Thinking about how the CoD/Battlefield/Medal of Honor vidya series are some of the last depictions of WWII when it was still in historical memory, during the whole “greatest generation” sendoff

Realizing that last one I played, where you, Corporal Texas and your squadmates, Privates Catholic, Jewish, and College, Sergeant Hardass and Lieutenant Patrician fight your way from Normandy to Berlin through every battle of the campaign*, assaulting a Nazi stronghold in urban combat and helping Jews in the basement escape, the one that plays up the StG 44 because assault rifles are what people expect from war – that’s it finally, fully passing into myth

* in reality the US had deep reserves and rotated units between phases of the advance – American forces being tested but unbroken and disciplined was a big part of why German forces preferred to surrender to them than the years-in-the-field and vengeful Russians