscribers unlimited access to the Viveport catalog for a monthly fee. Infinity is scheduled to launch on Vive Day, April 5, although no pricing details have been announced yet. [Full story]

Vive Reality System

Viveport Infinity wasn’t the only VR service HTC announced during its press conference. The company also revealed the Vive Reality System, a “reimagining of Vive core software” reminiscent of the PlayStation Home social space. Users will be able to to connect with each other and watch videos, play games, and do “other creative experiences” together. No launch details were announced. [Full story]

Vive Cosmos

HTC capped off its CES 2019 press conference by unveiling the Vive Cosmos, the company’s next VR headset. While very few concrete details were announced, it appears the goal of Cosmos is to address some of the flaws most VR headsets have faced. HTC also says the Cosmos will provide “absolute comfort” and be “easy set up.” As with its other announcements, no release date or price point were shared, although the headset’s reveal trailer teases it’s “coming soon.” [Full story]

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Veteran Elder Scrolls composer Jeremy Soule is “currently not involved” with The Elder Scrolls VI. Responding to questions from fans, Soule said on Facebook that he “would never turn [his] back on [The Elder Scrolls],” but at this stage he is not lined up to do the music.

It sounds like it is still very early days for The Elder Scrolls VI, so it might be the case that Bethesda hasn’t yet approached any composers to do the music for the game.

“While I’ve not said much about this out of courtesy to Bethesda, I would never turn my back on TES, and I believe that my involvement would hinge on a creative decision on their part and where they want to take the franchise,” Soule said. “To confirm, I am currently not involved with TES VI.”

Soule composed the music for The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, while he also contributed to the score for The Elder Scrolls Online. So it makes sense that fans would be wondering if he would also do the music for The Elder Scrolls VI.

Outside of The Elder Scrolls series, Soule did the music for the Guild Wars series and multiple Harry Potter games, as well as BioWare’s Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. In November, Soule said he would like to work on the music for Amazon’s Lord of the Rings show.

The Elder Scrolls VI was announced at E3 2018 alongside another new Bethesda game, the single-player RPG Starfield. That game is coming first, and then The Elder Scrolls VI, but Bethesda hasn’t announced any release dates.

“[The Elder Scrolls VI] is big and it’s ambitious, but also … the most important thing to underscore is that the timeline between products that you get from BGS is not any different than it has been historically just because we’ve talked about two games after Fallout 76,” Bethesda boss Pete Hines told GameSpot.

“I try really hard to manage people’s expectations. It’s not like ‘Fallout 76 this year, Starfield next year, and then TES6 the year after.’ The timeline isn’t any different. What’s different is just trying to be transparent and say, ‘Don’t freak out, the next thing we’re doing is single-player [in Starfield], [and] we are making TES6.”

The Elder Scrolls VI may be so far off that it won’t launch until a new wave of consoles is released, though nothing is certain at this stage.

Alien fans might be getting more than just a new mobile game in 2019. A new tweet from the Alien Anthology Twitter account, which represents 21st Century Fox’s franchise, suggest the company means to expand on the story started in 2014’s Alien: Isolation in more ways than one.

The Alien Anthology account tweeted that more news is on its way for the franchise, specifically concerning Amanda Ripley, the daughter of series protagonist Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver). That followed the announcement that Amanda would star in a new mobile game called Alien: Blackout, which is due out on Google Play and the iTunes App Store on January 24.

Amanda was the player character in Isolation, which took place 15 years after the events of the original 1979 film. In that game, Amanda went with a Weyland-Yutani team to Sevastopol Station, a distant space station in the process of being decommissioned, after the flight recorder was recovered from Ellen’s destroyed ship, the Nostromo. While Amanda eventually got hold of the recorder, she also went through the same thing as her mother, when an alien began picking off the people of Sevastopol one by one. Alien: Blackout seems to pick up the story from there, with Amanda trying to fend off another alien in a place called Mendel Station while still pursuing answers about what happened to Ellen.

The tweets from Alien Anthology teasing the new game also use the hashtags #AmandaRipley and #ReadPlayWatch, which suggests there’s more to do with Amanda’s story than just play it. In fact, the latest tweet emphasizes the “watch” part of the hashtag with capitalized letters, unlike the other tweets.

Just what “watch” might mean (or “read,” for that matter) is anybody’s guess at this point. The Alien franchise has long been more than just movies, expanding into comics and novels as well as games. The franchise has seen something of a resurgence recently with the release of two prequel movies, Prometheus and Alien: Covenant, but it’s not clear whether there will be a follow-up to director Ridley Scott’s Covenant. Amanda’s story provides another avenue that it seems the franchise is set to explore, in some form or another.

Still, while fans might have hoped for a full sequel to Alien: Isolation rather than a mobile game, at least it seems that Amanda Ripley isn’t being totally discarded from the Alien story.

During CES 2019, HTC announced Viveport Infinity. Infinity is the first subscription model for Viveport that allows you to have unlimited access to the service’s catalog of games.

The current Viveport subscription models are for a three-month, six-month, and 12-month plan which each allow you to play a total of 15, 30, and 60 games respectfully. For each plan, you’re allowed to play five new games every month. These plans essentially create a figurative time limit to completing titles, but they also offer a way to play through a collection of Vive and Oculus VR games for a fraction of the full retail price.

HTC has not yet announced a price point for Viveport Infinity, although it may be more than the current USD 12-month subscription plan–which costs $80 USD in total. Infinity is scheduled to release on Vive Day, April 5.

Viveport offers dozens of games. Some are VR versions of older games, such as Fruit Ninja VR, but there are plenty of original titles as well, like Transpose, Zomday, and Vestige. New titles are added on a fairly regular basis, and games can be individually purchased as well–allowing you to keep them forever.

During CES, HTC also announced Vive Pro Eye, which is a business-focused headset that tracks your eyes, allowing you to control your system without the need for a controller. HTC also introduced Vive Reality, which is a virtual space for people to interact in, as well as watch videos, play games, and create experiences together. The company also announced Vive Cosmos, another new headset, that’s capable of playing VR on the go.

HTC Vive users will be able to experience their virtual reality headset in a new way thanks to Vive Reality System, a reinvention of the headset’s core software that creates a world around the user, allowing them to engage with the software in a more immersive way. Vive Reality System was announced during CES 2019 and conjures memories of PlayStation Home, a virtual world social world that Sony launched on PS3.

Like PlayStation Home, Vive Reality System is very much focused on social interactions and all that entails. This means that users will be able to connect with each other and partake in activities such as watching videos, playing games, and “other creative experiences,” according to HTC.

It seems many of the interactions users will have will be through a “Lens,” which effectively gives them a window into other virtual worlds and applications running on the hardware. These can be thought of as pop-up windows for applications, much like those used on personal computers or mobile devices, except in a completely virtual world.

What HTC showed of Vive Reality System at CES was described as a “glimpse” at it, which means it’ll likely show more in the coming weeks and months. The company did not announce when Vive Reality System will launch.

Following the announcement of Vive Reality System, HTC finished up its press conference by revealing Vive Cosmos, the newest VR headset in its stable. Vive Cosmos will offer “comfort, easy setup, and will require no external tracking,” according to HTC. It will also allow users to experience VR at home and on-the-go. HTC has promised to reveal more about Vive Cosmos soon.

During the presentation HTC also showed off the Vive Pro Eye, a new enterprise-focused version of the headset that features native eye tracking technology. This, HTC says, will deliver “greater accessibility, gaze-oriented menu navigation” and effectively eliminate the need to use controllers to get around the interface.

In terms of gaming, it announced Viveport Infinity, a subscription service that, for a monthly fee, will grant members access to a library of games. For more on CES you can check out GameSpot’s hub and also head over to CNET for comprehensive coverage of everything going on at the show.

During its CES 2019 press conference focused on virtual reality, HTC made a series of announcements revealing what’s next for the company. It capped off the event with the reveal of the Vive Cosmos, its next VR headset.

You can get a quick look at the headset in the video below; the goal of Cosmos appears to be addressing some of the flaws that most VR headsets have faced to this point. HTC claims it provides “absolute comfort” and “easy set up.” Additionally, it offers the Vive experience without the use of any external tracking devices. Cosmos is usable both at home or on the go, according to HTC.

Unfortunately, little else was shared about Cosmos, including a release date or price point. The video does say it’s “coming soon,” and we know Vive Day, April 5, will mark the release of another of HTC’s announcements from today, Viveport Infinity. Whether Cosmos is coming quite that soon or not remains to be seen.

Without getting into specifics–really, nothing at all was shared about the device–HTC teased that there are hidden aspects to Cosmos not apparent from the announcement. “There’s so much more to Vive Cosmos,” HTC said in a tweet, “[and] we’ll be sharing more details soon on this exciting new VR kit.”

In another development at CES, HTC announced the Vive Pro Eye, an enterprise-focused headset that offers eye-tracking, negating the need for the use of handheld controllers. That, too, is currently without a release date or exact price.

Epic Games has been introducing a new item or weapon to Fortnite on a near-weekly basis since the game’s Battle Royale mode became a global hit, and that trend will continue this week. Ahead of the title’s latest update, the developer is teasing the arrival of yet another new weapon: the Suppressed Sniper Rifle.

The gun is listed as “coming soon” in Fortnite’s in-game news feed, confirming it’ll arrive as part of this week’s content update. “Strike at your opponents quietly with this suppressed bolt-action Sniper,” the accompanying description reads. You can take a peek at the new weapon below.

Players won’t have to wait too long to try out the Suppressed Sniper Rifle. Epic announced on Twitter that Fortnite’s next content update will roll out on all platforms–PS4, Xbox One, PC, Nintendo Switch, and mobile devices–on Tuesday, January 8 at 5 AM PT / 8 AM ET / 1 PM GMT.

The most recent item to come to Fortnite was the Boom Box, which arrived last week as part of the 7.10.2 update. Unlike most other items in the game, the Boom Box doesn’t deal damage directly to other players; rather, it functions as a counter for structures, sending out a blast of music that destroys those within its blast radius.

In other Fortnite news, Epic has extended the 14 Days of Fortnite holiday event, bringing it back on all platforms for another week to make up for the confusion surrounding its original end date. The event will be available until January 15, during which time all of its challenges will be available to complete. You can find the full list of challenges and tips on how to clear them in our 14 Days of Fortnite roundup.