Bully Available for Playstation 2

By Geoff Duncan October 17, 2006

Bully Available for Playstation 2

Take-Two Interactive, the same publisher which brought the world the Grand Theft Auto franchise—and associated “Hot Coffee” controversy surrounding Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas—has a new game out today: Bully.

Bully follows the character of 15 year-old Jimmy Hopkins as he tries to adjust to life at the fictional New England boarding school Bullworth Academy. Jimmy’s been expelled from every school he’s attended, and now gets to contend with malicious teachers, pranks, being the outsider at an upight school, and taking on liars and snobs, and exploring the school’s larger town.

Billed by Take-Two as “outrageously funny,” Bully has already garnered considerable criticism, including court action to stop the game from going to market on the grounds that it was effectively a “Columbine simulator” which created a public nuisance, and harsh criticism from pundits and watchdog groups saying it’s a sad indication of the direction of modern culture. For its part, Take-Two says the game’s humor and entertainment value is the game’s main focus: the game has no guns, no knives, and no blood, with the mightiest weapons being slingshots, stink-bombs, and fire extinguishers.

(Back in my day, I recall kids being seriously hurt by all those things. But that was reality, not a game.)

Although a handful of retailers are declining to carry Bully, you can now see for yourself what all the fuss is about: Bully is now available for Playstation 2 with an MSRP of $39.99; it’ll ship in Europe under the name Canis Canem Edit on October 27, 2006, with a suggested price of €59.99, or £39.99 in the United Kingdom. (“Canis Canem” is Latin for “dog eat dog.”) Development on a version of Bully for Xbox was cancelled some time ago, so if you want to play, Sony’s the way.

Editors' Recommendations

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Geoff Duncan writes, programs, edits, plays music, and delights in making software misbehave. He's probably the only member…

Gaming

Counter-Strike 2 is now available on Steam for free after surprise launch

A team groups up in Counter-Strike 2.

With little more than a slight tease beforehand, Valve just launched Counter-Strike 2 on Steam.
Counter-Strike 2 - Launch Trailer
Counter-Strike is Valve's long-running competitive multiplayer shooter series. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive has stayed near the top of Steam's player count charts ever since it launched in 2012. After over a decade of dominance, Valve first announced Counter-Strike 2 as a free, sequel-level upgrade to Global Offensive earlier this year. After some slight teases earlier in the month, Valve finally decided to surprise launch the game on September 27.
Counter-Strike 2 builds upon Global Offensive in Valve's newer Source 2 game engine. Outside of the obvious visual upgrades that change brings, Counter-Strike 2 adds to its predecessor with a new CS Rating system, overhauled maps, and tweaks to core mechanics like smoke grenades and the tick rate at which the first-person shooter operates. Valve also promises that the game features "upgraded Community Workshop tools," so we should get some entertaining Counter-Strike 2 mods.

Valve intends for players to smoothly transition from Global Offensive to Counter-Strike 2 as the game has simply updated to make the transition, and all items players obtained in the former work in the latter. Hopefully, this approach works out better for Valve than it did for Blizzard with Overwatch 2 last year.
Counter-Strike 2 is available now on PC via Steam. It's a free-to-play game, although players can buy a Prime Status Upgrade for $15 that grants buyers the titular moniker. Having Prime Status grants exclusive items, item drops, and weapon cases and makes the game more likely to matchmake you with other Prime Status Counter-Strike 2 players.

Gaming

PlayStation VR2 just got 2 fun shooters, but I’m still waiting to be wowed

Key art for Firewall Ultra.

For the past six months, PlayStation VR2 players like myself have been yearning for new reasons to boot up our headsets. And after a long wait, the VR platform is getting a much-needed infusion with two brand-new titles. It’s a cause for celebration, but a mild one; neither of PSVR2's latest titles does much to revitalize my shock and awe for the platform six months into its life span.

The two games in question are the exclusive, Sony-published Firewall Ultra from First Contact Entertainment and Crossfire Sierra Squad from Smilegate. Both are realistic-looking military shooters, although they are different in execution. Firewall Ultra is a Rainbow Six Siege-style, squad-based multiplayer game, while Crossfire Sierra Squad taps more into the genre’s arcade roots to create VR shooting galleries.

Gaming

I’m already pining for PlayStation VR2 to get Half-Life: Alyx

half life alyx vr details feature

I haven't played Half-Life: Alyx, but I really, really want to.

Last month, I picked up the PlayStation VR2 as my first virtual reality headset and have been enjoying a wide range of games on it since then, from Zombieland: Headshot Fever Reloaded to Horizon Call of the Mountain. Although the lack of exciting new titles in PSVR2's launch window library doesn't bother me that much as this is my first VR experience, I do still recognize that there are only a couple of games that are pushing the PSVR2's technology and giving Sony's second VR outing a clear identity.