Midway working on Area 52, Criminal

For a top-secret government facility, Area 51 is pretty infamous. And for an unannounced sequel to a popular franchise, Midway's Area 52 is not being kept under especially tight wraps, it seems.

New job postings on GameDev.net this week indicate that Midway Games is planning both a sequel to its 2005 first-person shooter Area 51, as well as a new game known for the moment simply as Criminal.

The job postings don't reveal much about the games, but there are scraps to divine. For instance, a listing for an Area 52 animator position lists familiarity with the Unreal Engine and first-person shooters as a bonus qualification. A listing for a visual effects animator for the game says the hired candidate will be working on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 platforms and says experience with physics-based systems is a plus.

As for Criminal, the position for an environment modeler on the game says Midway is looking for someone with the ability to quickly pick up next-gen tech like the Unreal Engine 3, with experience modeling and texturing "photo-realistic subject matter." The posting for a cinematic lead artist for the game says the company wants someone to make real-time and prerendered cinemas "for cutting-edge games for PS3, Xbox 360."

Midway had not returned a request for comment as of press time.