Stop the crying.  Quiet down with that whining.  Sparky's back, baby, and what an update do I have for you.  You and me, we're gonna laugh.  We're gonna cry.  We're going to crush those Soviet scum! 
 
New Dashboard Update 
 
Woke up early this morning (well, early for me - hey, no one should ever have to wake up before 10), and downloaded the new dashboard update for the 360.  Most of the changes under the hood work well, though I'm noticing some new-ish lag in loading pictures for many dashboard items.  This probably will work itself out as the patch becomes widespread and the service stabilizies again (or that's my guess, anyways).  I tested out two things, the new Avatar shop and the Netflix upgrades. 
 
While I didn't purchase anything from the avatar shop, I thought what was there was mildly interesting.  Some of the new outfits look good, but the pricing definitely needs to come down for me to purchase anything.  Free outfits on special days are definitely going to be a must to get me to really come back to this service, but I could see myself purchasing a couple of small things if I had some extra MS points to spare and if the outfits dropped in price. 
 
The Netflix upgrades are simple but effective.  You can now find movies to watch through the 360 as opposed to needing a computer, which is handy since my laptop is still broken.  The videos also stream a bit faster, and the lag seems lessened.  I'll have more time to test this out thoroughly tonight, but in general, I really like the new Netflix stuff.  It's not going to rock the foundations of the 360, but it's simple little upgrades like this that will keep me satisfied. 
 
Spiderman, Spiderman, doing whatever a spider can... 
 
Been playing a bit of Marvel: Ultimate Alliance to help alleviate my need for a Diablo-esque game.  I'd finished Ultimate Alliance when it first came out, but I lost the achievements when my former gamertag couldn't be updated for Xbox Live Gold (very long and stupid story).  I'm really enjoying my replay through this game.  Gameplay-wise, it's fun as all hell, has a handful of relatively easy achievements (ahem, GamerGeek360), and I like the overall feel and look of the game.  Some of the voicework doesn't really do it for me and feels pretty generic and repetitive, but all in all, it's a heck of a fun game. 
 
I haven't read comics in close to 17 years (holy crap, that's a long time), but I remember enough to know that I'd love to see many more characters become playable.  Off the top of my head, my favorite (and admittedly obscure) character was a guy called Annex, who had a very brief solo run for Marvel Comics.  He was similar to War Machine (another favorite).  Along with Annex, I'd love to see Wonder Man, Quasar, Vision, Gambit, Cable, Domino, Scarlet Witch, Psylocke, Ghost Rider, Punisher, and Beast be playable characters.  I'd also love to see more villains make appearances as playable characters - namely Crossbones.  He was a relatively minor character in the great scheme of things, but he was always one of my favorites. 
 
He's got the need... the need for speed! 
 
After months of frustration, I've finally beaten the second world in Sonic 2.  I know, sounds dumb, right?  It's a relatively basic platformer that I should be able to rip right through, but I'll be damned if the underwater parts don't drive me bugnuts.  I guess you could say I cheated, because I'd save before and after every hard part of the level in order to not lose a life.  Not much more to say about that, except the next world is even more difficult - damn you, water levels! 
 
Question of the Week 
 
What would you like to see in future dashboard updates for the big three consoles?  What features do you want?  Go crazy, folks.  Personally, I'd love to see a form of console-to-console chat or messenging, probably through a third party.  Hey, a guy can dream.