As a long-time player of the pokemon games, I have to say that before Black and White, I have become more and more disenchanted by the newer pokemon games. The second generation was probably my favourite out of them all prior to generation 5. I found generation 3 bearable but nothing fancy, and generation 4 to be a real disappointment. It never grew on me, despite others convincing me that it would eventually! It was the only generation that I never actually got as far as completing the pokemon league on, because I just got bored too quickly.
Now, I have just received White in the mail and I must say... I'm pleasantly surprised. It does feel like a fresh start and has a very different style from the older games. The graphics and artwork definitely shows more effort than generation 4, as well as the storyline. The characters seem to have a lot more depth too. I remember in generation 4, I could never remember who was who or what the names of towns and cities were simply because I didn't feel like they had enough feeling behind them to really stay in my memory. It didn't interest me. However, they're really improved on that in Black and White. By the way, I love the map artwork!
I decided to choose the oshawott and named it Ottah, level 8. I have also captured a male lillipup called Scotty (now level 6) and a female patrat called Patty (level 5). I doubt these will be my final team members but I'm working with them for now, and they certainly seem far more appealing than generation 4's early route pokemon.
So far I'm exploring Accumula Town, after having just seen Team Plasma. Will update with progress later.