Bully

Highly succesful and controversial developers Rockstar games, the makers of the GTA series which we all love and cherish (GTA Vice City, GTA San Andreas), known for creating the sandbox-style game, where you can pretty much do anything you want (like killing a prostitute after sleeping with her to get your money back, or eating pizzas until your big as a house), have created a new game - BULLY.













In it you play a bulldog-like teenager - Jimmy - who is a high school student in a small fictional town in USA. It boasts the same kind of freedom we've come to know from the GTA titles, albeit in a much more limited environment, which - the reviewers say - doesn't stop it from being one of the deepest games this year, with more than 100 NPC's and 39000 lines of conversation in audio. The emphasis is not so much on violence as on previous Rockstar titles (especially Manhunt), as on a lot of small mini-games, free exploration, and an excellent story.

Each Rockstar title always (except for their ping-pong game I guess) generate a lot of controversy and lynch-like attitutes from the games-are-bad-for-you-and-you-will-burn-in-hell-for-playing-them people, being labeled as a "Columbine-simulator", and what have you. Of course the ignorant people who say things like this, never actually play the games, and it seems that their totally of the mark as usual, since Bully will teach you the rewards of attending class, and getting along with your peers. Besides, let's not forget that players a ethical beings who know right from wrong (My teacher Miguel Sicart has recently finished his Ph.D. dissertation on ethics in computer games, get it here.) There actually is a columbine-simulator out there, which, according to Miguel, is one of the most ethical games there is. Super Columbine Massacre RPG.
Anyway, Bully is out for PS2, and I plan to purchase it very soon, and see if the hype is true, which I'm pretty sure it is.

So far the game have an average rating of 89% on www.gamerankings.com, there's also a summary of the reviews on Gamasutra.

Have a nice weekend.