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Bully
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Left: PlayStation 2 version, original release. Right: Xbox 360 version, Scholarship Edition. |
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| Developer(s) | Rockstar Vancouver (PS2) Rockstar New England (Xbox 360, PC)[1] Rockstar Toronto (Wii) |
| Publisher(s) | Rockstar Games Bethesda Softworks (Japan)[2] |
| Engine | RenderWare (PS2) Gamebryo (PC, Xbox 360, Wii)[3] |
| Version | 1.03 (Xbox 360) |
| Platform(s) | PlayStation 2 Wii Xbox 360 Microsoft Windows |
| Release date(s) | PlayStation 2 NA 17 October 2006 EU 25 October 2006 AUS 27 October 2006[4] Wii, Xbox 360 NA 4 March 2008 JP 24 July 2008 UK 7 March 2008[5] Microsoft Windows NA 21 October 2008 EU 24 October 2008[6] |
| Genre(s) | Action/Adventure |
| Mode(s) | Single-player (PS2, Wii, Xbox 360), multiplayer (Wii, Xbox 360) |
| Rating(s) | BBFC: 15 CERO: D ESRB: T OFLC: M OFLC: R13 PEGI: 16+ USK: 16 |
| Media | DVD-ROM (PlayStation 2), Wii Optical Disc (Wii), DVD-DL (Xbox 360), Download (Steam) |
| Input methods | Keyboard and Mouse, DualShock 2, Wii Remote and Nunchuk, Xbox 360 gamepad |
Bully, also known as Canis Canem Edit outside of North America, (which is Latin for "dog eat dog") for the PAL PlayStation 2 version,[7] is a third person action-adventure video game released by Rockstar Vancouver for the PlayStation 2 on 17 October 2006 in the United States, and 25 October 2006 in the United Kingdom. An Xbox version was planned but was canceled for undisclosed reasons.[8] The game was re-released as Bully: Scholarship Edition on 4 March 2008 for the Wii and Xbox 360 and 24 October 2008 on PC. The PlayStation 2 version of the game is also available in the United States as a special edition that includes a limited edition comic book and a dodgeball of the same style as the ones used in the game, with the word "Bully" embossed on it. [9]
Contents |
Bully is a sandbox game set in a school environment. The player takes control of teenage rebel, Jimmy Hopkins, who from the opening cutscene is revealed to be a difficult student with a criminal background. The game concerns the events that follow Jimmy being dropped off at Bullworth Academy, a fictional New England boarding school. The player is free to explore the school campus in the beginning and later on in the game the town, or to complete the main missions. The game makes extensive use of minigames. Some are used to earn money, others to improve Jimmy's abilities or get new items.
School classes themselves are done in the form of minigames, broken into five levels of increasing difficulty. English, for example, is a word scramble minigame, and as Jimmy does well in this minigame, he learns to he learns various language-skills, such as the ability to apologize to police for small crimes.
Jimmy Hopkins has a multitude of weapons available, although they tend to run along the lines of things a school boy might actually attain, such as a slingshot, bags of marbles, itching powder, fire crackers, stink bombs, and later in the game, a bottle rocket launcher and the spud cannon, a firearm that launches potatoes. He also has an assortment of vehicles to operate — mainly a skateboard, but also a scooter, a go-kart(for racing), a lawn mower (for money), and bicycles.
The game takes place at Bullworth Academy, a fictional independent boarding school in the New England area of the United States. Jimmy ends up enrolled in the school when his newly married mother and stepfather go on a year-long honeymoon cruise. Based on the things said in the conversation with Jimmy and his mother and stepfather, Jimmy doesn't have a good relationship with his parents. The school is located in the fictional town of Bullworth, which is most likely located in either Connecticut or New Hampshire and appears to exist in the same fictional universe as the Grand Theft Auto series[10]. The school itself is a neo-gothic design and is similar to many other public schools and colleges in the United Kingdom and New England, in particular Fettes College in Edinburgh.
The game focuses on Bullworth's newest student, Jimmy Hopkins. As he advances through his academic career at Bullworth Academy, he may interact with the school's students and teachers, as well as people from the neighboring towns, many of whom will give him errands to complete. He is greeted by Gary Smith, a scheming, unstable sociopath, and Pete Kowalski, a shy student who has yet to make any friends. Throughout the first chapter, Gary and Jimmy bump heads and get into verbal and physical arguments. Gary tells Jimmy in order to be popular he must bully other students around. However Gary has Jimmy doing all of his dirty work by playing continuous mind games with him. Throughout the game, it is really hard to tell if Gary is Jimmy's friend from the way they boss each other around and fight with one another. Jimmy has to navigate his way through the six cliques at the school — the Bullies, Nerds, Preppies, Greasers, Jocks and Townies.Unlike other games from Rockstar no two characters in Bully are the same, and every character has a name.
Main characters:
Jimmy Hopkins: The Bullworth Academy's newest student. Jimmy begins the game trying to attend Bullworth in peace, but is continually harrassed, and bullied. However, when Jimmy is pushed, he pushes back, usually harder, and in this way, he works his way to the top of all the cliques at Bullworth Academy.
Gary Smith: Student at the academy who wants to take over Bullworth and uses Jimmy in his plans. Early in the game, Gary tries to convince Jimmy that they should rule the school together. Jimmy protests, saying he just wants to be left alone, and Gary starts thinking that Jimmy is plotting against him. At this point, Gary begins engineering Jimmy's downfall from behind the scenes. Throughout the game, Gary shows signs of paranoia, anti-socialism, and mentions that he takes medication for ADD.
Pete Kowalski: Shy student, who doesn't have any friends, not even the nerds. At the beginning he gets bullied by Gary, and is an accomplice in Gary's schemes early on. When Gary turns on Jimmy at the end of Chapter 1, Pete becomes Jimmy's friend.
Ted Thompson: Bullworth Academy's leader of the Jock clique.
Earnest Jones: Bullworth Academy's leader of the Nerd clique.
Jonny Vincent: Bullworth Academy's leader of the Greaser clique.
Derby Harington: Bullworth Academy's leader of the Prep clique.
Russell Northrop: Bullworth Academy's leader of the Bullies clique.
Edgar: De facto leader of Bullworth's dropouts.
Early information released by Take-Two Interactive seemed to indicate that the player would be taking the role of a bully, and screenshots printed in Electronic Gaming Monthly showed the player-controlled antagonist administering a "swirlie" and throwing a punch at another student. However, the tone of the final game was different, with the player in the role of a problem student who stood up to and fought back against bullies, in effect, bullying on behalf of the victims, or in self-defense.
The PlayStation 2 version of the game uses an advanced Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas engine through Renderware. Rockstar Vancouver also decided to make every student in the school have a unique appearance and, within programming limitations, personality.
Bully has caused controversy among parents and educators. Criticisms are due to the adult nature of previous Rockstar games, in particular, the Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas Hot Coffee minigame controversy and certain aspects of the game, for example, its title. Some groups counter that the protagonist is just as much defending himself and crusading to end bullying in the Academy, and that picking on girls or weaker kids is a serious transgression with serious ramifications. Groups such as Bullying Online and Peaceaholics have criticized the game for glorifying or trivializing school bullying. Most of these criticisms were voiced before the content of the game was available to the public. In 2006, the United States-based Entertainment Software Rating Board officially gave Bully a rating of "T" (suitable for ages 13 and up), the BBFC gave Canis Canem Edit a 15 rating[11] and the New Zealand OFLC restricted it to persons 13 years of age and over. In 2007, Yahoo! Games listed it as one of the top ten controversial games of all time.[12]
Sexuality is a present theme throughout Bully. Five different missions involve Jimmy running missions on behalf of different girls, the successful completion of which earns him a kiss. The Art Class minigame enables Jimmy to kiss girls for rewards that increase incrementally with each level of art class passed. It is also possible for Jimmy to kiss certain boys in the game. The ESRB claimed it was fully aware of the homosexual content when they gave it a T rating.[13] Other sexual themes involve a gym teacher who is stated to have hit on the girls in school, and a student reading a men's magazine, and, in Scholarship Edition, dissecting a rat's testicles. Also, there is a mission named "Panty Raid", where the gym teacher asks Jimmy Hopkins to collect underwear from the girls' dorm.
Prior to both the ESRB's rating and the release of Bully, Jack Thompson filed a lawsuit attempting to have the game blocked from store shelves in Florida. Thompson declared the game a "nuisance" and "Columbine simulator". He also argued this point on Attack of the Show along with (Kevin Pereira with him on the opposite end) on the show's "The Loop."[14] Thompson's petition, filed with the 11th Judicial Circuit Court, asked for Wal-Mart and Take-Two to furnish him with an advance copy of Bully so he could have "an independent third party" play the game and determine if it would constitute a public nuisance in the state of Florida, in which case it could be banned.[15][16] On 11 October 2006, Judge Ronald Friedman ordered Take-Two and Rockstar to provide the court with a copy of the game within 24 hours. On 13 October 2006, Friedman subsequently ruled in favor of shipping the game, noting that there was no content in the game that was not already on late night TV. Thompson responded to the ruling with fiery speech directed at the judge.[17]
When given a preview build, the mainstream American media took a generally positive opinion of the game. Press coverage has described the game as free-form, focusing on building a social network and learning new skills from classes, with strictly enforced punishments for serious misbehavior.[18]
Attempts to have the game banned have been made by the charity Bullying Online and Labour Party M.P Keith Vaz in the UK.[19] Currys and PC World, both owned by DSG International, said that they do not wish to sell the game in the UK because it is "not appropriate for Currys' family-friendly image". The official statement lists what Currys believes is "the explicit link between violence and children" as the reason behind the ban, and continues: "We haven't taken this decision lightly, particularly considering the excellent relationship we have with Rockstar." However despite this decision other high street retailers including Game, HMV, Woolworths and Virgin Megastores have all announced an intention to stock the game.[20] DSG stores still stock other Rockstar games including the GTA series, and other violent games like Manhunt, which both have BBFC 18 ratings, whereas Bully has a BBFC 15 rating.
Bully was banned in Brazil.[21] In April 2008, Brazilian justice prohibited the commerce, import and availability of the game in Brazilian houses.[22] The decision was taken by judge Flávio Mendes Rabelo from the state of Rio Grande do Sul based on psychological findings by the state psychology society which claims that the game would be potentially harmful to teenagers and adults. Anyone caught selling the game in Brazil would face a daily fine of R$1,000.00.[23]
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Bully has received generally positive reviews from critics.[32] The game received ratings of 8.9/10 from IGN, 9.0/10 from Games Radar, a perfect 10/10 from 1UP.com, 8.7/10 from GameSpot, 5/5 from JIVE Magazine, 8.75/10 from VGRC.net, a 5/5 from X-Play, and made the Top 10 Games of '06 in PlayStation Magazine. Canis Canem Edit also got 9/10 from OPS2 Magazine. Critics generally praised the game's storyline, while they complained about particular stealth missions, as well as the camera. Critics also noted that the game is substantially easier than veterans of the Grand Theft Auto series (Rockstar's flagship titles) would expect.
As of 12 March 2008, the PlayStation 2 version of Bully has sold 1.5 million copies according to Take-Two Interactive.[33][34]
Bully: Scholarship Edition was released for the Xbox 360 and Wii video game consoles on 3 March 2008. The game features exclusive content which was unavailable in the PlayStation 2 version, including eight new missions, additional characters, four new school classes (Biology, Music, Math and Geography) and new unlockable items and clothing. Some script changes have been made, including small changes and holiday missions from Chapter III absent from the PlayStation 2 version. The random NPCs also have more lines. In addition, single system 2-player competitive multiplayer minigames have also been added, along with Achievements for the Xbox 360 version and Wii Remote and Nunchuk motion and pointer controls for the Wii version. All ports of the Scholarship Edition use the game engine Gamebryo, rather than Renderware which was used for the PS2 version.[3]
Rockstar Games first announced the game on July 19, 2007.[36] On August 6, 2007, RockstarWatch.net reported on the release of the Australian Bully: Scholarship Edition box art which included artwork of the protagonist, Jimmy Hopkins, and the school principal, Dr. Crabblesnitch.[37] On February 3, 2008, Rockstar announced the game's upcoming release on March 4, 2008 and posted the Scholarship Edition launch trailer at the Bully homepage.
Bully: Scholarship Edition was released in the PAL region under the original Bully title, and not Canis Canem Edit, as the original game was renamed.[37] The Xbox 360 version to be released in Japan will also exclude "Scholarship Edition" from its title. Some retail outlets in Australia have since received recall notices for the game on both Xbox 360 and Wii. No reason for the recall has been given, but stores have been asked to remove stock from shelves and return it to the distributor.
The Windows port was developed by Rockstar New England, the same developers that ported the game to the 360. The port includes the original soundtrack for Bully which was released back in 2006 on CD. The port was released on October 21, 2008 in the US and October 24, 2008 in the UK.[38]
Both the Wii and Xbox 360 versions of the game generally received positive reviews with IGN giving the Wii version an 8/10,[39] while the Xbox 360 version received 8.7/10.[40] 1up.com gave the Wii version an A- grade[41] and the Xbox 360 version a B- grade.[42] Gameplasma gave the Wii version a 9/10. [43] The PC version, however, received mixed reviews ranging from a "Good" rating of 7.8 from IGN[44] to a C- from 1up.com[45] who called it "[a] shoddy, untimely port that, inexplicably -- considering its ridiculously long port time -- feels like a rush job." GameSpot later rated it with a "fair" rating of 6.0[46], calling it "[a] lazy porting job [which] hinders Bully's classic classroom hijinks".
The Xbox 360 version of Bully: Scholarship Edition was found to be unstable on some players' consoles, resulting in glitches, crashes and performance issues. Rockstar promised to have a patch addressing these issues by the week of 10 March 2008, however the patch was delayed due to Microsoft Certification.[47] On Thursday 20 March, a patch was released via Xbox Live (v1.03), but there are reports which claim the problems have continued or worsened after patching.[48] The problems included audio issues, animation issues, and inability to complete Music classes due to differences between the Wii and Xbox 360 controllers. The most prevalent and common problem with the game is the unexplained freezing of the console, but not music being played on a connected mp3 player or hard drive. GameSpot, a game review website which bases its reviews on the initial public release, took the glitches into account and marked the 360 version of the Scholarship Edition down to a 7/10,[49] a full point lower than the Wii version, which received an 8.[50] The UK magazine Ngamer gave the game 90%.
The PC version of Bully: Scholarship Edition was heavily criticized by many, being found by end users to contain problems including textures which were either disappearing or were slow to load, memory leaks, and an endless loop after the initial cut scene in which player speaks with the headmaster[51]. Bully also reportedly suffers from the same Field of view issues which were seen in another PC title, Bioshock, which was developed by 2K Games - a subsidiary of Rockstar parent company, Take Two Interactive. As a result, people on Steam's forums have been critical of Rockstar. People were also critical of the Vertical synchronization feature in the title as Bully runs at 30 frames per second, causing some parts of the game to be problematically too slow or too fast. It is also reportedly subject to frequent crashes in addition to mouse drift. To date, there is no patch or valid workaround available.
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