Widescreen: Sony steals the spotlight this weekend with 'Last of Us Part II'
In the early 1990s, the home video game console wars had two main combatants: Nintendo, which built an empire with the help of an Italian plumber stomping on turtle shells, and Sega, whose 16-bit Genesis machine briefly stole Mario's thunder thanks to a certain speedy hedgehog.
In 1995, a third name entered the fray with a console of its own after failed attempts to work with both Sega and Nintendo. The Sony PlayStation's games were stored on CDs, not cartridges, and introduced users to three-dimensional worlds built with polygonal graphics. The upstart system would introduce console gamers to franchises that are still flourishing today: "Tomb Raider." "Resident Evil." "Grand Theft Auto." "Crash Bandicoot."
Twenty-five years and three console generations later, the PlayStation 4 has shipped more than 110 million units, and its owners are about to play the most anticipated game in that system's seven-year life span just as Sony is gearing up for the holiday release of the PlayStation 5.
Delayed from its original April release amid the beginning of the pandemic, "The Last of Us Part II" arrives in stores (both physical and digital) Friday, June 19, with a Metacritic score of 96 thanks to reviews using words like "milestone" and "masterpiece." It's a sequel to a 2013 game set after a zombielike apocalypse that raised the bar for writing, acting and emotional impact in the medium. The tale of a grieving father (Troy Baker) protecting an orphaned teenager (Ashley Johnson) who's immune to the parasitic fungus sweeping the world impressed screenwriter Craig Mazin, who will follow last year's "Chernobyl" with an HBO series adaptation of "The Last of Us."
The sequel was first teased by developer Naughty Dog back in 2016 and will be among the last major releases before the next video game console generation begins this holiday season. I'll be taking time out from crisscrossing Ancient Greece in "Assassin's Creed Odyssey" this weekend to get on the hype train myself.
The next generation
Sony gave us a glimpse of the future last week with its PlayStation 5 reveal event, which showed us a parade of trailers for new games and the console itself. What it did not reveal was the price or the exact release date - Sony appears to be playing chicken with Microsoft, which promises to have its own Xbox Series X on shelves in time for Christmas.
The trailers included the eighth "Resident Evil" game, a superpowered adventure from the makers of "Final Fantasy XV" called "Project Athia," something called "Destruction Allstars" that looks like "Rocket League" by way of "Overwatch," and plenty of moody sci-fi vistas.
Three games stood out:
"Horizon Forbidden West"
Sony saved the best for last, closing the 75-minute webcast with the first look at the "Horizon Zero Dawn" sequel. Arrow-slinging, robot-riding hero Aloy (Ashly Burch) heads to a San Francisco that has been claimed by the ocean - "Horizon" unfolds a thousand years in the future - in her quest to learn more about our civilization and the artificial intelligence that destroyed it.
Among my favorite games of all time, "Horizon Zero Dawn" demands a worthy sequel, and the PS5's graphical capabilities will certainly deliver beautiful sights.
"Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales"
The character who took center stage in the animated Oscar winner "Into the Spider-Verse" now also takes the video game reins from Peter Parker.
Its 2018 predecessor boasted a better story than any of the live-action Spidey movies and briefly put us in Miles' shoes; now he's the one who will be swinging around a gorgeously detailed digital Manhattan and fighting bad guys. Let's hope the gameplay doesn't get stale this time around.
"Stray"
Humans are no more and robots have taken over - where have we heard this one before? But this offering from Annapurna Interactive promises to be something quite different thanks to its hero: A cat. Yes, a cat.
I don't know how you make a cat the protagonist of a post-apocalyptic video game, but I can't wait to find out.
• Follow Sean (from a distance) on Twitter at @SeanStanglandDH.