Bully: Scholarship Edition - first look

Stylistic nitpicks aside, the 360 version also gave us a look at one of the eight new missions, at least some of which will involve Jimmy being caught up in a war between Santas around Christmas. In the one we saw, "Rudy the Red-Nosed Santa," Jimmy needs to help Rudy - a skinny, drunken, creepy weirdo with a thick five o'clock shadow underneath his fake beard - dress up his disgusting back-alley "workshop" with shiny bits of trash. Gathering it means heading out into the snowy town streets and looking for glinting objects, all while trying to fight off short, belligerent elves employed by a rival Santa.

Miraculously, this actually works, and the second part of the mission tasks Jimmy with photographing a series of squirming brats as they sit on Santa's lap. The key to success is waiting until they look at the camera and smile, which they'll only do for a fraction of a second. Endure their shenanigans four or five times, however, and it's a quick payday for Jimmy and a trip to the racetrack for Rudy.

We haven't seen the remaining seven missions (all of which were created by the game's original design team), but even in the unlikely event they turn out to be horrible crap, Bully: Scholarship Edition should be at least as fun as its PS2 predecessor. The core game seems relatively untouched - even the infamous boy-kissing is intact - so unless something major happens to screw things up, we expect it to be awesome. We'll be able to say for sure as we get closer to the game's release in March.