The first details are starting to seep out of Rockstar about their next major controversial game, Bully, which SPOnG is happy to report will be released on PS2 this October. The game is, by default, a PS2 exclusive, seeing as they dropped the Xbox version, simply because hardly anyone buys new Xbox games any more.

Anti-violence protesters are, predictably, already making noises about the 'abhorrent' nature of the game, before they've even seen or heard about what it actually is. It seems the magical combination of Rockstar Games plus an adult-themed video game concept is enough to send the Jack Thomson's of this world into an apoplectic rage.

So what of the game then? SPOnG is, of course, willing it to be better than good, as it's fair to say that Rockstar rarely let us down. We should get a first look in at it in the next week or so, when we'll bring you our detailed thoughts on the title. In the meantime here are a few more details.

The main character is a strapping young fellow called Jimmy Hopkins, who has to defend himself against the bullies at Bullworth Academy, a fictional American boarding school, whilst also dealing with the various school cliques - the jocks, the preppies, the nerds, the bossy prefects and so on.

You progress in the game by beating up bullies (who are easily identified by their white shirts) and achieving social status by cleverly negotiating you standing with the various cliques. So your character is NOT himself a bully, and indeed will be discouraged from hitting smaller kids, girls or teachers.

Hang on a second, this is beginning to sound a bit too much like a fun idea for a video game, not a mind-bending, thug-inspiring 'bad thing'! The games detractors will also be disappointed to hear that the game does not feature kids using drink or drugs, so in that respect Bullworth Academy is also very unrealistic, if compared with most American high schools.

"We think the school environment is a universal experience that so many people relate to," said company spokesman Rodney Walker, also pointing out that criticism of the game is unique in that the naysayers haven't even seen it yet!

Of course, following on from last year's Hot Coffee debacle, anything that Rockstar does is watched hawk-like by those looking for any excuse to demonise video games.

SPOnG hopes that this fun-sounding story of a cheeky scamp trying to get by at school will, firstly, be a great video game and, secondly, will put paid to all the cynics waiting for another anti-game bandwagon to jump on.

Part of us is tempted to call the Daily Mail's news desk though, purely to see how 'wrong' they get the story. There's really no need to make this call though, as it's only a matter of time. Guesses as to what the headline's are going to be in the forum please.