Bully - Take that finger out of your nose!!

Bully
Xbox360
PS2







Ahh… the youth of today. They have no respect for their elders and love to get into trouble regularly, in my day things were soooo different… actually, no they weren’t… and this new offering from Rockstar north is a reminder to all past and current pupils of the education system, just what a nightmare school could be at times. Canis Canem Edit as it is called here or ‘Bully’ for those of you that feel Political Correctness has gone to extremes yet again… is the latest game from the genius’s over at Rockstar and it is a very controversial yet brilliant example of art imitating life. From the start you will get a look and feel that is reminiscent of past GTA games. This of course is no bad thing and when you add a huge array of fresh ideas and humour on top of it, you have a super packed lunch box full of gaming, apples and all!

You are Jimmy Hopkins, a lil brat of the highest order and have been dumped into Bullworth academy to fend for yourself. Here you will meet some of the weirdest teachers and students, giving you flashbacks form your own school days.
The whole atmosphere has a dysfunctional Harry Potter feel, with a splash of ‘Revenge of the Nerds’, an old 80’s movie. The task is simple, initially survive and eventually become the top Dog of Bullworth. There are missions galore to take part in and several of the main ‘click’ groups in school will have you running around the grounds on various tasks, from planting stink bombs in the girls locker room to spraying graffiti on the town hall for all to see.
The characters are convincing and all characters are interactive, whether you talk, insult, punch, kiss, wedgie or just grab their bum, all have a reaction to your actions. Missions see you gain or loose favour with school faction and open up new possibilities on compleation. Everything you do in Bully has an effect on your skill, weapons and general abilities giving the game a RPG feel without any complications.

Bully is very story driven with loads of cut scenes all of which play on fun stereotypes and have an excellent sense of humour, there is a story based mission that you must follow and a large amount of optional tasks. There is also the freedom to explore the campus, bully the bullies, chat up chicks or just lob dangerous and gooey things at people, fun, fun, fun….

Its not all fireworks and egging people, you also have to attend class and learn… stuff. Studies include the usual things like English, PE, Chemistry and Art, where you are faced with tasks that are portrayed in the form of short in-games. This is allot of fun and can really help you in your everyday existence at Bullworth by giving you various abilities and fighting moves to defend your self with upon passing the class. Everything is governed by real time and you must meet school rules including being in class on time, not breaking the curfew and not slapping around other students in the presence of authority figures. Break the rules and you will have the prefects and cops on your tail forcing you into hiding position like a locker or bin, if caught there’s a good scolding in store from the headmaster and can sometimes lead to detention… which is… fun believe it or not. Again you are treated to an ‘in-game’ as your punishment, getting caught has never been so much fun.
Later in the game you get a skateboard and various bicycles to get you around the hood and make travel fast and fun. There are so many things to experience in this title that it would take forever to point out, but learning what’s on offer is one class you won’t want to miss.

Bully is a supremely varied and rich game bursting with character, the graphics that are very nice but nothing groundbreaking, acting and voice-overs are excellent, flawless and witty. The controls, although sometime a little annoying are easily gotten used to with an fast learning curve helped by tips along the way. The camera can sometime be a pain but is generally not a big problem and the save system will be familiar to anyone who has played GTA games in the past, which is not to everyone’s taste. This game is not a star pupil however and has a few ‘grade F’ flaws, at times it can feel repetitive and the code has quite a few bugs in it leading to blacked out screens and even the odd console crash.
That said, Bully is a must buy for any gamer who loved the GTA feel or for those that need a little reminder of their school days. Time to do your gaming homework… Here end’ith the lesson. Class Dismissed!

Reapers Verdict: - Not for everyone but I loved it! GTA fans will probably enjoy it the most, perhaps a rental for those who are not to impressed by what they have seen.

Superman - Hottest red Pants in the Universe?

Superman
The Video
Game

Xbox 360
PS2

There are many things super in this world, noodles, markets, and models, but can they wear their underwear over their clothes??? No, only one person can do that, and I don’t mean you granny… that’s right… Superman! Those fetching blue skin tight stockings, tight little red Speedos and a big flappy cape, not to mention that big S on his chest, it’s like Halloween at Elton John’s house.

When you begin Superman Returns it all looks great and exciting as you drool at the prospect of ruling metropolis with an iron fist… um, I mean being its hero and saving innocent people. Either way, the prospect of having a vast city to explore and zip around is great. After some tutorial missions which capture the attention well, your precious Metropolis city is taken away and you journey into space in search of superman’s historic birthplace, Krypton. After you endure a slugfest with some intergalactic mussel brained baddies that are more frustrating than fun, you return to earth and begin the best part of the game, super-cruising around the city, which is without a doubt the games most enjoyable feature.

After flying around for a few minuets at super speed, bashing around a few baddies along with the odd civilian, and perhaps rescuing a few cats, yes I said Cats… you will start to realise that there’s not much else to do in the game, apart from the race against a leprechaun look-alike.

Experience points are earned by defeating a never-ending stream of repetitive baddies which are a bit limited and once you find the perfect way to defeat a particular class of enemy it soon becomes a yawn fest. Bosses pose the greatest challenge and at times are visually impressive like the massive Metallo when he gets super sized. There is also metropolises very own super village idiot ‘Bizzaro’ whom is basically a mentally challenged superman clone, and you cant help but feel it would be more fun to play as the dummy than to fight against him. Ultimately the bosses, just like their minions, become repetitive and systematic with little in long term enjoyment.

The other thing you will quickly notice is that this title ‘Superman Returns: The Video game’, has very little to do with the movie at all, just some nicely rendered cut scenes from the film, which are totally and utterly pointless and are thrown in just for cheep reference. And where’s Clark Kent?? And who told all the baddies that Superman hates Kryptonite?? …some secret!

The graphics are not too bad generally, player models look impressive enough with main characters very like their movie counterparts. Flying is fun and has a great sense of speed while Superman’s powers can be useful and look well. The size of the city is also impressive and is very well designed. From a distance buildings are realistic, but on closer inspection you will find that everything looks a bit blocky and dated being far from the next gen visuals you’d expect. Cars roaming the streets are very boxy and the people are mindless animated mannequins, it all begins to look the same where ever you go, soon becoming Super Dull - Super quickly.

Sound effects are standard with perhaps the flying effects being the best. The famous music from the movies is not well implemented, which is a shame. Voice overs are good and see the characters well represented despite the cheesy overtone.

Controls are easy to use at first but combos become over complicated and the fighting lacks any sense of weight or any ‘crunch’ factor. Throwing a truck feels like lobbing an empty box of corn flakes. The fighting system is seriously flawed and often unresponsive, always frustrating. Throw in on top of this a camera that has a mind of its own during battles making enemies difficult to see half the time and a targeting system nothing short of pitiful and the word ‘Super’ becomes ironic.
.
You get the sense that this game had the potential to be really good… but unfortunately it failed! More than obvious is that this game is heavily influenced by titles like Spiderman 2 and the GTA series, unfortunately not influenced enough and these much older games put Superman: The video game to same.

Fly past this one, the only players that just might get some enjoyment from Superman are the little ones and only if their big fans. Poor old Soups just aint lucky in games, he might be able to save the world but he just cant save developers from putting him in bad title, better luck next time Clarkie. Is it a bird… is it a plane… no it’s a Super Dud.

Reapers Verdict: Dont bother! Fly past this game... perhaps one for the kids or achivment whores