Episode #26 - RF Generation Playcast (Bully)

[singlebanana]

Our Bully podcast is here!

Podbean:  http://rfgenplaycast.podbean.com/
YouTube: https://youtu.be/CCXyL2x04e4

[singlebanana]

So, I was listening to the podcast yesterday and when I heard the intro music that Steven chose for the Bully segment ("Welcome to Bullworth"), I was immediately floor at how it sounded just like Goblin's "Susperia Theme" from 1977.  I'm a big horror fan and especially fond of the films of Dario Argento, Goblin did a lot of the music for his films. I even actually went to see Goblin a few years ago on their first U.S. tour.  Pretty cool and almost ominous of the "horrors" that await Jimmy Hopkins at his new school. Listen for yourself.

[Fleach]

It's also a little similar to Tubular Bells, but it's way closer to Suspiria. The chord progression is the same. Good ear, Rich!

[Pam]

Thinking about your ending discussion about where Bully rates compared to the rest of Rockstar's games... I haven't played a ton of them, but what tends to make them stick out for me is the world the game takes place in. All their worlds are detailed and immersive, but some appeal more than others. Here's my ranking of Rockstar games from most to least favourite:

1. LA Noire
LA Confidential is one of my favourite books/movies and playing this made me feel like I was getting a chance to run around inside the movie. I thought the creation of 50's LA was just great.  Plus, I liked the detective aspect much more than the usual criminal angle.

2. Red Dead Redemption
I didn't play all that much of this game, but I can appreciate the world it created. The story was strong and the characters I saw were well developed. Plus, riding a horse around beats a boring old car any day. The main reason I didn't play more of this was because I had recently played both Fallout 4 and Witcher 3 and was just too burnt out on open world games.

3. Bully
Getting into the games I'm not that crazy about. The world of Bully was okay. I can see it possibly representing the 50s/60s era. There were parts of the games that I liked, and I enjoyed most of the mini-games in this more than ones in GTA. I'm putting this ahead of the GTA games because I really hate how Rockstar handles driving, and that's obviously a very large part of those games.

4. GTA Vice City
The only GTA I've finished. I like the flashing neon 80s world. I don't care for the driving or the fact that the game is just about shitty people doing shitty things under the guise of satire. I think the Saints Row series does GTA 100x better than GTA does.

5. GTAV
I tried to like this game because Will got it for me for Christmas, but I just couldn't. Again, I don't like the driving at all. I don't like the characters. There was one guy who wasn't a *horrible* person but he surrounded himself with horrible people and constantly made bad decisions. And there was so much distracting side quest content - tennis playing, tow truck driving, marathons... And when it comes down to the world, though it obviously looked amazing, a present day LA (I think it was LA?) is the least interesting to me.

[singlebanana]

Thanks for the thoughts Pam. I haven't played Red Dead Redemption or L.A. Noire, but I own both games.  I'm have similar feelings about the limited amount of GTA games I've played and really just don't have any desire to be a criminal in an all too familiar setting; I tend to prefer gaming in an unfamiliar or fantasy setting.  Though I have attended high school, the setting of Bully, though similar, was still very unfamiliar in several ways. I imagine L.A. Noire and RDR are even more appealing, since they are set in an even more unfamiliar world. There was mention of playing one of them as a playthrough by one of the hosts once, but that fell to the wayside. Perhaps we will visit another Rockstar game again next year?