Bully:Scholarship Edition

[Sephiroth]

i finally got to play it

Story 9/10 Gary is a convincing Psycho, the mother is a whore, the 50ish charaters have distinct personalities, but Jimmy himself seems kind of off

Gameplay Field 9/10 Music Class 4/10 the controls are simple and intuitive, the only real problem is Music class, a DDR type minigame, at class 3-5 rockstar shows off it's crappy 2-d collision detection, alot of times you will hit the proper button and it won't translate, other times you will miss because you have to hit it at just the exact second, same goes for the mini game Nut Shots, but you can beat them, just save before class and try, try again

Graphics 9/10 it's scaled up from the PS2 version, but it's fairly smoothe, especially in HD, clipping is a minor problem, but you will hardly notice, tho you CAN bury the go-kart in certain spots

Difficulty is balanced pretty well aside from "Nut shots" and Music class due to glitches, along with the 2 new story missions for thier difficulty

Gamerscore: the classic 1,000 points over 38 achievements all of which can be gotten by people of moderate game skill


i just got all 1,000 gamerscore points, this is the first game i've gotten all 1,000 points off of, it's fun, varied and addictive, definately worth the buy

 

[unimatrix7]

I was thinking of grabbing it...have they fixed the 360 version yet?

 

[Jax]

^ Patch is out...

I have the game but not started it yet but soon will.

 

[Sephiroth]

its pretty addictive

 

[PsychoPere]

I've been playing Bully off and on since it was released. Haven't had time to get too in-depth with the game, but I have played has been quite enjoyable.

 

[Worf412]

Bully is, in a word, safe. It's not too hard, the story isn't too complex, the game covers no new areas.

Which, coming from me, is saying something, because I was pumped about this game from the very first time I had read about it. A simulated real-time school where you could go to class (or not), doing fun boarding school-type pranks and such without the fear of a real-life felony record, and the joy of beating up whichever clique/group gave you the most ire during your school days? Nice.

The first 15 mins or so (of the actual game, not the oh-so-drawn-out-tutorial) seemed to back all of this up. I went to class when I was supposed to (usually), did the "You can only do this tonight!" mission, and applauded Rockstar.

Then I noticed the drop off (read: zere vas von UND ONLY VON) of "tonight only" missions. Odd, but forgivable. But then I started breaking the rules. I didn't go to class... With absolutely no problems. Sure, I occasionally had to run from the prefects, and hit "X" over and over if they caught me, but avoiding them was almost moronically easy. And even if they caught you, OH NO! I have to go to class where the punishment is more stuff I can do now. Also, your pockets got emptied of all the completely useless toys. OH TEH HORRORS.

Then I noticed I'd been playing the game for a few hours and was already on Chapter 4, with a game ending in sight. Now, I'm not a power gamer. I play in the evenings after work when there is nothing good on TV, and, with few exceptions, not for hours upon hours (My once and future stint in the ranks of the Zombie Popes the exception). How was I so close to beating a game like this?

So I pulled up GameFAQs to make sure there wasn't a "super secret blink and you'll miss it portal to game awesomeness" I had somehow missed. Nope. Bully took the Zelda64 route of "shortass game, BUT OMG THE OPTIONAL (and not very fun) SIDE MISSIONS AND ALSO CHEEKY HIDDEN STUFF".

Which brings me to the side missions and hidden stuff. First of all, the hidden stuff sucks. Too few, and the rewards for most of them is a change in costume.

Side missions, while I don't decry their inclusion, should not make up the bulk of a game. Especially side missions where the only advantage a player can receive is a virtual kiss or, again, a change in costume. If I wanted that, I would have purchased a Barbie game.

Although they have returned to form with GTAIV (I've heard), this game struck me as Rockstar's attempt to be like Nintendo. A safe title that they know will sell like hotcakes owing not to quality or innovation, but rather to their rabid fan base that buy based on the name of the developer that is stamped on the box. Added to this was the "Oh that's cool... Shame they didn't take it further" factor. The hidden pirate? Awesome. The hidden pirate being the only thing like that? Much like Bowser being the only 'mid-game shake up' in Super Mario Strikers. It's as if they had ONE ok idea... But thought that the very fact they came up with that ONE would cause gamers to overlook the fact that they had only ONE.

Which is the score for this game: One, out of ten.

 

[dark angel_707]

the patch has made some things worse, save after each mission.

 

[firehawk12]

Yeah, it's strange, the patch fixed things and broke others. The Wii version seems to be the way to go, from what I've read.
Maybe they'll do a Bully 2 using the GTA4 engine...