Sony NEX-6 Kit Lens and flash - results and feedback

Hey guys, after receiving my NEX-6 I have been very impressed with the bounce flash and the kit lens combo.  I really only use it for social occasions and haven't played around much with the settings but I noticed that sometimes I'd get amazing results and other times results that aren't so great and I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong.

An example from last night:

I know now that I maybe put a bit too much sharpening but that's not a big issue for me right now.  The next picture was taken using the kit lens also but for some reason I couldn't get the same sort of result as the above picture:

I had to really process the hell out of this one to make it usable!

So my question is: what's happening to my flash bouncing?  Should I have shot the flash straight on and lowered the flash exposure??  I've never had to change the flash exposure before (this is with firmware 1.00) but I hear that the newer firmware produces better automatic flash exposure.  Is this true?

After this shot I tried switching to manual (the above shots were taken in A mode) and reduced the shutter speed to 1/50s instead of 1/60 as the camera was using in A mode but the results weren't much better.

Anyone good with flashes have any advice for me?