Recently, my Irish mate and I got into a debate on video/PC games with political agendas. Our case in point was Mercenaries 2: World in Flames, a forthcoming PlayStation 3 title fromPandemic Studios. The game, which should be out sometime in 2007, has been a source of controversy because it takes place in Venezuela and involves players taking down a fictitious dictator who has taken control of the South American country's oil supply.

This has upset real-life Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, a leftist politician
and big-time critic of the Bush Administration here in the U.S. Some Venezuelan
politicians have even suggested the video game is, shall we say, state-sponsored
and is the first step leading to a U.S. invasion of Venezuela.

I don't know about that, but I am intrigued by some of the sordid details in
this case, particularly those involving U2 lead singer and political activisit
Bono. What's the connection, you ask? Well, it seems Bono is a prominent partner
of the private equity firm Elevation Partners (get it? "Elevation"?). Last year,
Elevation Partners bought a majority stake in Pandemic through a $300 million
investment that essentially merged Pandemic with fellow game developer BioWare
(Elevation Partners also tried to buy Eidos Interactive last year, but failed,
and was reportedly interested in Take-Two Interactive earlier this year).

Bono has remained silent so far about Mercenaries 2, but some media members and
politically active folks are criticizing the rock star for having any
involvement with a war-mongering game that resembles political propoganda.