While piracy is the pits, you gotta love bootleg covers: they mash up all sorts of things that either make no sense, or somehow make the source material even funnier. In some cases, they even make you wish the game advertised on the cover officially actually existed, instead of whatever pirated game is actually in…

Mercenary outfit Blackwater has been accused of some pretty terrible things during its time operating as a "security contractor" in Iraq. Something captured in these shocking videos.

There's a really interesting piece up on HG101 in which Iraqi gamer Salwan Asaad, now living in Egypt, recounts his experiences growing up in the 1980s with the region's fledgling scene.

This week was the first time we heard of publisher 505 Games' Blackwater, an FPS that would cast you in the role of Blackwater Worldwide mercenaries. The topic seemed thorny—the mercenary company, now renamed Xe Services LLC., has been at the center of a multiple of controversies and the subject of highly critical…

Battlefield 3 looks to be a gritty, darker version of the Battlefields we've played in the past, judging by these first public glimpses of the upcoming shooter from Electronic Arts.

If I told you a game cast you in the role of a US soldier in Iraq, would you simply assume you'd be spending your time shooting? You probably would. Which is why I like this game.

In 1994, some Iraqi students decided to develop a video game for the Amiga. It was never released on that system, thanks to economic sanctions and the demise of Commodore, but now, in 2010, it's out on the iPhone!

Army officers are practicing counterinsurgency strategies for Iraq with using a video game plainly inspired by SimCity. In fact, a frustrated officer unprepared for the fall of Baghdad asked for such a thing by name years ago.

Typically, the controversy over "Virtual Jihadi" - a mod of a skin of 2003's budget-bin jingoist shooter Quest for Saddam - deals more with free speech and abuse of authority rather than what the game asks its players to consider.

The New York Civil Liberties Union is suing the city of Troy, New York and its Public Works Commissioner, Robert Mirch, over shutting down controversial video game exhibition, Virtual Jihadi.

Earlier this year, we brought word of the Cheap Ass Gamer drive to collect games for the US military troops in Iraq. Just a reminder that the drive isn't over and strong. Kevin Stewart, the fella in charge of the Donation Drive, is an independent contractor in Iraq and comes from CheapAssGamers website forums. He has…