It took terrorists a year and a half to copy the plot of Modern Warfare 2 with a blast in Moscow’s Domodedovo airport, killing 37. How long will it take this time?

In the latest edition of the Call of Duty franchise, the characters are to take back New York City from Russian Spetsnaz forces. The idea of taking back an American city from Russians is nothing new for Call of Duty fans. In the final missions of Modern Warfare 2, they were recapturing Washington DC.

However, that game was mostly remembered for its shocking mission, where the protagonist butchered a whole Moscow airport full of civilian hostages.

There were moves to ban the sale of Modern Warfare 2 in Russia, but in the end just the controversial mission was removed in the PC release (Russian consumers prefer these).

And then, in January 2011, slightly more than a year after the game’s release, real terrorists conducted a blast in Moscow’s Domodedovo airport, killing 37 and injuring almost two hundred.

Massive sales numbers will ensure that the developers stick to their working marketing strategy, so there will be plenty of controversy again.

This time though, it seems, the Americans are the ones not pleased, as the game starts with images of Russians all but razing to the ground the Big Apple itself.

“Honestly I don’t see why Russians slam the Call of Duty series!” head of marketing at Gmbox.ru Viktor Zuev said after watching the game’s preview. “Activision and Infinity Ward are perhaps the only game development companies that still portray Russia as a high-tech superpower, capable of bombing the US. Russian ships are shown in New York Bay, and Russian submarines use what strikingly resembles Bulava missiles!”