Well, they’ve sold me on the idea. Empire, a new game from a new studio founded by the guys behind Advent Rising, Chair Entertainment, will put you in the middle of the second American Civil War, fought between conservatives and liberals.

Gamespot has the scoop and the zillions of political comments to go with it. Not much is known about the gameplay - development hasn’t even begun - other than that it will use Unreal 3 and be a first-person shooter, and its novel will be written by Orson Scott Card, who scripted Advent Rising’s story. From the novel’s description:

The American Empire has grown too fast, and the fault lines at home are stressed to the breaking point…The war of words between Right and Left has collapsed into a shooting war, though most people just want to be left alone.

Whether the left can protest the right out of their armed pick-up trucks or the reds manage to hunt down all the blues with their large supply of twelve-gates, our fellow gamers in the U.S. Congress are going to have a field day with this game. Platforms are currently unconfirmed but Xbox 360 is likely.

(Thanks, Ape Bape Stas!)