The Last of Us - the new apocalypse scenario

    The Last of Us is a post-apocalyptic that has a different twist then other apocalypse games.  The game is set 20 years after a fungus, not a virus, infects the brains of humanity, killing the infected and reanimating their dead bodies.  Now this may sound like another zombie rip-off, but the fungus in the game is based off of a real fungus that infects ants and kills the insect.  The fungus is called Cordyceps.  It then takes over the ants body to sprout and spore more fungus.  Now the fact that this game is based loosely off a real world probability of a real apocalypse is..well...nice.  Basically in the end, nature takes its own land back.  The rest of humanity is governed by the Military in Quarantine zones.  

   So you are given control of a character named Joel, a black market dealer that deals weapons within the quarantine zones.  According to many videos that I have seen, an unexpected event takes place that has Joel making a promise to one of his life long friends, that he will take care of this little girl Elllie.  She is a 14 year old girl that was born after the collapse of civilization.  All she knows is inside the quarantine zone.  After the unexplained event Joel and Ellie leave the quarantine zone trekking across America while being pursued by the Military.  Their mission is unclear as they traverse across overgrown cities taken back by nature.  Along the way the come across scavengers that live in the wilderness and attack people they find wandering about. They also come across the Infected, the zombie like creatures that have been infected by the fungus.  Like zombies these creatures are run on the basic desire to feed, and what better meal then people! 

    So after watching lots of videos of this game, that is exclusively for the PS3, I can say that I would buy a PS3 just for this game.  The game looks amazing!  The processing power of the ps3 allows the game to have these gorgeously fallen apart cities.  Overgrowth of trees and plants every where.  Cars and debris litter the streets.  The game seems to be very open with exploration, which allows you to have multiple ways of assessing a situation.  Also you can search for supplies among the debris and the fallen bad guys.  Confrontations with the Scavengers make moving about the environment important, allowing for flanking and sneaking up behind these baddies.  These bad guys are really bad and aggressive.  In one scene from the E3 gameplay Joel is knocked to the ground when a scavenger tries to push Joel's head on to a shard of glass.  Combat is a combination of melee and shooting, but bullets are scarce.   According to Naughty Dog, firing a gun is a good way to announce your presence which will alert more bad guys.
   I don't know much more about this game other then what I can gather from the videos I have seen, but I can say this game is worth waiting for.   My only disappointment is that it is a PS3 title only.  So us Xbox fans will be left in the dark with this amazing title.