Sequels. Oh jesus, SEQUELS. I have played and watched many a sequel. Occasionally you'll get an alright sequel, but most of the time... Oh god.

Last night, I watched Scream 2. I bought it after reading about it here, on TV Tropes: I remember reading an entry saying "most people prefer Scream 2 over the original Scream for its increased humour".

I loved the original Scream because it felt like it had a personality of its own. The lead is pretty damn Genre Savvy, and is basically new to the movie scene, and hot (in a girl-next-door kind of way) to boot. The movie basically insults the viewer with all the clues about Billy Loomis, making us think all those clues were red herrings and then coming back and kicking us in the teeth. That's what I love about it: you're expecting a red herring, but it's actually relevant in the end and you end up feeling stupid for ignoring all the signs.

Plus, the cast was amazing. David Arquette was half-decent as Dwight/Dewey, Courtney Cox proved she does indeed have acting skills and Drew Barrymore was a likeable girl whose death made the best possible opening to a movie like Scream. Neve Campbell was good, I really liked Tatum, Randy was alright, if a bit annoying at times. The movie just oozed of win.

A thing I liked about the beginning of Scream is that the victim has direct ties to one of the killers. Stu and her used to date, and allegedly she broke up with him for Steve, the jock, which would presumably leave him very bitter. In Scream 2's opening, a youngish couple is killed while at the movies (the movie is Stab, which is based off the Woodsboro killings). You never find the connection between Mikey and/or Mrs Loomis and the couple. There is no ulterior motive. unless Ghostface is racist, I guess.

The ending of Scream (SPOILERS ABOUND, GO TO NEXT PARAGRAPH) has Billy and Stu coming out as the killers. Stu says Billy pressured into it (though he might have been doing it to kill Casey) and Billy says that Sidney's mother was sleeping around with his dad, causing his mother to leave. This is an amazing motive, let me tell you: I ate it up. Second best twist in a movie, ever.

The ending to Scream 2 (MORE SPOILERS, NEXT PARAGRAPH PL0X) has Mikey doing the killings so he can have a big trial, and blame violent movies for turning him into a psycho. Mrs Loomis is in it to avenge her son. I can definitely understand Mrs Loomis' motive, but why does Mikey want to screw over horror movies? Did one of his family members kill themselves over a movie? Is he related to Stu? Where did this guy come from? At least Stu had a subtle connection to one of the victims, Mikey has NOTHING.

And the method of murder! In the first movie, Ghostface cuts and slashes left and right. You see Tatum's arm getting slit. You see her die via garage door. You see Casey's intestines hanging from her lifeless body! But in 2, the deaths are so average. All you see for most murders is Ghostface stabbing the victim. Just... stabbing. A very simple stab, one that looks almost childish in its simplicity. The second most brutal murder in the movie is the first death, where the guy gets impaled through the cheek with a knife from the opposite toilet cubicle. This, and the detective getting his face smashed into the car windscreen are the only 2 murders worth watching in this movie. There's no variety. It's dull.

But enought about Scream. Let's talk video games!

Drawn to Life 2. THE WORLD ENDS BECAUSE THE JOKE CHARACTER MIKE IS ACTUALLY A KID IN A COMA, AND THE WORLD OF RAPOSA IS ALL ONE BIG COMA DREAM.

Let me elaborate: Mike is a character found late in the original Drawn to Life, and is the only real human in the whole game. The majority of his time in the village involves people asking about his ears. He was a joke, the Only Sane Man, so to speak. In 2, he recieves an upgrade. AN UPGRADE TO FREAKING GOD. This raises one huge question: who is the creator? If it was Mike, he could have willed himself back to consciousness, seeing as the creator knows what Wilfre's trying to do and thus knows about Mike's condition. The first game mentions nothing of this. The odd dreamstates are only in the second game; the first was just about a land of fox-people who need a hero to save their village. DRAWN TO LIFE 2'S ENDING IS AN ABSOLUTE ASSPULL. It's so freaking unsatisfying: this game's ending made me rage so hard, the first game - EVER - to do so.

Jak 2 is an alright game, but it's no secret that it was made to capitalise on GTA's success. The gun controls are kind of clunky (fun, but clunky), the vehicle control was thrown in and the shooting course is a cheating bastard. I loved Jak and Daxter; it was my own little Banjo Kazooie (PS2 was my first real console). Jak 2 trod on my hopes. But even underneath that, it's an alright game: You move just as you did in Jak and Daxter, the animation is really good and the voices and new characters are all memorable (to a degree). And, of course, this led to Jak 3 which is still one of my favorite games ever.

Kingdom Hearts 2 screwed the story over so goddamned badly. But it did fix the camera, and the gameplay is tight... Storywise it is inferior, but gameplay-wise it's better. I dislike it for messing with a good thing, though; Kingdom Hearts should have been a standalone title.

This isn't about the Youtube comments, oh no. This is about the abundance of crap people submit, and how many people end up liking it.

I am a fan of piano covers. When I find a good one, I add it to a playlist. You know how many great covers i've saved? 4. How many did I have to go through to get those 4? At least 200. There are so many half-baked covers on Youtube with a wide multitude of problems: some start the song off with a cocky playing style, obviously having learned the song from a sheet of music. There are the kids who miss notes left and right and make the song so dull. There are the people who hit off-notes. There are the people who cut out whole sections of the song. And then there are the people who sing along to the song.

A few minutes before typing this rant, I was looking for an alright Space Oddity cover. I came across a guy who looked like he lived in southern California and wore assless chaps. "Nevermind that," I mused, "one of my favorite piano cover channel guys looks like a bit of a douche sometimes, as well."

This guy played a couple mediocre bars, skipping the opening entirely, before letting through a scarred rendition of the first couple of words. Like a wounded animal, I scrambled to the Back button. He had the most American accent I have ever heard, not even attempting to channel any Bowie in the song. I think he has broken my faith in Youtube.

I am aware of Sturgeon's Law, but the crappy is so, SO crappy and the good is so hard to find. I'm about ready to give up.

Another kind of thing I like to look up is 8-bit or 16-bit covers. Some are half-baked, sure. Some are just dragged and dropped into an automatic arranger, that's okay; they aren't so bad. What REALLY gets me is when people put VIDEO GAME SOUNDS into the music.

Like this one cover of Still Alive. The guy put Mega Man sound effects in with the music. Don't call me stupid for saying it sounds like Mega Man, because I meant he literally ripped the sound from several parts of the game (the cursor that selects your aquired powers, the sound Mega Man makes when he warps out of a boss room etc.) and added them to the song. It's annoying as all fuck.

I'm a bit of a Habbo veteran, per se, as me and my sister played on it when it was Habbo Hotel. Yeah, there were scammers and pedophiles and the like, but it was fun and the amount of scammers + pedos was actually pretty low then. So all over the forum, i'm seeing these ads for Habbo, the "new" thing. One has the "Best police chase ever", between 6 or so "police cars" and 2 douches on hoverboards. It's slow, and it's retarded; an 11 year old probably came up with it.

Next up is the horse one. There's a girl on the horse, and they're near a flaming hoop. So they make the HORSE TALK, because that's so funny and original!

I'm not even going to bother with the other 2, because they're basically the same. If you've been on the forum, you've probably seen them.

The big problem I have is that they resort to truly childish levels of "humor" to try and hook in kids. They show off the game's graphics, while not bothering to actually tell the audience anything about the gameplay other than "your friends are playing, so sign up today!" There are NO police chases. You can't play a good game of b-ball with your friends; if they've actually incorporated a basketball minigame, it's probably awful. You can sit down in your trunks with a drink, but it's just superficial and doesn't make you feel any more relaxed. And i'm pretty sure you can't jump horses through flaming hoops, and i'm 100% sure they can't talk.

It's a shame Habbo Hotel has had to stoop to this shit. Back in 05, the unique graphics alone would bring in players. Now they have to produce misleading, unfunny ads to draw in adolescents who will probably be preyed upon by packs of hungry pedophiles. Fuck you, Habbo, give me my Hotel back.