User:Rhain/workspace/Bully: Scholarship Edition

Bully: Scholarship Edition is an open world, action-adventure video game published by Rockstar Games. Developed by Rockstar New England and Rockstar Toronto, it is an enhanced remake of Rockstar Vancouver's Bully. It was released on 4 March 2008 for the Wii and Xbox 360, and on 21 October 2008 for Microsoft Windows. Rockstar announced the game in July 2007.

Gameplay
Bully: Scholarship Edition and the original, Bully, are nearly identical in gameplay and plot. The game is an action-adventure game played from a third-person perspective. Players complete missions—linear scenarios with set objectives—to progress through the story. It is possible to have several active missions at one time, as some missions require players to wait for further instructions or events. Outside of missions, players can freely roam the game's open world, and have the ability to complete optional side missions. The world of Bully, named Bullworth, is separated between five areas: Bullworth Academy, Old Bullworth Vale, Bullworth Town, and Blue Skies Industrial Area. At the beginning of the game, players can only explore Bullworth Academy, with all other areas unlocking as the story progresses.

Players use melee attacks and weapons to fight enemies, and may run, jump, swim or use vehicles to navigate the game's world. Bus stops are located in various locations around the world, allowing players to quickly travel back to Bullworth Academy. Should players take damage, their health meter can be fully regenerated using multiple techniques, such as drinking sodas. If players break rules while playing, the game's authority figures may respond as indicated by a "trouble" meter in the head-up display (HUD). On the meter, the displayed levels indicate the current level of severity (for example, at the maximum sixth level, efforts by all authority figures to incapacitate players become very aggressive). Authority figures will search for players who escape their line of sight; the trouble meter enters a cooldown mode and eventually recedes when the player has evaded the authority figures.

The game's single-player mode lets players control a high school student – teenage rebel James "Jimmy" Hopkins. Throughout the story, Jimmy rises through the ranks of the school groups, which include greasers, nerds and jocks. When not performing missions, players have the ability to attend classes; truanting a required class is a rule violation. Each class grants the player with a special ability upon passing; for example, English allows players to apologise to authority figures after violating rules, and Chemistry grants players with the ability to create firecrackers and stink bombs. Players are also able to initiate romantic relationships with non-player characters, acquiring the ability to give them gifts and kiss them.

In addition to the new available missions included in Scholarship Edition, other additions to the gameplay include Xbox Live achievements and an offline competitive multiplayer mode. The multiplayer mode allows two players to compete for the highest score in different in-game classes, including English and Biology.

Plot
At Bullworth Academy, new student James "Jimmy" Hopkins befriends Gary Smith, while drawing the attention of resident lead bully Russell Northrop. Soon, Gary sets up a fight between Jimmy and Russell; after Jimmy wins, he notes Gary's disappearance and establishes that he has betrayed him. Before long, Jimmy befriends the "Preppies", a group of arrogant rich kids who reject other students. After Gary's actions result in friction between the Preppies and Jimmy, the latter finds himself overruling the group, becoming the leader. Later finding himself involved with the "Greasers", a group of delinquents who are the enemies of the Preppies, Jimmy is accused of being attracted to the girlfriend of leader Johnny Vincent. Eventually, Jimmy is forced to fight Johnny, becoming the leader of the Preppies.

Soon discovering that the "Jocks" are continuing to bully at the school, Jimmy realises that he must gain the trust of the "Nerds" in order to beat the Jocks. After beating their leader, Jimmy partners with the Nerds to sabotage the reputation of the Jocks. He is eventually forced to fight all of the Jocks, finally beating their leader, and bringing peace to the school. However, Jimmy soon discovers that Gary has spread rumours about him to the authorities, leading to Jimmy's expulsion from the school. After teaming up with the "Townies", teenagers who have abandoned school, Jimmy finds out that Gary is running the school with anarchy and chaos, and decides to put a stop to it. When Jimmy tracks down Gary, the two fight, ultimately falling into the school's main office. The principal reveals that he overheard their conversation, deciding to expel Gary from–and reinstate Jimmy to–Bullworth Academy.

Development
On 19 July 2007, Rockstar announced Scholarship Edition for the Wii and Xbox 360. Released on 4 March 2008, it was later ported to Microsoft Windows on 21 October 2008. The game features exclusive content which is unavailable in the original version, including new missions, characters, school classes, and unlockable items and clothing. Some small script changes have been made, and the highly compressed voice files of the original have been replaced with higher-quality versions. The random NPCs also have more lines. In addition, single system two-player competitive multiplayer minigames have also been added, along with Achievements for the Xbox 360 version and Wii Remote and Nunchuk motion and pointer controls for the Wii version. All ports of the Scholarship Edition use the game engine Gamebryo, as opposed to the original version's Renderware.

Reception
Bully: Scholarship Edition was released on 4 March 2008. Both the Wii and Xbox 360 versions of the game generally received both positive and mixed reviews with IGN giving the Wii version an 8/10, while the Xbox 360 version received 8.7/10. 1UP.com gave the Wii version an A- grade and the Xbox 360 version a B- grade. Gameplasma gave the Wii version a 9/10. The PC version, however, received mixed reviews ranging from a "Good" rating of 7.8 from IGN to a C- from 1UP.com who called it "[a] shoddy, untimely port that, inexplicably -- considering its ridiculously long port time -- feels like a rush job." GameSpot later rated it with a "fair" rating of 6.0, calling it "[a] lazy porting job [which] hinders Bully's classic classroom hijinks".

The Xbox 360 version of Bully: Scholarship Edition was found to be unstable on some players' consoles, resulting in glitches, crashes and performance issues. On 20 March, a patch was released via Xbox Live, but there were reports claiming that the problems continued or worsened.