When we look back at this generation of gaming, we’ll remember a few things — most of which won’t be actual video games, oddly. We’ll remember the bombardment of DLC, we’ll remember the attempt at motion gaming, and we’ll remember the meteoric rise and devastating fall of the music game genre, but we won’t really look back on this generation for its games like we already do with the PlayStation 2, Xbox, and GameCube gen. However, there’s one series that will most likely define this generation after we move on to the next ones, and that’s Uncharted. The series’ developer, Naughty Dog, didn’t invent a new genre, or even really innovate mechanics within an established genre, but they set out to do what video games have always strived to achieve — create a playable movie — and they’ve succeeded. The third installment in the Uncharted series released last week, Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception, and Naughty Dog succeeded once again, perhaps more than any game developer ever has before.

Legendary game developer Sid Meier’s newest installment in the venerable Civilization franchise was supposed to be a big deal. It was supposed to be Civilization, but on Facebook — Sid Meier’s gaming genius unleashed upon the unsuspecting FarmVille, social, casual gaming masses. It may not have seemed like it, but some gamers knew Civilization World could’ve turned the tide of gaming, bridging the gap between casual and hardcore gamers, becoming a gateway game to the wonderful world of what hardcore gamers would call “real” gaming — something Nintendo attempted with the Wii, but never quite achieved.

I’ve been loyally playing Civilization since it was released back in 1991. I was born in 1984. I built an entire scenario in Civilization II with the rudimentary map editors. I never succumbed to unhappy citizens in Civilization III, and I played Civilization IV — easily the best installment in the franchise — for more hours than most people play any singular thing. I was ranked in the top 10 on the head-to-head leaderboard for the PlayStation 3 Civilization Revolution, the franchise’s surprisingly successful attempt at building a Civ that actually worked on consoles rather than PCs, for as long as I actively played said installment. I was also disappointed and underwhelmed by the recent Civilization V, like any good Civ fan. I know Civ, and after Civilization Revolution’s successful attempt at translating the game to a faster-paced, slightly more casual crowd, I was looking forward to see what happened with Civ World. Despite my two decades of loyalty, Civ World would not let me into the closed Beta no matter how many times I applied. After the game recently launched its public Beta about a week ago and finally getting my hands on the product, the conspiracist in me thinks he knows why they didn’t let me into the closed Beta: Because I am a Civ fan, made that very clear on my closed Beta applications, and so far, this game is, sadly, not worth my time and the dev team knew how I’d feel. Funny thing is, it doesn’t seem worth the casual Facebook gamer’s time either.

So, if you care about Civilization, Facebook, casual gaming, or the metanarrative of hardcore and casual gaming, head on past the jump, and don’t worry, the post isn’t as long as it seems. There are a bunch of screenshots.

Ever since I saw that scene in the bar in Hackers where Jonny Lee Miller plays that odd game and trumps Angelina Jolie’s high score, I’ve always been partial to video games that, if an onlooker happens to be watching me play, they’d have absolutely no idea what is going on. This led me to gems like FreQuency, Amplitude, and PixelJunk Eden. I happened by a screenshot of what seemed to be a video game, but I absolutely no idea what was going on, and thus, I’ve been following it up until its release four days ago.

You see all that stuff happening in the above screenshot? That’s a video game. Proun, it’s called. You play as a fluffy ball that races through abstract art. It took developer Joost van Dongen six years to complete the game, which only has five different official tracks players can race through at four different difficulties. Why did it take so long if it only has five tracks? Proun was a side project that Joost worked on during his spare time, and said spare time didn’t always allow him to work on it. As we recently learned with Duke Nukem Forever, a game that takes so long to develop doesn’t always mean the amount of time put into it will return a great product, but for one guy who has a steady job working on other games, for me, Proun ended up being a must-play, however quickly that play ends up being.

If I can’t be upfront here, then where can I be.  I was not looking forward to The Cape.  As I said to Robert on Friday: “Oh.  I guess I should watch The Cape this weekend.”  It’s not that I thought it was going to be bad…

Actually, that’s a lie.  I thought it was going to be mediocre.  When you consume so much powerless-superhero media that you have decided that writing stories about them is basically what you want to do for a living, you get wary of other interpretations of the same archetype.  What if their idea isn’t as cool as the one in your head?  Worse, what if their idea is better?!  What if the show is actually not bad, but isn’t any more innovative or original than the comics that were published ten years ago, so everyone you know will be unable to understand why you don’t like it I mean come on I thought you loved superheroes?

(In a nutshell, this last bit is why I could never be convinced to watch Heroes, The Cape‘s predecessor in NBC’s lineup.)

But I watched The Cape.  Partly because I am professionally obligated.  But also because I owed The Cape a look for the same reason that I owed Hancock a look: the show is something I have been eagerly waiting for since superheroes started making a comeback in the mainstream consciousness.

We can all breathe easy, but only for a few moments, before we start hyperventilating with unbearable anticipation. The review embargo for Christopher Nolan‘s Inception lifted yesterday at 6PM EST, and the critics that have weighed in are universally locked in verbal lust with the film.

If this first wave of reviews is to be believed, Inception is Nolan’s magnum opus, deftly weaving mindboggling visuals, emotional pay-off, and intricate storytelling into an intelligent sci-fi blockbuster. Though a backlash is inevitable sooner or later (Armond White?), the word seems to be that this could be the first must-see film of the year. The highlights of some of the more interesting Inception reviews, after the jump:

For those familiar with iPhoto, Apple’s recently upgraded Aperture 3 is a great introduction to advanced digital imaging without the price tag and headache of learning Photoshop. Aperture 3 is the software equivalent of an entry level DSLR camera—not quite professional quality, but much more enticing than your average point-and-shoot.

Apple added over 200 new features, some useful and some negligible: