In the futuristic 2025 setting of Call of Duty: Black Ops II, the United States has become locked in a second Cold War with China due largely to a shortage of rare earth elements, which are vital in the creation of a lot of the technology and advanced military hardware we use today.

In the present-day (in real life), China controls a huge percentage of the world's rare earth elements. The fictional future of Black Ops II has a much stronger real-world hook than your average techno-thriller.

When I spoke with Treyarch's studio head Mark Lamia last week, he was vague about the extent to which Chinese troops will factor into the story, either as enemies or as playable characters. But he did tell me about the real-world organization that players will be up against.

The primary state-sponsored opposing presence in Black Ops II's story will be represented by the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, who despite their China-centric name are a multinational organization created in June of 2001 between Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. They are currently considering expanding, with Mongolia, Pakistan, India and Iran all have "observer status"—those four nations aren't full members, but they have expressed interest in becoming so.

"In our fiction, in the future," said Lamia, "[the SCO has] militarized even more so than they are now. They have their own special forces. Their own black ops.

"As the proxy war conflicts occur," he continued, referring to the fictional proxy wars in the game's 2025 conflict, "you might encounter these SCO forces." He was cagy on whether or not players would actually get to step into the boots of the SCO's black ops soldiers. "Maybe they'll be a part of the multiplayer. Who knows?"

The SCO describes the current-day goals on their official website thusly:

The main goals of the SCO are strengthening mutual confidence and good-neighbourly relations among the member countries; promoting effective cooperation in politics, trade and economy, science and technology, culture as well as education, energy, transportation, tourism, environmental protection and other fields; making joint efforts to maintain and ensure peace, security and stability in the region, moving towards the establishment of a new, democratic, just and rational political and economic international order.

With NATO to the West and America's interests in Japan and South Korea to the east, even today there is a fair amount of tension between the SCO, its nations, and the United States and its allies. According to the Council on Foreign Relations:

The increased prominence of the SCO has led policymakers and scholars to question if the organization might complicate the United States' ability to secure [Central Asian] interests. Some experts believe that Russia and China want to use the SCO to curb U.S. access to the region's vast energy supplies. Similarly, the SCO's call for the United States to withdraw military forces (USA Today) from the region was seen as an explicit challenge to the U.S. military presence in Central Asia. Lastly, SCO members are uneasy about certain U.S. policies, particularly its support for democratic reforms. "Frankly, none of the [SCO] countries shares our enthusiasm," about political reform, said CFR's Feigenbaum in his Nixon Center speech. The "color revolutions" in Ukraine, Georgia, and Kyrgyzstan, which unseated leaders loyal to the Kremlin, have also led Russia to view the U.S. presence in post-Soviet states with suspicion, while Beijing sees U.S. forces along its western border as part of Washington's strategy to contain China.

This all sounds like some thorny, topical material for a hugely popular military game to dig into. Black Ops II, however, has a narrative escape hatch for any potential controversy that could arise. As I prodded him about China and the SCO, Lamia was sure to repeatedly remind me that the game's real antagonist will be an individual named Raul Menendez, who is presumably acting alone.

Menendez has hacked into America's drones and robotic tanks and is attempting to stir up existing tensions and pit the two superpowers against one another. It's a shopworn but effective storytelling trick that will no doubt keep Treyarch from making China, a current global superpower, into the "real" bad guy in a game that will doubtless sell millions of copies worldwide.

All the same, this all feels much more relevant than past Call of Duty games. At the very least, the opposing force won't simply consist of Russian Ultranationalists and Middle Eastern religious extremists.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation [Official Page]

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization [Council on Foreign Relations]

If this month's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier was a toddler and not a video game, I'd pat it on the head and compliment its Call of Duty costume.

It's doing a good job of dressing like its more popular playground rival, but—wouldn't you know it?—its own personality still sneaks through.

I've played a few levels of the May 22 game in the comfort of my home, and while Future Soldier is a little more brainless and big-budget-action-movie than it used to be, it's still going to be a nice change of flavor from the conventions of Call of Duty.

Future Soldier is a third person shooter. It supports four-player campaign co-op. Those are not things that you get from Call of Duty. But Future Soldier's missions are frequently filled with heavy amounts of gunfire, special weapons strikes, large explosions and lots of other big spectacle funneled into a mostly linear path. That's very Call of Duty and enough to make any reasonable Ghost Recon fan worry that the newest game in the series is abandoning what made Ghost Recon special.

This isn't old-school Ghost Recon, but it's also not CoD.

First of all, you're expected to play through much of the new game's missions in stealth. We're talking about aggressive action-oriented stealth, mind you, the kind of Batman or panther type of fearsome-attacker-from-the-shadows stealth that Ghost Recon publisher Ubisoft emphasized in the most recent Splinter Cell game.

You are powerful when playing in Future Soldier's proverbial shadows. You and your squad of three allies utilize hi-tech camouflage that turns one's body and clothes translucent when you're standing still or moving slowly. This makes it hard for enemies to see you.

You will rely on cover a lot, and you will be able to target new cover points and definitively move from one to the next with the kind of precise tactical movement that's more Full Spectrum Warrior than CoD.

And you'll be able to mark your targets from your character's line of sight or via an overhead drone that you can toss into the sky. Marking enemies sets up powerful "sync shots." Players of that last Splinter Cell will recognize this:. you mark targets and, when they are within the line of site—this time of the other three soldiers—a single button press will trigger kill shots to the marked targets. In co-op play, presumably, this will still be done manually. (I played my preview copy of the game solo.)

Here's a sync shot.

Here's a quick clip of a player-controlled drone.

I played through long sections of levels in the new Ghost Recon sticking to cover, remaining invisible and using my drone to mark targets for my buddies to kill.

Occasionally the game would force me into aggressive action. It would pour enemy troops at me or set up some battle against a helicopter that felt more big-action and less like tactical stealth. Often enough, happily, the game required me not to let my presence be known. It wanted me to sneak. I enjoyed that.

Sometimes they really do want that big-action feel, like when they let you walk the four-legged Warhound robot through a snowy battlefield and use it to shell tanks. That's not stealth! But it's cool in small doses.

The clips I've got in this preview were cut from some footage that Ubisoft sent me. Oddly, none of the footage they offered included one of the most distinct elements of Future Soldier—something you rarely see in Call of Duty—the presence of civilians in the modern battlefield. Two of the missions I played in this game were set in near-future Zambia and Moscow. In Zambia, we're in a refugee camp hunting down a warlord and civilians are everywhere. The Zambia mission actually opens with one of the warlord's henchman apparently about to rape a woman. Your first task: kill the asshole. As you skulk through the camp, civilians will flee the bad guys and can be caught in the crossfire (my mission ended when I shot one). In Moscow, there are huge protests in the streets after what I believe was a coup. Same thing. Civilians in the battlefield.

I'm intrigued that Ubisoft has so many civilians in the game, and I'm fascinated by one scene I caught that shows machete-wielding civilians taking revenge on a gunman who was oppressing them. The game is scripted to make you pass them by. It's an eerie moment and I'm looking forward to seeing how much further Ubisoft goes with this.

The game also has competitive multiplayer, which I didn't play, and its own riff on Gears of War-style Horde Mode, though that too has a Ghost Recon twist. Up to four players oppose waves of enemies, but you'll be doing it while trying to seize and hold a base and in the midst of blinding storms. Stealth helps.

The rude way to look at Ghost Recon Future Soldier would be to say that Ubisoft is selling out, moving away from the tactical, stealth fundamentals of the series' original games and inching even further toward linear-action-war-game than did the Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter games of recent years. I'd consider that unfair, now that I've played a few hours of the game. You shouldn't—and at high difficulty levels, can't—play the new Ghost Recon as if it's the Call of Duty that it sort of looks like in screenshots and some trailers. You need to sneak; you need to plan. I like that.

There's enough Ghost Recon here for me.

Gaming connoisseur and poisonous celebrity Kim Kardashian is super psyched for the next Call of Duty, she said on Twitter today. Because the graphics look crazy.

"But wait," you might be thinking. "Doesn't Kim Kardashian sell her tweets?

Nope, Kardashian says. It wasn't a paid tweet. She and her brother play Call of Duty "all the time."

(Of course, we followed up with Activision to verify that and they confirmed that it wasn't done through them.)

Perhaps most entertaining is reading Twitterers' responses to Kardashian's newfound love for video games.

"Give it 72 days," says one tweeter, referring to Kardashian's infamously short-lived marriage with NBA power forward Kris Humphries. "You'll get over it."

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Kardashian's response:

Photo: AP/Evan Agostini

Bethesda will release a massively multiplayer online version of its popular The Elder Scrolls series next year for PC and Mac, Game Informer reports today.

Set a millennium before the events of Bethesda's last The Elder Scrolls game, Skyrim, The Elder Scrolls Online will take place across all of Tamriel during a time when daedric prince Molag Bal is wreaking havoc on the realm. The game will feature three player factions and PvP combat. Presumably you'll be able to travel across the entire world of The Elder Scrolls—Game Informer mentions recurring areas Elsweyr, Skyrim, and Cyrodiil as locations in the MMORPG.

"We have been working hard to create an online world in which players will be able to experience the epic Elder Scrolls universe with their friends, something fans have long said they wanted," director Matt Firor said in a press release. Firor previously worked on fantasy MMORPG Dark Age of Camelot. "It will be extremely rewarding finally to unveil what we have been developing the last several years. The entire team is committed to creating the best MMO ever made – and one that is worthy of The Elder Scrolls franchise."

This is the first project from developer ZeniMax Online Studios, which was founded in 2007.

Rumors earlier this year suggested that The Elder Scrolls Online would be unveiled this May and that Bethesda would show more about its upcoming MMO at this year's E3 gaming conference. An earlier rumor also suggested that the game's three factions are represented by a lion, a dragon, and a bird of prey.

Game Informer promises more details in its upcoming June issue, which goes on sale next week.

June Cover Revealed: The Elder Scrolls Online [Game Informer

Hey baby. Hey, baby! Look behind you. Yes, behind you. Yes, that's a lion. Yes, she wants to eat you. She probably thinks you're a zebra. You really shouldn't have worn that hoodie to the zoo that day.

But baby's response? Chill as an ocean breeze. I'd be trying to play patty cake with the lion, since that appears to be what she's doing.

Lion tries to eat baby PART 1. [YouTube via Twitter]

Internet personality and brave gamer JonTron plays through yet another terrible game for your amusement.

This time, it's a game release many Star Wars fans have feared. Probably the most terrifying aspect of the game is the dancing, which we so lovingly made these ridiculous GIFs of so that you can relive those moments over, and over, and over...

Though I typically agree wholeheartedly with JonTron, I only have one point of beef with this funny review. The Kinect is actually a formidable piece of technology. The software itself is at fault for the shoddy menu UI and inaccuracies.

There is something really fitting about a puzzle game on a mobile device. I'm not sure if its how pensive or relaxing the activity can often feel, or if it's to do with the nature of distractions people typically opt for.

For me, it's that I love puzzles. And the device is well suited to the simple controls necessitated by puzzle games. Today's puzzle distraction game of the day is Tentacle Wars.

You might be familiar with Tentacle Wars from its original Flash game. To save alien lifeforms from an invading and aggressive infection, you have to take a microscope to their insides. Taking charge of the antibodies and combining their energy force will allow you to overtake the enemy cells.

Tentacle Wars is a bit of a game of math. Cells reach out to each other with DNA tentacles, but they need to have enough energy to make the distance. This sometimes involves connecting cells that are closer to each other. Through the transitive property, a cell can trickle its energy down to a friendly cell. Occasionally you can convert neutral cells to work on your side before the enemy manages to recruit it for another cell soldier.

Playing smart will let you overtake enemy cells before they consume yours. Some levels—and their respective alien lifeforms—are difficult. Sometimes barriers block your way. But building a strategy to face new challenges—either against an AI or friends—is the fun of Tentacle Wars.

Tentacle Wars HD [$2.99, iTunes]

The latest installment of Rockstar's Max Payne 3 Design and Technology video series covers everything you need to know about participating in online multiplayer so engaging you might forget the single-player game exists.

I was mildly impressed with Max Payne 3 multiplayer after watching the first video in the series. Online bullet time? I'm up for some of that.

Then our own Stephen Totilo got his hands on multiplayer, and I was sold. Anything that inspires our editor-in-chief to go that deep into an online multiplayer experience has to be something special.

I just hope I don't have to go up against any Rockstar devs. Looks like they know their stuff.

This episode of Lore In A Minute brought to you by Husky, StarCraft commenter extraordinaire and apparent Star Fox expert.

Starfox Lore In A Minute! [YouTube]