Facebook. Twitter. Last.fm. Zune Video Marketplace. All nice additions, I'm sure. I'm also sure that people just starting to experience it starting today will be all aglow in the newness of it all. However, after being in the preview and having used these features for the past couple of weeks, my honeymoon period is over.

Like I said, nice additions to be sure. But a couple of things left me scratching my head.

Why are these wholly separate apps? I've always loved how Xbox Live features are so well-integrated into the system. But the features of the new updated, oddly, aren't. They are apps that need to be launched individually and do not work outside of being in the app's interface. Why am I not able to tweet from anywhere in the dash or in a game? Will there be games that auto-tweet or auto-update my Facebook status with achievements if I want them to? Is that in the plan?

Why can't I run Last.fm like I would any streaming media? I mean... what distinguishes it from running Last.fm through the PS3 browser? Heck, how is Facebook and Twitter any more convenient or compelling on the 360 than it is via PS3 browser?

At this point, they really aren't, leaving the whole new experience not so new. In fact, this implementation feels a bit flat. This feels like something Sony would implement, not Microsoft.

I was cleaing out one of the shelves in my study when I came across a box of old PC game manuals that, for some odd reason, I held on to.

Laying on top of the pile was a blueprint of a Terran Confederation Rapier. Almost immediately, I was pulled, rather willingly, into a time-warping vortex of nostalgia. The game: Wing Commander.

All the way back in 1990, I had a 386 with a luxurious 1 MB of RAM and a monitor capable of 256 colors. In those days, that was considered pretty swanky. After tinking with the autoexec.bat and config.sys files on my Wing Commander-only boot disk, I was able to load things into high memory and and run the game at a blazing 15 frames per second.

The game came with a "magazine" which doubled as a game manual, accompanied by four blueprints of the Confederations fighters. I remember playing this game and living my Last Starfighter fantasies. I looked over... no... studied the manual and blue prints until I instinctively knew the ranges and flight characteristics of each weapon. I knew I needed to strike early with long range lasers, then pummel those cursed, feline Kilrathi with my mass driver cannons up close. I knew that the Dralthi had wicked-fast rate of pitch, but its yaw rate was too slow for any Confed ship I flew.

To this day, I haven't run across any game that put so much love and care into things like the interactive menu system and the ability to evoke the feeling that I AM THERE. That I was the ace pilot that could protect the Earth from the best that Kilrah could throw at me.

I loved it so much, I bought ever Wing Commander game that followed, except for the abortion that made its way to Xbox Live Arcade.

For the love of the series, I added an extra 1mb of RAM that I bought from Egghead for $50 and learned to install a CD-ROM drive.

The series makes another technological leap with full FMV cutscenes with big name actors like MarkHammil playing Christopher Blair, John Rhys-Davies as Paladin, and Malcolm McDowell as Adm. Tolwyn. It also had semi FMV menus if you can believe that. For this game, I upgraded from my two-button joystick to a fancy CH Flightstick.

At the risk of sounding like an old man.... they just don't make 'em like this anymore.

I reached driver level 10 and maxed out one car to level 5, A class. Mind you, this is farther than I've gotten in any sim racing game. Traditionally, I don't like sim racers at all. So to get to driver level 10 says a lot bout Forza 3's approachability. Being able to peel back the amount of driving assists as I got better made me feel like I was really learning how to drive a car better.

However, at this point, I've lost the motivation to progress any further. I couldn't really put my finger on it, so I went back to play a racing game I really loved, Project Gotham Racing 4. There are no car upgrades or tuning, and only a moderate level of paint/vinyl customization.

Maybe it's the way the race events are laid out. Forza 3 has a grid of events. What I like about PGR4 is that there are race events like the cone challenges, kudos-focused events, one-no-one, speed challenges, hot-laps… in addition to the straight-up street races. In Forza 3, I don't think I encountered anything but plain old races at least through driver level 10. If there were other events, the racing grid didn't make it very apparent.

I also like that there were Arcade Challenges. Totally set apart from Gotham Career, the Arcade Challenges are perfect bit-sized events above the typical time attacks.

Maybe it is all those things. But one aspect I couldn't shake was where I felt each game had their focus. Forza 3 seemed to concentrate largely on the cards. What with the livery editor, upgrades, tuning and the stores that cater to those car-related items, it's great for a car nut. The shift with PGR4 is that it's focus seemed to be on the races. Sense of speed and the action of the AI kept every race a heart-pounding affair even on Easy. In Forza 3, once I got into first place, I usually pulled far enough ahead to be track lengths ahead of my closest rival. It left racing a rate solitary, and ultimately, sterile experience.

Anyway, that's just my own perception of the two games. Honestly, I find myself enjoying Project Gotham Racing 4 a little more. Mileage will vary though. Pun intended.

Random thought:

When I started in on Uncharted 2, I was really taken by the structure of the narrative. Nate's present situation with flashbacks that flesh out the reasons why he' in said situation.

It just now dawned on me that I've seen this before. Firefly. Episode called "Out of Gas". Here, Mal is hurt. His blackouts offer opportunity for flashbacks to his history with the other characters and explanations of how Mal got hurt in the first place.

It worked so well for Firefly, and works just as well for Uncharted 2.

Good stuff.

So far, I'm in the middle of the museum heist. This is pretty early on, so I have only first impressions for now.

Visually, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves doesn't look that different compared to the first game. No, that's not a backhanded comment considering the first Uncharted was a beautiful game.

Even more impressive than the visuals is the storytelling style.

The game kicks off with one heck of a nut-grabber with flashbacks interwoven between scenes of Nate's current predicament. Voice acting is some of the best I've heard in a videogame backed by witty and engaging dialogue. The premise of the plot doesn't seem contrived... well, doesn't seem as contrived as most games seem to be. Regardless, the plot and its pacing so far have me wanting to push forward.

Unfortunately, with silly things like work in the morning, I can't push any further into the game tonight. Come tomorrow night, I'll be eager to continue Nate's adventure when I get home.

ADDENDUM: I just remembered that I'll have Brutal Legend from GameFly tomorrow. I'm torn.