#1

Rockstar North present :
Bully Scholarship Edition Pc
Two years after making a splash on the PS2, Rockstar has finally brought their high school hooligan to the PC. Bully: Scholarship Edition puts players in the shoes of Jimmy Hopkins, the titular bully. Having been kicked out of a number of other schools, he finds himself deposited at the gates of Bullworth Academy. As he starts a new school year here, he'll have to compete and cooperate with the various cliques around the school as he tries to rise to the top of the pyramid. And what's the best way to gain power and prestige at a new school? Pranks and violence, of course!
In keeping with the successful Grand Theft Auto approach, Bully is largely a one-note affair, focusing on the standard cliches and stereotypes that have been used in countless shows, movies, books and video games. From the very beginning, you see the jocks, the greasers, the nerds and the preps and you pretty much know where it's all going to go. Throw in a wino in a Santa suit, a nauseating cafeteria lady, and the obligatory tyrannical principal, and you've got a game that tries to thwart convention so hard that it just winds up conforming to it. In the end, you get the sense that Jimmy's crusade on behalf on the nerds of Bullworth Academy is really nothing more than an excuse to run around kicking people in the nuts.
There's more to school than books and tests.
Now, some may see this criticism as an unfair attack on the tone of the game. The game, after all, is called 'Bully' so we shouldn't be surprised if there's not much virtue among its characters or situations. That's a perfectly reasonable suggestion, to a point. But while the clichés and slightly sleazy nature of the world don't really allow for much surprise or contrast in the game world, the real issue is that Jimmy's own motivation isn't ever really explored, so the player is left on their own to fill in the huge vacuum of his character. There's no clear reason why he's being good or bad beyond the fact that he's a teenager in a new, unfamiliar environment. In the end, it's just too hard to reconcile his desire to rescue stolen comic books for a group of nerds with his instant and unquestioning complicity in the perverse lives of his teachers.
You may claim that none of that matters to you as a player, and it's perfectly possible to enjoy the game in spite of those issues, playing it for the content and not the commentary. It's just a shame that, with all the effort put into making such a coherent and engaging story, that Rockstar went with such predictable high school stereotypes and a thoroughly indifferent protagonist.
The good news is that the content is generally very well designed. The missions are consistently enjoyable from the first to the last, letting the player explore not only the grounds of Bullworth Academy and the surrounding town but also the private lives of the students, faculty and townies. Whether it's poisoning a prized plant at the frat house, busting up dwarf statues at the carnival, or running a bicycle race to win the affection of a girl in a particularly tight sweater, there's a lot of stuff to do in Bully and it all comes with a healthy dose of fun gameplay with just enough story to tie it in with the rest of the week's events. Even better, the missions are all reasonably short, so you can feel like you're making solid progress the whole time you're playing.
The classroom minigames are mostly unsatisfactory.
As the title suggests, Bully involves lots and lots of fighting, so it's a good thing that the combat system is so well designed. Many games that have fighting systems with just a single attack and one grab move come across feeling somewhat shallow but, though there aren't a lot of possible actions, Bully allows you to chain moves together to create a number of impressive and tactically significant combos. Combine that with the charge and humiliation options and you can really feel like you have a wide range of options even though you're only ever really pushing just a few buttons. Your gym teacher and the hobo that lives behind the shop class teach you new moves throughout the game, so you have a chance to learn how to use each move to its greatest effect. Fortunately, the way the combos are structured, you can even get away with some reckless button mashing and still feel somewhat effective.

#1

Rockstar North present :
Bully Scholarship Edition Pc
Two years after making a splash on the PS2, Rockstar has finally brought their high school hooligan to the PC. Bully: Scholarship Edition puts players in the shoes of Jimmy Hopkins, the titular bully. Having been kicked out of a number of other schools, he finds himself deposited at the gates of Bullworth Academy. As he starts a new school year here, he'll have to compete and cooperate with the various cliques around the school as he tries to rise to the top of the pyramid. And what's the best way to gain power and prestige at a new school? Pranks and violence, of course!
In keeping with the successful Grand Theft Auto approach, Bully is largely a one-note affair, focusing on the standard cliches and stereotypes that have been used in countless shows, movies, books and video games. From the very beginning, you see the jocks, the greasers, the nerds and the preps and you pretty much know where it's all going to go. Throw in a wino in a Santa suit, a nauseating cafeteria lady, and the obligatory tyrannical principal, and you've got a game that tries to thwart convention so hard that it just winds up conforming to it. In the end, you get the sense that Jimmy's crusade on behalf on the nerds of Bullworth Academy is really nothing more than an excuse to run around kicking people in the nuts.
There's more to school than books and tests.
Now, some may see this criticism as an unfair attack on the tone of the game. The game, after all, is called 'Bully' so we shouldn't be surprised if there's not much virtue among its characters or situations. That's a perfectly reasonable suggestion, to a point. But while the clichés and slightly sleazy nature of the world don't really allow for much surprise or contrast in the game world, the real issue is that Jimmy's own motivation isn't ever really explored, so the player is left on their own to fill in the huge vacuum of his character. There's no clear reason why he's being good or bad beyond the fact that he's a teenager in a new, unfamiliar environment. In the end, it's just too hard to reconcile his desire to rescue stolen comic books for a group of nerds with his instant and unquestioning complicity in the perverse lives of his teachers.
You may claim that none of that matters to you as a player, and it's perfectly possible to enjoy the game in spite of those issues, playing it for the content and not the commentary. It's just a shame that, with all the effort put into making such a coherent and engaging story, that Rockstar went with such predictable high school stereotypes and a thoroughly indifferent protagonist.
The good news is that the content is generally very well designed. The missions are consistently enjoyable from the first to the last, letting the player explore not only the grounds of Bullworth Academy and the surrounding town but also the private lives of the students, faculty and townies. Whether it's poisoning a prized plant at the frat house, busting up dwarf statues at the carnival, or running a bicycle race to win the affection of a girl in a particularly tight sweater, there's a lot of stuff to do in Bully and it all comes with a healthy dose of fun gameplay with just enough story to tie it in with the rest of the week's events. Even better, the missions are all reasonably short, so you can feel like you're making solid progress the whole time you're playing.
The classroom minigames are mostly unsatisfactory.
As the title suggests, Bully involves lots and lots of fighting, so it's a good thing that the combat system is so well designed. Many games that have fighting systems with just a single attack and one grab move come across feeling somewhat shallow but, though there aren't a lot of possible actions, Bully allows you to chain moves together to create a number of impressive and tactically significant combos. Combine that with the charge and humiliation options and you can really feel like you have a wide range of options even though you're only ever really pushing just a few buttons. Your gym teacher and the hobo that lives behind the shop class teach you new moves throughout the game, so you have a chance to learn how to use each move to its greatest effect. Fortunately, the way the combos are structured, you can even get away with some reckless button mashing and still feel somewhat effective.