TOPICAL

Activision's latest trailer for Call of Duty: Black Ops II seems to pitching for right-wing reassurance, a not too surprising sales tactic given that the last few entries in this record-breaking franchise have been heaving with branded assault rifles and Jeep product placement. Tune in for a vague run-down on the Latin American bad guy who has wooed the American left-wing, leaving the country ripe for a kicking. Stupid pinkos! You can't trust the disenfranchised poor! Luckily, some beardy secret service psychopaths armed with billion dollar prototype weapons are on hand to make right with might. I wish I was making this up.

It's interesting that this Raul Menendez chap, rather than spearhead his own high-tech army of unmanned drones, has to high-jack Uncle Sam's. Is this how America deals with its position as a military hyper-power? The only possible way to level the playing field, and have the US resemble something like an underdog, is to cede their TekWar bullshit to the insurgents - in this case a hacker Hugo Chávez. Also, is it me or does Menendez bare more than a passing resemblance to Alex Mason, the amnesic SOG operative from the last Treyarch entry? Given that we're playing as his son David Mason for the lion's share of the campaign, does this mean that Call of Duty's gone all Oedipal on us? I also think I remember reading somewhere that Alex Mason is the player character for some Cold War set flashback missions set in and around Afghanistan. 1980s Central Asia is as good a place as any for a CIA spook to have a 'patriotism stinks!' meltdown. Maybe Treyarch are taking a leaf out of the Hideo Kojima handbook and setting son against father, Metal Gear style?