Bully for that Rockstar

Rockstar has announced Bully, a PS2 and Xbox game about, well, school bullies, developed by Rockstar Vancouver (formerly Barking Dog, of Homeworld: Cataclysm semi-fame).

It'll be on show at E3 but only behind closed doors, which is fairly typical of Rockstar's approach at this point.

Although we'd have to question the logic of making a game about schoolyard bullies for a generation of previously spotty teens who almost certainly know what it's like to be on the business end of some soon-to-be-shelf-stacking tosspot's muscly attempts to exert himself with "beats" and the like [issues -Ed], that isn't stopping Rockstar, which says Bully "takes the Rockstar tradition of groundbreaking, innovative, original gameplay and humorous tongue-in-cheek storytelling to an entirely new setting."

And, to be fair, it's only half about actually being a bully. It sounds more like a "get your own back" kind of affair. You'll be able to "laugh and cringe" as you stand up to bullies, get picked on by teachers, play pranks, win or lose the girl, and get used to fictitious reform school "Bullworth Academy".

"We fought hard to keep this title under wraps for ages and I am thrilled that we can finally unveil it to people at E3," says Rockstar overlord Sam Houser. Where you're going to show it off behind closed doors, Sam. Closed doors.

Oh well. We'll try and sneak in. If they put up a fight, we'll just get them in a headlock and steal their lunch money.