Rockstar Games presents Bully

I'm always afraid I'll alienate people who visit this blog for things like my Sinatra posts with posts such as this one, or risk the possibility of turning off my pop-culture girlfriend. But this is just another side effect of being Exquisitely Bored in Nacogdoches. So please be patient with my nerdlingerliness®. At least you've learned a new word.

For a guy my age, I am perhaps a little bit too into the Grand Theft Auto games. Yet, I truly love them, what with their beautiful graphics, mind-blowingly huge environments, cheeky, albeit crude, humor, and brilliant musical selelctions for the in-game radio stations, and all. But, I've only felt this way about the Resident Evil and Tomb Raider games, so I'm not a complete video game playing freak. I should add the Legend of Zelda games, and possibly Final Fantasy 7 and 9 to that list, as well. But those are it. Oh, I forgot the LEGO® Star Wars™™ games. But that is definitely all besides the Grand Theft Auto series....Silent Hill, Metal Gear Solid, Goldeneye, Perfect Dark, Syphon Filter.....Such is the cotton candyesque life of a childless adult.

Rockstar Games (the maker of the GTA games) has a new one coming out called Bully. Here's the spiel from Rockstar:

The Rockstar tradition of groundbreaking, original gameplay and humorous tongue-in-cheek storytelling invades an entirely new setting: the schoolyard.

As a mischievous schoolboy, you’ll stand up to bullies, get picked on by teachers, play pranks, win or lose the girl, and ultimately learn to navigate the obstacles of the worst school around, Bullworth Academy - a corrupt and crumbling prep school with an uptight facade.

The story follows Jimmy Hopkins, a teenager who’s been expelled from every school he’s ever attended. Left to fend for himself after his mother abandons him at Bullworth to go on her fifth honeymoon, Jimmy has a whole year at Bullworth ahead of him, working his way up the social ladder of this demented institution of supposed learning, standing up for what he thinks is right and taking on the liars, cheats and snobs who are the most popular members of the student body and faculty. If Jimmy can survive the school year and outsmart his rivals, he could rule the school.

Ready yourself for a hilarious return to campus living with Bully, the outrageously funny debut title from Rockstar Vancouver, available exclusively for PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system in North America on October 17, 2006.

It sounds like they've applied the GTA formula to a boarding school environment, and that sounds promising. While I've been disatisfied (as in one rental, no purchase) with previous, non-GTA titles from Rockstar (The Warriors, Red Dead Revolver, and MANHUNT), I may actually have to get this one.

Here are two preview trailers: