I have to say I'm quite happy with the new FW. There's always room for improvement, but it's a big step forward. Also, it seems to be quite clear that the initial press impressions have had some misconceptions, for instance concerning the auto-pause, which (as DeanA pointed out) since it follows the guidelines for pausing or not pausing the game while bringing up the earlier Home in-game menu (that allowed controller reassignment, quitting the game, turning off the system, etc.) are being followed with in-game XMB. It's a testament to how much people are using the 360 as a reference I guess. 
). So even with existing games, that already makes it as refined as anything out there, with the game continuing to run in game menus and multiplayer games, and pausing in single player games.
Other than that, now I finally could play a round of Buzz, lose, and while in game, look up the people I just played, send a message congratulating the winner (and look at his profile and trophies), and receive a message back 'I love this game'. All while in the back Buzz runs a commercial for one of the extension theme packs in the main menu in the background. It looks very slick and is a big step up (time to recharge my Bluetooth keyboard). However of course audio (and video) chat support should be nice also. There's already a great interface for it in XMB now, all they need to do is provide developers with a library to support it.
All in all though, very happy.
The XMB becomes slighly less smooth in-game, but nothing I want to complain about.
). So even with existing games, that already makes it as refined as anything out there, with the game continuing to run in game menus and multiplayer games, and pausing in single player games. Other than that, now I finally could play a round of Buzz, lose, and while in game, look up the people I just played, send a message congratulating the winner (and look at his profile and trophies), and receive a message back 'I love this game'. All while in the back Buzz runs a commercial for one of the extension theme packs in the main menu in the background. It looks very slick and is a big step up (time to recharge my Bluetooth keyboard). However of course audio (and video) chat support should be nice also. There's already a great interface for it in XMB now, all they need to do is provide developers with a library to support it.
All in all though, very happy.
The XMB becomes slighly less smooth in-game, but nothing I want to complain about.
