'Bully' hardly a 'Columbine Simulator'...

I'm not that too many people have heard of Rockstar Games' new release Bully. Piccu said something about it a few days ago and I didn't really think too much about it until I started checking out the press it was getting.

See, there are some games out there that you simply have to buy if for nothing but the historical value. That's why we see these little Atari 2600 joystick games with a dozen old titles on them. They can't hold a candle to today's games, but the historical significance of Pong, Pac-Man and Yar's Revenge cannot be denied.

In fact, I'm thinking that I may have purchased a Playstation 2 simply to play Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. Another spectacular offering from Rockstar Games. The game that put them on the map because of it's gratuitous violence. It is a game I feel everyone should own because of the controversy it sparked and the fact that it's ridiculously detailed and fun.

Rockstar's new title Bully is in fact based on the GTA engine. But before anyone goes off of the deep end like they did back in August, Bully involves no guns and no killing. In fact, it is rated T-for teen and not M- for mature like Vice City and other GTA titles.

While I've only played about 10 minutes of Bully since buying it yesterday, I can already tell it's going to be awesome.

The plot is you are a troubled teen named Jimm Hopkins who has been sent to the Bulworth Academy boarding school. Where they turn boys and girls into men. The whole place is corrupt and you basically navigate your way through the school and surrounding areas and be Jimmy. Meet girls, go to class, fight bullies that pick on you, maybe even play a sport.

From what I can see about the game and what I've read, it's simply high school life cranked up to 11. The hot girls are ridiculously hot, the jocks are ridiculously stupid and the bullies act like Mike Tyson.

What makes the game cool is that you can interact with anyone you see and from what I heard on a podcast with one of the games developers, each person you see in the game is a unique character. So you aren't going to see 15 people that look exactly the same.

To me, the lure of this game is seeing how involved Rockstar makes this game. Everyone has seen or played GTA: Vice City or San Andreas. Say what you will about the violence, but those games are far more detailed than anyone could imagine. So in Bully's case, I want to see how detailed they make the environment and what you can do in it.

Getting into another issue, back in August a lawyer was fighting to ban Bully from being released. That's probably why Rockstar kept it on the down-low until its release because this lawyer that had never played the game or had even seen it labeled it a "Columbine simulator."

There is nothing I hate worse than people going on TV giving out their opinion on something when they've not researched anything to support their opinion. As far as I can tell from reading reviews and owning the game, the are no guns in this game.

At all. Not one. I'm not sure there is even a holstered gun.

It's like listening to congressmen talk about how the internet is a system of tubes. Do a little research, wrap your head around the concept and then formulate your f-ed up opinion.

Or better yet, ask a kid.