The Last of Us - The Cordyceps Fungus

The developer Naughty Dog is imprinted on a generation of gamers, not least because their name blared out of our TVs every time we booted up Crash Bandicoot 3. They are the minds behind Crash, Jak and Daxter (one of my personal favourite game series of all time), and more recently, Nathan Drake of the Uncharted series.

Now, however, the studio are working on a brand new game, The Last of Us. Due to be release in May of next year, it's a post apocalyptic zombie story, only without the zombies. Naughty Dog have taken a genre that's considered a little tired, and given it an exciting new twist. Let's have a closer look.

The Set-Up:

You play as Joel, a black market dealer under the heel of the oppressive United States governmental regime. Two decades before the events of the game, a fungus known as cordyceps killed millions of people, resulting in the collapse of society. Those infected with the fungus today are inventively known as the Infected, and have giant fungal growths coming out of their bodies. The Infected are controlled by the fungus to spread spores as far as possible. It's not nice for anyone involved.

inFAMOUS - Lightning Powers

I think it's fair to say we've all day-dreamed about having super powers at some point in our lives. Either that or someone has asked "HEY WHAT SUPERPOWER WOULD YOU HAVE" to kill the time. I always chose flight and telekinesis, because I am both adventure-seeking and lazy. What most people probably don't say is "lightning powers" because truth be told, they're a little defunct in every day use. There aren't many times a day I think to myself "Gosh, I wish I could shoot some lightning out of my hands right about now."

Unfortunately, for Cole MacGrath, the protagonist of 2009's inFAMOUS and the 2011 sequel inFAMOUS 2, lightning powers are exactly what he has. Stuck with them after a plot device explodes in his face, Cole used his powers for good or evil, depending on the mood of the player. But is it possible for a human being to display such incredible abilities? Let's find out. 

The Set-Up:

You, as courier and every-man Cole MacGrath, are gifted with incredible electricity based powers. With these new found abilities, the player can either choose to help the people of Empire City, or gain more power, in the classic "superhero or supervillian" dichotomy. Also, there's some stuff about time travel and a plague and some other things. This is all irrelevant thought, we're here for lightning hands.

Metal Gear Solid - FOXDIE

Ah, the Metal Gear Solid games. A legendary series of stealth games with more social commentary than your average newspaper. The first Metal Gear Solid game was released in 1998 on the Playstation, and the most recent instalment in the series, Metal Gear Solid 4, was release on the Playstation 3 in 2007. With another two games on the horizon (Ground Zeroes, and the unconfirmed-but almost-guaranteed-to-happen Metal Gear Solid 5) it doesn't seem like we will be seeing the last of Solid Snake any time soon.

The Set-Up
In the original Metal Gear Solid, you play as Solid Snake, a soldier who is brought out of retirement in order to neutralise a group of terrorists (as so often happens with these things). Whilst on your mission fighting shamans, psychics and ninjas, you find that several people mysteriously die of heart attacks when in the presence of Snake. It is later revealed that Snake is infected with FOXDIE, an engineered retrovirus that has been designed to only target and kill specific individuals.