Kuma going back to Iran

Since the 1979 incident involving Iranian students taking 52 Americans hostage at the US embassy in Tehran, relations between the two countries haven't exactly been neighborly. Talks between the US and Iran have been cut off by several administrations, but one company is hoping to reopen discussions--through games.

Kuma Reality Games develops PC games based on real-life world events, and has spent much of the past several years developing new missions for its Kuma/War game based on various military proceedings in the Middle East. A recent mission titled Assault on Iran saw gamers head into the country in an effort to stop the development of nuclear weapons.

Late last month, it was reported that a group of Iranian students are developing a game that takes the nuclear weapons situation from Iran's point of view. In it, Iranian Special Forces, led by the fictional Commander Bahman, attempt to rescue a nuclear scientist from the clutches of US soldiers.

Kuma has shot back by announcing the PC game Assault on Iran, Pt. 3: Payback in Iraq, reports Reuters. According to the game's creators, part three isn't retaliation, but rather an opportunity for some cyber-discourse.

"It's an opportunity for us to have this back and forth," Kuma executive Keith Halper told Reuters. "We'll see which way it goes. Hopefully they'll pick it up and we'll have this discourse."

Kuma's new game follows up on the storyline of the Iranian students' game. In Payback in Iraq, Commander Bahman discovers that the Iranian scientist wasn't in fact captured by US soldiers--he defected.

Assault on Iran, Pt. 3: Payback in Iraq is currently scheduled to be released--when else?--July 4.