Our industry is inherently driven by franchises and their various sequels, prequels and side stories. When a new IP such as The Last of Us gets announced then, I make it my personal mission to get particularly excited about the usual innovation and novelty I associate with brand new franchises. Let me share my unhealthy enthusiasm with you, by giving you the top ten facts you should know about the recently announced The Last of Us.
It’s a new IP
It’s nice to seem some new faces from time to time
All of the major titles of the past few months have been sequels. Not just sequels at that, but ones that have failed to innovate. Modern Warfare 3, Assassin’s Creed Revelations, Super Mario 3D Land etc. are all great games, but they have done nothing new for their respective franchises. Hearing about a completely new intellectual property has served as a refreshing piece of news then, and one that gives me hope for the truly original titles we can look forward to in 2012/13.
It’s made by Naughty Dog
As in “that” Naughty Dog
Back when I was first getting into gaming, Naughty Dog were a company solely associated with classic platforming, most notably the Crash Bandicoot series. With their work on the Uncharted games though, they have become synonymous with massive production values and genre defining action, accolades they are sure to earn once more with their work on The Last of Us. Expect their expertise in the industry to be made apparent once again.
It’s a PS3 exclusive
Say what you want about the PS3, the machine is damn capable
Exclusives may prevent a game from hitting home with as wide a demographic as a cross platform title but, in the case of PS3 exclusives, it often gives developers that extra bit of processing power to play around with. When it comes to raw graphics, the PS3 trumps the other consoles of this generation. With this in mind, we can safely assume that The Last of Us will be graphically astounding.
