Google Translate says "和平精英" means to "Peace Elite". Is that an accurate translation? I assume "Elite" in this context is a noun referring to elite soldiers?

Sounds like there may be a cultural colloquialism involved, in the same way that "defensive systems" gets used to refer to rockets and artillery in the West.

More like "Peace Master" if you had to translate it loosely.

和平 = Peace; 精英 = Elite. So yes, that's the literal translation. They're probably trying to give the game a up beating vibe by using that name, so it's easier for it to be approved by the government.

"反恐精英" on the other hand, should be translated to "Counter-terrorism elite". But "反恐(Counter-terrorism) 精英(elite)" itself is a non-literal translation of Counter-Strike.

Counter Strike was translated as 反恐精英, where 反恐 meams counter terrorism. I have no idea how these elite things came into play.

Will you laugh if I tell you the game Half-life in China is called literally "Half of Life" (半条命)[0]?

Don't take that name too seriously, I don't think there is anything to it other than to make it sound better.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half-Life_(video_game) (Notice the language selection)

I laughed years ago.

It was less popular than Counter-Strike (which was acronymized as CS) in China when I was young. And I didn’t bothered with the translation for years before I realized the correct one.

Interesting: Google translates 反恐 as "counter-terrorism" (like you say) and 精英 as "elite" (like this "Peace Elite" game), but the combined phrase 反恐精英 as "Counter-Strike". :)

elite here just connotes "elite military force" kind of idea

Yes, it's accurate.

We did Orwellian first. Not as heavy handed as direct censorship though.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/America's_Army

No, that's pretty straightforward and honest. Orwellian would be if it were called "America's Peacemakers"

As I said, not as heavy handed as war is peace in the title, but war is a fps is still pretty Orwellian.

The real mind bender with AA is that you always play as Americans, but to your opponents you look like terrorists and vice versa. Nobody thinks he is the bad guy, but to the other team everyone looks like a bad guy! When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

There was a great Black Mirror episode[1] about this concept, highly recommend. Obvious spoiler warning in the wiki page.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Men_Against_Fire

Check out video of the latest Battlefield series. May make you ill.