HBO is working on a television adaptation of the bestselling video game The Last of Us. It will be written by Craig Mazin, the creator of highly acclaimed TV series Chernobyl, together with Neil Druckmann, the creative director on the game and its forthcoming sequel, according to the Hollywood Reporter. The series is set to follow the events of the original game, which takes place in a United States devastated by a deadly parasitic fungus that transforms infected victims into monsters. The action follows grizzled survivor Joel, who is hired to transport seemingly immune teenage girl Ellie out of a quarantine zone and across the country to a lab where a cure can be developed. Praised for its bleak, violent narrative, the game was a major hit on PlayStation, with a sequel due in May.

When times are tough it's worth remembering that at least we don't actually live in a video game. Since the very beginning, designers have been imagining the digital demise of the human race, with classics such as Missile Command and Space Invaders pitting players against incalcuable odds in seemingly futile battles for survival. But the great thing is, they're just games, right? Here then, are some of our favourite apocalyptic scenarios from gaming history, all of them reassuringly fanciful and completely unlikely. Survivors of a devastating armageddon emerge from their shelters to discover an almost unrecognisable Washington, populated by war-hungry tribal leaders with no formal political experience.