Looks like I get the honor of posting the first piece of news of 2012, while my American colleagues are probably still snoring and hungover.

The training simulation FPS funded by the Chinese People's Liberation Army Glorious Mission (basically the local equivalent of the American funded America's Army) has made the headlines last year because it depicts US troops as "the enemy" and prompts the player to kill them.

According to IBNLive, the game, that was previously available only to the Chinese Army, is now officially slated for public release next May.

The commercial release of Glorious Mission will include both a single player campaign and a multiplayer mode, and I'm personally curious to see if it'll be localized in any western country.

The debate about the game revolves mostly about the fact that a game directly funded by the Chinese government and army depicts the soldiers of a nation with which they are in peaceful terms as the enemy the player must kill.

Some (including several media sources) have defended the initiative by saying that many western games depict American soldiers killing combatants from other nations, including China, but while I'll let you pass the final judgement, as a neutral observer that happens to live pretty much exactly in the middle, I have to point out the not so subtle difference (that a lot of people seem to very conveniently miss) that none of those games are directly funded by the American government or by the American military.

I was about to write "Next Year" in the headline, but I corrected myself just in time. You can check out the official trailer of the game (released a few months back) and a report by CCTV (the major Chinese state TV broadcaster) below. Happy new year!

http://www.youtube.com/embed/NUycKy_Ebpchttp://www.youtube.com/embed/KLY7GyxDmR4