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So, Bully sounds pretty good. Go Rockstar!
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Shapermc
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PostPosted: Wed Oct 11, 2006 7:46 pm    Post subject: So, Bully sounds pretty good. Go Rockstar! Reply with quote

http://arstechnica.com/articles/culture/bully.ars

Not what I was really expecting at all.
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Cycle
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PostPosted: Wed Oct 11, 2006 8:42 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I didn't get past the first page since it didn't actually say anything about the game. It's my new rule.

Anyway! I wonder if it will be better than this.
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PostPosted: Thu Oct 12, 2006 1:21 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

From these impressions, Bully looks very mature. In a real sense, not in a har-har-that-kid-just-got-hit-with-a-bat sense. It looks like it's a game about teenage alienation and depression. Weird.
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Shapermc
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PostPosted: Thu Oct 12, 2006 10:08 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Cycle wrote:
I didn't get past the first page since it didn't actually say anything about the game. It's my new rule.

Yeah, start reading on page 2. You have missed this:
Swimmy wrote:
From these impressions, Bully looks very mature. In a real sense, not in a har-har-that-kid-just-got-hit-with-a-bat sense. It looks like it's a game about teenage alienation and depression. Weird.

Yeah, weird and impressive. If there is one game company that has the power (in the US anyways) to push the medium forward with massive recognition and is on the pulse of popular culture it's Rockstar.

Then again, they have the same amount of potential to fuck it up.
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PostPosted: Thu Oct 12, 2006 10:25 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Game Informer did a preview on the game a few months ago that got me very excited about the game (I actually read that issue instead of tossing it under my bed like every other issue I get; I hate that it's the only magazine I'm subscribed to). It had a lot of interesting information on the mini-games that make up the classes you have to attend, and it was one of their better articles (not saying much). I'm surprised this issue didn't make a bigger splash, seeing as how that article was one of the first (if not the first) one to show that Bully wasn't a Columbine simulator.
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PostPosted: Thu Oct 12, 2006 11:26 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

OtakupunkX wrote:
I'm surprised this issue didn't make a bigger splash, seeing as how that article was one of the first (if not the first) one to show that Bully wasn't a Columbine simulator.


No matter how tame the game is in it's violence, I can promise you that it will still be viewed and panned as a Columbine simulator. I do look forward to the game however, it sounds incredibly unique.
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PostPosted: Thu Oct 12, 2006 11:34 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

TheRumblefish wrote:
OtakupunkX wrote:
I'm surprised this issue didn't make a bigger splash, seeing as how that article was one of the first (if not the first) one to show that Bully wasn't a Columbine simulator.


No matter how tame the game is in it's violence, I can promise you that it will still be viewed and panned as a Columbine simulator. I do look forward to the game however, it sounds incredibly unique.

Otaku: It's game informer. It just makes a "splunk" sound, not a splash.

And, see this is what I'm saying. Bully could be a big enough game that enough people will get to see that it isn't just a Columbine simulator. In fact, the kids/adults/anti-games types may get this and see just what games can really do.
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PostPosted: Thu Oct 12, 2006 12:24 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

it has already begun:

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/business/technology/15735379.htm
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PostPosted: Thu Oct 12, 2006 12:37 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I was hoping the judge himself would be the one playing, to experience it first-hand.

It is pretty silly that he has to go out and higher another individual to play the game for him. It's not going to have as much impact or the same level of understanding if he is only viewing it passively.

Must be nice not having to pay for any of this publicity.
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PostPosted: Thu Oct 12, 2006 1:04 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

the downside being they get to weather the brunt of controversies of this nature.

the economist had a short article on this about the perks of being #2 in an industry, because whomever is the front runner gets all the shit for any kind of industry-wide criticisms.
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PostPosted: Thu Oct 12, 2006 1:45 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yeah, I've got to say it looks a lot more appealing to me now. I've registered it in my mind as the next game on my list.

Anyone seen the trailer (here's another)?
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PostPosted: Thu Oct 12, 2006 3:03 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

dhex wrote:
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/business/technology/15735379.htm

This is interesting.

And, about the Judge himself not playing: this is a good move. I don't know if you have ever watched someone who doesn't play games every try to play them at age 40 (and I mean complicated stuff like GTA) but it’s not pretty. They, at best get so frustrated with the controls that they stop playing. At worst they actually hate the game for being so complicated.

I think that with the judge watching someone play he will get to play the roll of “back seat driver.” He will eventually realize that the guy playing can to almost anything he, the judge, asks him to. I have watched my wife play through a lot of games and the experience isn’t that far off from playing them myself.

Now were the judge watching a movie of the game without any form of interaction, then he would be too far removed. I think this is the best possible solution.

Anyways, this is very, very interesting.
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PostPosted: Thu Oct 12, 2006 7:50 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Wow. That... actually made me want to play a Rockstar game.

Time to find that release date list.
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Shapermc
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PostPosted: Thu Oct 12, 2006 8:05 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The Great Unwashed wrote:
Time to find that release date list.

Oct. 17th
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PostPosted: Fri Oct 13, 2006 2:35 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Shapermc wrote:
The Great Unwashed wrote:
Time to find that release date list.

Oct. 17th


Ah, no no. I live in Australia. We get games anywhere from two weeks to six months after the rest of the world. Wink

EDIT: I just checked - PALGN doesn't even have a date. So not this year, even. Bah.
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PostPosted: Fri Oct 13, 2006 8:37 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

The Great Unwashed wrote:
Wow. That... actually made me want to play a Rockstar game.


And Rockstar Ping Pong didn't? Gah, that game is so awesome.
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PostPosted: Fri Oct 13, 2006 9:28 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

OtakupunkX wrote:
And Rockstar Ping Pong didn't? Gah, that game is so awesome.

It really is. It reminds me more of a fighting game than a sports game. It's very well executed.
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 17, 2006 9:13 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

So, off the subject, I rented The Warriors game that Rockstar made and it's really good. In fact, I'll go out on a limb and say it's one of the best film-based games ever made. The fights feel like a real fight should feel, especially when stuff gets so chaotic that you can't tell what's going on and who you're hitting so you just keep mashing buttons and eventually get out of the mass of people you're caught in. The use of liscensed music works really well in the game too (Fighting a skinhead in a wheelchair while Fear's "I Love Living in the City" loops in the background is one of the highlights of my year), and the game just feels so much like the movie that it's ridiculous.

Bully comes out today. If I didn't have to go to a film festival later (I entered this crummy movie I made last year into it for some quick cash) I'd go pick it up.
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 17, 2006 9:37 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Page 3 of the article wrote:
"Graphics aren't what makes a game next-gen, interactions are," Devin says as I watch a nerd spray paint an anti-greaser message on the wall of the school. I throw something at the kid and I'm shocked when he run over and punches me. I laugh. "This is a next-gen game on a current-gen platform," he finishes.


It's pretty effing cool to hear someone as entrenched in the money and media of the industry as a PR rep for Rockstar say shit like that. I'm beginning to feel like 2007 is going to be a very good year for gaming.
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 17, 2006 10:35 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

xvs07 wrote:
It's pretty effing cool to hear someone as entrenched in the money and media of the industry as a PR rep for Rockstar say shit like that.


Rockstar gets a bad rep from "hardkore" gamers because they make games that make a lot of money. Most of their games are quite good and very meaningful though, and since their games tend to make a lot of money (and they only release a few games a year) they can afford to make games with ridiculously high production values, something that a lot of people mistake for mainstreamization (if that's even a word).
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 17, 2006 11:49 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

The only thing I don't like about RS games is their milking of a series and... well manhunt. I'm ok with them elsewhere.
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 17, 2006 2:48 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Manhunt is the only current-gen Rockstar game I haven't played besides Smuggler's Run, which I've always thought didn't really fit in with all the other Rockstar titles. I've read some interesting stuff about it, however, and I've come to the conclusion that the title was mainly made to make people think about the portrayal of violence in the media and why we, as a society enjoy it so much (at least that's what I figured after reading an article about the game in Edge)

That's really only a theory though, since I haven't played the game yet (I might go buy it soon, it's less than $10 used at EB now).
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 17, 2006 2:55 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Keep in mind that Shapes dislikes Manhunt because he dislikes exploitation in general rather than the quality of the game.

Apologies Shapes if I'm mis-representing you here.
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 17, 2006 4:04 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote


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PostPosted: Tue Oct 17, 2006 4:51 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Scratchmonkey wrote:
Apologies Shapes if I'm mis-representing you here.

Nope, that's about right.

Also, how'd that trial go?
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 17, 2006 6:13 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

So did anyone else buy Bully? I was at EBGames today and ended up buying the last copy they had (plus a cheapo used copy of Freedom Fighters. Fuck yeah!). I haven't played it yet but I'll post some quick impressions after I do. From the manual and the map it comes with (I almost get the feeling that it's going to be like a smaller, more reigned in GTA type game but we'll see how much that feeling holds up when I actually play the game.) it certainly looks pretty interesting.
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 17, 2006 7:51 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I played roughly 10 minutes of it while on break at work. I picked up a soccer ball and ran around with it, set it down, wondered what would happen if I pressed the "attack" button with it in front of me and giggled when I kicked it into some kid's groin.

10/10

About the case:

At 1:51, Niero called, saying that the judge will not prohibit the the sale of Bully. In the time that he played the game, the judge said that he did not see anything so violent that would require the game to be held from being shipped. The judge and Take Two employee used a cheat code in order to skip around in the game and play through various parts, including the more graphic portions of the game. The judge said “There’s nothing in the game that you wouldn’t see on TV every night,” and that he “wouldn’t want his kids to play the game, but that shouldn’t mean that the game won’t ship.”

And an excerpt of Thompson's reaction to the judge:

Now that you have consigned innumerable children to skull fractures, eye injuries from slingshots, and beatings with baseball bats, without a hearing as to the danger, let me tell you a few things, with all respect for your office and with no respect for the arbitrary way in which you handled this matter.
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 17, 2006 8:57 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Scratchmonkey wrote:
Now that you have consigned innumerable children to skull fractures, eye injuries from slingshots, and beatings with baseball bats, without a hearing as to the danger, let me tell you a few things, with all respect for your office and with no respect for the arbitrary way in which you handled this matter.

So... uhhh, life as normal for kids?
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 17, 2006 9:41 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Okay, impressions after about an hour or so of play (Uh, Spoilers, I guess, if that sort of thing bothers you):

You're a kid named James "Jimmy" Hopskins sent to boarding school because you're parents are too snotty and lazy to deal with you. You've been in trouble before and gotten expelled from every other private school they've sent you to, so Bullworth is their last hope of dumping you off somewhere for a year. That's the basic setup.

The school itself is full of misfits just like you. Early on you're befriended by a kid named Gary who seems a little too smart for his own good. He seems to have his own plans in mind, and isn't averse to using people to carry them out. I can smell a double cross coming somewhere down the line, just a hunch. So far I've done most of my "missions" with him, where he has a point of interest he wants to show you. Like, for instance, after you get the slingshot, he takes you to an area where there's an old school bus that you can practice on by shooting out the windows. After that he leads you to the football field, where he instructs you to climb a tree and take potshots at the jocks there for football practice. Hearing the coach get onto them for constantly falling over is pretty funny, he makes them run laps.

The game is very tongue-in-cheek and funny, clever even. It really is like a John Hughes movie, they might as well have called the game High School Hijinks or somesuch, because that's what you do for the most part. Just find different ways to get in trouble.

Just like real high school there's a heavy social aspect to gameplay (heh, say that out loud and hear how funny it sounds). You press L1 to target somebody, and you can then either press a button to praise them or start a fight. It's contextual though, sometimes you'll be apologizing if you want to be nice, but beating the snot out of bratty kids is a lot of fun. You can find flowers or chocolates that you can use to woo girls, and if you can manage to get a kiss from one of them you get a 25% health boost, on top of what you already have.

Getting into fights is a lot of fun though. You don't ever actually kill anyone, but you do knock them out cold. L1 to target, square to punch. Triangle acts as a grab move, and you can do some simple punch-punch-knee-to-the-gut combos while grappling with someone, or just press triangle again to throw them into a wall or to the ground, at which point you can run up to them and kick them while they're down. Once their health is below a certain point, however, you have the option of pressing circle to perform a humiliation move. Usually something along the lines of getting the kid into a headlock, licking you palm, and then rubbing it in their face. Beating the snot out a kid and then humiliating him in front of his friends is very satisfying. If you want to be an asshole you can pick fights with pretty much anybody, or if you want to be a nice guy you can be the hero and stick up for other kids you see getting picked on. There's a lot of contextual stuff I've only touched on here though, there is even some interaction with the environment as far the fighting goes. For instance, while grabbing onto a kids collar in the middle of a fight you can push him over to something like a garbage can and promptly dump him inside it.

Anytime you misbehave the game tells you what offense you're breaking in the top right hand corner of the screen below your health/radar/trouble meter trifecta. I grabbed a fire extinguisher off a wall and shot it into a group of girls. The game said something along the lines of "Conduct: Being mean to kids". I guess they must have been young. Couldn't tell, they ran off too quickly for me to see. Everytime you misbehave a meter fills to the right of your radar, telling you how much trouble you're in. It seems to be broken up into fourths, so two fourths isn't that bad but when it's full the prefects roaming the halls and the schoolgrounds will try to apprehend you on sight. But just like in high school you won't get in trouble if they can't catch you. Running is usually the last option, and some are easier to outrun than others (the fat ones tire out quickly), but you can also hide in a trashcan if you're in a tight spot. The game goes into first person there, with the view being that of you looking out just over the rim of the trashcan. The meter gradually goes down though, so given enough time it'll go away completely as long as you don't keep breaking the rules, you don't have to worry about anything if a prefect doesn't find you while it's full though so often it becomes a game of avoiding the prefects while waiting for the meter to go down.

Lots of minigame type stuff peppers the "main" game throughout. But it's all stuff that's pretty simple and contextual to the story or the setting. Example: You see a kid stop by his locker to drop something off. After he leaves you can go pick the lock and steal whatever he's just put inside. The mechanics of lockpicking are simple, a combination lock appears in the corner and a green arrow tells you which way you need to spin the dial, left or right. You spin with the right stick, but you have to go kind of slow so you don't miss the latch. Three clicks and you're in, but you have to be careful because if you're caught breaking into someone's locker it's off to the principal's office with you.

Class. So far I've only had Chemistry and Art. Classes are pretty short simple minigames which aren't that hot in their own right but they fit in pretty good with the rest of the game. Chemistry is basically pressing the right buttons when they scroll into the middle of the screen, with the idea being that you're following the instructions of the teacher. Art is a bit more abstracted, basically you have to draw squares with the right stick on a blank canvas to "uncover" the picture beneath. Some semblance of challenge is added in by little icons floating around that represent something or other that I've since forgotten about. Your "paintbrush" can get hit three times before you fail, and you can only paint over a line you've already painted. You can't paint across any area you've already uncovered. Pretty odd, that one, but neither of these games lasted for more than a minute so it's not exactly anything to complain about. Classes are useful for getting you items you can use throughout the rest of the game. Example: After my Chem class I found a Chem set back in my dorm room that I could use to get firecrackers from anytime I wanted. Art got me some flowers and the ability to pick up chicks. It seems that the more you go to class and the higher the marks you get the better your stuff, so like maybe you can eventually upgrade your fireworks or your lady skills or somesuch. Still pretty early on so I don't quite know yet for sure. You can ditch class if you want to but you'll be truant while doing so and will thus have to avoid getting caught by the prefects. I failed to outrun one of them and got sent to the principals office, where he gave me a stern talking to and gave my one and only warning. I haven't been caught and sent back again yet, so I don't know how he punishes you, maybe detention or something.

Phew! In case you couldn't tell by all of this already the game is very GTA-like, but from a really different angle. There are hidden packages of sorts, but I've only found one so far (a rubber band, of which there are 75 total). There are four factions that you interact with, by doing "missions" or favors for them: Nerds, Preps, Greasers, and Jocks. They all have their own style of clothing they wear you can easily pick them out of a crowd. Nerds wear green sweatvests and usually have glasses, Preps have blue and white Ivy League-ish turtle necks, Greasers wear leather jackets and denim jeans, and Jocks have letter jackets and football jerseys. You and the boys in your dorm don't seem to fit into, or at least identify with, any of those cliques though, so you can favor or disfavor one over the other as much as you see fit.

The game basically fits into the GTA template: If you get caught, all the items or contraband you have on you is confiscated (with the exception of your slingshot, which you have at all times and have infinite ammo). There is an authority type figure you have to constantly watch out for when misbehaving, but if they don't see you you won't get caught. The world itself is large but it's pretty contained. It's a school campus and surrounding area, with a lake in the middle. You can go anywhere you want right off the bat but I haven't had time to do any exploring yet because I don't want to miss classes or stop running around with Gary. I hope there's a summer vacation portion somewhere along the line where the game gives you free reign to do whatever without having to worry about being anywhere. You've got a "safehouse" or sorts with the dorm room, and you have there at night to sleep and get up the next day. You save in a notebook either in your dorm room or in the principal's office. Like San Andreas you can replenish you health by spending a dollar at a soda machine, or just drinking the water from water fountains for free.

I'm enjoying this so far. It's funny and clever, and actually pretty deep on the gameplay end. I'm still really early in and the game is still showing me the ropes, but I sense it slowly opening up for me. There's simply a lot of things to do. Did you know you can flush a firecracker down a toilet? Try it, it's funny! You can break windows, start food fights, pull the fire alarm, give people wedgies and swirlies, stuff them in lockers or bins; you can collect transistors, rubber bands, and something called Grottos and Gremlins trading cards (Magic, anyone?), you can pull pranks with water balloons, marbles, stink bombs; ride bicycles, motorcycles, a skateboard you eventually get to keep with you at all times; spend money on clothes, haircuts, tattoos (?!); do Go-Kart races, throw footballs and frisbess, kick soccer balls, dribble basketballs; and a ton of other stuff that I haven't even done yet but just looking at the stats menu gives you a basic idea of how many different ways there are to interact with the game. And every action has some sort of consequence. A nerd saw me breaking into someone's locker and tattled one me, he even yelled "I'm telling!" and ran off, my "conduct" meter went up a notch and my stats reflect that I've been tattled on at least once. It's crazy.

What gets me though, is that it's been five some odd years since GTA3 came out with the whole "sandbox" template or genre or whatever and no one but Rockstar has been able to actually do something resembling innovation within it, first through the half-step that was Manhunt and now with a more full, two-step forward approach with Bully. Saints Row gets a lot of credit for doing GTA almost as good as GTA, but it's the same "crime simulator" we've been playing for five years now. It's like Okami and Zelda, same game different coat of paint, except in the case of Bully it's a bit more than a different coat of paint despite being mostly the same game in a few ways.

Blargh now I'm rambling. Anyway, Bully is a clever funny fun little game and you all should give it a try. It's like being able to go back to high school and act the way you really wanted to act and not be the awkward social outcast you always felt you were. You stuff those stuck up nerds into lockers to your hearts content, or you can be the big man on campus and save the school from the real bullies of the world (those snobbish preppy rich kids and the braindead jocks).

Funny anecdote: I was walking down the hallway between classes on my way to meet Gary and I saw a nerd spraypainting "I DON'T HAVE A BRAIN SO I PLAY SPORTS" on the wall.

Scratchmonkey wrote:
10/10


Indeed.

edit-Okay, I lied in at least one spot up there. You can go pretty much anywhere you want to from the beginning on campus. The rest of the game hasn't opened up for me yet, but there's a whole town in the surrounding area.
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Swimmy
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 17, 2006 10:45 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Shapermc wrote:
Scratchmonkey wrote:
Now that you have consigned innumerable children to skull fractures, eye injuries from slingshots, and beatings with baseball bats, without a hearing as to the danger, let me tell you a few things, with all respect for your office and with no respect for the arbitrary way in which you handled this matter.

So... uhhh, life as normal for kids?

Sad thing is, since these things do happen (whereas teen shootings of the GTA variety almost never do), there's plenty of ammo as "proof" that games are "teh evil."

Not that it will really make a difference, it will just irk a few more nerds on the internet.

Mr. Mech is making this game sound too GTA.
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SuperWes
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 17, 2006 10:53 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Swimmy wrote:
Mr. Mech is making this game sound too GTA.


Agreed. I'm interested, but there's just too much good stuff coming out right now to invest in something where the subject matter sort of oddly turns me off. This game irks me in the same way that jRPGs irk dhex, it's always seemed like a thug game in high school clothing. I could be way off in those impressions though, so if there's something that's really misleading about what's been shown I'd like to hear about it.

-Wes
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Mr. Mechanical
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 17, 2006 10:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Swimmy wrote:
Mr. Mech is making this game sound too GTA.


Well, it is, but it's not. That's about all I can say right now. It is a game in the GTA style, yes. That is to say, Bully shares some common ancestral traits with GTA, but somewhere along the line natural selection took over and gave us something markedly different. But trust me when I say once you play, if you play it, you'll know what it is that seperates this GTA-styled game from all the other GTA-styled games out there. I'm sure it's safe to say that it's a lot easier for most of us to relate to being 15 and in high school than a nigh invincible crime lord building an underground empire.

It's all in the characterizations, and the interactions you have with the people and the world around you. For one thing, the whole game is bulit on this premise of interaction and cause and effect. In some ways, it's almost more GTA than GTA. It takes the GTA template and makes it feel fresh again. The context has changed, things are different now, there are new rules you have to learn.

Is the game deep? Well, it's still a bit too early for me to tell you one way or the other. It has that potential to be a bit more than it is on the surface, but I can already tell you that at it's best it's not going to be the Catcher in the Rye of videogames, as some other sites seem to suggest. It's more John Hughes than J. D. Salinger, for sure, because that's Rockstar for you.

It sure is a lot of fun though, definitely worth playing. I guess the easies way to say it is that GTA spreads itself thin over a large area, while Bully keeps everything pretty confined and close together and instead focuses on depth, or the illusion thereof. Compared to its forerunner GTA it's a smaller game with a grander scope.
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Mr. Mechanical
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 17, 2006 11:05 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

SuperWes wrote:
I'm interested, but there's just too much good stuff coming out right now to invest in something where the subject matter sort of oddly turns me off. This game irks me in the same way that jRPGs irk dhex, it's always seemed like a thug game in high school clothing. I could be way off in those impressions though, so if there's something that's really misleading about what's been shown I'd like to hear about it.


There is no thug about the game, it's about as "thug" as you were in high school. Trust me on this. No wolf in sheep's clothing here!

My impressions are probably putting you off because I'm way too giddy and excited at the prospects of what this game means in the larger context of things. Once more people play this game they are going to realize just how possible it is to make a good fun game with mature themes that don't involve overt sex and violence.

This is the kind of game we "art house fags" have been waiting for! It has that mainstream appeal to it, it's easy to get into, yet it's deep enough that you keep wanting to prod it and explore it and see just how far down you can go beneath the surface.

And it's funny!
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The Great Unwashed
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 17, 2006 11:50 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Mr Mechanical is love.
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Ketch
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PostPosted: Wed Oct 18, 2006 5:39 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

To me it sounds like a combination of Prisoner of War, GTA and Skool Daze.
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OtakupunkX
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PostPosted: Wed Oct 18, 2006 8:45 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I bought the game last night and spent about an hour just goofing around the school, doing things I've always wanted to do just to see what would happen (as in pulling fire alarms and going into the girls restrooms). I spent a long time doing things I've done in real life too, such as throwing basketballs at bullies and trying to befriend people that probably don't want to be befriended (as in the nerds), and the things that should've happened (I get my ass kicked by bullies and the nerds think I'm a loser) really happened.

This game is a very accurate and absolutely brilliant satire of both school and teenagers. I really, really like the socialization aspects too, but I can see myself growing bored of this game fast since it's almost a simulation of things I go through everyday.
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Legal Step
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PostPosted: Wed Oct 18, 2006 12:07 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The Great Unwashed wrote:
Mr Mechanical is love.


He's a good guy, and he's sold me on this game.
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Scratchmonkey
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PostPosted: Wed Oct 18, 2006 3:09 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Basically this game takes all the really awful parts of being 12, puts you in a jerk-oriented role (kind of like you're sociopath-oriented in GTA) and allows you to play around, both with the world and in terms of making ethical choices.

It seems to be doing pretty well at so far.
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wourme
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PostPosted: Sun Oct 22, 2006 11:56 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I've never had the slightest interest in a Rockstar game before, but from the little I've read about it, this one sounds as if I might actually like it.

The main thing I'd like to know about it, which I've had a hard time discerning from reviews so far, is whether the game comes across as sincere and, well, innocent, I guess (sort of thinking about Steambot Chronicles) or whether it's amusing and clever but ultimately kind of vulgar and shallow.
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Mr. Mechanical
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PostPosted: Sun Oct 22, 2006 12:30 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

It's very sincere, but it does lean a bit more to the vulgar side of things than "innocent", whatever that may mean.
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wourme
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PostPosted: Sun Oct 22, 2006 4:33 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Mr. Mechanical wrote:
It's very sincere, but it does lean a bit more to the vulgar side of things than "innocent", whatever that may mean.

I guess I mean innocent as in kids acting the way real kids would, rather than just being projections of the creators' adult attitudes and retroactive fantasies. But I guess it can't help but be a sort of mixture of the two, and that might not be a bad thing.

I think my expectations are vague enough that I'll just have to play the game for half an hour or so to be able to really tell whether I'd like it.
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Mr. Mechanical
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PostPosted: Sun Oct 22, 2006 5:14 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Oh. The kids all act the way you'd expect kids to act. They hang around and stuff, go to class, play games in the schoolyard, talk to each other between classes, that sort of thing. There are bullies that pick on the smaller kids, and sometimes you see the smaller kids fighting back. I always stick up for them though. After a certain point you'll be able to taunt the bullies, and even scare them off without having to raise yer dukes.
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Shapermc
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PostPosted: Mon Oct 23, 2006 12:07 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

So, Rockstar seems to understand that love isn't always heterosexual.

Interesting.
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Shapermc
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 24, 2006 6:07 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

J.T. is getting counter sued or something

http://kotaku.com/gaming/bully/jack-faces-jail-over-bully-209583.php

Also note the awesome spelling of KOTAKU!

And, my wife wants this game now.
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PostPosted: Wed Oct 25, 2006 4:43 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'm at Chapter 3 right now and I have to say my only problem with Bully is much like the only problem I had with Okami, namely being that it's just too easy. It's entertaining, sure, going through the storyline and doing side missions and stuff. But when there's no real challenge or chance of failure it just makes it harder and harder to go back to after not playing for a few days. This is why I haven't touched Okami in weeks now, because it just feels like going through the motions.

Is this problem only unique to myself, or are others experiencing sometihng similar?
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Shapermc
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PostPosted: Wed Oct 25, 2006 5:16 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Mr. Mechanical wrote:
Bully is much like the only problem I had with Okami, namely being that it's just too easy. It's entertaining, sure, going through the storyline and doing side missions and stuff. But when there's no real challenge or chance of failure it just makes it harder and harder to go back to after not playing for a few days. This is why I haven't touched Okami in weeks now, because it just feels like going through the motions.

This is why I stick to my guns and say "when gaming continues to head in its current direction a greater emphasis on story needs to evolve. When there is no challenge or personal triumph other than saying that you sat in front of your TV longer than anyone else you need to engage the creative side of our brains. Make us think, make us believe. When a game like God Hand is pretty hard we don't have to worry about how bad the story is."

Don't know why I put quotes on there.
Anyways, Okami becomes "not as easy" after the 30 hour point, or so my wife says! Don't give up now!
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dark steve
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PostPosted: Wed Oct 25, 2006 5:19 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Okami is more than 30 hours long?

Man that's long for a zelda game!
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Shapermc
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PostPosted: Wed Oct 25, 2006 5:28 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

dark steve wrote:
Okami is more than 30 hours long?

Man that's long for a zelda game!
She's about 45 hours in now. She guesses she has at least 20 more hours. The game is GIGANTIC.
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PostPosted: Wed Oct 25, 2006 5:35 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Shapermc wrote:
dark steve wrote:
Okami is more than 30 hours long?

Man that's long for a zelda game!
She's about 45 hours in now. She guesses she has at least 20 more hours. The game is GIGANTIC.


That, combined with what Mr. Mech described above in regards to "going through the motions" is exactly why I haven't touched Okami since I learned to draw lilly pads.
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PostPosted: Wed Oct 25, 2006 5:39 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hell!
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