It was a real tragedy to me that both Black Ops glossed over the real details of the Cold War. I'm Australian so the Cold War and American politics wasn't a big feature in our history lessons. Yet, so much of it has shaped the "war on terror" today. It was enough for me to dig into wiki and read about the successful coup detat of Iran. A fantastic example of Cold War fears interspersed with unscrupulous oil companies and how "spreading democracy" has been the excuse for protecting national interests.
Something else I was completely aware of that LA Noire taught me, the US had embargoed oil to Japan. I've seen many WWII films, played god knows how many WWII games, generally from the American perspective, but at no point in 30 odd years has it ever been pointed out to me WHY Japan attacked Pearl Harbour, other than they figured the US would get involved so it was a pre-emptive strike. This is true, and what Japan did during WWII is horrendous, particularly to their POWs. But the picture that always painted of Japan and Germany was that they were merciless conquerers, warring for no other reason than to get more land (I'm aware that for Germany that the WWI war reparations were a contributing factor but little else). There must be more to it but it's not something that gets discussed often in games or films from the west.
As someone who falls asleep reading even the simplest textbooks I've very reliant on film, games and books to enlighten me. And as said in the article, it's the people and their views that matter, not the location or technology.
