I've been to 2 Toys "R" Us stores and neither has had a copy of Bully, or even the marker on the shelf for it. The salesperson had no information on it. I see Toys "R" Us has no shortage of games receiving the Mature rating with the shelves lined with Scarface, Yakuza, Black and a few more. Perhaps it's the controversy over the Teen rating when many feel it should be labeled Mature. (Immature would be more like it what with the wedgies and firecrackers in the toilet type shenanigans.) Or maybe its the alternative lifestyle possibilities that Joystiq recently commented on.

Does Toys "R" Us carry this game?

'm glad I posted on the blog and then did some other work before playing Bully. Suffice to say there was not much sleep. The game is a lot of fun. Similar to Grand Theft Auto in many ways, yet a different game. Rockstar's imprint is all over this thing, from the top notch writing, interesting mini games, open game play, etc. Where you had Uzis, rocket launchers with GTA, Bully's got stinkbombs and slingshots. GTA had its rival gangs, Bully's got its rival cliques. In GTA, the cops chased you when you shot, maimed, and ran over people. In Bully, the prefects come after you for truancy, trespassing, breaking into lockers, and mmissing curfews.

If I have any willpower, I will sleep tonight. And I do wanna sleep, but maybe after just one more mission.

Why am I not home playing Bully right now? Right now the aggregate is 90 over at Metacritic. Here's a peek at what you get for an extra 10 bucks. Thanks, Kotaku.

...aka Canis Canem Edit.

Bully has been a much maligned title that should only prove to sell well. The Truth ads haven't stopped people from buying cigarettes yet, have they?

Tony Blair continues a long tradition of folks condeming things they haven't seen firsthand. Glad to hear he was laughed at by Parliament.

In this case, confronting the Bully will not cause the Bully to stand down, just to sell more copies.

Thank goodness they didn't name it Canis Canem Edit here in the United States.

I believe you'd get your ass kicked sayin' something like that, man.

It looks like Rockstar will take a little bit more of my lunch money today.

Anyone going to this? If so, be sure to say hi.

Another Rockstar banger in the pipeline. Team Bondi is the developer. Bondi was founded by Brendan McNamara who wrote and directed The Getaway. The game that is, not the Steve McQueen film.

Yes, indeed. I'll be purchasing this one, I'm sure. Games don't need to be all about photorealism, and immersion into what seems to be a different life, yet still in our world, or using our first person and peripheral vision as the frame of reference. The power on these game systems can be harnessed in ways that reinvent things. Perhaps at some point we'll even see something similar to an RPG taking place in a Cubist environment. If someone can figure out a way to play Jackson Pollock painting, I'm for it. As the envelope is pushed, the results all across the board will improve.

Looks good. Another unique gaming experience on the horizon from Rockstar. October 17, 2006.

Am I the only one that misses the old Rockstar Games web site?

I'm sure not.

Why does someone who's got two kids and knows he's got to get up early in the morning still play video games occasionally until 4 am? If I could answer that, would I still be yawning as much as I am today?

I've finally gotten around to the copy of Beyond Good & Evil for PS2 that's been in my posession for some time now. It's a well made game with solid story, good controls, and action at times alternates between stealth, combat, platform, vehicle control, and photography (as a necessary part of gameplay). It was much lauded when it came out, but must not have sold enough to have a sequel. It's a shame.

I recommend picking up a copy if you haven't already. This is not a full blown review (Metacritic can find you some of those), but the mind juices needed a straw stuck in them to get posting again and this is that straw. slurp. slurp.

Further searching on the Internet has turn up an article at jumpbutton from an UbiSoft PR guy explaining why this game didn't sell. If I said it before, I'll say it again, it's quite a shame. Joystiq has posted on this as well.

Visit the Planet Grand Theft Auto Forums for a link to a clearer movie showing the Mysterious Ghost Photographer of San Andreas.

Poster "47" provides a link to an .avi file. Mac OS X users will need the DivX Codec.

Visit my previous link on the mysterious ghost photographers of San Andreas. The link to the movie was dead. It was a ghost link, if you will. And, if you won't, well...it still wasn't working. But now that's all over. I will probably make this available on YouTube in the near future.

It was made with a digital camera, but I still think it's the only movie online featuring the ghost photographer. I could be wrong. I've been wrong before. But let's just say I'm not and move in.

As far as the new Grand Theft Auto for PS2, Liberty City Stories, no, I haven't purchased it yet.

UPDATE:The video is on YouTube now as well. Here, in my vlog and here, in the greater YouTubeosphere.

If you're lucky your local Circuit City will have it in stock. And if they do, their price is $14.99. Although I haven't seen a Circuit City near me that has a copy. It's NOT available online.

Good luck, Gamers.

UPDATE: 6/20/2006: I was just at the Circuit City web site, and now this title is available there at the $14.99 price.

I rolled up the Queen. No, not her. The Queen of All Cosmos. (She's the one on the right, sans facial hair.) It happened about three weeks ago, but it took awhile, and I actually had to wake up my son a little earlier in the morning to witness it, since he would never forgive me if I didn't. (You are entitled to your opinion of me as a parent, and if you decide to share it, then please share some hints on getting the 5 year old to eat vegetables as well.) I don't recall the exact size of the katamari necessary for rolling up her royal highness, but it had to be between 3000 and 3500 meters.

The animated gif is from the Panic web site. Fine purveyors of Mac software and Katamari Damacy t-shirts. Well, where else would you by them? Target ain't got 'em. I'm expecting my shirt soon. And in the meantime I'm debating of when to unveil the PSP in my house, and the family debut of Me & My Katamari. There's a five hour road trip coming up real soon, so it'll happen before then.

Related links:
GameSetWatch Interview with Cabel Sasser of Panic on the collaboration on the shirts with Katamari creator, Keita Takahashi.
GamaSutra Interview with Keita Takahashi.
KmikeyM - he who packs the shirts in mailing envelopes..

I don't much care for bills. I care even less for paying them. i'm kind of paying them now, but not really. i've been looking at the katamari home page and david choe's web site.

Choe's site has a photo collage (it's in that pop-up window which is also the "news" link) which if you scroll down goes into detail about his hobby of setting up the perfect photos in GTA: San Andreas (this link is not to photos by David Choe, obviously). And since this site (thisblogismyblog, my parentheses are getting more annoying than ever, just pray that I don't scan through this one more time) hasn't commented on the Grand Theft franchise for awhile, why not mention it here. The GTA gamers will get some perspective outside of cheat codes and rumours.

I'm a big fan of Choe's art, I've picked up Bruised Fruit and Cursiv. But I'll admit it's been awhile since I flipped through. He pops up here and there in Giant Robot.

And while I'm on the subject of West Coast folks, I'll mention Pete(r) Moraites. And then I'll mention to him this posting. But by then he'd probably have read it. Or maybe not. Anyway...Pete is avisualmucialtitleanimatronillustrvidedirectninja guy. He's mad talented, and he's got something called focus working in his favor in the last few years. Like how Cyclops from the X-Men needs those goggles or fucking lasers just destroy all. I think he's got those goggles implanted in his brain or something.

Yeah...umm...well he's got a DVD release party happening which includes his video and music work (solo and as part of the duo, Salvador Dalek) It's this Saturday May 20th, beginning at 7PM at the Ocean Front Gallery, 801 Ocean Front Walk, Venice Beach, CA 90291. Full details here.

I figured I'd mention Pete's work or web site at some point or another. But not really when I was paying my bills thinking I was going to segway into more of a personal post, and then detouring via David Choe in Pete's direction. But posts have a way of writing themselves.

Oh yeah the Peter Moraites DVD is entitled Spelling Test. I hadn't mentioned that, and it will probably be better for everyone's Googling purposes now that I've told you. And he blogs here.

I'd heard from a few people that the Roomba was not such a great vacuum cleaner. So it's good to see another use for it.

Distract yourself with the Death Jr. C4 Hamster Game. I've seen mixed reviews of the actual PSP game. But this minigame created by StarvingEyes, will amuse for a bit.

Occasionally people that don't know me read this blog. Occasionally people who do know me read this blog. Occasionally people do wear white after Labor Day.

One of those people is Shannon Palmer. (And I'm sure she wears what she wants, Labor Day be Damned!) Normally I don't have a reason to out a reader. It's not all about blog nepotism. I read her blog. And it's good. She blogs about music, art and other things that are neither and some that are both.

After falling down the rabbit hole I found her blog. It wasn't exactly chasing a white rabbit, but close. Somehow I even landed on her blogroll. If I sound giddy as a schoolgirl, it's because someone reads this. And perhaps the Catholic school uniform and pigtails I'm sporting right now.

Yes, humor and creepiness can co-exist. And if for nothing else except one more reader, this writer will live to blog another day. (I think I actually paraphrased a line from "The Trooper" just there. But then I read the lyrics and think, "No, not really.") Eddie Lives. Guy crossing the street dies.

As a contrarian sidebar, I'm listening to the microradio from micromusic.net. Homefront for a good portion of homegrown 8-bit Gameboy jams.