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Life & Arts

Rockstar 'bullies' another hit

Wired In

John-Michael Haines 

You are shoved hard to the ground, head thudding against the concrete. You hear a harsh voice saying, "Stay down and don't get up wimp!" You swear revenge, and before the year is out you're looking down at him on the floor begging for mercy.

Bully has been called the world's most controversial game and a Columbine simulator. Though it is incredibly well done, it teaches the player to prey on the weak and that revenge is the most important thing. It takes the player from being bullied, to being the bully without offering much choice. 

The main character is Jimmy Hopkins, a problem child who has been expelled from several other schools and Bullworth Academy is his last chance. The demented sociopath, Gary, and poor effeminate little Petey quickly befriend him.

Though the game starts out incredibly negative with most of the school hating you it begins to change. After several of Gary's troublemaking missions you start gaining respect from Bullworth's different groups: the preppies, the greasers, the nerds, the jocks and the bullies. This is one of the games most ingenious innovations because all of the groups react to you in completely different ways based on levels of respect. Protect a nerd from a bully and the nerds respect you more. Help a preppie egg one of the greasers and the preppies will give you money. 

It plays a lot like Grand Theft Auto, but replace the car stealing with bike stealing, the gangs with cliques and the sex with kissing. There is no killing in this game but there are a lot of brutal beatings with things such as bats and 2-by-4s. Most of the weapons are kiddie style: sacks of marbles, stink bombs, eggs, slingshots, firecrackers and even a bottle-rocket launcher.

It is very much a free-roam environment but, with mandatory missions that make the story progress. These mandatory missions will lead you all over the school and city, the goal being for Jimmy to eventually gain the respect of everyone in school and therefore get his revenge. 

This is not a Columbine simulator by any means but it sends the message: the only way to get respect is to take it by force. It put morals aside; it is one of the best games of the year.
 

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